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Obtaining and Building a School Garden
OVERVIEW:
Last October, the governor of CA signed into law a bill that provides funds to local schools for nutrition education, including school gardens. Each individual school and school district had to apply for the funds. For LAUSD, about 525 school applied and are awaiting funding, which is expected to arrive sometime between July 2007 and January 2008, according to the Nutrition Network. Once this happens, expect an EXPLOSION in school gardens locally and statewide.
As a result, the Los Angeles School Garden Collective, a group headed by Tony Mandl of the Nutrition Network, was formed. It appears to be THE group that will be taking the lead in helping LAUSD schools successfully use these funds to create and utilize school gardens. Their membership includes representatives from many foundations and organizations, lots of Master Gardeners, parent volunteers, and more. They meet bi-monthly at sites thoughout the city. To get on their e-mail list, ______________________-
PERMISSION:
The principal of each school seems to be the #1 person to get permission from to build a school garden, at least for LAUSD. Attempts to contact higher ups for more district wide guildelines were not successful.
Success in school gardens seems to also rest heavily with two more people:
1) A teacher or parent volunteer who is PASSIONATE about having a garden. Without this, I wouldn't even bother. Note that it doesn't have to be a TEACHER who is passionate, a parent volunteer will do.
2) The head custodian. They don't have to love the project, but they want respect, and they DON'T want extra work. Keep them in the loop. Don't fill up the lunch area trash cans with lots of weeds. Bake them cookies if you must to keep them happy. Why? If for no other reason, they can control the amount of water your garden gets (or doesn't get).
PLANNING/DESIGN
A) TYPES OF GARDENS:
1) RAISED BED
HINTS:
- Easier to use with wheelchair bound or blind special ed students.
- Easier to control weeds, as you usually start with sterile potting soil.
- 1/2 whiskey barrels might be best for kindergardens. They're affordable ($25-30 each), portable, don't require any heavy digging, and are a good height for children. They come in wood or plastic.
- LAUSD has provided free plastic lumber in the past. Problems with being too shallow, or leaning if too tall. Plastics often become brittle and break.
- Railroad ties my contain toxic chemicals that could leach into the soil. Do your homework on this topic before using in an area where you want to grow edibles.
- Other wood should probably be pressure treated. (Do more research).
- Stone planters are excellent, though not cheap and should be built by experienced persons.
2) IN THE GROUND-SMALL
3) IN THE GROUND-LARGE
It is beyond our scope to discuss large in-the-ground school gardens. (Say 1/2 acre or more).
B) IRRIGATION:
MONEY:
COST:
We are asking for schools who have already build gardens/beds to provide us with their figures as to how much they spent.
SOURCES OF FUNDS (Also see LINKS section):
Current:
- LA Neighborhood Councils (approx. 90 in L.A. city). Each gets $50k/yr. for local projects.
- Western Growers Charitable Foundation
Past:
- OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) - Had $1,000 per store grant program in 2006
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