Managing a School Garden? Let’s make it easy! Managing a school garden may seem like a lot of work, but we are here to make it easier. Use our communication tools below to coordinate with key groups in your school – your Garden Team, teachers & staff, and family & community volunteers. We have compiled an array of resources to help you get started in school garden management:
Garden Teams coordinate engagement and garden care at each school: Organize and coordinate your efforts as a garden team.
- Your Garden Team
- Learning Garden Models for School Engagement
- Annual Communication Schedule for the Garden Team
- Growing Season Overview Planning Document
- Managing a Planting Day
- Create Your School’s Watering Schedule
- Harvest Planning Worksheet
- Harvest Refrigeration Planning Guide
- Documents on how to plan for, and set up a watering schedule can be found on our Watering Page
- More planning documents, how-to garden guides, and example videos are on our garden skills pages!
Engage teachers and other school staff: Recruit teachers, communicate the garden vision and provide opportunities for them to engage with the garden.
- Garden Team Letter invitation to school Staff (word.doc)
- Principal letter invitation to staff (word.doc)
- Weekly Garden Sign-Up
- Big Green Curriculum Resources
- Bite-Sized Lessons & Activity Bundles
Share these two documents with teachers and volunteers before they participate in a garden event:
Engage family and community volunteers: Build a community of support around your garden to enhance your school’s commitment to real food and engage families in garden care and eating produce.
- Garden Team Invitation letter to parents (word.doc)
- Garden Team Invitation letter to parents in Spanish (word.doc)
- Calling All Parents Poster (Spanish Version Here)
- Come Volunteer in our Learning Garden (Spanish Version Here)
- School Donation Request Template (word.doc)
- Watering With your Drip Irrigation System (Spanish Version Here)
- Watering With your Hose and Spray Nozzle (Spanish Version Here)
- Send Produce Home with Students (Spanish Version Here)
- Recipes for Home Cooking (Spanish Version Here)