Managing Your School Garden

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
• Big Green Services, and School Responsibilities
• Learning Garden Models for School Engagement
• Annual Communication Schedule for the Garden Team
  • Sample Meeting Agenda
  • Blank Meeting Agenda
• Growing Season Overview Planning Document
  • Managing a Planting Day
  • Create Your School’s Watering Schedule
  • Blank Monthly Watering Calendars
  • Harvest Planning Worksheet
  • Harvest Refrigeration Planning Guide
• More planning documents, how-to garden guides, and example videos are on our garden skills pages HERE!

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
• Documents around how to plan for, and set up a watering schedule can be found on our Watering Page
• Lessons organized by grade band and topic can be found in our Lesson Library. Updates to our Lesson Library are coming soon!

These two posters will introduce your school community to their brand new Learning Garden:

• This is Your Learning Garden Poster
• Dig into Real Food Poster (Spanish Version Here)

Share these two documents with teachers and volunteers before they participate in a garden event:

• Learning Garden Talking Points
• Learning Garden Event Expectations

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)

Kicking off a new Learning Garden: Please review the following videos, documents, and webpages:

• Video: Introducing Big Green
• Video: Experience a typical first growing season with Prep Academy
• Kick-Off Day Guide
• Kick-Off Day Schedule (Editable version here)
• Full 2018 Learning Garden Manual PDF
• Before you bring students out for the Kick Off Day, invite teachers to engage them in a Pre-Kick Off Day activity: K-2 | 3-5 | 6-8 | 9-12
• Our Website:
  • We share garden guides, activities, and example videos through our garden skills pages HERE!
  • Be sure to share our Classroom Resources page with participating teachers
  • Visit our Impact Map to see locations of other Learning Gardens near you, and nationwide
  • Our Regional Pages feature upcoming local events, workshops, and blog articles