Resources
Urban Homestead
The Urban Homestead project is a one-of-a-kind city farm and resource center. Since 1985, they have pioneered the way of urban sustainability and are now considered the model of sustainable city development.
Life Lab
Life Lab cultivates children’s love of learning, healthy food, and nature through garden-based education. Life Lab offers workshops for educators in garden-based science and nutrition, at schools and at the Life Lab garden in Santa Cruz, California.
Kidsgardening.org
We create opportunities for kids to learn and grow through gardening, engaging their natural curiosity and wonder.
Collective School Garden Network
Our Mission: To plant and sustain a fruit and vegetable garden in every willing Arizona and California school.
Junior Master Gardener
The Junior Master Gardener program is an international youth gardening program of the university cooperative Extension network. JMG engages children in novel, “hands-on” group and individual learning experiences that provide a love of gardening, develop an appreciation for the environment, and cultivate the mind.
National Gardening Association
The most complete source for kids’ gardening supplies.
California Master Gardeners
Volunteers trained by the University of California Cooperative Extension includes links to Extension offices and gardening tips.
National Wildlife Federation: Schoolyard Habitats Program
The Schoolyard Habitats Program assists school communities in the use of school grounds as learning sites for wildlife conservation and cross-curricular learning.
Green Schoolyards
https://greenschoolyardnetwork.org
Green Schoolyards America seeks to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into park-like green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning, and play while contributing to the ecological health and resilience of our cities.
School Garden Weekly
School Garden Weekly was created to provide parents and teachers with the necessary knowledge to create and maintain a successful school garden.
Center for Ecoliteracy
The Center for Ecoliteracy is dedicated to education for sustainable living.
Eco-school Design
EcoSchool Design seeks to assist schools, and those who care about them, in transforming paved schoolyards into vibrant ecosystems for outdoor learning.
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC)
OAEC offers a five-day intensive residential training program for creating and developing school gardens.
Recommended Articles
Learning Outside Just One Lesson Per Week Boosts Learning Behaviour
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/06/learning-outside-just-one-lesson-week-boosts-learning-behaviour
Why School Gardens? | The Collective School Garden Network
http://www.csgn.org/why-school-gardens
The Importance of School Gardens
https://www.agupdate.com/tristateneighbor/news/the-importance-of-school-gardens/article_27d749d8-ea9a-11e9-ba48-3f233208b2ec.html
The Symbolism of the Islamic Garden
https://islamic-arts.org/2011/the-symbolism-of-the-islamic-garden
Recommended Books
Broda, Herbert W. Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8.
Bucklin-Sporer, Arden and Pringle, Rachel Kathleen. How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers.
California School Garden Network (CSGN). Gardens for Learning: Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden.
Head, Vivian. The Chicken Handbook.
Hemler, Jodi. Growing Your Own Tea Garden.
Lancaster, Brad. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.
Lifelab. The Growing Classroom.
Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods.
Musselman, Lytton John. Figs, Dates, Laurel and Myrrh: Plants of the Bible and the Qur’an.
Orr, Stephen. Tomorrow’s Garden.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. (and other titles)
Popper, Hellen. California Native Gardening.
Reynolds, Mary. The Garden Awakening.
Splan, Claire. California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening.
Stone, Michael K. (Center for Ecoliteracy) Smart by Nature.
Striniste, Nancy. Nature Play at Home.
Waters, Alice. Edible Schoolyard.
Wilken-Robertson, Michael. Kumeyaay Ethnobotany: Shared Heritage of the Californias.
Recommended Children’s Books
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. How Thing Work in the Yard.
Gray, Rita and Pak, Kenard. Flowers Are Calling.
Green, Jen. The Magic and Mystery of Trees.
Macfarlane, Robert. The Lost Words.
Winter, Jeanette. Wangari’s Trees of Peace.
