Health Matters

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DIGGING DEEP BENEFITS OF SCHOOL GARDENS FOR STUDENTS

BY STEFANIE LYNN, MS, RD, LD, AND HEIDI SCARPITTI, MS, RD, LD

School gardening programs have been around for over a century. Many Ohio school districts have been planting and harvesting from their own gardens for years. School gardens build important life-long social skills and teach responsibility, communication, teamwork, ownership, and leadership. Gardens also foster a sense of community. They bring together parents, teachers, students, and community members to build a sense of environmental stewardship, as well as civic pride.

Gardens can be used as an outdoor classroom, providing the opportunity to apply math, science, and literacy, through observation and involvement. A school garden can also serve as a much-needed green space in urban environments, giving students an opportunity to spend time outdoors. Even if it is only a small, raised bed next to the parking lot, or tomato vines growing up the fence line, every little bit counts. Students will learn how elements of the natural environment may change over time as they observe and document the daily changes in weather and how it impacts the garden.

School gardens will enhance the learning environment by teaching how food is grown, nutrition, and agriculture. Students who participate in school gardens are more likely to try, and perhaps even have an increased preference for, healthy fruits and vegetables. There is nothing like pulling a cucumber off the vine for the first time, eating a tomato that you have grown yourself, or incorporating fresh-grown strawberries into a classroom snack to get children excited about eating and cooking! School gardens also provide a quiet place of rest, thoughtful reflection, or just a change of scenery for students, staff, and community members.

There are many things to consider when beginning to plan a school garden project in your district. This includes geographic location, funding, grade level involvement, size, type, and purpose. Funding and geographic location tend to be the considerations of greatest concern. Grants are available through national, statewide, and local organizations. Stay upto-date on national funding opportunities by subscribing to communications from the National Farm to School Network and the USDA’s Dirt Farm to School Newsletter. Find Ohio funding through the Ohio School Nutrition Association. Don’t hesitate to contact your local nurseries or garden stores to inquire about the donation of tools, soil, plants, seeds, and expertise for your school garden! Remember, forming local partnerships is a wonderful way to leverage resources and access to needed materials, volunteers, and technical assistance for your school garden.

You also can contact a local Cooperative Extension office to provide useful, practical, and research-based gardening information at no cost to you. Enlist the help of a local Extension Master Gardener for advice and assistance in keeping your garden maintained and sustained throughout the calendar year.

When evaluating where to place your garden, consider the following questions: Who is your garden serving? What kinds of space(s) is/are available? Parking lots, courtyards, rooftops,

and school yards all can be potential garden sites. Also consider locating your garden at an amenable/partnering community site, such as city parks, vacant lots, houses of worship, nature centers, retirement homes, and/or established community gardens.

Keep in mind that the sites need to be safe for both students and teachers to access and free of soil contamination. There needs to be an accessible, dependable water source, as well as at least six hours of sunlight for the planting/growing of most vegetables. The addition of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses further increases play and learning value by connecting children with nature—which in turn supports healthy child development. According to The Natural Learning Initiative article, “Adding Value to Early Childhood Outdoor Play and Learning Environments,” how indoor and outdoor spaces flow into each other directly affects the ease with which indoor-outdoor programs can be managed. When classrooms open to the outdoors, children and teachers feel intimately connected to the outdoor play and learning environment. Transitional spaces linking individual classrooms with the larger, shared play and learning area provide an option for directly managing outdoor extensions of the indoor classroom.

The Natural Learning Initiative states that some key factors to consider when planning an outdoor learning environment for children include:

• Types. Transitional spaces can take the form of decks and patios. Depending on the area available, planting beds, raised planters, or moveable containers can be installed. • Location. Locate a central, “green focus” of the play and learning area, connected to primary pathways. A variety of gathering settings, large and small, located throughout the area, in high activity zones and adjacent to program bases so that tools and materials are close at hand.

• Enclosure. Visible boundaries are crucial for communicating that transitional spaces are “private” classroom extensions. On the other hand, enclosures should be unobtrusive and relatively open to allow sunlight to penetrate. Invest in best quality lawn turf in a defined space where the subsurface soil has been appropriately amended for good drainage.

• Structure. Options range from simple log or stone circles (located in a grove for added comfort), to substantial pergola-type structures. Provide several sizes to accommodate corresponding group sizes. Vine- or fabriccovered teepees are an attractive, inexpensive option. Lay out in a naturalistic circular/curvy form, with edges defined by low railings and/or shrubs to create calm corners protected from running children. You can find additional information for creating an outdoor learning environment by “Gardens also foster viewing the free online training “Safety and a sense of community. Enhancement in the Outdoor Learning Environment,” They bring together which can be found on the Ohio Department of parents, teachers, students, Health website. If you are interested in learning more and community members to about how your students can gain access to healthy foods, build a sense of environmental or about planting a school garden, check out the Farm to stewardship, as well as civic pride.” School and Early Childhood Education programs website. Resources: National Farm to School Network: farmtoschool.org USDA’s the Dirt Farm to School Newsletter: fns.usda.gov/cfs/e-letter-archive Ohio School Nutrition Association: snaohio.org OSU Cooperative Extension: extension.osu.edu/home Adding Value to Early Childhood Outdoor Play and Learning Environments: The Top Ten Activity Settings, The Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, North Carolina State University. 2012. naturalearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Top-Ten-ActivitySettings_InfoSheet.pdf. Ohio Department of Health: odh.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/odh/findlocal-health-districts Ohio Farm to School: armtoschool.osu.edu/ Stefanie Lynn, MS, RD, LD, and Heidi Scarpitti, MS, RD, LD, are both Public Health Nutritionists with the Ohio Department of Health’s School and Early Childhood Health division.

• Shade. Vine-covered pergolas can provide a comfortable, semi-sheltered space of flowering vines and edible fruits.

Install a deciduous shade tree(s) on the south side to create shady spot(s) for social activity. Deciduous shade trees can also improve comfort in summer and winter.