When you imagine a school garden, you probably think back to your elementary years. Time at the garden was spent learning how plants get water from the ground, drawing the bugs pollinating the budding flowers, or maybe digging up the carrots your class planted at the start of the school year. But a school garden can be more than just a place for fifth graders to learn how their vegetables grow. School gardens can be useful tools in many different high school classes, not to mention the large amount of societal and developmental benefits that school gardens can have for students of all ages.
A theoretical Tech High garden would be used for multiple classes. Most obviously, there would be a dedicated elective gardening class, where students would learn and experience the day-to-day of managing a garden: what time of year to plant what foods, how to keep their plants alive during harsh weather, how to protect the garden from harmful animals, how to draw in beneficial animals, and more.
Such a class has always been a good idea to offer, but especially so in the modern day, when groceries are becoming increasingly expensive and home gardens are starting to be seen as the more sustainable and vastly more affordable option for getting produce. Since having a home garden is such a pertinent idea today, having a school garden is a smart way for students to learn how to manage a home garden. That way, when students go into adulthood, they are already equipped with the skills and experience to have a successful home garden.
A Tech High garden wouldn’t be limited to use for the gardening class, though. No matter what grade you’re in, you can think of a class that would benefit from having a garden—just think of your science class! AP Environmental Sciences, AP Biology, and even the PLTW classes have something to gain from a school garden. A garden would provide a place for both short-term and long-term projects and labs and would allow for a greater number and variety of them.
However, there are several problems with creating a school garden, and these often halt efforts for creating them. Chief among these issues is that if crops are to be kept alive from one school year to the next, someone will have to come in during the summer and maintain the garden (this is also true for the other breaks between school). This upkeep could be done by student volunteers, but would probably fall onto whichever teacher runs the Garden class. A potential solution to this would be simply not growing plants over the summer, though that is a bit limiting.
Another issue is monetary: how will the school pay for the seeds, fertilizer, and other materials that the garden would need? This issue can be resolved by acquiring one of the many grants available for school gardens, but that still means that a teacher has to spend time filling out those grants. Thirdly, there’s the issue of space. Luckily, Tech High has lots of available space, but even so, there would undoubtedly be multiple hurdles with administration, the district, and potentially even the city on where a garden could be located.
This touches on the fourth major issue: lack of administrative approval. School leadership would have to see detailed justification for why a school garden is necessary, how it would help with classes, and what advantages it would give the school over the other projects that compete for the admins’ time. This isn’t a nail in the coffin, though. A school garden has clear benefits for students, and with enough effort, a Tech High garden could soon become a reality. Finally, I’d like you to take a moment to think: what do you think is the most important reason why Tech High should have a school garden—and how would it benefit you specifically?
