Why Successful School Gardens Start in the Classroom, Not the Yard

Every spring, educators across North America start dreaming about school gardens.

They picture raised beds bursting with lettuce, students harvesting carrots, and outdoor spaces buzzing with life.

And every year, many of those gardens never make it past the first season.

After more than a decade of growing school gardens full-time, I can tell you something that surprises a lot of people:

The problem is rarely enthusiasm.
The problem is where schools start.

In the first episode of Season Three of the School Gardens with Ease podcast, I explain why thriving school gardens are not built first and taught later.

They are taught into existence.

Why I Do This Work

I have been growing school gardens since 2013 and doing it full-time since 2014.

For many people, school gardens are a side project. For me, they have been my career, my livelihood, and my passion.

Has it always been easy? Absolutely not.

But I stayed because I saw a major gap in our education system.

Children need to connect with good food and nature. They need to understand where their meals come from. They need to develop stewardship, collaboration, problem-solving, and confidence.

Those skills deserve to be embedded in school life just like math, science, language arts, and social studies.

School gardens are not an “extra.”

They are one of the most powerful teaching tools we have.

The Big Mistake Schools Keep Making

Most people assume that a school garden has to exist before teachers can use it.

We are used to that logic.

You cannot teach cooking without a kitchen.
You cannot run basketball practice without a gym.
You cannot do certain science experiments without microscopes or equipment.

So naturally, schools think:

First build the garden. Then teachers will use it.

But gardens are fundamentally different.

Designing a garden, choosing a site, sowing seeds, caring for seedlings, transplanting, harvesting, and maintaining beds are the curriculum.

When an outdoor garden is already built and planted, students miss half the learning.

Worse, when schools invest tens of thousands of dollars into infrastructure before building teaching systems, they often end up with:

• Exhausted staff

• Gardens that depend on one champion teacher

• Maintenance problems

• Summer care crises

• Projects that quietly fade away after a season

I have watched this happen too many times.

That is why I tell educators:

Do not start with construction. Start with instruction.

What You Actually Need to Grow Food With Students

When I say that teachers can begin in the classroom, I often hear immediate objections:

What about raised beds
What about irrigation
What about tools
What about grow lights or grow towers

Here is the truth.

At the beginning, you do not need most of that.

To teach students how food grows, you only need:

• Seeds

• Potting soil

• A sunny window

• Buckets or seed-starting cups

• Simple craft supplies

• A planting schedule for your growing zone

• Thoughtful lesson plans connected to curriculum

With those basics, students can grow trays of seedlings, leafy greens, herbs, and fast-maturing crops right in the classroom.

They can measure germination rates, graph plant growth, write observations, study plant anatomy, explore ecosystems, and discuss food systems.

That is a school garden.

Teachers Must Be at the Center

One of the most important points I make in this episode is about leadership.

School gardens only succeed when they are:

• Led by teachers

• Connected directly to curriculum

• Built and grown by students

• Supported by administrators, parents, and community members

If you are a parent or principal reading this, my advice is simple:

Find a teacher who wants to do this.

A community garden on school grounds can be wonderful. But those are not what we are talking about here!

But instructional school gardens live or die based on whether educators have the tools, training, and systems to integrate gardening into daily learning.

Growing a School Garden in Two Phases

Over the years, I noticed something consistent.

Schools that tried to launch everything at once, classroom growing, outdoor beds, summer maintenance plans, curriculum mapping, fundraising, volunteer coordination, often burned out.

Schools that succeeded took a phased approach.

Phase One: The Classroom Garden

The first year focuses on building core skills indoors.

Students learn:

• How seeds germinate

• How to care for seedlings

• Which crops grow quickly

• Which crops take a full season

• How to plan planting schedules

• How to connect gardening to science, math, and literacy

Some plants can be harvested before school ends right in the classroom.

Others can be grown into strong seedlings and then:

• Sent home with families

• Donated to community gardens

• Sold as a fundraiser

Teachers build confidence. Students build competence.

That foundation is priceless.

Phase Two: The Outdoor Garden

Later, often in year two, schools expand outside.

Now students are ready to:

• Design a garden layout

• Choose appropriate locations

• Build beds

• Transplant seedlings

• Plan irrigation

• Organize summer maintenance

• Think long term

At this stage, indoor and outdoor growing happen together, just like in real agriculture.

But because educators already mastered Phase One, the outdoor expansion feels exciting instead of overwhelming.

Why My Programs Follow This Model

This two-phase system is exactly what I teach in my School Gardens with Ease Logistics class and throughout my Oasis Program Suite.

The Oasis programs provide teachers with:

• Complete lesson plan packages

• Step by step growing systems

• Curriculum connections

• Planting schedules

• Classroom systems

• Outdoor garden frameworks

• Long term sustainability strategies

The goal is simple.

To make school gardens doable.

Not heroic.

Not dependent on one exhausted champion.

But integrated, supported, and repeatable year after year.

Start With Seeds, Not Shovels

If you are dreaming about a school garden this spring, my advice is the same as what I share in the episode:

Start with seeds.

Start with teaching.

Start with the classroom.

And let the garden grow from there.

I encourage you to listen to this week's podcast. Next week I will talk in more details about the Oasis programs, how they work and what might be the best fit for your classrooms and schools.

In the meantime, you can check them out HERE:

PLEASE NOTE: The doors to the Oasis programs will close at the end of February!

So if you think you might be interested, look into finding the budget for it right away.

Hope this blog post helps.

Let me know your thoughts!