Why School Gardens Fail in Clubs (And What Teachers Can Do Instead)

If you’ve ever tried to grow a school garden through a lunchtime club or after-school green team, you’re not alone. In fact, it’s one of the most common approaches teachers take when trying to bring gardening into schools.

It’s also, unfortunately, one of the least effective.

As someone who’s worked in school garden education for over a decade, I’ve seen hundreds of teachers try this route with the best intentions, and I’ve also seen the outcome. More often than not, these well-meaning garden clubs lead to frustration, burnout, and abandoned garden beds by the end of the year or, target very low expectations and don't really achieve much.

So why does this approach fail so often? And what can you do instead?

Let’s break it down.

🌱 The Club-Based Model: What It Looks Like

A typical garden or eco club might meet once a week, usually during lunch or after school. Participation is optional, and students come from different grades and age groups. The club may have several goals, like learning about environmental issues, fundraising for wildlife, or starting a composting program, and somewhere on that list is "grow a garden."

Sounds fun and flexible, right?

Except… it rarely works.

❌ 6 Reasons Why Garden Clubs Don’t Work for Growing a Real Garden

1. Inconsistent Attendance Makes Planning Impossible

You might have 20 students signed up for the club, but only 4 show up on a rainy day. Or next week it’s soccer practice, so only 2 come. This lack of consistency makes it nearly impossible to plan or assign meaningful tasks.

A real garden needs regular, predictable care. You simply can't rely on a rotating, optional group of students to manage that.

2. Time is Too Short

Most clubs meet for 30–60 minutes at most. That time is often squeezed between lunch, recess, or after a full school day. Between settling in, explaining the task, and cleaning up, you may only get 15–20 productive minutes, and that’s nowhere near enough to make real gardening progress.

3. No Curriculum Connection

Since students are pulled from multiple grades, you can’t integrate the garden work with curriculum standards in a meaningful way. This makes the garden feel like an “extra”, not a core part of learning.

When a school garden is treated as a side activity, it’s one of the first things to fall apart when time or energy runs low.

4. Weather is a Major Barrier

What happens if it rains on club day? Or there’s a heat warning? Or frost hits unexpectedly?

If your only gardening window is one short session a week, you lose all flexibility to adjust for weather. That means missed work, wilted plants, and mounting frustration.

5. The Garden Ends Up on the Teacher’s Shoulders

Because students don’t get enough done during club time, guess who ends up doing the “leftover” work? You. And you’re just one person.

Even if you’re passionate about gardening, you simply can’t do what a full class of 20 students could accomplish, especially week after week.

6. There Are Too Many Competing Priorities

Clubs often juggle multiple projects. Students may be planning a bake sale, making posters for recycling week, or brainstorming how to save the bees, all while trying to grow tomatoes?

It’s too much. And as a result, nothing thrives — especially the garden.

💬 Real Feedback from Real Teachers

I recently received feedback from a nonprofit organization that had purchased one of my classroom-based garden programs for two schools. After trying to implement it in their eco clubs, they reported that the program was “too much” for the time they had during club hours.

And they were right.

Not because the program was flawed, but because it was never designed for clubs. In fact, I clearly state that all of my programs are built specifically for classroom time. That structure is not just a recommendation; it’s foundational.

So what happens next? Often, teachers blame the program rather than the structure they tried to force it into, which only adds to the frustration.

🧠 Let’s Reframe the Question

It’s not:
“Why doesn’t this program work in a club?”
It’s:
“Why are we still trying to grow gardens in clubs at all?”

With all the collective experience and stories being shared online, we need to learn from each other’s mistakes, not repeat them and hope for different results.

If you’ve ever tried to grow a garden in a club and it didn’t go well, it wasn’t your fault. It was the system you were trying to grow it in.

✅ What Actually Works: The Classroom-Based Model

When school gardens are integrated into classroom time, everything changes:

• You have consistent student attendance. You know who’s going to be there each day, which makes planning and assigning tasks much easier.

• You can align garden activities with curriculum. Science, math, language arts, social studies, and much more, all can be taught through hands-on gardening.

• You can flex the schedule. If it rains Tuesday, garden on Wednesday. This level of adaptability is essential for growing success.

• The garden is truly student-led. With regular involvement, students take ownership and responsibility. You’re guiding, not doing all the work yourself.

• It becomes part of learning, not an extracurricular burden.

Teachers who take this approach grow thriving, beautiful school gardens. And more importantly — they do it without burning out.

🛠 What You Can Do Next

If you’re already running a garden club and struggling, it’s okay to pivot.

🌱 Consider bringing the garden into your classroom time, even once a week.
🌱 Talk to your admin about using gardening to meet curriculum goals.
🌱 Use lesson plans and resources specifically designed for classroom integration, not clubs.

And if you’re just getting started, skip the club route entirely. Set yourself up for success by starting with a classroom-based model right from the beginning.

🎧 Want to Go Deeper?

I dive into all of this in Episode 56 of School Gardens with Ease:
“Should You Start a School Garden as a Club? (The Truth You Need to Hear)”

✉️ Final Thoughts

School gardens are powerful tools for learning, connection, and environmental literacy. But they need the right structure to thrive.

Let’s stop trying to squeeze them into models that don’t work — and start giving them the classroom space, consistency, and respect they deserve.