Sustaining Petaluma's Garden Program


“There are very few of us,” says Ms. Nugent about Culinary Arts classes at the junior high school level. There's little or no funding, because the bulk of support goes to elementary schools. So how does this junior high school maintain support for its garden program.

Partners: Cultivate a Network

  • STUDENTS are your best partners!
  • Community members, “Garden Angels”
  • Custodians and grounds staff
  • Cafeteria Manager—she arranged tours for the students, taste tests and lessons on food safety.
  • Parent volunteers
  • Staff members occasionally
  • Principal
  • Regional support groups:
    • SchoolGarden Network of Sonoma County  http://schoolgardens.org helps coordinate volunteers and work parties. They do evening gatherings, seed swapping, grant writing and networking. They bring plants and help out with garden maintenance.  You need a team.
      You can’t do it all yourself!
    • Occidental Arts and EcologyCenterhttp://www.oaec.org/—Ms. Nugent and the computer technology teacher attended a 5-day garden-based education training.

Teacher Partnerships

  • The collaboration with the Computer Coordinator, Pat Kellgren, has been an crucial partnership for moving the garden program forward.  Without this partnership, the program would not be sustainable. To enhance their professional development, Ms. Kellgren and Ms. Nugent attended Occidental Arts and Ecology summer educational workshops. Ms. Kellgren is the outreach person-she LOVES working in the garden, and is a great person for networking. She is great at pulling parents and other community members in, enlisting their help and asking for donations. 

Principal’s Support

  • The Principal’s commitment has been crucial to the success and growth of Petaluma JHS’s Culinary Arts and Garden program. John Layman, Principal, has a green thumb himself. He’s a gardener and grows his own apples.  He often brings in the bounty of his home garden for all to enjoy.  His support has allowed the program to expand.
  • Because of Mr. Layman’s support, the school has established a "Reading Rose Garden" as well as a "Cooking Garden."  The ReadingGarden is a space between wings of the buildings where they’ve planted perennials and roses.  Designed to be a space where students can go and relax, it will eventually have a patio and benches. 

Bridging Elementary and Junior High School

  • The garden project began at the same time that elementary school gardens were taking off in the district. Ms. Nugent established a relationship with the elementary school garden coordinator, who introduced her to elementary students. These are the students who feed right into the middle school. Establishing these relationships early on creates excitement and expectation in the students for when they move on to middle school.

District Support

  • Ms Nugent also served on the School Wellness Policy Committee as a representative for the middle school culinary program and coordinator of the middle school garden. This committee helps to establish health/culinary/garden connections within the district and helps pull the district together in its thinking: Other members were a small farmer, the district child nutrition director, cafeteria manager, a district administrator, a PE teacher, several parents and teachers from the elementary school and a high school representative. The Garden Coordinator at the elementary

Grant writing & community connections

  • Be sure to investigate community grant-funding agencies. Start slow and local.

    Ms. Nugent’s vision started with a culinary herb garden back in 1994. With this idea in mind, she wrote a grant proposal titled The Culinary Garden from Seed to Sauce to two local groups: The Petaluma Education Foundation and Barbara’s Bakery. Through their generous support of a $2,000 seed grant, they got the garden started.

    Since then, the garden has been able to continue through the state garden grant money from AB1535. This was a one-time non-competitive grant for equipment and professional development given to schools that applied. Other grant opportunities can be found by going to the California School Garden Network Web site: www.csgn.org.