Roosevelt has a mature garden program with structure and sustainability, and it’s taken over seven years to get there. At Roosevelt, the program takes place after school, with a group of volunteer students who form a Garden Club. “When you have it after school, you find that students have the greatest amount of ownership and they can really do stuff. These are the kids that are REALLY interested.”

Students’ innovative fundraising project

The Garden Club students at RooseveltMiddle School try to make money any way they can, so whenever possible, they sell their harvest. Last year, they came up with a new idea: sell lavender as “locker fresheners.” The girls decided that they would plant and grow the lavender, harvest it and then bundle it up nicely with ribbons and promote it as a locker freshener for PE classes. The bundles went for a mere $.25 each and were very popular!

Quotes from students

“Ava: “I like seeing the things grow up here, so something you planted early in the year, later in the year you finally get to pick it and eat it that’s my favorite part of being here, and also just getting to work. It’s a good way to spend the last hour of your day.”

Darian: “It’s just the feeling of like coming out here after school on your own time and being with friends and you get to work together and create this beautiful thing, the landmark of our school, and you can grow things and it’s just you feel really independent when you do it, because you’re not just sitting there learning things, you’re actually getting outside and touching with your own hands. Wildlife, too. Last year we had a swallow nest and there was a whole family, a male a female and three eggs.”

Charles: Club president: “I guess the fact that the garden club is like a small family within the school, like a family.”

• Roosevelt gardeners have created a web site and registered with NGA. (http://www.rooseveltmiddle.org/)
• Grants: Heather O’Donnell spends quite a lot of her time looking for and writing grant proposals. Thus far, she’s been very successful. Funders she turns to include local agencies such as Sea World, the Garden of Discovery, Clean San Diego as well as California-wide and national groups like Western Growers Association and the National Gardening Association.

Best Practices

• Be sure you have a team. Start very small. Have a plan. Figure out your priorities—will it be a food garden, a butterfly garden, a flower garden? Roosevelt has everything. Do some research about costs.