Sustaining the Program

How did we get here? What keeps us going? Sustaining school garden programs is a challenge. Emerson has developed a variety of unique logistical tools and gardening best practices for sustaining their program.

Be prepared for a lot of hard work to get the program up and running. At Emerson, it took over a year to get permissions and infrastructure in place. A garden program requires prepping and enriching the soil just as much as the garden itself does!

• Establishing a school garden is a slow process, with many, many small steps that need to be taken to reach the goal. Working with the district from the outset is crucial.
• At Emerson, it took the continuous commitment from a few dedicated parent volunteers and Master Gardeners, teachers to get the program up and running. Once it got started, other parents pitched in, a local nursery donated perennials, one family rototilled the undeveloped area and many hands pitched in for prepping beds and planting.
• Important people to connect with are the maintenance and operations at the district level and custodians at the school site. These are the people who will help with getting permits for water access, establishing irrigation systems, bringing in soil, and putting up structures such as a garden shed and shade structure.
• Turn your Principal into a convert! When parents wanted to revive the program, they approached Emerson’s Principal. She had no gardening experience, so was initially skeptical. However, after much hard work and especially after she saw the curricular connections, she understood the value of the garden and gave her support.
• Liaising with teachers to find out how the garden can be linked to lessons is an important step to ensure the sustainability of the program. If the teachers cannot use the garden, it will quickly become defunct. Help teachers tie the garden into the existing curriculum by making curricular links easy and obvious for teachers.
• Enlist teacher and parent volunteers and provide them with clear guidelines and tasks. Volunteers have varying amounts of time to give. Create a spectrum of tasks from simple and short to those that are more complex and require more commitment
• With a thriving garden program, it’s easier for the PTA/PTO and/ or the school Principal to offer financial support for a garden coordinator, and this will make a very big difference in sustainability.