Recently I attended GIY’s How to Create a School Garden teacher training course at GROW HQ in Waterford. Currently in its fifth year, How to Create a School Garden is a face-to-face, accredited course delivered by GIY every July and August through the Waterford Teacher Centre. The programme enables teachers to plan and implement school gardens, with an emphasis on using the garden as an educational tool.
Richard Mee, Head Grower at GROW HQ, facilitates the 20-hour course, using hands-on activities and lively instruction to guide teachers in managing and creating a school garden within the constraints of the school year. GIY runs several community and education programmes, many involving teachers, who, over the years, have shared the challenges they face in starting a school garden – mainly finding the time to maintain the garden year-round. Well, Richard has created a simple solution: a garden plan and crop calendar intentionally designed with the school year in mind.
What was covered on the teacher training course?
On Day 2 – after a tasty lunch at the GROW HQ café featuring fresh organic produce harvested from the gardens – we embarked on a stroll through the growing areas at HQ, identifying crops from Richard’s school crop calendar (which breaks down what to plant and when) and learning why certain vegetables and fruits are good options for a school garden. Ultimately, it’s important to have a balance of crops that can be planted and harvested before June – so that students can reap the benefits of their hard work and schools have zero maintenance over the summer months – but also, as all teachers agreed, it’s nice to have a few ‘worth the wait’ varieties for them to harvest the following year (hello pumpkins!).
Over the five day course, Richard covered everything from school garden site selection and soil science; building raised beds versus growing on the flat; sowing and composting techniques; promoting biodiversity; and managing pests, diseases, and weeds. But most importantly, we discovered how to explore these topics with primary children in a classroom setting.
In fact, teachers were able to easily connect growing and gardening to multiple areas within the primary curriculum, including science, maths, history, geography, art, music, wellbeing, and global citizenship. In my next post, I’ll be sharing the brilliant ideas they came up with for teaching these subject areas through garden-based learning. For now, I’ll leave you with one key take-away from Richard: “Gardening is all about accepting imperfections.“
Bringing Richard’s wisdom into the classroom
Whether it’s misshapen veg, seeds that never sprout, the dreaded root fly wiping out beloved carrots, the whims of nature drowning or drying out your plants, tripping over a shovel and crushing a bed of herbs – it’s all bound to happen. Children will learn to expect the unexpected, to accept the ‘wonky’ veg as a success (and realise they taste great too!). They will also learn resilience – be it watching growth occur despite harsh conditions, or through practicing perseverance by trying endlessly to keep that one seedling alive (we’ve all been there).
It’s an important message for teachers as well. Few people have time for a perfectly manicured garden, or to grow all the veg on the crop calendar, or, dare I say it, to always remember to water seedlings. It’s okay to be as gentle with your own learning curve and growing ‘mistakes’ as you would with your students. Starting somewhere, and having the will to sometimes start over again, is really all you need to begin your school’s garden journey.
Terri Cole, Education Manager, GIY
next steps:
If you’re interested in participating in our teacher training course, you can sign up for the August session through the Waterford Teacher Centre, or express your interest here for summer 2023.
Not a teacher but want to start a home or community garden? GIY offers self-paced online courses for new growers.
If you know a school that would like to start a garden but needs resources, visit our GROW at School page. Registrations are open and ongoing for participation in September 2023. Contact terri@giy.ie for more details.
