Ideas from St. Johnsbury School

Easy to assemble Raised Bed Gardens
There are many benefits of using raised bed gardens with children. The garden has a more permanent quality to them. They look neat a tidy year round (which can be important for some sites such as schools). They are accessible to the elderly and handicapped. The children know where the growing space is and where the paths for walking are. The children are more engaged with the garden when it is higher up and closer to them. And – vegetables grow extremely well in raised beds because the roots have lots of room to grow deeply. You can also pack more vegetables into a small space in a raised beds because the roots grow deeper. The raised bed gardens at the St. Johnsbury School are beautifully designed and extremely easy to assemble. (in under 5 minutes!). Here is the link to look at the design if you want to build your own or find out how to order these for your site: http://pwp.surfglobal.net/tina/ . If you do purchase them, you may want to mention that you are growing gardens with children as the St J program received either a discount or donation.

Choosing a Garden Club Name
The children at St. Johnsbury are in the process of voting on a garden club name for their group. This is a fun way to build excitement for the program and give the children a sense of ownership and identity for their garden and program.

Root Viewer
Growing a plant from seed to leaf to flower and fruit is an amazing process! Creating a root viewer gives children a chance to see the incredible network of roots under the ground. This is a wonderful activity to share your sense of awe and wonder for this simple miracle!