Essential links to Key Learning Areas and Curriculum Capabilities

Edible Schoolyards help your school create a vibrant, hands-on learning space with countless opportunities for teaching health, fitness, science, life skills and many key learning areas.

Students will gain an understanding and appreciation for the origins of food and enjoy mental and physical stimulation beyond the classroom.

Teachers can use the garden setting to extend the range of learning styles employed in the teaching process. These can include hands-on, enquiry-based, problem-based and child-initiated larning; techniques easily applied in an outdoor classroom.

Outdoor Classrooms

This 168 page book takes us through the history of school gardens and articulates the need for a revival before leading our journey into the fanciful; a schoolyard to fire a child's imagination and delight in the natural world.

Plans for developing a school garden; a plan to guide the teacher through a process from the formation of the idea to what to do with the garden during the holidays.

Links to the curriculum, samples of unit plans and programming method based on lists of skills and knowledge; the essential learnings to take the whole curriculum into the outdoors.

Illustrations crystalise the concepts and engage the reader.

Give it a Go DVD

By Veggie Village Community Gardens.
5-10 minute how-to videos on a variety of practical subjects.

Ideal for showing in class before venturing into the garden.

Experts sharing their tips on:
• Balcony Gardens
• Choosing Plants
• Composting
• Growing, Pest Management and Harvesting
• Healthy Soils
• No Dig Gardening
• Planting Seedlings
• Propagation
• Seed Saving
• Tropical Vegetables
• Worm Farming

Our Adoption program helps your school raise funds quickly without relying on government grants.

Our Adoption Project gives local families, individuals, companies and organisations the opportunity to sponsor the materials and time required to establish the garden through money contributions, material donations, complementary trade services and regular volunteer hours.

Bronze

• Instructions on how to run the Adoption Program.
• Generic forms, posters, thankyou cards and press release

Silver & Gold:

• Using the garden design and staged construction, the adoption program is tailored for specific items, funds and services required.
• Customised forms, posters, thank you cards and press release.
• We contact local suppliers in your area on your behalf to gather support.
• Students forms to take home to parents and local businesses.
• Project management and running tally of funds received
• Designated webpage on our website
• Facebook and social media support
• Mention in our monthly newsletter to over 1000 subscribers.

Full year program for all year levels.

Our qualified garden co-ordinator visits your school and runs curriculum based lessons each week for all year levels.

See each section for detailed descriptions of outcomes:

• Gardens
• Plants
• Sustainability
• Soils
• Maintenance
• Support systems
• Rewards

Packed with practical and theoretical information to ensure your edible schoolyard is productive year after year.

Garden manual size and content differs depending on level of package.

Gold: Extensive information on all items.

See packages for garden manual topics.

Subscription to Edible Family Website

The most comprehensive online organic gardening resource in Australia

Valued at $49.95 / year

• Detailed descriptions, photos, videos and information of over 300 plant species
• Growing guide
• Garden management
• Animal systems
• Pest and disease maintenance
• Soils
• Garden types
• Printable fact sheets
• Veggie Doctor Help Desk
• plus lots lots more...

Ideal for research projects, curriculum based activities, garden management and in-class presentations.

You're not alone when you have a problem in the garden.

Sometimes a quick phone call is all you need to help solve a gardening problem.

Our expert team is on hand to answer any urgent questions or just to reasure you that you're not alone.

Educating teachers and parents for long term garden use.

PD I - Introduction to a sustainable edible schoolyard.

Practical and theoretical:

• Garden Design  • Permaculture  • Garden Safety • Plant Selection  • Sensory Gardens and Herbs
• Soils  • No Dig Gardens  • Compost  • Seed Sowing  •  Planting Seedlings  • Maintenance  • Fertilising

PD II - Garden potentials for learning activities linking the school garden to many aspects of the curriculum.

• Begin developing your school’s garden activity portfolio.
• Join in discussions about making the most of your garden for learning activities.
• Find new ways of invigorating your learning activities and providing relevant and authentic learning experiences that help keep students engaged in the learning process.
• Learn how to utilize new contexts for learning and assessment.
• Create links to diverse areas of the curriculum.
• Develop lesson plans for your school and to share with others.

PD III – Writing curriculum with links to the garden.

• Expand your school’s curriculum portfolio.
• Hear how other schools link the garden to the curriculum.
• Discuss some of the obstacles to learning and the solutions that the school gardens can provide.
• Work through the possibilities of integrating the school garden into whole school planning.
• Discover ways of ensuring the garden is used and maintained.
• Use planning tools to take back to your school.

You're not alone.

Our experienced and dedicated team of project managers and educators take the hard work out of school garden projects.

Our Edible Schoolyards Program has been designed to streamline the process and to actually support schools to establish their own food gardens, not to burden them with it.

Project management activities include:

• Garden design and consultation with staff
• Project timeline creation and progress reports
• Adoption program consolidation and purchasing of items
• Arranging a 'Veggie Blitz' workshop for garden construction incorporating students, parents, teachers and the wider community.
• Liaison with principal, staff and parents to arrange workshops and class activities.

Hands-on learning experiences.

Veggie Doctor:

• 8 week program with hands-on and theoretical 40 minute lessons for ALL primary year levels
  

Garden Co-ordinator:

• Year long program visiting one day per week for 30 weeks
• Short lessons to ensure each class is involved in the garden or
• Long lessons for spacific year levels and classes
• Adaptable from prep to year 10 activities
  

8 Week Program for primary school level.

Doctor Dirt and Nurse Nasturtium presents the Our Yummy Garden 8 week program. Designed for 4 x 40 minute repeatable lessons to accommodate all primary year levels:

Week 1 - SEEDS
• Garden rules
• Planting seeds
• Starting your Garden Journal

Week 2 -SEEDLINGS
• Your class's veggie patch
• Practical exercise - Planting seedlings

Week 3 - PLANTS
• What makes them grow
• How to keep plants and yourself healthy

Week 4 - GARDEN LIFE
• Big and small animals
• Learning about the secret world of soils
• Mighty Microbes Game

Week 5 - SEASONS
• What to grow and when
• Growing all year round
• Food Miles Game

Week 6 - HELP
• Helping your plants and yourself
• Attracting helpers to your garden
• Good Bugs vs Bad Bugs game

Week 7 - HOME & HARVEST
• Learning how to make a simple garden at home
• How and when to harvest

Week 8 - CELEBRATION
• Fun activities to celebrate your yummy gardening success

Includes all work sheets and materials.

Modular garden bed systems.

They're like LEGO for the garden. Any SHAPE - Any SIZE - Any WHERE

Features:

• Easy to assemble by students
• Won't rust like tank beds
• Won't rot like timber
• Recycled food-grade plastic
• No sharp edges
• Stackable and expandable
• Animal barriers and trellis kits
• Straight and curved sections make fun shapes and sizes
• Ideal for playground edging
• Also makes compost bays and sandpits

DISCOUNT FOR SCHOOLS

• Garden design and construction
• Identifying and using the resources are available to the specific school community
• Micro, macro and meso level problem solving
• Children identify issues in the garden, develop solutions and experience the outcomes when implemented
• Interpreting earth systems and permaculture principles into the school garden

• Food miles
• Organic gardening
• Enough for all & Sharing surplus
• Community gardening
• Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle
• Respect for earth and it's bounty in the form of food

• Understanding the need for and how to communicate health and safety in the garden
• Practical information
• Verbal and non verbal communication - e.g. plant indicators of weakness
• Communicating between classes - whole of school approach

• Culturally specific food, and techniques for growing and preparing that food
• Seasonal celebrations
• The world food map - Who eats what? Who grows what?
• Regionally appropriate fruit and vegetables 

• Children keep individual gardening journals
• Using language to explore and explain the school garden
• Plant and structural labels throughout the garden
• Vocabulary associated with gardening and nature study

• Mathematics of garden design including size and shape of the beds and supporting structures
• Metrics around quantities of inputs needed to set up and maintain vegetable gardens
• Measurements of growth (height, width) and harvest (amount) of fruit and vegetables
• Experiential numeracy - e.g find me a flower with 6 petals, 2 colors and 3 leaves, seed sowing (depth and number of seeds per pot)

• Personal and community health and wellbeing
• Collaboration and teamwork across classes and year levels
• Using tools safely

• Garden poetry - describing what is happening in our garden through poetry and creative expression
• Correct identification (verbal and written) of plants and support structures in the garden
• Telling the story of a plant from seed to fruit
• Drawing and writing books (garden journals) - describing the qualities of different natural elements in the school garden

• Outdoor open-ended physical play in a stimulating environment
• Safe physical gardening (lifting, digging, hauling)
• Exploring the link between healthy food and healthy bodies
• Expenditure of physical and mental energy on task

• Different names of plants, fruits, vegetables in different languages
• Use of ancient language to describe plant family and literal translations

• Metrics around mulching, composting, soil mineral balances, plant density, height and width of seedlings and trees
• Planting and Yields - ratios, metric inputs, weight, density
• Experiential mathematics (see numeracy above)
• Recipe development and cooking
• ‘Lines' in the garden and in nature

• ŸStructure and function of soil, composting, water
• ŸIdentifying elements (wind, water, sun) and weather patterns an their impact on the garden
• ŸChemistry, biology and physics of the garden including pest, plant and soil cycles, minerals in soil and their role in plant growth and human nutrition,
• ŸPlant identification, structure and function in an organic setting
• ŸMinibeasts in the garden and their role in a healthy organic system
• ŸMimicking naturally occurring systems through small scale food forests and guilds (beneficial planting groups)

• Design, manufacture and use of recycled PET veggie beds - why? how? benefits?
• Alternative forms of energy (solar, wind, water)
• Natural dyeing with plants from the garden
• Pest hotel construction

• Identifying earth systems and their application in the school garden
• Plant needs and human needs - similarities & differences
• Social consequences of food e.g. local food movement, CSA, food security
• Adaptation and climate change

• The color wheel in nature
• Nature art box - creating with natural materials to add interest/beauty to the garden beyond the plantings
• Ephemeral Art
• Make beautiful bean tipis and pumpkin arches
• Pressed flower art and seed collage
• Make seed paper
• Create a fairy garden

Integrating indigenous gardens into your edible schoolyard.

• Students explore bush tucker by designing an edible indigenous garden for their school.
  
• What students already know about bush tucker and indigenous plants.
  
• Do indigenous plants exist in your school grounds already
• Investigate plants used by indigenous people, not just as a source of food but to provide shelter and medicine.
  
• List of possible plants to include in the garden
• Which plants are indigenous to the local area
  
• How easy are the plants to obtain
  
• Size of the plants - how large will they grow

Building your garden.

• Safety in the garden
• Types of materials to use for construction in your organic garden
• Grow your own materials (bamboo etc)
• Pathways, heights, size, accessibility
• Building a raised veggie bed
• Creating a bamboo trellis and tepee

Includes project management of garden construction during Veggie Blitz days

Designing for maximum yield and curriculum integration.

One hour of clever design can save ten hours of hard work.

Our professional permaculture designers will design of your school garden to maximise the space available, the number of students, your estimated budget, incorporate an outdoor classroom and integrate curriculum activities for long term use.

We can complete the design with or without student participation. We have found that by including students in the design process a deeper understanding of the elements of the garden will be gained and a sense of ownership in the gardens will be established.

• Elements of a design
• Sectors and Zones
• Positioning the garden
• How to design a garden
• Site analysis
• Sector analysis & sun patterns
• Designing out problems
• Stages and steps
• Why good planning saves time and improves productivity
• The needs of the client/school
• Materials required
• Walk around a garden area for observation

Keeping everyone safe in the garden.

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Use of equipment
• Safety using garden products
• Others working around you
• Storage solutions
• Wildlife awareness
• Lifting and carrying equipment
• Reading labels
• First Aid

Creating habitat to attract diversity into your garden.

• Identifying the different types of habitats
• What do we attract to the garden and why they are important
• How do we bring them to the garden and keep them there
• Recognising the importance of existing habitats and nurturing them

Intro text.

Theory:

• lorum
• Ipsum

Practical:

• Lorum
• Ipsum

Seasonal planning for a subtropical edible garden.

• Mapping sun and shade patterns throughout the year
• Understanding orientation
• Growing in the subtropics (specific issues)
• Planning your garden for a year of food (this steps into garden design)
• Seasonal jobs - busy times, quiet times
• When to plant, when to harvest
• Annuals & perennials - growing food throughout the year
• Understanding the subtropical climate and how it affects backyard food production
• Using a compass, finding orientation
• Using sun map for our region

Creating a garden that's a feast for the senses.

• Selecting safe plants for your sensory garden
• The healing role of gardens
• Herbs to use (teas, health etc)
• Designing your sensory garden
• Arts and crafts in the garden (gourds, luffas etc)
• 5 senses - Colour (sight/seeing); Texture (touch/feeling); Smell (scents); Sound (hearing) & Taste (flavour)
• Designing Sensory Gardens and Rainbow Gardens
• Varieties of plants and their uses
• Have a taste, smell, feel, admire and listen for any sounds

Growing on verandahs, court yards and small spaces.

• Container gardening
• Soils for pots
• Using vertical spaces
• Growing in the shade
• Recycled materials for fun garden ideas

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An introduction to permaculture ethics and principles.

Theory:

• The history of Permaculture - the beginnings and the name
• Design ethics and principles
• The importance of this for the future
• How to incorporate this into our daily lives

Practical:

• Activitiy to familiarise everyone with Permaculture

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Growing delicious subtropical fruit

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  Selecting the right fruit trees for your garden
• Easy trees to start with
• Where to source good quality stock
• Selecting and preparing the site
• Support species for fruit trees
• Ground covers and mulches
• Orchards and food forests
• Planting your tree/s
• Watering, fertilising and ongoing care of your tree
• Pruning
• Common subtropical pests & diseases & remedies
• The permaculture food forest

Herbs for human and garden health.

• Looking at different varieties
• Their many uses
• Growing needs and habits
  
• Designing herbs into gardens
• Permaculture Herb Spirals
• Growing herbs in pots
  
• Harvesting and using
• Looking at and tasting a variety of herbs
• Creating natural remedies from herbs