School Gardens – Organizing The Children To Develop Their Garden
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By Jonathan Yaakobi
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The setting up of a garden whether in a private home or public park is always the start of the process and not the “finished product”. No matter how well designed, and how much money spent, if the garden is not maintained regularly, correctly and with sensitivity, love, care and attention, it will at best, never realize its enormous potential, and most likely degenerate into an unsightly mess. Nowhere does this apply more pertinently than in a school garden, where educators are no doubt aware of the detrimental effects on morale and confidence caused by failure.
From an entirely visual angle, a team of professional gardeners would best up-keep the school garden. This however excludes the involvement of the children in the running of the garden, preventing it from being “theirs”. Moreover, the tremendous educational potential in horticultural activity would be lost. Assuming then that the decision has been taken that the children will not only be helping in the garden, but largely responsible for it, the question arises as to how and in what way their involvement should be organized.
*Firstly, it is best to organize the children into small groups. As it is most likely that the garden will consist of various garden beds spread throughout the school grounds, one possibility is that each group becomes responsible for a particular section. This may be the most convenient arrangement from an organizational point of view, but it is liable to encourage a negative competitiveness between the groups, and effectively create a multitude of gardens. After all, the most fundamental educational lesson to be learned from horticulture is that it is properly speaking, a co-operative activity and not a competitive one.
*An alternative, the one I would suggest, is that each group takes on responsibility for a particular garden task, whether it is irrigation, soil management, weed and pest control or pruning. In this way, a certain expertise develops, resulting potentially at least, in greater interest, involvement, achievement and self-confidence in the participants. Periodically, a group can present a mini workshop to the others, by which they impart the knowledge and experience so far attained, while the co-operative nature of the project is emphasized. Every so often, probably according to age, the children can move into a new specialty, culminating in pruning, which should only be undertaken by the older children (and under strict supervision) in any case.
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Author Bio Box: Jonathan Yaakobi
 My name is Jonathan Ya'akobi.
I've been gardening in a professional capacity since 1984.
I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden, but now concentrate on building gardens for private home owners.
I also teach horticulture to students on training courses.
I'd love to help you get the very best from your garden,
so you're welcome to visit me on http://www.dryclimategardening.com
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