Get Growing!
5 Steps
for Starting
Your Garden
1. GRAB SOME FRIENDS
Digging, mulching, weeding, watering — gardens are a lot of work. Make the
project easy and fun by enlisting volunteers to help start the garden.
2. PLOT A SPACE
Look for land that can be fenced off and easily accessed. Test soil quality to make
sure it has enough vitamins and minerals, and check surrounding vegetation for
greedy plants that will drain the nutrients from your soil.
3. CHOOSE YOUR CROPS
What do you like to eat? Start there, and then consider seasonal needs, crop
length, and space requirements. For example, lettuce can squeeze into a small
space whereas pumpkins practically need a whole patch.
4. ORGANIZE YOUR SCHEDULE
Which days do you water? What if it rains? Keep track of your daily nursery needs
with a comprehensive plan of everything from picking to pruning.
5. BEAUTIFY YOUR SPACE
Gardens are naturally beautiful, but they’re also the perfect home for painted
rocks, sculptures, flowers, fountains, and more! Make your garden a space where
you love to be and taking care of the garden won’t be too big a chore.
Will students be involved in the garden?
The space can also serve as an outdoor classroom. Taking
students out of the classroom helps promote engagement.
Sean: They helped prep for the opening in 2018 and several
teachers and students have already started seedlings in their
What has the reaction been?
classroom to transplant into the garden during the spring.
Stacey: A lot of nearby high school students cut through the
Stacey: It’s an opportunity for students to learn unique Bonner & Prendie campus to see our green space. You can see
skills. How often do they use a shovel, or a hammer, or fix the Bonner & Prendie students have a sense of pride when
a lawnmower? When you’re working with the land and others notice it and think it’s cool.
touching the soil, you see the literal fruits of your labor. It
carries a powerful feeling of accomplishment that with your
own two hands you can help sustain somebody.
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