We know how hard it is to set up and maintain a school garden. We’ve done it! We’ve experienced the initial excitement of developing plans and brainstorming for ideas but we’ve also felt the frustration when the enthusiasm of others has waned and only a few are left holding the rake. We’ve even seen the confusion on other teachers’ faces when they just don’t know where to start and whether they even have the skills and energy to keep a school garden going.
But, we’ve also seen the smiles on the kids faces as they busily plant side by side with their friends and compare notes on what will be harvested first. There is nothing like the anticipation of a bumper crop of vegies and the skills that they learn are ones that they can take with them for a lifetime.
The team at Smarty Plants are a dedicated bunch of primary school teachers as well as horticulturists with the main objective of supporting teachers in getting kids gardening. We want to give you clear and simple instructions and advice on setting up a school garden and then maintaining it with an army of kids.
We aim to answer all of the ‘what now’ and ‘what if’ questions. You know the ones. What do we plant now? What if we don’t want to use pesticides? What if the caterpillars are eating our plants? What job should we do now?
Not only that, we are busily preparing lesson plans and Cross Curriculum Plans based around the National Curriculum. We figure that if we are going to support you with the garden, we should go the whole hog. Some of these are online now but we will be putting more up as they are written.
Of course, we would love your feedback, your gardening questions and your suggestions for Cross Curriculum Plan topics based around vegetables. There are lots of ways, either through the website, through our contact details or even on our Facebook page. We hope to hear from you soon.
GROWING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE
Smarty Plants is a kids’ range of seedlings that:
Encourages kids to be active in the garden.
Gives kids the skills and knowledge they need to grow their own
herbs, vegetables and flowers successfully.
Persuades kids to eat healthier foods such as vegetables
because they have grown themselves.
Makes it easier for parents to be healthy role models through gardening as it gives them the
knowledge and confidence to undertake simple gardening activities with their children.
Gives teachers the information and tools that they need to integrate gardening
into their regular classroom programs.