School gardens are excellent classroom tools that come with a wide variety of lessons and skills to be learned. School gardens provide hands-on learning about nutrition and exposure to new foods they may not normally eat at home. There is nothing like picking and eating a fresh, juicy tomato right off the vine! It is a memory that will stay with them forever. Gardens also help students develop social and sensory skills and can aid in stress management. Students can observe and experience the life cycles of the plants and creatures that reside in the garden as well.
East Early College High School partnered with Prairie View A&M University Wellness in Houston’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Associate, Carley Howell, to start a school garden for the students to play a part in sustainability. A small group of dedicated juniors and seniors worked hard during the 2022-2023 school year to create and develop their school garden based on their wants, needs, and benefits for the whole school. Throughout the year, they learned how to plan for a garden, build raised beds suitable for the plants they wanted to grow, soil, compost, preserving their harvested herbs and vegetables, among other topics. The garden was a fantastic addition to classroom lessons for the students to apply what they learned in a real-life scenario.
Each student was able to pick out their own garden bed to grow and oversee their choice of herbs and vegetables. Attracting pollinators to ensure a healthy ecology was important for the students. They dedicated half of their beds to flowers and native plants to accomplish this goal. The students also brainstormed sustainability ideas and decided to use shredded paper and vegetable scraps from the cafeteria in their compost instead of throwing them all in the trash. They will be able to use this compost to add nutrients to their garden beds in the future.
Carley Howell
Extension Associate, PVAMU Wellness in Houston
crhowell@pvamu.edu
