Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

School Garden Grants

Exploring Gardens and Supporting Children

The Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM biennial tour of local gardens contributes more than an educational experience for the tour participants.

As this years’ garden tour participants enjoyed the beauty of the Shady Slope, Sentimental, Lotus, Ever Evolving and Learning Gardens, they were also giving students at local schools the chance to experience the joy of gardening for themselves.

This is because the major recipient of the garden tour revenues, both from ticket sales and sponsorships, is the School Grants Committee. This group comprised of Extension Master Gardeners accept applications from schools in Buncombe County and the City of Asheville who want to either establish or maintain a school garden.

Children display their vegetable harvest from the school garden.
Children show off their harvest

Other educational programs of the Extension Master Gardeners, such as the Information Table, Compost Demonstration, and Helpline, are supported by the funds from the garden tour as well.

In the past 12 years, because of the overwhelming support of the community and sponsors, they have been able to award 123 grants totaling over $ 44,000.00 to 57 different schools in the County and City. More important than the funds provided is the fact that members of the committee volunteer their time and energy to provide the grant recipients with expertise in setting up and taking care of the gardens.

Master Gardener helping in the School Garden
Master Gardener helping in the School Garden

This connection between the educational opportunities provided to those who take the garden tour and those students who benefit from the proceeds is one of the core values of the concept behind the organization of the garden tour. This connection is further enhanced by the knowledge that the Master Gardeners are able to nurture future generations’ love for the environment in a positive and meaningful way

School Gardens, School Kids: Reaching Out in Buncombe County

Around Buncombe County you’ll find Extension Master GardenerSM volunteers involved with our community in many places, including school gardens. And what do the school kids have to say about that?  Here are a few reactions:

  • “I want to try every vegetable we grow!”
  • “Eew! Look at all the worms in the garden. I used to think they were icky, but they’re really cool!”
  • “Do carrots really come from down in the dirt?”
  • “It smells good out here!”
  • “Gardening is even more fun than video games.”
Children display their vegetable harvest from the school garden.
Children show off their harvest.

Students play an active role in many public-school gardens in Asheville and Buncombe County. Depending on the grade level, students help plan their gardens, develop the soil, plant vegetables and flowers, and enjoy the bounty of their efforts.  First graders might learn about germination by planting bean seeds, while high schoolers may help create a rain garden to deal with erosion.

These school garden projects are so diverse! Some involve the entire school. Others focus on a group of students—such as all the 2nd graders or special-needs kids. Projects range from building and maintaining a vegetable garden—even donating their crops to MANNA Food Bank—to establishing a pollinator garden; researching and cultivating a native plant garden; and much more. We are excited about one school’s greenhouse aquaponics system—among the first in North Carolina!

Students participate in classroom lessons and outdoor garden experiences. In the classroom, they learn basic soil science, composting, plant parts, and vermiculture. Then they go out to the garden to apply these lessons—digging, pulling weeds, planting, creating a sustainable environment, and getting their hands dirty! They make and record observations about their plants, the weather, and soil samples. They learn about food origins, how vegetables grow, and how they taste; they understand that food does not grow in the grocery store or in a fast-food outlet!  They share nutritional knowledge and excitement at home with parents and other family members.

The Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Buncombe County’s mission is to support, teach, and encourage a diverse community of gardeners using current research-based horticulture practices.  Our School Garden Grants program is designed to educate school children about gardening.

We fund the grants—available to all public schools in Asheville and Buncombe County–through a portion of the proceeds from our semi-annual Garden Tour. Since 2007 we have awarded 44 school gardens a total of more than $25,000. These grants impact thousands of students in grades K–12, along with hundreds of teachers and community volunteers. The ripple effect is tremendous!

School garden coordinators apply for garden grants by the end of February, asking for a specific amount of money to fund a garden project at their school. The School Garden Grants Committee reviews and evaluates these requests against strict criteria. We fund things like soil amendments and plants, but not tractors! The Committee meets and makes decisions based on our budget, notifies schools, and provides the grant monies by the end of March.

Sampling produce from their school garden with help from a Master Gardener
Sampling produce from their school garden with help from a Master Gardener

At least one Master Gardener volunteer is assigned to each funded school. During the active part of the project, we often work hands-on in the dirt with the kids. This is one of the most fun and gratifying parts for me!

At the end of the year, the schools provide us with a written evaluation of how their project went. They tell us of their successes: “The moment we realized we had peas coming up was magical. It looked like nothing could grow in the space we created, and the Earth surprised us.” And they tell us of their disappointments: “The rabbits came through the hole in the fence and ate all our lettuce. There was none left for us.”

The students benefit from learning and working in the garden in many ways. There is practical as well as therapeutic value of playing in the dirt and watching something you’re involved with grow. And it’s fun!

Article written by Sally Wheeler, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer.

Learn more
See our recent blog, The Living Classroom: Gardens in School Settings.

The Living Classroom: Gardens in School Settings

Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County open the annual application process for awarding School Garden Grants on February 1, 2018. In this blog, we share information about the educational value of connecting children with nature and explain why we feel these grants are so important to our schools. We hope parents and teachers will work with their school principals to encourage applying for School Garden Grants.

Children today face “nature deficit disorder”
Richard Louv, in his book Last Child in the Woods, voiced concern about what he labeled “nature deficit disorder” — a chronic disconnect between children and nature that adversely affects childhood development. There was a growing anxiety that childhood obesity, poor nutrition, attention spans, and behavior problems were increasing as children spent more time indoors with television, computer games, and sedentary activities. The question was: How to get children outside and connected to nature, particularly in urban settings? Obviously, parks and gardens were among the first considerations, especially school gardens where kids could “get their hands dirty.” 

School gardens emerge as outdoor, Living Classrooms
Today, the traditional concept of school gardens as places to raise plants has grown into the concept of the garden as an outdoor, Living Classroom for hands-on learning, discovery, integration of concepts across disciplines, applying facts and concepts to practical situations, problem solving, scientific experimentation and observation, writing, reading, and artistic expression. Discovery Learning, or Integrated Learning, are terms used to describe the process of learning facts and concepts, applying them to real-life situations, observing and analyzing what happens, and sharing the information gleaned with others through talking, writing, journaling, scientific reporting, or artistic creations. 

Studies prove value of garden-based learning
In their article in Review of Educational Research 2013, Drs. D. R. Williams and R. S. Downs of the University of Georgia concluded that “research conducted between 1990 and 2010 has shown overwhelmingly that garden-based learning had a positive impact on students’ grades, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.”

The University of Colorado’s Benefits of Gardening for Children, Fact Sheet #3, October, 2011, identifies numerous, research-backed benefits of school gardens, including those summarized below:

  • Increased self-understanding and maturity; ability to work productively in groups; calmer and happier connections with peers and adult mentors.
  • Higher scores on science achievement tests.
  • More meaningful learning with integrated curricula.
  • Increased parental involvement.
  • Increased understanding of ecology, interconnections with nature, and responsibility to care for nature.

Buncombe schools apply their grants many ways
From 2007 through 2017, the Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County have awarded 44 School Garden Grants totaling $24,000. These grants have impacted thousands of public school students in grades K-12 and hundreds of teachers and community volunteers.

Grants to Owen Middle School, Fairview Elementary, and Vance Elementary have been used school-wide. Francine Delany used their grant for afterschool programs. North Windy Ridge Intermediate and Barnardsville Elementary focused on a single grade level. A.C. Reynolds High, North Buncombe Elementary, and Erwin Middle School concentrated on single classrooms or groups. And North Buncombe High School spotlighted horticultural curriculum goals.

These school grants have helped create learning spaces with no walls. They offer unlimited opportunities for all students to apply what they learn in the Living Classroom to the real world as they develop and use skills necessary for academic achievement, personal growth and development, and life skills. Living Classrooms grow children as well as plants! 

Article written by Mary Hugenschmidt, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer. 

Resources
http://richardlouv.com/books/last-child 
https://localfood.ces.ncsu.edu/local-food-farm-to-school/local-food-school-gardens/

Contact Us

Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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