Garden Stories

Learn the story behind the garden! Find inspiration from these exceptional youth and school garden programs across the country.

Author Jacqueline Briggs Martin: From Farm Life to Food Heroes

Author Jacqueline Briggs Martin: From Farm Life to Food Heroes

Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of numerous books for children centered around nature, farming, and cooking. Her most recent titles, Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table, Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious, Chef Roy Choi and The Street Food Remix, and...

Borah High School Green Team

Borah High School Green Team

At Borah High School in Boise, Idaho, what started as an outdoor space for science lessons has transformed into a thriving school garden, orchard, and gathering space, all sustained by a dedicated club of students and their advisors known as the Borah Green Team. “The...

The Heritage Citrus Grove and Gardens Project

The Heritage Citrus Grove and Gardens Project

Since 2016, the Heritage Citrus Grove and Gardens project in Rialto, California, has planted over five hundred citrus fruit trees across nineteen elementary schools in Rialto Unified School District (RUSD). As the project’s name suggests, growing and harvesting citrus...

Garden Gifts with Southern Boone Learning Garden

Garden Gifts with Southern Boone Learning Garden

Located in Ashland, Missouri, just a few miles from the Missouri River, the Southern Boone Learning Garden (SBLG) serves more than 850 pre-k through 4th graders each year with a range of garden-, environmental-, and nutrition-focused lesson plans. Although the garden...

Incorporating Nature Into Occupational Therapy

Incorporating Nature Into Occupational Therapy

An Interview with Authors Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder KidsGardening recently chatted with Amy Wagenfeld and Shannon Marder, both occupational therapists with a deep love of nature who incorporate the outdoors into therapeutic practices. Amy and Shannon are...

From Apples to Acorns at Hillcrest Elementary

From Apples to Acorns at Hillcrest Elementary

For the students at Hillcrest Elementary in Oak Harbor, Washington, Garry Oak trees (Quercus garryana) are a big part of their local landscape, community identity, and even their school gardening experience! “The Hillcrest Garden Learning Program began in 2011 in...

Empowering Students through Hydroponics and Horticulture

Empowering Students through Hydroponics and Horticulture

For more than a decade, the students at Charles R. Drew Transition Center (known colloquially as Drew) have been working together to provide an incredible amount of fresh produce to the Detroit community and award-winning restaurants using in-ground, hydroponic, and...

Harlem Grown

Harlem Grown

In 2011, Tony Hillery was volunteering in the cafeteria at P.S. 175 in Harlem, NY. His successful limousine business had been forced to close following the ‘08 recession, and working with school kids had become a source of joy, purpose, and perspective. “While I was...

Desert Gardening

Desert Gardening

With summer in full swing, gardeners all over the northern hemisphere are shifting their techniques to embrace the increased daylight and warmer temperatures. But how does one garden effectively in Earth’s hottest ecosystems? Drachman Montessori K-8 Magnet School in...

Growing Pride in the Garden

Growing Pride in the Garden

Youth gardens are such wonderful spaces for kids to build community, self-confidence, and so much more. The GroMoreGood Grassroots Grant, brought to you by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation and KidsGardening, is designed to bring the life-enhancing benefits of gardens...

The Pumpkin Smash at Zoller Garden

The Pumpkin Smash at Zoller Garden

For nearly seven years, the garden at Jessie T. Zoller Elementary School in Schenectady, NY, has been a classroom, a laboratory, a pizzeria, a confectionery, a composting center, and much more. "We work with around 500 students each year at the school, ranging in age...

Meet Georgia’s Youngest Farmer!

Meet Georgia’s Youngest Farmer!

At just seven years old, Kendall Rae Johnson is Georgia’s youngest certified farmer. Born and raised in Atlanta, Kendall Rae fell in love with gardening when she was three years old thanks to her great-grandmother Laura "Kate" Williams, who showed her how to propagate...

Learning and Growing in Abraxas Garden

Learning and Growing in Abraxas Garden

In 2015, Abraxas Continuation High School in Poway, CA, began a school garden by transforming a rarely used tennis court into a thriving outdoor classroom. Teacher Bob Lutticken and several colleagues worked with students to build 40 raised beds (covering half of the...

From Microgreens to Meadows

From Microgreens to Meadows

At Mannsdale Upper Elementary School (MUES) in Madison, Mississippi, third- to fifth-grade students work together to grow and sell produce in a multitude of ways. Trays of microgreens thrive under grow lights. More than 20 hydroponic stations produce lettuce, bok...

Māla‘ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School

Māla‘ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School

For the students of Waimea Middle School on Hawai‘i Island, the garden is a place of learning, reflection, nourishment and so much more. Māla‘ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School was founded in 2005 to cultivate relationships between students and the land...

Cultivating Community with Eco Urban Gardens

Cultivating Community with Eco Urban Gardens

The team at Eco Urban Gardens (EUG) in Los Angeles partners with schools and their surrounding communities to cultivate edible, educational gardens and neighborhood green spaces. The nonprofit is dedicated to teaching people how to grow food organically using...

Indoor Gardening in the Dark Winter

Indoor Gardening in the Dark Winter

As the northernmost state, Alaska has a colder and darker winter than the rest of the country, which also means a shorter outdoor growing season. But at Wrangell Public Schools, educators have figured out a myriad of ways to keep garden-based learning active all year...

Classroom in Bloom

Classroom in Bloom

Sow it, grow it, eat it, know it! This is the motto of Classroom in Bloom, a one-and-a-half acre non-profit educational garden in Washington State’s Methow Valley. The organization is dedicated to deepening the connection between people and the land through school and...

Sequoia Elementary School Garden Build

Sequoia Elementary School Garden Build

To celebrate the UN’s International Volunteer Day (Tuesday, December 5, 2017),KidsGardening teamed up with ProFlowers for an exciting garden expansion at Sequoia Elementary School in San Diego, California. Giving back to their local community, close to 30 ProFlowers...

Teen Sends 3 Sisters Seed Boxes Nationwide

Teen Sends 3 Sisters Seed Boxes Nationwide

California teen Alicia Serratos doesn’t shy away from a challenge. She’s a student athlete, an accomplished Girl Scout, an environmentalist and social activist – all at just fifteen years old. She’s been involved in volunteer projects from a young age, many of which...

From Wicking Tub to Potato Party

From Wicking Tub to Potato Party

When Hurricane Laura passed through Louisiana in 2020, it caused extensive damage to Rosepine Elementary. As they rebuilt, Enrichment Lab teacher Beth Thomas suggested building a STEM lab on campus. The lab had a perfect outdoor space for gardening, but Thomas had no...

Peace and Pride Garden

Peace and Pride Garden

At Baldwin Park High School in Baldwin Park, California, the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) created the new Peace and Pride Garden, a safe space on campus for LGBTQ+ students, allies, and others. The goal of the garden space is to provide a quiet reflective area that is...

Biodiversity at Santiago High’s Cav Garden

Biodiversity at Santiago High’s Cav Garden

The Cav Garden, located at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, California, has an overarching goal of connecting students to food and nature so they become lifelong stewards of their health and the environment. The garden, which incorporates ecological practices...

An interview with author JaNay Brown-Wood

An interview with author JaNay Brown-Wood

KidsGardening recently chatted with JaNay Brown-Wood, an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, and scholar on Instagram Live. She did a read aloud of her latest book, Miguel’s Community Garden, and shared her insights on how gardening with kids supports...

Back to the Roots’ Story of Synchronicity

Back to the Roots’ Story of Synchronicity

Nikhil and Alex's Roots From the very beginning, the story of Nikhil Arora and Alejandro “Alex” Velez, founders of Back to the Roots has been one of synchronicity. “Synchronicity” is a term first used by Psychologist Carl Jung to refer to deeply meaningful...

Logan’s Story: Using the garden to meet therapy goals

Logan’s Story: Using the garden to meet therapy goals

For the Buzzell family, gardening is healing. Jinah is the mother of Logan and Lyla who are known as “The Buzz Tots.” They spend many hours together in the garden  – their “jungle” – with bare feet in the soil, playing hide-and-seek, and giggling endlessly. Ever since...

Jasmine Jefferson — Black Girls with Gardens

Jasmine Jefferson — Black Girls with Gardens

Drops of water glistening on leaves; the earthy smell of soil; green, succulent foliage. Pink petals; bees buzzing; a sweet floral aroma wafting in the air. These sensations are what brings Jasmine Jefferson back to her childhood. Jasmine comes from a...

Colah Tawkin — Black in the Garden

Colah Tawkin — Black in the Garden

A friend of Colah compares her to a tree – grounded, growing, and thriving, despite an ever-changing environment. Like many gardeners, Colah Tawkin has learned many life lessons from plants, especially what they can teach us about resilience and adaptability. “Plants...

Inclusive Signage at Flatwoods Elementary

Inclusive Signage at Flatwoods Elementary

KidsGardening defines Inclusion as: belonging, voice, community, and safety. Having “Inclusive Signage” in the garden means incorporating these aspects in outdoor learning spaces through visual signs. Nicole Dugat, Executive Director of Schoolyard Roots, shares how...

An interview with author Grace Lin

An interview with author Grace Lin

On November 18, 2021 during an Instagram Live “Garden Story,” Lily Nguyen, Education Specialist at KidsGardening, interviewed Grace Lin about her experience gardening and growing up, and how her experiences shaped her work as a children’s book author. The following...

Urban Gardening In NYC with Wambui Ippolito

Urban Gardening In NYC with Wambui Ippolito

Wambui Ippolito’s favorite garden is her grandmother’s in East Africa. Her grandmother would return from the city after work and tend to her vegetables, where she and Wambui would bond amongst the flourishing beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.  “It made me feel very...

A Relaxing Garden in Puerto Rico

A Relaxing Garden in Puerto Rico

A Relaxing Garden in Puerto Rico Young Perla Sofía riding her tricycle. When asked about her favorite garden memory, Perla Sofía Curbelo-Santiago recalls wandering around the streets of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, peeking over her neighbors’ fences to see what they were...

Growing School Gardens: A Virtual Tour

Growing School Gardens: A Virtual Tour

Growing School Gardens: A Virtual Tour Picture your school garden — or any garden — in your head. What's your favorite fruit or vegetable to grow or eat? Arugula." says Tristana Pirkl, program manager of the School Garden Support Organization (SGSO) Network....

A Literary Garden

A Literary Garden

“It’s impossible to teach Walden and talk about Thoreau observing nature in a cinderblock classroom without windows,” says high school English teacher Jennifer Tianen. This belief is what inspired Jennifer to bring her students outside and to start a literary garden...

Advocating for Garden-Based Learning

Advocating for Garden-Based Learning

“Gardening covers a lot of bases when it comes to student needs” says Kris Johnson, “Academic needs, social needs, emotional needs. It’s not just ‘ok we’re going to learn about plants,’ it’s not just nuts and bolts—the physical environment of the garden can make kids...

Letting Kids Take the Lead

Letting Kids Take the Lead

Program Spotlights: The Caring Center “I can recall being in preschool and having an experience that had a big impression on me—it made me want to become a chef,” says Erica Lewis, Food Service Manager at the Caring Center in Philadelphia, PA. “When I was 4 years old...

Project Climate Club

Project Climate Club

Program Spotlights: Project Climate Club “I’ve always been a garden kid,” says Alexi Lindeman, a senior at Heritage High School in Brentwood, CA, and coordinator of a 2020 Carton 2 Garden project that received an Honorable Mention. “My dad’s an entomology teacher so...

Abenaki Food and Heritage

Abenaki Food and Heritage

Abenaki Food and Heritage Earlier this year The Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation partnered with a number of Vermont-based food systems-focused organizations to start the Abenaki Land Link Project. In its pilot year, the program provided indigenous seeds to...

Oglala Lakota Youth Reclaiming Language

Oglala Lakota Youth Reclaiming Language

Oglala Lakota Youth The Red Cloud Indian School (Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa) in the Pine Ridge, SD is using their Farm to School program to provide opportunities for Oglala Lakota youth in grades K-12 to connect with their tribe’s traditional knowledge and culture. “We’re...

Program Spotlights – RM Miano Elementary

Program Spotlights – RM Miano Elementary

R.M. Miano Elementary If you are looking for an example of a successful and sustainable school garden program, 2019 Budding Botanist winner R.M Miano Elementary School in Los Banos, California is a great place to start. “Seventeen years ago, we began with a simple...