School Garden Tour

I recently had the opportunity to go on a school garden tour sponsored by the local OSU extension office 4-H. Their 4-H wildlife stewards program offers training to Oregon educators and volunteers on the creation of school gardens and green school updates. We visited five schools in the Portland Oregon area with a nice variety of features.

Terra Nova High School - This amazing high school based farm site is a learning lab and a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)Site.

The Terra Nova Program is aiming to grow a lemon cucumber for each student in the district. They will be served at lunch time. Hopefully some are brave enough to try it!

Mary Woodward Elementary - This is the ultimate goal for many schools. This garden has been in progress for a long time and it shows!

Tualatin Elementary - A brand new school garden with room to grow. This school had a great team with many members on board; principal, teachers, parents, students, maintenance staff, kitchen staff and community members.

I really like how this garden is right next to the play ground, giving students access to garden during recess.

Bolton Elementary - This is a professionally installed garden of raised beds. It is only a year old and looks great!

Bolton Students gave us a tour of their garden.

Candy Lane Elementary - This is another new garden developed mostly by one dedicated teacher and her class. It is a completely student lead project with lots of potential.

See this link for more information.