A beginners guide to creating 5 different garden types:
1. Windowsill Gardens
The simplicity of a seed in a cup sitting on a windowsill belies its capacity to elicit wonder and delight. A seed, a cup, soil, water, and sun are all that is required to start.
2. Vertical Gardens
In tight spaces, gardens can be structured to grow up and out. Vertical gardens teach that gardening is possible in very limited spaces and encourage thinking about growing food as infill even where space is at a premium.
3. Raised Beds & Container Gardens
When space is available but healthy soil is not—such as in rocky soils or locations where asphalt or concrete covers a schoolyard—intensive gardening can occur in generous amounts of soil in raised beds and containers.
4. Cold Frames, Tunnels, and Greenhouses
Each of these structures is designed to provide weather protection, extend the growing season, and maximize solar efficiency. Students are exposed to the notion that plants can grow all year in most locations across the country, even in northern and snowy climates.
5. Large-Scale Gardens
When there is sufficient commitment, land, and funding, a large-scale garden offers opportunities to grow a wide diversity of plants, introduce farm animals into the mix, and produce enough food to help nourish students or even the wider community.
