The Only Way to Go is Up! Vertical Gardening at OMS

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 150

The primary goal of this grant was to  educate my students on the importance and life cycles of various plants in our ecosystem as well as sustainability. I had hoped to show the students the benefits of vertical gardening including the utilization of smaller spaces, urban cooling and the overall art of agriculture gardening.  I also wanted to provide students a respite from school stress and the opportunity to experience the true joy of gardening! And on both fronts, the funds from this grant overdelivered!

The OMS 6th Grade Garden was planted around the bus loop of the school, outside of my classroom. This enabled students in my classroom many opportunities to work in the garden throughout the school year. Our grant was executed alongside another grant for a Native Garden, and we ended up combining the two ideas for a truly remarkable result. In addition to weather tolerant plants, we planted fruits and vegetables to learn sustainability skills in thei vertical towers. My students first researched various plants, including their adaptations to our planting zone 10, such as sun tolerance, water needs and life cycle. This research took place during our weather and climate unit and was a nice enhancement of their learning. 

We planned our layout and then got ‘down and dirty’ and planted our garden. The students honed numerous skills needed to make group work successful: collaboration, communication, and diligence. They understood that their work was a part of the system and took care to complete each job with extreme care. As we tore up existing dying vegetation, the students made amazing connections between water and unique root systems. Once planted, the research continued, as various plants needed adjustments of sun, water, protection, etc...In the beginning each student adopted their own plant to care for. But by the end of the year, it had morphed into a true community garden, with harvest going home with students to enjoy as well as passed along to our school community!

As the garden grew, we monitored weather, plant growth, pests, weeds (invasive plants and predators: squirrels and birds loved our garden as well- hence a scarecrow), which ended up with countless learning opportunities for students around the school! We also learned that the position of the garden in proximity to sunlight and water is extremely important (and we will be relocating our plants to a larger, sunnier area in the last week of school). The weather this year and lack of precipitation was an invaluable way to emphasize the importance of water to life on Earth and even our changing climate here in FL. Many students used their lunch periods to come work in the classroom and a small group are starting a compost program. They learned nutrient soil is very important and can be "made" through the compost process. 

About 20 students have taken a leadership role in the garden and plan to continue over the summer and next year, as we bring back the gardening club to OMS!

This project surpassed my expectations and I hope to add to the garden each and every year!

Thank you for your support!