Jefferson County Open School Garden

By:

Jefferson County Open School

Lakewood, CO

GOAL:  The goal of the JCOS garden is to open a door to the living world for learning about botany and nutrition and to serve the local community by developing it into a neighborhood garden.  The garden will serve as a classroom for experiential learning at all age levels (K-12).

OVERVIEW: Planning for the JCOS school garden began in the spring of 2011.  A large plot of land filled with rocks was available after construction of a new school building (see Eco-Campus category).  After outlining 3 stages of garden construction, school-wide recruitment of volunteers and fundraising began (including a grant from Whole Foods Market).  During the winter of 2012, the garden plan was submitted to the school district for approval and seeds were planted in multiple classrooms, from preschool to high school.  Children cared for the seedlings as they grew in their classrooms.  Some of the plants were sent home with students, many were sold at fundraisers, and other were saved for spring planting. 

In April, only a few weeks before classes were dismissed for the summer, approval for construction was granted. Over two weekends, dozens of parents, teachers and students convened on the garden to move rock, build raised beds, lay down wheelchair-accessible paths and fill the raised beds with permaculture layers.  In the last remaining days of the school year, students were able to plant the seddlings they had so carefully tended to over the previous months.  Stage one of the school garden was complete.

Over the summer of 2012, the garden was watered and cared for by parent volunteers.  When the students returned to school in the fall, a bountiful crop awaited them.  During the fall, classes harvested and cooked with the vegtables from the garden.  Several middle school students earned community service hours by weeding, watering and  harvesting.  One high school student began a creativity film project on the impact of the garden on the school.  In addition, a weekly farmers' market was started in which students sold produce from the school garden, supplemented by local produce from the Denver Youth Farmers Market Coalition.  Over another work-weekend, a wooden fence was built and a garden gate instlled, designed and painted by 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at the school.

The garden is being integrated into several areas of the curriculum at JCOS.  First, the third grade students made graphs and charts of different kinds of plants in the garden.  They also wrote poetry, painted pictures, and cooked smple dishes from harvested crops.  In the 4th and 6th grades, students participated in the Youth Farmers' Market, pricing vegetables, calculating profit margins, and making change for customers.  They began science journals and have begun a local ecology unit.  At the middle school and high school levels, a gardening class is being offered in the spring of 2013 during which students will be experimenting with cold frame crops, experientially learning about plants that can grow in Colorado's winter.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS: As the first growing season winds down and the gardens are put to rest for the winter, planning for next year's activities have already begun.  During stage 2, the garden will be expanded, doubling in size.  This will include more raised beds, rasberry bushes and a seating area for classes.  This previously unused, barren lot has now become a vibrant classroom for experientiial learning.