6 Steps to Success

1. Leadership: Start by finding a leader, building a team

Tips and ideas

• Obtain necessary approvals from school and district administration. Requirements might vary depending on your school district. Please contact your school board and inquire for more details.
• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Set goals and identify a group (page 9)
  
• Assess your readiness with the "idea readiness tool"
• Approach parent councils
• Create a team, have school-based health champions involved
• Have gardeners and organizational leaders on your team

2. Engage with the community before you start planning/building your garden

Tips and ideas

• Start small, expand later
• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Examples of potential partners for a community garden include (page 13)
• Go to teachers' conventions and discuss your ideas
• Work across different groups with similar interest
• Create a hybrid system with schools + community
• Use underused spaces
• Is there a City of Edmonton Community Garden in your area? See interactive map here
• Engage with: "Abundant Community Edmonton initiative" - a City of Edmonton neighborhood engagement and community organizing approach
• Engage with, for example, Community leagues, Faith-based organizations, Daycare Centres on-site, Housing Associations, Seniors Associations such as SAGE, Sustainable Food Edmonton, Food4Good, 4-H Alberta, Little Green Thumbs, NSTEP, E4C
  

3. Planning your garden

Are you planning a vegetable garden, an ornamental garden, a container garden, an indoor garden, a tower garden, or want to use micro-green trays with a light source?

Tips and ideas

Here are resources that will help you to plan your garden:

• see Alberta Health Services: Community Gardens Handbook: Appendix (PDF) for samples such as Sample Site Maps, Sample Agenda for First Garden Meeting, Sample Budget Worksheet and much more
  
• The Government of Alberta: A Guide To Growing School Gardens In Alberta (PDF)
• Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) School Gardens Start-Up Guide
• VBE School Food Garden Policy Statement
• Community Gardens Toolkit - Food Banks Canada (PDF)
  

4. Build your garden

Tips and ideas

• Think about building material, gardening tools, soil, seeds, fertilizer and watering equipment
• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Select a site, Plan and design the garden, Build and plant the garden (pages 17-26)
• Look for sponsors and funding: Alberta Emerald Foundation, Evergreen, Little Green Thumbs, Sustainable Food Edmonton, Whole Kids Foundation, Tree Canada, Farm to Cafeteria Canada,
• Consult a planting calendar appropriate for your region (see page 13 in Government of Alberta: A Guide To Growing School Gardens In Alberta (PDF)
  

5. Maintain your garden

Think about watering, weeding, garden waste and composting.

Tips and ideas

• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Maintain the garden (pages 27-28)
  
• KidsGardening.org: Maintaining a school Garden in summer
• KidsGardening.org: Gardening basics
• Maintaining your school garden (PDF)
• City of Edmonton: A down to earth guide to composting. Easy waste reduction in 10 minutes a week (PDF)
• City of Edmonton: Take a composting workshop
• City of Edmonton: Worm composting booklet (PDF)
  
  

6. Harvest

Teach food and garden lessons.

Tips and ideas

• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Harvest the garden (pages 29-31)
• Consult the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Community Gardens Handbook: Community Garden Lesson Plans (PDF)
• Alberta Health Services (AHS) Healthy Eating Resources: Inspiring Healthy Eating
  
• Healthy Schools BC: Classroom and School Gardens - Curriculum Connections
• Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) garden curriculum package: Green Thumbs at School: SPEC Food Garden Lesson Book (PDF)
  
• Curriculum Database from the Collective School Garden Network (Western Growers)
• Farm to Cafeteria Canada (F2CC)
• Vancouver School Food Network
• Think & Eat Green @ School (TEGS) - click here for Resources for educators
• Plant a seed & see what grows - Educational Workbooks