Hi. I am starting a school garden tommorow and I would appreciate any success stories or fun activities that you may have.Fund raising ideas are welcome also.
I am not sure if any other parents will help and since I am a wife/mother/college student/school volunteer, time saving ideas are needed, also!!
We may have to container garden in the early stages because our school is moving, so creative basket and recycled container ideas will be very helpful. Thanks!

There are many thing to use for seed starter containers. The clear plastic takeout boxes, paper egg cartons with plastic rap on top, I save all the containers I bought plants in, maybe some of the parents have some and will be will to let you have them.

Good school garden stuff here, 'Bama:
http://www.lifelab.org/index.html
http://www.kidsgardening.com/
http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/compost/schools.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/nutrition/schoolgardens/schgard.
horticulture.tamu.edu/nutrition/schoolgardens/startagarden/abc.ppt

The last link is a great PowerPoint presentation.

Hope that this will give you a start.

John / Ecologicalsgardens

The "Pepsi Bottle Greenhouse" is one of my favourite portable seed starting containers to propagate plants for school fund raisers. Easy to collect a lot of in a short period of time. Get your students to bring them in from home. Cut a large clear plastic pop/soda bottle in half about one third up from the bottom. Take the top part, punch a few air holes in it and make cuts around the bottom so that you can slide the top part of the bottle over the bottom. Use the bottom part as the planter and the top part as the "greenhouse". Have fun!

I receive a great e-newsletter entitled "Gardens for Growing People." I'd be happy to forward a copy of the latest one, if you'll contact me at
bells@NOSPAMrmci.net (remove the NOSPAM from the address) I think it has all the info you would want. Some topics are: plants for a "please touch" or "please smell" garden, a chocolate garden, a "please taste" garden, and a sound garden.

You can read back issues at
http://www.svn.net/growpepl

another easy project to use for school gardens is trying to use mel bartholomew's square foot gardening method. small area to garden, but much can be put into that area. also, starting small for your students is not as frustrating as starting too large. peace be with you and may your garden grow with you.