Registration is now open for our Certified Garden Educator Course!!! Don’t wait, space is limited and is expected to sell out! Click the Cert Course link in our profile or visit lifelab.org/educator-certification-program for course and registration info.
Watsonville School Garden Crew – Spring 2017
June 7th - Hall District School Flower Planting and Irrigation Installation Today we planted flowers with first graders and continued irrigaiton installation May 31 - Hall District School Irrigation Installation / Popcorn and Dry Bean Planting Today we [...]
Watsonville School Garden Crew – Winter 2017
See what we are up to with our Winter 2017 Watsonville School Garden Crew March 8 - Radcliffe School Garden Clean Up and Redesign Today we repaired some garden beds, moved and filled garden beds to sunnier spots of the garden, and set up an outdoor seating area. [...]
Webinar: Innovative Ways to Fund Your School Garden
View the archived webinar at EdWeb Growing School Gardens Community www.edweb.net/schoolgardens. Life Lab curates the following resources at the Collective School Garden Network: Finding Funds for School Gardens at www.csgn.org/funding-school-gardens More on [...]
Steps to a Successful Garden Workday
-by John Fisher Life Lab's Director of Partnerships and Programs This post is part of our Sustaining School Gardens Series Over the years I have led many garden workdays at the Life Lab Garden Classroom and school gardens across California. In addition to the obv [...]
One Garden, Many Schools: Multi-Use School Garden Models
Life Lab sprouted at Green Acres Elementary School in 1979. Most of the gardens that we have worked with over the past 35 years are located on, and serve one school site. While visiting school gardens in Denmark and Norway I was impressed by their model of one large gar [...]
How Do Schools Compost?
A senior intern at Life Lab, Savannah Rugg, created a composting in schools survey (still open!) to better understand how composting functions in schools and school-districts. The survey asks questions regarding types of composting, compost materials, compost management [...]
2014 California School Garden Survey
May 28, 2014 Press Release - Survey Says... School Gardens Thriving in California Results from the California School Garden Survey. Life Lab, in collaboration with the California School Garden Network, conducted the California School Garden Survey to gain insights i [...]
The Danes Are Here
We have been having a great time showing visitors from Denmark some of the best farm to school and school garden programs in the region. The Danish study tour group, organized by Life Lab, is composed of eighteen government ministers, university faculty and graduate stu [...]
The Fine Art of Flower Pounding – Making Floral Prints Video
Flower PoundingCreate a beautiful bookmark by imprinting colors from flower petals or leaves, using just hammers and tape. Ages 5+ ~30 min What could be more fun than creating colorful flower images by pounding with a hammer? Using tape to temporarily hold flow [...]
Turning Teachers into Gardeners in Washington D.C.
Life Lab has been delighted to work with a very forward-thinking organization in the nation's capital, DC Greens, to train garden coordinators through their Growing Garden Teachers program. DC Greens' innovative approach to regional school garden support was recentl [...]
School Garden Design Webinar
Life Lab's John Fisher led a photo filled webinar on School Garden Design as part of EdWeb's Growing School Gardens Community. Design Ideas for a Fun, Successful Instructional School Garden Webinar shares school garden design elements from school gardens across the n [...]
Google Hangout: Training Garden-Based Educators
Life Lab participated in an Edible Schoolyard Google Hangout on the topic of training garden-based educators. We were one of five programs to share different training models and strategies for creating and sustaining school garden programs. Featured Participants and [...]
Sustaining School Gardens – Funding Garden Coordinators
Model Policies and Organizations from Across the Country Written by Whitney Cohen. Life Lab Education Director School gardens are fantastic! (To be convinced, view The Garden, A Master Teacher) But that's not what this article's about, so let me start over. School g [...]
Book Review: Our School Garden! by Rick Swann
Books reflect our lives and the times that we are living, as the details that form the content weave cultural elements of any given place and time into the words. For this reason, seeing a children's book about school gardens is a heartening symbol of our current societ [...]
“Help! I’m the New Garden Parent” – Online Lessons and Resources for Garden Educators
Recently, my friend who has become the "garden parent" for her son's school lamented to me, "I know how to garden, but what am I going to do with 10 kindergarteners in the garden?" There is a world of difference between gardening in your yard and [...]
Asphalt to Ecosystems – Greening Your Schoolyard
Sharon Danks, author of Asphalt to Ecosystems - Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformations, shares a vision of creating outdoor learning spaces as places of beauty and inspiration for natural interactions. From her travels around the world documenting stellar example [...]
2011 ~ City of Santa Cruz Declares May 1, 20ll “Garden Classroom Day”
Santa Cruz City Council Member David Terrazas surprised us all at our May Day Benefit Brunch by declaring the day Garden Classroom Day in the City of Santa Cruz. The resolution was officially proclaimed at the May 10 city council meeting. View the Mayor's Proclamation [...]
English Language Development Bears Fruit in School Gardens
Life Lab's Language Acquisition and Science Education in Rural Schools (LASERS) program showed the positive links between language development and hands-on science using the Life Lab Science curriculum. This theme was recently revisited by the National Gardening As [...]
Edible Crop Planning
If you haven't already it is time to start planting for your school harvest.. Planting for a school time harvest takes a bit more planning so that you time your harvests while school is still in session. Generally there are a few harvest windows during the school y [...]
“Back Pocket” Garden Activities
The following videos demonstrate what we, here at Life Lab, refer to as "back pocket activities." These are all quick, easy, and highly engaging activities that require minimal preparation. We suggest always having one or more of these activities ready to go (or "in [...]
Sustaining Your School Garden
Sustaining Your School Garden - Taken from The Life Lab Garden Times, Spring 2002 Most people connected to schools realize that change is a given. Administrators, staff, teachers, parents and students eventually move on. This can be a challenge for maintaining and su [...]
1997 ~ A Garden in Every School
Delaine Eastin the Superintendent of Public Instruction of California Schools declares there should be a garden in every school. Life Lab attends the Garden in Every School Conference. Life Lab writes Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens which is publ [...]
