Plan, Evaluate and Share

Whether it’s a new or a long standing garden, planning for growth helps envision not only the physical space but how the school food garden can serve the needs of the school and school community. Similarly, evaluation begins as gardens start.

Monitoring and evaluation informs the development and delivery of each school food garden program.Tracking outcomes and illuminating successes engages stakeholders and builds garden sustainability. Throughout the life of a garden it’s important to create opportunities to reflect on challenges, successes and opportunities.

Download Full Guiding Practices - PDF

Resources for Plan, Evaluate and Share

See all

Featured

Getting Started Package

Gardens offer opportunities for discovery at every step. Gardening is all about continuous learning and it helps to have a beginner’s mind. This support package is intended as an introduction to starting a school garden.

What to Grow (Long Growing Season)

Nourish volunteer and avid gardener Georgia created this list, from her own growing experience, of easy garden vegetables that can be planted in spring or early summer for harvest in the fall. While this is not a complete list of crops with long growing seasons, these crops grow well in Nova Scotia and are great for beginners.

Asset-Mapping Worksheet for School Gardens

This worksheet will help school gardens create an asset map of their surrounding community as part of the Grow Eat Learn program.

Asset-Mapping Worksheet for Community Organizations

This worksheet will help community organizations create an asset map of their surrounding community as part of the Grow Eat Learn program.

Goal-Setting Worksheet for Community Organizations

This worksheet will help community organizations set goals for new or existing gardens as part of the Grow Eat Learn program.

Goal-Setting Worksheet for School Gardens

This worksheet will help school gardens set goals for new or existing gardens as part of the Grow Eat Learn program.

Garden Lesson 3: Planning a Garden

Learn the pros and cons of each type of garden, as well as how to plan and map out a garden.

Grow Eat Learn Webinar: Closing Your Garden for the Season

Garden expert Marjorie Willison explores how to properly close your school food garden at the end of the growing season.

Why Volunteer? Poster

This poster can aid in recruiting new volunteers for a school food garden.

Volunteer Thank-You Ideas

Take a look through this document to inspire some fun and creative ways to celebrate your volunteers.

Planning and Evaluation Worksheets

These worksheets will help you consider what you want to achieve in your school food garden and help you track how things are going.

Successful Fundraising Tips

School fundraisers could be a great support to sustaining your school food garden. Get some fundraising ideas here!

Guide to Fundraising with Healthy Food and Beverages

Here is another handy resource about healthy fundraising to support your garden.

Volunteer Thank-You Letter Template

Volunteers are such an integral part of the garden and it is important that they know that. Try using this letter of thanks to express your gratitude.

Volunteer Recruitment Template

This volunteer recruitment template would be great to keep in your school food garden binder and use when you start building your team.

Spread the Word & Reach Out to the Community (Web)

Spreading the word about your garden and reaching out to the community certainly are actions that would be beneficial for all.

Guide to Starting a Classroom Garden (Web)

Steps to creating a classroom garden include starting early, starting small, planning for upkeep, and much more!

Guide to Garden Programming for Social Services

This manual will answer all of the questions you have on assessing your needs, planning and designing a garden, maintenance, and more. It even has activity sheets and a funding proposal template for your use.

Teacher's Guide to Creating a Classroom Garden

This 2-page guide will walk you through the steps needed to start an outdoor school food garden.

Garden Workshop Curriculum

In this gardening planning facilitator's guide, you'll find information on companion and succession planting, harvesting, composting as well as a planting calendar.

School Food Garden Research and Reports (Web)

This document provides a framework for managing school food gardens using the GREEN Tool - the Garden Resources, Education and Environment Nexus Tool by Columbia University Teacher's College.

Guide to Starting a School Food Garden

If you're thinking of starting a school food garden, taking a look at this start up guide by Public Health and Emergency Services could be a great start.

Curriculum Connection

Time for Reflection: Write reflection pieces on successes and challenges of the growing season, allowing students an opportunity to practice how to communicate information and ideas clearly and effectively.

Dig into Data: Have classes develop a series of questions about the garden. Explore how students define success in the garden. Is it number of students involved in planting, amount of produce grown? Explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics themes (and more!) through monitoring and evaluation of plant growth, garden size and development.

Story from the Field: Celebrating the Harvest

The harvest is a great time for celebration and reflection. We take pictures of what has grown throughout the season and note any veggies that may not have come up as planned. Grade four students and grade six mentors will work together on the harvest and preparation for a school wide harvest meal, that will be prepared by teachers and served by volunteers of all ages in mid-October. The school garden has been a real gift to and we look forward, with support, to maintaining it for many years to come. Hoping for the best in the fall, and through next year to do more pre-learning and research about zones, and start seedlings or shopping for seedlings with students. - Garden Lead