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Located at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, the Edible Schoolyard provides a one-acre organic urban garden and a kitchen classroom. Their web site offers resources and links for others interested in setting up a similar project in their schools - www.edibleschoolyard.org
Waters teaches children and adults to understand and value the land, and to celebrate the food it provides by preparing it with a light, even reverent touch. She brings both the land and the farmers into the experience of dining -- taking us back, literally, to our roots.
There are many other resources and web sites to help the community interested in exploring a schoolyard garden.
- National Gardening Association
This non-profit organization, headquartered in South Burlington, VT, dates back to 1972. They work to renew the links between people and the Earth, and provide programs for schools and communities.
Phone: (802) 863-5251
Website: www.kidsgardening.com
- Aquatic Outreach Institute
Their Kids In Gardens is a hands-on interdisciplinary education program that promotes the use of organic and integrated pest management techniques in home and school gardens. They also demonstrate how to create a schoolyard habitat for birds and butterflies, using native plants.
Educators attend 2-day workshops to learn how to establish a program in their schools.
The Aquatic Outreach Institute is located in Richmond, CA
Phone: (510) 231-5655
Website: www.aoinstitute.org
- Eco Schools
This is an international organization that teaches citizens how to improve the environments of schools and their local communities.
Website: www.eco-schools.org
- Gardens for Growing People
This organization recognizes that our children will one day be voting and making the decisions about our environment. It strives to educate children about gardening in order to ensure that they will be an informed electorate.
They provide support for those working with children, plus child-size tools, books, and other supplies.
They are in Point Reyes, CA
Phone: (415) 663-9433
- San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance
The group, formed in 2001, promotes healthy, environmentally sustainable learning environments in the area's schools. They work toward a future where each school operates in concert with its neighborhood and local ecology.
Website: www.sfgreenschools.org
- Evergreen
Believing that "No plot of ground is too small...to sow the seeds of change," Evergreen is a Canadian based non-profit organization. They strive to bring nature to the cities. It helps people to create healthy natural outdoor spaces at schools, in a community's common grounds and through home landscaping.
Their Learning Grounds program brings communities together to transform barren asphalt and turf school grounds into natural outdoor classrooms.
Website: www.evergreen.ca
- Lasagna Gardening
This delightful book by a master gardener shows you how to quickly create a garden without the hard work of tilling the soil. It can be located almost anywhere and is created from newspaper, kitchen scraps, leaves, lawn clippings and peat moss, built in layers, just like a dish of lasagna. The book provides directions for all types of gardens, including butterfly gardens.
Website: http://www.lasagnagardening.com
- No space for a garden?
One company has developed a unique solution for growing food without a garden. The Earth Box enables even apartment dwellers to grow big plants in a small space, using their containers, and an automatic feeding and watering system.
Phone: (800) 821-8838
Website: www.earthbox.com