Whether it’s a vegetable garden, a flower garden, or an herb garden, the school garden is gaining popularity
Gardens are becoming increasingly common in school settings. While the growing interest in outdoor learning and urban greening are driving this expansion, educational gardens are by no means a recent phenomenon.
What do they offer students? To what extent can they serve as catalysts for school system reform and genuine partnership with parents? Should they be implemented on a wider scale?
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
School gardens: a long history
Inthe 19thcentury, in a predominantly rural French society, gardening in schools served as a means of teaching surveying, science, and technical skills, thereby offering an opportunity to learn about nature through nature itself. The curricula of Jules Ferry’s republican school system emphasized the creation of a garden in every school. Horticulture and practical agricultural instruction were taught to future teachers in teacher training colleges, and then to elementary school students.
Today, teaching food self-sufficiency remains a key educational challenge worldwide. The goal is to establish more sustainable systems by adopting the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact launched in 2015: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which works to eradicate hunger and promote sustainable agricultural development, offers gardening education in schools. https://www.youtube.com/embed/g0D5ICi6xrA?wmode=transparent&start=0 When asphalt gives way to plants, the schoolyard takes on a whole new dimension (Actu-Environnement, 2022).
Following the paving and urbanization of school playgrounds between the 1970s and 2000s, the current trend toward greening is once again making gardening possible in French schools.
By creating a garden with their students, teachers are joining the growing “outdoor classroom” movement . Whether it’s a vegetable garden, a flower garden, an herb garden, a sensory garden, or an ecological garden, the school garden offers children the opportunity to experience nature firsthand and learn about environmental issues.
In a school setting, the goal is not necessarily to grow and harvest crops, and establishing a vegetable garden can sometimes be challenging due to the summer harvest season. The primary focus is on observing and learning as the seasons change, adapting to unpredictable weather, and developing an awareness of the fragility of the plant world and the importance of respecting biodiversity.
Incorporating the garden into learning
Working together in the garden fosters teamwork, communication, and collaboration. Students learn to cooperate, resolve conflicts, and make group decisions. In addition, growing plants and observing their growth helps develop patience and perseverance.
School gardening also offers an opportunity for hands-on, interdisciplinary learning. By observing, planting, tending, and harvesting, students gain practical knowledge in natural sciences, biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, and literature. https://www.youtube.com/embed/xqIYcAIfyK4?wmode=transparent&start=0 Ecology in Schools: A Promising Pilot Project and a Roadmap for Action—The Educational Garden (Academy of Corsica, 2023)
Numerous scientific studies highlight the educational benefits of school gardens. One of the major challenges today is to make this an activity accessible to all students. School gardens already play a role in food and taste education and align with the environmental education goals set by the Ministry of Education.
Starting an educational garden requires careful planning to define everyone’s responsibilities, the steps to be taken, and the schedule, as well as to select the appropriate location, plants, and planting schedule. Currently, the growing trend of greening school playgrounds is a key catalyst for the creation of educational gardens. This trend spans all levels of the national education system, from preschool through high school.
An educational movement that goes beyond the school
The garden can also serve as a catalyst for fostering collaborative education between teachers and parents. This trend is not limited to schools; community gardens, family gardens, and shared gardens—the modern-day successors to allotment gardens—are springing up in most communities.
Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and local governments are launching and supporting “community gardens” that serve as school gardens during school hours and are open to parents the rest of the time.
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Beyond providing a practical solution to the challenge of maintaining the garden during school breaks, it offers a unique opportunity for interaction and sharing through hands-on activities that transform the garden— a space for discovery—into a true community space and make educational continuity for children a reality. A movement supported by the European Commission that accompanies this network of initiatives “aimed” at food self-sufficiency.
The stakes are therefore high, as a school garden is much more than just a space. It can serve as a genuine educational opportunity and help foster awareness of environmental and social challenges; the garden should not be exclusively a school space, but a place shared with parents, thereby promoting a more cohesive educational experience.
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
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