Grow Minds, Not Just Plants: Creating Lessons That Enrich and Engage

Jan 21, 2025

How to Write Effective Gardening Lesson Plans for Your Classroom or School Garden

Gardening in schools isn’t just about growing plants; it’s about growing minds. When done right, classroom and school gardens become invaluable educational tools that connect students with nature, promote environmental stewardship, and enrich the curriculum. If you’re ready to empower your students through gardening, you need more than enthusiasm, you need a plan that includes a series of cohesive lesson plans.

This guide combines insights from two of my podcast episodes to show you exactly how to craft gardening lesson plans that work, including what to avoid and how to ensure your garden is a thriving, hands-on learning experience.

The Foundation: Why Student-Powered, Teacher-Led, In-Class Gardens Are the Only Way

If you’re new to school gardens, it’s important to understand a key principle: gardens should be designed, built, grown, maintained, and harvested by the students, with teachers in the lead role, during class time. Parents, administrators, and custodians should serve as supportive sideline contributors. Why? Because gardens driven by parent volunteers or after-school programs often fail due to inconsistent involvement and lack of student ownership.

School gardens should happen during class time and integrate seamlessly into the curriculum. Not just science, but math, language arts, social studies, health, geography, history, indigenous studies, and more. This integration ensures students learn while actively participating in meaningful work and it makes it super easy for teachers to grow gardens without spending any of their personal time.

The Wrong Approach: Starting with Curriculum Needs

A common mistake teachers make is planning gardening activities solely to address curriculum objectives. For instance, using a garden to teach about the water cycle, data management in math, or vocabulary building. While these are valuable learning goals, starting with curriculum needs often leads to poorly planned gardens that fail to thrive. Here’s why:

Mismatched Timing: Seeds planted at the wrong time of year won’t thrive, leaving students with dead plants and missed opportunities.
Lack of Planning: If the plants do grow, what happens next? Without a plan, plants might be left to die, teaching students that it’s acceptable to sacrifice plant life for short-term gain, in this case, education. That's the attitude that got planet Earth to where it is now!
Maintenance Issues: Gardens started without long-term care plans often become a burden, requiring extra time and effort from teachers or parent volunteers. This is completely preventable with good planning.

This approach does not produce a thriving garden. It creates frustration and missed educational opportunities.

The Right Approach: Start with the Garden

Instead of starting with curriculum objectives, begin with the basics of growing a successful garden. Here’s how:

Step 1: Grow a Classroom Garden

A classroom garden is the starting point for any school garden project. Here are the key tasks:

Select Seeds: Choose seeds appropriate for your gardening zone. Here's my free guide to help you with this.
Plan Timing: Use tools like GrowVeg.com garden planner to schedule planting dates according to your zone.
Prepare a Schedule: Don’t plant all seeds at once. Spread out planting dates over weeks for the best results.
Build a Sub-Irrigated System: Teach students to build a simple, inexpensive system to grow seedlings. Here's a complete guide for only a few dollars!
Run Seedling Activities: Develop a step-by-step guide for running the activity, including supplies and instructions.
Order Supplies: Gather everything you need for the project.

Step 2: Transition to an Outdoor Garden

If your goal includes an outdoor garden (cause it doesn't have to! A classroom garden would be more than sufficient to hit all your educational goals and more!), follow these steps:

Design the Garden: Create a water-conserving, low-maintenance garden design. Write a step-by-step activity guide for this task.
Build the Garden: Engage students in the construction process. Write detailed guides for each step of the process, whether it’s building raised beds, setting up irrigation, or laying pathways.
Plan Plant Placement: Arrange plants to create a diverse, thriving garden.
Sow Seeds Outdoors: Some seeds grow best when directly sown in the garden. Create an activity guide for this task.
Harden Off Seedlings: Transition indoor plants to the outdoor garden gradually. Include a guide for this process.
Water and Harvest: Plan for consistent watering and enjoy the harvest before summer break. Incorporate fun activities like making salads or smoothies.
Summer Maintenance: Arrange for the community to care for the garden during the summer, ensuring its longevity.

Writing Comprehensive Lesson Plans

While step-by-step activity guides are crucial, effective gardening lesson plans include much more. Here’s how to create them:

Step 1: Match Activities to Timing

Schedule the tasks over 10–15 weeks, aligning them with the timing of seed starting, outdoor sowing, garden building, and other key activities. Plan for 1–2 hours per week to keep the project manageable.

Step 2: Incorporate Key Concepts

Identify the core concepts students need to learn about gardening, such as:

Seeds and germination
Plant life cycles
Water cycle and irrigation
Soil health and composting
Biodiversity and beneficial insects
Seasons and sunlight

Design each lesson around these concepts, using hands-on activities as the foundation.

Step 3: Make Curriculum Connections

For each concept, tie it to subjects like science, geography, history, math, and language arts. For example:

Science: Explore photosynthesis or conduct soil tests.
Math: Measure plant growth or calculate water usage.
Language Arts: Write garden journals or research the history of crops.
Social Studies: Discuss indigenous agricultural practices or global food systems.

Examples of Integrated Lessons

Here are some examples of how to integrate gardening activities into broader lesson plans:

Seed Germination: Start arugula seeds indoors. Discuss seed shapes, sizes, and textures. With older students, explore seed sovereignty and GMOs.
Water Cycle: Build water filters and sub-irrigated planters. Discuss water conservation.
Sunlight and Energy: Construct sundials and solar cookers. Grow sunflower seeds.
Composting and Biodiversity: Explore composting methods and study the role of worms and beneficial insects in the ecosystem.

The Power of a Good Plan

A thriving school garden doesn’t require hard labor or endless hours outside teachers' prep or class time; it requires a thoughtful, well-executed plan that includes a cohesive series of lesson plans. With a clear structure and student involvement, your garden can flourish while enriching the educational experience.

If you’re ready to start, resources like my Oasis programs offer done-for-you lesson plans, step-by-step guides, and more to make this process easier. But if you’re eager to create your own plans, the steps outlined above will set you on the right path.

For a deeper dive into writing curriculum-connected gardening lesson plans, listen to my podcast episode here. It’s packed with actionable tips and insights to help you bring your garden to life!