Hi! I'm not sure about how sensitive the subject will be, but I think your questions about that aspect might be better directed to the school, PTA, and so forth. Of course, others here have started such projects, so hopefully they will chime in with more productive ideas rooted in experience!

Perhaps a little handbook to send home with the kids and their seeds could bring up the subject in a round about way? Maybe get the school to make space on their website for a little page on victory gardening... with of course a link to our favorite website!

Anyway, if I were to pick an easy, highly productive veggie, I would have to nominate beans! They grow so fast that I think they keep kids interested (at least my nieces were), they can make a fun teepee and coincendentally give a good yield in a small space planted that way!

Good luck and bless you for your kind idea.

I'd agree with a bush bean or 2 and a bush variety squash - all things that could be grown in containers if they don't have garden room. Cuckes, again a bush variety, and some lettuce varieties would work too I think.

Great ides - I hope it goes well. :)

Dave

We live in a very country area. My son is in kindergarten....the little ones LOVE projects like this! Our school district would get "hung up" (for lack of better wording) on making sure it was "fair" to all students... if you offer to one...then you'd have to offer to others.

Our district is very large. There just wouldn't be any way to put an ad on the schools webpage or newsletter.

One thing that you may be able to do though...since you've done this every year, Have it be an ongoing project...Mrs. "Cozy's" Kindergarten Garden report. Give handouts to the students with fun little reports from the kids. On the first report (at the beginning of this season) you could include info to the parent on how to "register" their child's garden. (almost like a form to fill out). child's name, name of the garden, what they would like to grow, would they grow in pots or ground?, need a tiller to get started? need more info to get started? grow by seeds or transplants? Have them either include their phone number to contact them back or include YOUR phone number to get in touch with them for tilling.

I realize that this is quite in depth but if the form was simple enough for the parents to check off the boxes, you would know a bit more about the home situation of each child. First contact would be made.

That's a wonderful idea! I would hope that your school is easy to work with and you have success in trying to help. Maybe it would be just as easy to just ask the kids...who has a yard? Who has a garden? Would you like to have a garden? Tell them...here...take this card with a phone number on it...and the parents can call for tilling or help.

Please let us know how it goes! Best of luck!

This reminds me of our polliwog adventure. When I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, the class discovered that a giant, and mostly permanent, puddle behind the playground held a large number of polliwogs. The teach said that anybody who brought a jar with them the next day could bring some home. Of course, I think we all did. In fact, by the end of the week every kid on the block had brought home a jar of water with dozens of polliwogs swimming around it them.

Upon seeing the polliwogs, my father decided that we could make use of an old kiddie pool by turning it into a pond. We placed the pool in the shade of a peach tree, added some sand, rocks, even a couple of plants from the aquarium. Dad made sure we kept the pond full and agitated the water daily. We watched those polliwogs become frogs over the course of the summer. Birds drank from the pond and it was a favorite hangout for preying mantis and other cool critters. We learned a lot and I carry some great memories from the whole experience.

The sad part is the thousands of the polliwogs that cooked to death in jars on front porches that week. Not everybody had a dad like ours, who both made sure we did the right thing and insured that we had fun doing it.

Which is the problem with sending long-term projects home with very young kids. You are not asking the kid to take care of the plants, the burden goes to the parents.

This is not meant to discourage, just to say that only a few of those kids' parents will be prepared or willing to keep a child of that age on track for something that, to the child, is a long-term commitment.

Perhaps your efforts might be better suited to the local 4H club? And perhaps to kids a little older than 5.

Kay

Either way I think your heads are in a good place. seems that most of the little ones I run across whether from urban/rural locations know less about planting things, growing things then I did growing up 25 yrs ago. I think it is a positive thing, I wouldn't worry about all the systematic/blah blah...so much. Just get a bunch of things going, send note home to the parents with your intention, see what kind of responses you get. make it an extra credit thing, maybe some don't have much interest and their parents may not. If you get the "unmotivated seeds" in a "participate at will with no negatives for not participating" it will be cool. kids will learn, parents as well.

good thing either way. some parents may have stuff started to share as well or grand parents, friends of family etc..never know.

I say go hard, get a bunch to sell to buy seeds for next year and make a school wide program.

bing bang boom. good luck and remember, if you are doing what should be done the universe will conspire in your favor.

j

I'm going to chime in with the idea that allowing people to "opt in" (some people are dying to start a garden, some have no interest) is really the way to go.

I know that just among the people I know, there are plenty who would love to start a garden, but could really use a helping hand, since they have no personal experience. I think that your offer of some tilling help and a few plants (not to mention some advice!) would be very well-received by at least some of them.

I've always found squash and cucumbers (as others have said, probably bush varieties, to avoid the trellis concerns) to be quite satisfying, and I think that beans are a good suggestion.

Good luck with this endeavor, and as others have said, please keep us informed!

Just pick vegetables that can grow in containers, or a very small patch of yard... tomatoes, peppers, bush beans... Swiss chard is REALLY easy to grow, and if you get "Bright Lights" or "Neon Lights", it's pretty, too.

Check out Square Foot Gardening - you could do 6-8 types of plants in 6-8 square feet of space quite easily.

You could send the kids home with a basic planting diagram - showing how everything could fit in a certain size container, or how big of a patch is needed to plant it all in the yard. If you're artistic, you could draw pictures of the vegetables in each spot on the diagram, and have the kids color them in =)

And don't worry about people who don't want the plants, they'll be able to hand them off to others who will. Or worst case, a few of the plants will end up dying and in the trash. But certainly that's better than not doing the project at all!