Words of Wisdom For Starting Your Own School Garden from St. Francis

In the fourth issue of our CSCOE magazine, we shared a story about a school garden created by St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Buffalo. If you're interested in starting a garden at your school, here are a few words of wisdom from the St. Francis gardening crew:

1. “One of the first priorities is the funding. You have to have that funding for the initial setup and funding for ongoing projects … and there are grants out there, too. You just have to write them.” – Barb Vieau, third-grade teacher 
2. “Start off small, and just keep building. You don’t have to put in a 30-by-15 [foot] garden all at one time.” – Nicole Dietman, parent
3. “The raised garden idea is amazing. It’s so much easier to control weeds.” – Nicole Dietman, parent
4. Raise funds for a garden at your school’s annual fundraiser. “We do one a year, and it’s big . . . there are a lot of parents who support our garden.” – Denise Ryan, culinary specialist 
5. “Have a lead volunteer to coordinate other volunteers for the school. Just have a couple of them maybe head up maintenance of the garden.” – Denise Ryan, culinary specialist
6. “Work with your local community — like a floral shop or a nursery” to obtain -in-kind gifts or discounted garden materials. – Denise Ryan, culinary specialist 
7. Many schools start school gardens and are unable to maintain them, so “make sure the people in the building are going to continue it.” – Denise Ryan, culinary specialist 
8. “There are expenses every year. You have to have seeds and plants and more mulch and soil, so there are ongoing expenses.” – Alisa Louwagie, principal 
9. “Some of the people who volunteer to work [on the garden] don’t volunteer for some of our other projects. This is a much better fit for them – especially for some of our dads. They can come build for a day.” – Alisa Louwagie, principal