Many school gardens are started with the best of intentions by dedicated, caring parents. Yet again and again, these gardens struggle or fail within a short time. Why does this happen, and what should parents actually do if they want to support a thriving school garden?

In this episode, Leila Mireskandari draws on over a decade of experience working with schools to explain a hard but essential truth: school gardens are educational programs, not parent run projects. Because of this, they must be led by teachers and integrated into classroom learning, not created or managed by well meaning volunteers.

Leila shares why even highly skilled gardeners or enthusiastic parent groups cannot substitute for teacher leadership in a school garden. Growing food at school is fundamentally different from home or community gardening. It requires alignment with curriculum, classroom schedules, and the realities of teaching time, expertise that teachers have and outside volunteers typically do not.

You will also learn why building a garden for teachers rarely leads to success, and why the most effective school gardens actually begin indoors, in classrooms, with students growing seedlings and learning hands on before any outdoor beds are created.

So what can parents do? The answer may surprise you. Instead of leading or building gardens themselves, parents play a powerful supporting role, helping teachers access training, resources, and ongoing support so they can confidently lead garden based learning with their students.

If you are a parent, or a teacher working with parent volunteers, this episode clarifies roles, avoids common pitfalls, and lays out the proven pathway to a sustainable, curriculum connected school garden that lasts for years.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why most parent led school gardens fail
• The critical difference between school gardens and other school facilities
• Why teacher leadership is essential for long term success
• How school gardens should actually begin, hint, not outdoors
• The most helpful role parents can play in supporting school gardens

Resources mentioned:

• Explore the Oasis school garden lesson plan series, link in show notes
• Hear detailed program explanations in Episode 72

The Oasis programs provide teachers with step by step lesson plans, classroom ready growing guides, and ongoing support to successfully integrate food growing into curriculum connected learning.

If you are a parent who wants a school garden at your child’s school, or a teacher navigating parent enthusiasm, this episode will help you focus energy where it truly makes a difference.

Listen now to discover how parents and teachers can work together, without crossing roles, to grow school gardens that actually thrive.

If you’re interested in teaching through food gardens but feel unsure which Oasis program fits your classroom, this episode walks you through the full Oasis suite so you can choose with confidence.

Leila explains the differences between Oasis Classroom, Caja Oasis, and Oasis School, who each program is designed for, and how they support teachers at different stages, from indoor seed growing to full regenerative outdoor gardens.

All Oasis programs are created for grades 3–8 and are designed to run during class time, with curriculum-connected garden learning that integrates science, language, and math outcomes.

The Three Oasis Programs

Oasis Classroom
An indoor growing program where students raise up to 20 varieties of food seedlings using a simple sunny window setup. No outdoor space or grow lights required.
Best for teachers new to school gardening or classrooms without outdoor access.

Caja Oasis
An outdoor garden program using self-watering planters from The Growing Connection. Students grow indoors first, then transplant into planters while learning garden setup, site selection, and seasonal care.
Best for schools ready for an easy, low-maintenance outdoor garden.

Oasis School
A full regenerative garden design and build program using Permaculture principles and techniques. Students design, construct, and plant a long-term outdoor food garden grown from their indoor seedlings.
Best for committed upper-grade programs ready for a comprehensive garden project.

What All Oasis Programs Include

Every Oasis program provides:

• Step-by-step lesson plans
• Student booklets and classroom posters
• Materials and supplies lists
• Weekly planting schedule
• Direct coaching with Leila

Programs run about 1–2 hours per week for 11-12 weeks and are intended to finish about two weeks before the end of the school year.

Recommended Starting Point:

If you’re new to school gardens, Leila recommends beginning with Oasis Classroom. Indoor growing builds skills, confidence, and student success before expanding to outdoor gardens in later years through Caja Oasis or Oasis School.

Enrollment Timeline:

Registration for all three Oasis programs closes at the end of February. A K–2 program and an Earth Day mini-program will be available later in the spring.

If you’re ready to bring meaningful, curriculum-aligned food growing into your teaching, this episode will help you decide which Oasis path fits your classroom best.

What if you didn’t need raised beds, irrigation systems, or expensive equipment to start a school garden?

In the first episode of Season 3, Leila Mireskandari—founder of Kids Growing City and longtime school-garden educator—shares why successful school gardens don’t begin outdoors. They begin in the classroom.

After growing school gardens full-time for more than a decade, Leila explains a simple but powerful truth: school gardens are taught into existence. Instead of pouring energy and money into building outdoor infrastructure first, educators can start by teaching students how to grow food from seed—using minimal supplies and curriculum-aligned lessons.

Who This Episode Is For

This episode is for anyone who cares about school gardens—teachers, principals, parents, community partners, and school leaders. But most of all, it speaks directly to educators who want to lead a garden program that lasts and truly supports learning.

Why Most School Gardens Start in the Wrong Place

Leila challenges the assumption that schools must build a garden before teachers can use it.

Unlike a gym or science lab, a garden is not a finished facility that appears overnight. Designing, planting, maintaining, and harvesting food are themselves the lessons. When schools invest heavily in outdoor beds first, they often face burnout, budget strain, and long-term maintenance problems.

Instead, Leila argues that growing food should begin with seeds, observation, and hands-on classroom learning—long before shovels hit the soil.

What You Actually Need to Start

Forget grow towers and hydroponics systems.

To begin a classroom garden, Leila says you only need:

• Seeds
• Potting soil
• A sunny window
• Buckets or seed-starting cups
• Simple craft supplies
• A planting schedule for your growing zone
• Lesson plans that connect gardening to curriculum

With these basics, students can grow an impressive amount of food indoors while developing scientific thinking, responsibility, and confidence.

Teachers Are the Key to Successful School Gardens

A central message of the episode is that school gardens thrive when they are:

• Led by teachers
• Embedded in curriculum
• Built and grown by students
• Supported—rather than driven—by administrators, parents, and community partners

Community gardens on school grounds can be wonderful, Leila explains, but instructional school gardens depend on educators taking the lead.

The Two-Phase Approach: Classroom First, Outdoors Later

Leila introduces her two-phase framework for sustainable school gardens.

Phase 1 focuses on the classroom. Students learn to germinate seeds, care for seedlings, and grow fast-maturing crops that can be harvested before summer. Longer-season plants can be sent home, donated, or used for fundraising when school ends.

Phase 2 comes later. Often in a second year, schools expand outdoors to tackle garden design, bed building, transplanting, and summer maintenance systems. Trying to do everything at once, Leila notes, is what overwhelms many programs.

The Oasis Program Series Is Now Open

Leila shares that enrollment is open for 2026 in her

👉 Oasis Program Suite

including Oasis Classroom and outdoor garden lesson packages, along with the School Gardens with Ease Logistics class.

These programs provide done-for-you lesson plans and step-by-step systems so teachers can grow thriving gardens with confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to start a school garden with minimal supplies, build skills before investing in infrastructure, and grow a classroom oas

As the year winds down and the excitement of a fresh start builds, this episode is an invitation to think ahead, strategically and calmly, about your 2026 school garden.

Mid-December is not too early to plan. In fact, it is the ideal time.

In this episode, Leila Mireskandari explains why successful, low-stress school gardens are not built in spring, they are built through intentional winter planning. You will hear how preparation, timing, and realistic systems make the difference between a garden that exhausts teachers and one that thrives with ease.

Why Most School Gardens Fail (and How to Avoid It)

After more than a decade of working full-time in school gardens, Leila has seen a consistent pattern: well-intentioned educators follow advice that is incomplete, misleading, or unrealistic for real classrooms.

In this episode, Leila explains:

• Why enthusiasm alone is not enough to sustain a school garden
• How poor timing and lack of planning lead to burnout
• Why spring rewards educators who prepared during the colder months

Free Annual Webinar: School Gardens with Ease

This limited-time webinar is designed for teachers and parents who want clarity before jumping into a school garden.

You will learn:

• The most common school garden mistakes
• What to do instead using Leila’s 2-phase strategy
• Practical guidance you can apply immediately

⏳ Available until December 31

👉 Register for the free webinar:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease

The School Gardens with Ease Course (Doors Closing Soon)

For the first time, Leila teaches her entire school garden system from A to Z.

The course covers:

• School garden design and timing
• Scheduling throughout the school year
• Writing gardening lesson plans
• Community involvement (when to include it—and when not to)
• How to build gardens with almost no summer maintenance
• What to teach in the garden and when
• and much more... essentially everything Leila can teach you on the topic!

The course includes two classes:

1. School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance: Design & Build
2. School Gardens with Ease Logistics: Scheduling, Lesson Planning & Community and more

⏳ Enrollment closes shortly after the new year (timer on the registration page)

👉 View the course and enrollment details:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-school-gardens-with-ease-course-evergreen

Coming Up: Oasis Done-for-You Lesson Packages (Grades 3–8)

For educators who prefer ready-made materials, the Oasis Series will reopen later in the year, perfectly timed for spring preparation.

These done-for-you lesson packages help you:

• Move into action quickly
• Teach confidently in the garden
• Grow with ease instead of overwhelm

👉 Learn more about the Oasis Series:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

If you are thinking about starting, or restarting, a school garden in 2026, this episode will help you set realistic expectations and choose the right level of support.

🎧 Listen to Episode 70 of School Gardens with Ease

Let’s make nature proud, and change the world, one school garden at a time, with ease and fun.

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari offers a heartfelt wake-up call for educators, parents, and school leaders who believe in the power of regenerative school gardens—but still haven’t attended the free School Gardens with Ease webinar.

If you know that kids need more nature, more hope, more hands-on learning, and more connection to real food, this episode is for you. Leila speaks directly to the rare, passionate advocates who understand the value of school gardens and want to be part of creating positive change for the next generation.

She also tackles the biggest reason people never attend the webinar—life gets busy—and why now is the moment to recommit. The webinar runs three times a day, every day, and is packed with over a decade of full-time, real-world school garden experience. If you care about food justice, student well-being, environmental education, or creating thriving learning environments, this is your reminder to show up.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why school gardens matter now more than ever
• Why most teachers never hear about the true value of growing a classroom garden
• The shared beliefs of educators and parents who care about nature-based learning
• How school gardens build hope, resilience, and mental well-being in youth
• Why the School Gardens with Ease webinar is essential for anyone planning (or dreaming of) a school garden
• How you can help spread the word and advocate for school garden programs
• Why planning for next season starts now

Who This Episode Is For

• Elementary and middle school teachers
• Principals and school administrators
• Parents who want hands-on, joyful learning for their kids
• Environmental educators and school food advocates
• Health & wellness consultants
• Anyone who dreams of bringing a garden to a school

Key Takeaway

If you believe every child deserves to know where food comes from—and if you want to empower the next generation with meaningful, hopeful, nature-connected education—then attending the webinar is the simplest, most impactful next step.

Call to Action

🌱 Register for the free School Gardens with Ease webinar (runs 3 times daily — even weekends & holidays!)

After you attend, share the link with every teacher, parent, administrator, or decision-maker you know. The movement grows when you share it.

Thinking about starting a school garden but don’t know where to begin, or worried it might be too much work? In this episode, host Leila Mireskandari pulls back the curtain on her annual free webinar, School Gardens with Ease, and explains why it’s a must-attend event for any teacher who wants to grow a thriving classroom or school garden without stress, big budgets, or burnout.

Leila shares what’s inside this 70-minute masterclass, why so many school gardens fail (and how to avoid those pitfalls), and the exact strategies that make growing food with your students simple, sustainable, and fun.

🌿 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• What’s covered in the School Gardens with Ease free webinar
• The two biggest mistakes teachers make when starting a school garden
• Why “winging it” can harm your school’s garden culture — and how to avoid that trap
• How to use strategy and proactive planning to make your garden easy and successful
• What free resources you’ll receive when you attend

🎁 Free Resources:

When you register for the School Gardens with Ease free webinar, you’ll also receive three of Leila’s downloadable guides, completely free!

🕒 How to Attend:

The webinar runs three times a day, every day (including weekends) through the end of this year.
👉 Save your free spot here
(link to webinar registration page)

No excuses — this is your chance to learn how to grow a school garden the easy way!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari shares the inspiring story behind how she discovered Permaculture, and how it completely changed the way she grows and teaches school gardens.

You’ll learn the two key elements that make a school garden both easy and productive, and discover why so many school garden projects struggle unnecessarily. Leila also shares behind-the-scenes updates about the upcoming Free School Gardens with Ease Webinar, where she’ll dive deeper into her proven 2-phase plan to help teachers grow thriving school gardens with confidence and ease.

This is a heartwarming and deeply practical episode for teachers, parents, and school council members who believe in hands-on learning, connecting kids with nature, and growing hope one garden at a time.

🌱 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The real story that inspired Leila to start Kids Growing City
• How discovering Permaculture changed everything about her approach to gardening
• The biggest mistakes schools make when planning their gardens
• The two major keys to a thriving, low-maintenance, educational school garden
• Why school gardens should be teacher-led and 100% student-powered
• How to transform your garden into a powerful teaching tool for every subject
• How to join the upcoming free School Gardens with Ease Webinar

🔗 Links & Resources

• Join the Oasis Fall & Winter Program (Doors close at the end of October)
• Register for the Free School Gardens with Ease Webinar: (Doors will stay open till end of the calendar year)
• Learn more at: KidsGrowingCity.ca
  
  

Have you ever dreamed of starting a school garden with your students but felt overwhelmed by the idea of needing a big team of parents, colleagues, and volunteers? In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari challenges the myth that you can’t run a garden project on your own. Spoiler alert: you can, with just you and your students!

Leila shares how classroom gardens, powered by a sunny window and a handful of supplies, can be just as impactful as outdoor school gardens — sometimes even more so. She explains how teachers can:

• Start a classroom garden with just seeds, soil, and a few dollars.
• Build and grow an outdoor school garden using student power and simple techniques.
• Manage the approval and funding process with minimal outside help.
• Connect gardens directly to curriculum goals in science, math, language, arts, and more.

Whether you’re thinking small with an indoor garden or dreaming big with an outdoor plot, this episode will give you the confidence to know: yes, you can do it solo.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Oasis Classroom & School Garden Programs
• Episodes 31 & 32: Teacher experiences with classroom gardens
• Book a Zoom call with Leila to explore your garden plans

Listen now and discover how to take full control of your garden project — no extra team required!

If you’re dreaming of starting a school garden in the spring, the most important step is to start planning now, not in March or April. In this episode, Leila shares why fall and winter are the best seasons to prepare for a thriving school garden, and the common mistakes that cause so many projects to fail before they even begin.

Leila explains what needs to happen behind the scenes, budgeting, pitching your idea, designing for easy maintenance, and connecting your garden to the curriculum, so that when spring arrives, you’re ready to dig in with confidence and joy.

You’ll also learn about Leila’s free resource, How to Pitch Your School Garden Project, a step-by-step guide to help you organize your vision, plan effectively, and make your spring food garden a lasting success.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why waiting until spring to plan a school garden almost always backfires
• Key questions to ask yourself before you break ground on a garden project
• How to align your school garden with curriculum goals
• What to grow (and what not to grow) in a spring school garden
• The role of teachers, students, and parents in creating a sustainable garden
• Budgeting strategies that prevent wasted money and effort
• How Leila’s free guide helps you design, plan, and pitch your project

Resources and Links:

• 🎁 Download the free guide: How to Pitch Your School Garden Project
• 🌱 Learn more about the Oasis Fall & Winter Program – doors close at the end of October!
• 🎧 Listen to past episodes on indoor gardening activities, growing salad greens year-round, and more.

Want to bring fresh, healthy food into your classroom, without needing outdoor space or expensive equipment? In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I’ll show you exactly how to grow a continuous supply of salad greens indoors, all school year long.

You’ll learn:

• How to set up a simple sub-irrigated planter system for reliable growth
• The best classroom-friendly seed mixes to choose for abundant harvests
• Why a sunny south-facing window is your secret weapon for success
• Step-by-step instructions to get your students planting, growing, and harvesting every week
• How just 5 minutes, 3 times a week, can create an endless cycle of greens for hands-on learning and healthy snacking

This isn’t just about gardening, it’s about empowering your students with real-life skills, sparking curiosity, and leaving a lasting legacy of connection to food and nature.

Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode:

• Oasis Fall & Winter Program
  – indoor gardening lessons for cold months
• Oasis Classroom Program
  – indoor spring food-growing program
• Seed Mixes: OSC Seeds (Canada) Seed Mix 1  Seed Mix 2 
• Sow True Seeds (US)
  
  

Whether you’re an experienced school gardener or just starting out, this is one of the easiest and most rewarding projects you can do with your students.

🎧 Tune in now and learn how to grow salad greens in your classroom, year-round—with ease!

The doors are officially open to the Oasis Fall & Winter Program, a done-for-you lesson package designed to bring your classroom to life during the gloomiest months of the year. In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, host Leila Mireskandari shares five engaging, low-cost, and curriculum-connected gardening activities that can be done indoors without grow lights or special equipment.

From seed stratification to microgreens, these projects help your students feel safe, connected, and excited to learn while building a growth mindset. Whether you’re looking for icebreaker activities, holiday projects, or ways to connect science, sustainability, and food, this program is designed to make your teaching easier and your classroom greener.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why fall and winter are the perfect seasons to spark student connection and growth.
• How the Oasis Fall & Winter Program makes classroom gardening simple and budget-friendly.
• Five hands-on activities your students will love:
  1. Milkweed seed stratification & monarch conservation
  2. Making seed balls (aka seed bombs)
  3. Crafting seed paper for green holiday gifts
  4. Growing sprouts in just a few days
  5. Growing microgreens for food, flavor, and fun
• How each activity connects to curriculum and supports hands-on learning.
• Details about the free Fall & Winter Gardening Checklist (with how-to instructions) and how to get the Oasis program at half price for 7 days.

Links and Resources:

• 🌱 Get your FREE Fall & Winter Gardening Checklist
  
  
• 🍂 Learn more about the Oasis Fall & Winter Program

Don’t miss this chance to make your classroom greener, more engaging, and full of life this season. Download the free checklist and join the Oasis Fall & Winter Program before the special offer ends!

Fall often signals the end of gardening season, but when it comes to school gardens, closing things down too early means missing out on valuable learning opportunities. In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, host Leila Mireskandari explains why you don’t need to clear everything away in autumn, and why letting your garden rest naturally through winter is actually better for your students, your soil, and local biodiversity.

From kale that thrives under snow to pollinators sheltering in fall leaves, Leila shows you how to take a nature-first approach to seasonal transitions. You’ll also hear practical tips for keeping your school garden safe during the winter months, while still letting it teach lessons about cycles, resilience, and connection to the natural world.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why you don’t need to rush to close your school garden in the fall
• Cool-season crops that can thrive well into winter (kale, chard, parsley, spinach)
• How letting your garden “go natural” teaches students about seasonal change
• The surprising role of “dead” plants in supporting pollinators and soil health
• Why fall and early spring cleanups can actually hurt your garden’s biodiversity
• Safety considerations when leaving plants and stems in place over winter

Key Takeaway:
School gardens don’t need to be “put to bed” in fall. Let them rest, transform, and provide living lessons all winter long, while protecting pollinators, enriching the soil, and reducing your workload for spring.

Find out more about School Gardening on our website: https://kidsgrowingcity.ca

Designing a school garden isn’t just about putting plants in the ground—it’s about creating a sustainable, low-maintenance space that engages students, thrives with minimal summer care, and becomes a true part of the school community.

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I share my process for designing school gardens that actually work for teachers and students. Drawing from more than a decade of experience and my background as a Permaculture designer, I walk you through the key steps that transform a typical “hard-to-manage” garden into one that’s easy, productive, and magical.

You’ll learn:

• The first step to garden design: choosing the right placement (sunlight, water access, visibility, and accessibility).
• Why fences and locks can backfire—and what works better for community involvement.
• How to create a planting plan that avoids common pitfalls, builds biodiversity, and supports healthy plant growth.
• The importance of guild planting (companions like tomatoes + basil + marigold) for resilience and success.
• Smart strategies to design for water conservation, including Hugelkultur, olla pots, mulching, and self-watering planters.
• Why biodiversity—not just tomatoes!—is the backbone of a thriving school garden.

If you want your school garden to be more than a patch of plants—if you want it to be a living, learning, and lasting space—this episode will give you the foundation to design with ease.

👉 Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Class
  – learn the full system for creating thriving, low-maintenance school gardens.
• Recommended Seeds for School Gardens Guide
  
  
• How to Set Up Your Garden Hose for Volunteers

Fall is here, and while outdoor gardens may be winding down, your classroom gardening journey is just getting started! In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari explains how fall and winter activities fit into her brand-new School Gardens with Ease course. From harvesting last year’s crops with new students to hands-on indoor gardening projects like seed stratification, seed balls, and growing microgreens, you’ll learn exactly how to keep your students engaged with nature—even when it’s too cold to plant outside.

Whether you’re planning a spring garden or simply want fun, low-cost classroom activities, this episode is packed with ideas to make gardening a year-round learning tool.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How the School Gardens with Ease course is structured (logistics + design/build).
• Why fall gardens are the perfect entry point for new students.
• Ways to connect fall harvests and seed saving to your curriculum.
• Indoor fall and winter gardening projects, including:
  • Stratifying milkweed seeds for spring planting
  • Creating seed balls and seed paper (perfect for holiday gifts!)
  • Growing sprouts and microgreens with minimal supplies
• How these activities tie into the Oasis Fall & Winter program.

Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode:

• 🌱 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Class
• 📘 Free Guide: Indoor Gardening Activities for Fall & Winter
• 🍂 Oasis Fall & Winter Lesson Plan Package – Join the Waitlist

Have you ever wished you could create your own school garden program, tailored to your classroom and teaching style? In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I share the exciting news — I’m developing a full class that teaches my entire method for building educational school gardens from start to finish.

You’ll hear how your feedback shaped this decision, why this program is for classroom teachers (not just garden clubs), and what’s included — from garden design and logistics to summer maintenance. I also share why I avoid overly complicated systems like hydroponics and grow towers, and instead focus on simple, affordable, and effective approaches that work for any grade level, including high school.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How your feedback inspired a brand-new school garden course
• The three core elements every educational garden needs: design, logistics, and summer maintenance
• Why this class is ideal for teachers who work with the same group of students regularly
• Practical, low-cost alternatives to high-tech growing systems
• How to access my School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance resources before the price goes up

Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, this episode will show you how to integrate hands-on gardening into your curriculum — without adding extra stress or expense.

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• Feedback page
• Free guide: School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance
• Low-cost webinar on summer maintenance strategies
• Full class: School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance (enroll before the fee increases!)
  [Insert direct links here]

Spoiler alert: Yes, and no!
In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I finally answer the question many of you have been wondering: Is growing a school garden really as easy as I keep saying it is?

The short answer: It depends on how and why you do it.
Most school gardens fail or become overwhelming because they're not built for education. But when your school garden is teacher-led, student-built, and connected directly to curriculum goals, it can be surprisingly simple—and incredibly powerful.

🌱 Here's what you'll learn in this episode:

• Why most school gardens fail—and what makes mine different
• What I actually mean when I say school gardens are easy
• The non-negotiable role of education as the garden’s primary purpose
• How students, not volunteers, should be doing the work
• What parents’ roles should and shouldn’t be
• How working with nature (not against her!) makes gardening easier
• Why planning, strategy, and patience are key to long-term success
• What it means to have a growth mindset in the garden

Whether you’re a teacher who's never touched soil or a parent eager to help, this episode will give you the honest roadmap to starting a school garden that’s simple, sustainable, and seriously educational.

🎧 Tune in now and find out the truth behind the “ease” of school gardens.
👩‍🏫 Ready to start your own classroom garden the right way? Explore the Oasis done-for-you programs and more.

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari shares a fresh new idea that came to her—literally—as she woke up: Should she create a School Gardens with Ease course designed for high school teachers?

Up until now, Leila has worked primarily with elementary and middle school teachers, building low-maintenance, student-led school gardens that connect seamlessly with the curriculum. But a recent experience watching her daughter’s high school science teacher attempt (and struggle) to grow food with her class got her thinking...

Could high school teachers benefit from learning Leila’s school garden method too—even if gardening isn’t a full credit course?

Leila shares her personal story of how her children and her Permaculture journey inspired her work, how her Oasis programs became a trusted resource for K–8 classrooms, and why she’s now seriously considering building a course that teaches any interested teacher how to design, implement, and integrate a successful classroom garden—yes, even in high school.

Now she wants your feedback.
 Would you like to see a program like this? Would it help you or someone you know?

👇 Click the feedback link in the show notes and let Leila know: Yes, Maybe, or No.
It only takes 10 seconds and helps shape the future of school gardening support.

💬 Help Shape the Future:

Leila needs your honest feedback.
 👉 Click here to share your thoughts — it only takes 10 seconds!
(Choose: Yes / Maybe / No)

🌱 Explore More Resources:

• Learn about the Oasis School Garden Programs
• Follow Leila on Instagram or LinkedIn
• Listen to more episodes of School Gardens with Ease

🎧 Subscribe & Leave a Review:
Love the show? Subscribe and leave a review to help more teachers discover the magic of school gardens that actually work.

Thinking about starting your school garden as an eco club or lunchtime green team? You’re not alone—but this episode will change the way you see that common approach. In this bold and honest episode, Leila Mireskandari breaks down why growing a school garden as a club fails most of the time, and why classroom-based gardens are the real path to success.

Drawing from over a decade of hands-on experience, Leila shares:

• Why garden clubs often lead to teacher burnout and abandoned garden beds
• The key logistical issues that clubs can’t overcome (like weather, student consistency, and time)
• Real feedback from teachers who tried to grow gardens in clubs—and what went wrong
• Why her programs are classroom-based on purpose
• What structure you actually need to grow a successful school garden with ease

If you’ve ever wondered whether a garden club could work—or if you’ve tried and burned out—this episode will help you reframe and restart the right way.

🌱 Key Takeaways:

• Garden clubs are a popular but flawed approach to school gardening.
• Classroom-based gardening offers the consistency and structure needed for success.
• Most club structures don’t provide enough time, weather flexibility, or curriculum alignment.
• Teachers need to stop blaming programs for failing in clubs—when it’s the structure that’s the issue.
• Want a thriving school garden? Integrate it into your class time.

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• Oasis Classroom Program – Leila’s classroom-based school garden program designed for teachers, by a teacher
• How to Pitch Your School Garden Project – A free guide to help you get admin and parent buy-in

Is an outdoor garden necessary to teach kids how to grow food? Absolutely not!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari challenges the myth that you need access to an outdoor school garden to create powerful, hands-on gardening experiences in your classroom. Whether you’re in summer mode or gearing up for the new school year, this episode will help you feel excited, not overwhelmed, about school gardening — by showing you just how easy it can be.

🌱 What You'll Learn:

• Why outdoor garden space is not a requirement to teach food growing
• The most common trap teachers fall into when starting a classroom garden — and how to avoid it
• What makes classroom gardening hard vs. easy (hint: it’s all in your setup)
• Why starting indoors can lead to more success — especially if you're new
• How to grow food seedlings without grow lights, hydroponics, or fancy tech
• Tips for hands-on gardening lessons in fall and winter (yes, even in cold climates!)
• Where to find the free guide and 5-week Oasis program to make classroom gardening simple and impactful
• Why your classroom garden might be more powerful than a schoolyard garden

🔗 Links & Resources:

• 🌟 Take the free quiz: What Kind of Gardening Teacher Are You?
• 📘 Get the free Fall & Winter Gardening Indoors guide
• 🌿 Explore the Oasis Classroom Program

Do you know what kind of school garden teacher you are?

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I help you discover your School Garden Teacher Type — so you can stop spinning your wheels and start growing with more ease, clarity, and confidence.

Whether you're dreaming of your first classroom garden or scaling an existing one, knowing your unique approach to school gardening can completely shift how you plan, grow, and teach.

🎯 I created a free, 2-minute quiz — Discover Your School Garden Teacher Type — to match you with one of four types:

• 🌱 The Curious Starter – Full of questions and dreaming of a garden, but unsure where to begin.
• 🌻 The Overwhelmed Hustler – Doing all the things and craving structure.
• 🌿 The Independent Grower – You’ve started, now you want to get strategic and scale smartly.
• 🌼 The Curriculum-Driven Cultivator – Your garden is integrated with learning, and you’re ready to expand school-wide.

💡Once you know your type, you’ll receive a custom next step and curated resources tailored to where you are right now.

Why this matters:
Knowing your type helps you:

• Avoid burnout 🌿
• Ditch myths like “I need a big budget” or “I don’t have time”
• Stop doing things the hard way
• Take realistic, supportive steps toward a thriving garden

Take the quiz now at kidsgrowingcity.ca/quiz

And don’t forget to message me on Instagram or LinkedIn and tell me what type you got — I’d love to hear from you!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila shares real stories from Toronto schools where well-meaning but misinformed caretakers accidentally damaged school gardens—from mowing over fruit trees to refusing to maintain grass paths. These challenges are more common than you might think in school gardening—and there’s an easy solution.

Sheet mulching.
This simple Permaculture technique not only keeps grass out of garden paths and beds, but it also reduces maintenance, prevents damage, requires no permanent structures (read: no school board approvals!), and turns a common conflict into a collaborative, student-led learning experience.

Leila walks you through how to sheet mulch with your students using just cardboard, water, and wood mulch—while explaining why this method is the perfect way to keep your garden thriving and your caretaker happy (or at least neutral 😉).

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why some caretakers resist maintaining garden-adjacent areas
• How school policies and union rules complicate garden maintenance
• Common ways gardens get accidentally damaged—and how to stop it
• What sheet mulching is and why it’s ideal for schools
• Step-by-step: How to sheet mulch paths and beds with your students
• How sheet mulch supports low-maintenance, high-impact school gardening

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/Gardening-for-Elementary-Teachers

What does it really take to grow a thriving school garden year after year? Spoiler alert: it’s not a big budget, a huge team, or fancy tech. In this episode, I share the key ingredients behind the success of one of my Oasis program teachers whose garden is thriving—and growing—without any of the common “must-haves” people assume are necessary.

I also explain what kind of teacher doesn't lead to a lasting school garden (even if they mean well), and how the right mindset, structure, and support make all the difference.

If you're an educator dreaming of a low-maintenance, curriculum-connected garden space that works within your schedule and budget, this episode is a must-listen.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 3 real ingredients of a successful school garden (hint: it’s not money)
• Why most school gardens fail—and how to avoid it
• The surprising truth about volunteers, space, and equipment
• Who the “right teacher” is for leading a school garden (and who isn’t)
• The crucial role of school administrators in garden success
• How to avoid burnout by staying focused and supported
• Why my Oasis lesson plan package and coaching help schools grow gardens that last

🌟 Mentioned in this episode:

👉 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance workshop – Learn how to set up a thriving garden that won’t fall apart over the summer

If you're ready to stop wasting time, money, and energy on school gardens that don’t last—start with a plan. Check out the School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance class linked above. It’s the first step to building something that thrives year after year.

Welcome to Episode 51 of School Gardens with Ease!
As the school year winds down, are you heading into summer break with peace of mind, or dread, when it comes to your school garden? 

In this episode, host Leila Mireskandari helps you take a deep breath and shows you exactly how to set your school garden up for summer success with almost no summer maintenance.

Whether you've created a lush indoor garden with Oasis Classroom or cultivated a vibrant outdoor space through Oasis School or Caja Oasis, this episode will give you essential tips to ensure your garden survives—and thrives—while you’re on vacation.

🌱 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why summer is the most vulnerable time for school gardens
• The common mistakes that can cause school gardens to fail over summer
• What not to plant in a school garden—and why
• How to reduce summer maintenance by up to 80%
• How biodiversity, soil quality, and smart design lead to a garden that flourishes without you
• The one task you can't skip—and how to make it easy for volunteers

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Growing a dense, biodiverse garden with high-quality seeds in healthy soil is the secret to success.
• Summer watering is the only essential maintenance—but it can be simplified with smart planning.
• Volunteers need access and ease. Without it, your garden could suffer.
• Avoiding monocultures, poor soil, and improper crops is crucial to avoid disappointment in the fall.

🎁 Resources Mentioned:

• ✅ Free Guide: School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance
• 💻 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Low-Cost Webinar (limited-time discount)
• 📚 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Comprehensive Class (limited-time discount)

👉 Grab your favorite resource above and go into summer knowing your garden is safe, supported, and set up for success!

💬 Let’s Connect:

Have questions or want to share your summer garden setup? DM me on Instagram or email me at Leilam@kidsgrowingcity.ca.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on your favorite platform so you never miss an episode!

Are you unknowingly sabotaging your school garden project with poor timing? In this fiery episode, Leila Mireskandari tackles one of the most overlooked — and crucial — aspects of school gardening: plant timing.

From high school science classes to elementary school projects, too many well-meaning teachers are planting seeds at the wrong time of year, leading to wasted resources, missed learning opportunities, and plant casualties. Leila shares real stories, expert insights, and practical advice to help you avoid these common mistakes and set your classroom garden up for success — in any season.

Whether you're planning a classroom window garden or a full outdoor learning space, this episode is a must-listen for educators who care about meaningful, hands-on learning.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

🌱 Why gardening is not like any other classroom activity
🌱 What happens when you plant at the wrong time of year
🌱 Why “throwing money” at a last-minute garden doesn’t work
🌱 The critical importance of seasonal timing in your curriculum
🌱 How to align your school garden with your academic calendar
🌱 What your students actually learn when plants fail due to timing mistakes
🌱 The hidden reason school gardens often need so much summer maintenance

Resources & Links:

✅ Free Guide – School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance
📚 Explore Leila’s done-for-you, seasonally timed programs: The Oasis Series
🎧 Subscribe to the School Gardens with Ease podcast

The Secret to Low-Maintenance, Biodiverse School Gardens

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, host Leila Mireskandari dives into the concept of biodiversity and how it can be the game-changing secret to creating thriving, low-maintenance school gardens. Drawing from her background in Permaculture, Leila explains how the principles of observing nature, using renewable resources, and integrating diverse plant species can transform school gardens into lush, self-sustaining ecosystems.

Leila discusses four key Permaculture principles that align with biodiversity:

1. Observe and Interact – How learning from nature can foster hands-on learning experiences for students.
2. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback – The power of a growth mindset in gardening and education.
3. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services – The benefits of inviting natural helpers like pollinators and pest predators.
4. Integrate Rather Than Segregate – The ancient wisdom behind companion planting techniques like the Three Sisters and why diverse plant groupings create stronger, healthier gardens.

Leila also highlights how integrating plants like tomatoes, marigolds, basil, and beans can deter pests naturally, reducing the need for summer maintenance and chemical interventions. Plus, she explains how inviting beneficial insects like ladybugs can keep aphid populations under control, freeing up teachers’ time and reducing stress over summer garden upkeep.

Resources Mentioned:

• School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Class

Listen to this episode to learn how to harness biodiversity in your school garden, making it more resilient, educational, and magical for your students.

Subscribe to School Gardens with Ease for more practical gardening tips tailored for teachers.

In this episode of the School Gardens with Ease podcast, Leila Mireskandari dives into the crucial steps of transplanting seedlings into your school garden. Whether you've been growing seedlings with your students in the classroom, selling them, or have purchased new ones, it's essential to prepare them for the outside world to minimize transplant shock.

Leila breaks down the process of "hardening off," explaining how to gradually introduce seedlings to outdoor conditions over several days, ensuring they can handle the elements. She also shares her tried-and-true step-by-step method for transplanting seedlings, including practical tips on digging the right-sized hole, handling seedlings without damaging their roots, and creating a donut ditch for optimal watering.

This episode is packed with actionable tips for teachers to engage their students in hands-on gardening activities, fostering responsibility, teamwork, and a deeper connection to nature. Leila emphasizes how each step can be a valuable learning experience, from timing and scheduling to group work and watering routines.

If you want to empower your students to transplant seedlings successfully and build their gardening skills, tune in to this episode. For more practical gardening guidance, check out Leila’s Oasis program series and other resources available at KidsGrowingCity.ca.

Listen to the full episode to learn more about transplanting seedlings, reducing transplant shock, and getting your school garden thriving.

Are you overwhelmed by the idea of fertilizing your school garden during summer break—or worse, feeling disappointed when your garden underperforms come fall?

In this episode, Leila Mireskandari shares a powerful shift in perspective: you don’t need to fertilize your school garden during summer at all—if you set it up right from the beginning.

💡 Learn why proactive garden design is more powerful than constant summer maintenance, and how proper soil prep, smart plant choices, and working with nature can eliminate fertilizing from your summer to-do list entirely.

🌱 What You’ll Learn:

• Why fertilizing can (and should) be skipped in a well-designed school garden
• The #1 mistake teachers make that creates a need for summer fertilizing
• How to choose the right crops to avoid summer headaches
• The importance of working with nature instead of against it
• How some teachers grow 20+ varieties of food with no fertilizing and minimal summer work

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• 📝 Free List of Recommended Seeds for School Gardens
• 🌼 Free Guide: How to Minimize Summer Maintenance in School Gardens
• 💻 Low-Cost Webinar + Full Class: Grow a School Garden with Almost No Summer Maintenance

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to make your school garden more manageable, this episode will help you feel empowered to design a garden that thrives—without burnout.

👉 Listen now and take the first step toward a stress-free, abundant school garden!

Welcome back to School Gardens with Ease! I’m your host, Leila Mireskandari, and in this episode, we’re tackling a question that comes up a lot around this time of year:

👉 How much cleanup does a school garden really need in the summer?

If you’re a bit of a clean freak when it comes to your school garden—or you’re feeling overwhelmed by summer maintenance—this episode is for you.

We’ll explore:

• The difference between necessary and unnecessary cleaning
• Why a productive vegetable garden isn’t always a neat one
• How to balance structure with nature’s wild beauty
• What cleanup tasks actually matter
• Why you shouldn't lock your school garden up for the summer
• How to design a low-maintenance garden that thrives even when school’s out

🌿 Spoiler: The best gardens work with nature, not against it. And yes—you can have a thriving garden with almost no summer maintenance.

🎓 Want to go deeper? In my class "School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance," I teach everything you need to know to build and grow your garden with your students during the school year—so summer takes care of itself.

🔗 Click here to learn more about the class

Weeding might be the most dreaded chore for school garden volunteers, especially during the summer—but what if it didn’t have to be? In this episode, Leila challenges the common belief that weeds are inevitable in gardens. She breaks down why weeds show up, how our cultural biases shape our attitudes toward them, and how you can design your school garden to prevent them in the first place.

She also shares her favorite Permaculture trick for eliminating weeds before they even appear—plus the real reason why a volunteer rose plant didn’t stand a chance in her own backyard garden!

🌿 What You’ll Learn

• Why weeds are not a given in well-planned gardens
• How to design your school garden to minimize weeding
• What a “weed” really is (hint: it’s all about perspective!)
• Why bare soil is an open invitation for weeds—and how to prevent that
• The surprising benefits of weeds in some garden ecosystems
• How sheet mulching can be a total game-changer for weed control

🛠️ Mentioned in This Episode

• 🌼 Sheet Mulching – A powerful Permaculture technique you’ll want to try.
• 📚 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance – Includes a full "Weeds Module" with step-by-step strategies and downloadable guides. (Link in the show notes.)

📌 Key Takeaway

If your garden is full of weeds, it’s not a sign of failure—it’s nature doing her job. But with intentional planting and smart soil coverage, you can avoid weeding altogether… and finally enjoy a low-maintenance, student-led school garden.

👩‍🏫 Ready to Make Weeding a Thing of the Past?

Check out Leila’s class:
 👉 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance
Includes a full weeds module, spacing plans, PDF guides, and everything you need to ditch the weeding chore—forever.

🌻 Stay Connected

Thanks for tuning in! Subscribe, rate, and review if you’re loving the podcast—and come back next week for more tips to grow a thriving school garden with ease.

Is your school garden going to thrive this summer—or completely overwhelm your volunteers and fizzle out in a tangle of weeds?

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I’m diving back into summer maintenance (yep, again!)—because this is the time of year to be planting with intention, and if you don’t… your garden could be doomed before the heat even hits.

If you want your garden to be buzzing with bees, bursting with herbs, and producing food all summer long—without exhausting your community—this episode is packed with the proactive strategies that actually make that possible.

✨ Inside this episode:

• Why spacing is overrated and how dense planting stops weeds before they start
• How to eliminate summer chores like weeding, harvesting, cleanup, and even fertilizing
• Tips to train your summer volunteers (so they don’t accidentally pull out your seed-saving plants!)
• How to design gardens that don’t need pesticides or disease treatments
• The gear, planning, and watering systems that make it all a breeze

🎓 Want to go deeper?
 My class “School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance” is now available—60% off until Sunday!
👉 Click here to join the class. (Insert your actual link)

🎥 Missed the webinar on summer maintenance? Let me know in the comments if you want me to bring it back!

Short answer: No. But the longer answer might surprise you!

Summers can be tough on school gardens—drought, weeds, and neglect often leave them struggling. But what if your school garden could be designed to require almost zero summer maintenance?

In this episode, I break down how Permaculture techniques can help you create a thriving school garden with:
 ✅ No weeding
 ✅ No cleanups
 ✅ No fertilizing
 ✅ No pruning
 ✅ No pest or disease control
 ✅ Much less watering

Yes, it’s possible! I’ve done it many times over the past 11 years. And now, I’m sharing how you can do it too.

🎉 Join My Low-Cost Webinar! 🎉
I’m hosting a special webinar to teach you exactly how to build a school garden with almost no summer maintenance. Plus, you’ll get two implementation guides worth $38!

💰 Limited-Time Offer: Get 50% off until March 31st—only $14 CAD!
📅 Webinar Date: April 2nd (4 time slots available)
🎥 Recording available for registrants only

🔗 Grab Your Spot Here!

If you're listening after April 2nd, let me know if you're interested—I might bring it back!

Let’s make school gardens effortless this summer. 🌱

Resources & Links:
🔗 Webinar Registration: https://kids-growing-city-edec.mykajabi.com/almost-no-summer-maintenance-webinar-registration

🌱 Welcome to another episode of School Gardens with Ease! I’m your host, Leila Mireskandari, and today’s episode is a special one—part of the Podcasthon movement, where over a thousand podcasts highlight a charity of their choice.

💧 In this episode, we’re talking about water—clean, accessible water—and why it’s critical for school gardens, communities, and the world.

🌍 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why Charity:Water is my favorite nonprofit and how their 100% donation model builds trust.
• The biggest summer maintenance concern for school gardens—and why watering can’t be eliminated.
• How good design can reduce watering needs by up to 80%, but never fully remove the need for water.
• The impact of clean water on food-growing and why it matters for your garden.
• Why water education belongs in your classroom—from the water cycle to human impact.
• Shocking water facts—Did you know 703 million people lack access to clean water?
• How regenerative gardens positively affect global water cycles.

💡 Take Action Today!

• Support Charity:Water and help solve the global water crisis: charitywater.org
• Explore more amazing causes through Podcasthon: podcasthon.org
• Get ready for my new course on school gardens with almost no summer maintenance—stay tuned!

🎧 Listen Now & Share
If you found this episode helpful, share it with a fellow educator! Let’s grow gardens—and awareness—together.

🔗 https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/school-gardens-with-almost-no-summer-maintenance

🌱 Happy Spring Equinox! As gardeners, we’re excited to welcome spring, but before you grab your rake and start clearing up your school garden, pause and listen to this episode first!

In today’s episode, I’m talking about one of the biggest mistakes school gardeners (and home gardeners) make—cleaning up too early in spring! Many beneficial insects like ladybugs, bees, and butterflies are still taking shelter under leaves and dead vegetation. Clearing your garden too soon can harm biodiversity and reduce the natural helpers your garden needs to thrive.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why early spring clean-up is a big no-no for your garden
✔️ The best time to start clearing and prepping your school garden
✔️ How delaying clean-up supports beneficial insects and biodiversity
✔️ A fun science lesson idea to teach students about working with nature
✔️ A sneak peek into my new class on school gardens with almost no summer maintenance (stay tuned for the link!)

Let’s work with nature, not against it, and teach our students to do the same. Don’t be a clean freak—be a garden protector!

💚 Happy Spring! I’ll see you in the next episode.

🔗 Links & Resources:
👉 School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance Class: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/school-gardens-with-almost-no-summer-maintenance

Welcome to School Gardens with Ease! I’m your host, Leila Mireskandari, and in this episode, we’re diving into an important and sometimes controversial question: Should we use plastic to grow food?

In This Episode:

• Why I still use plastic party cups to start seeds in my Oasis programs.
• The dilemma of balancing environmental responsibility with practical classroom gardening.
• The importance of sub-irrigation and why paper, clay, or biodegradable pots don’t work in a classroom setting.
• My ongoing search for a viable alternative to plastic that is moisture-resistant and flexible.
• How my philosophy of making a green handprint outweighs an unavoidable footprint.
• A call to action for manufacturers or innovators to help find a better solution.

Key Takeaways:

• Environmental responsibility is a priority, but practical limitations in schools mean we sometimes have to make trade-offs.
• Over or under-watering is one of the biggest causes of failure in classroom gardening, and sub-irrigation is the best way to prevent it.
• Plastic is currently the best available option for sub-irrigation, but I’m always on the lookout for alternatives.
• We should strive for solutions but never let the lack of a perfect option stop us from growing food and making a positive impact.

If you or someone you know has a solution to replace plastic in classroom seed-starting, I’d love to hear from you!

Let’s continue the conversation. You can reach out to me through my website or social media.

Thanks for listening! See you next week for another episode of School Gardens with Ease.

Are you passionate about transforming education by humanizing learning? If so, this episode is for you!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I introduce you to Thinkering Collective—a movement dedicated to empowering students to become changemakers in their communities. Their work is all about fostering curiosity, redefining academic success beyond grades, and making real-world impact.

I’m excited to share that I was recently interviewed on their podcast, Thinkering Minds! Instead of a full episode here, I encourage you to head over there and listen to our conversation about the role of school gardens in humanizing learning.

🌱 Listen to my interview on Thinkering Minds Podcast 👉 https://open.spotify.com/episode/41tbcZFolMFgytmHzkj41Y

But that’s not all! I’m also thrilled to announce my new partnership with Thinkering Collective and an amazing opportunity for educators. I have 12 nomination spots available for their Fellowship Program, which is designed to equip educators with the tools, support, and community they need to lead real-world change in their schools.

🚀 Interested in the Fellowship Program? Learn more here: https://thinkeringcollective.org/introducing-the-thinkering-collective-fellowship/

📩 Want to be nominated? Email me at Leilam@kidsgrowingcity.ca

I can’t wait for you to check out this episode and explore the incredible work of Thinkering Collective! See you next week!

Are you an elementary or middle school teacher eager to grow a thriving classroom or school garden, without extra work outside of class time? In this episode, I break down the four programs in the Oasis Program Series to help you find the best fit for your students, space, and level of commitment.

🌱 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
✔️ Why school gardens should be student-powered, teacher-led, and curriculum-connected
✔️ A breakdown of each Oasis program:

• Oasis Kinder 1 & 2 – Perfect for K-2 teachers or special needs classrooms
• Oasis Classroom – Grow food indoors with just a sunny window—no outdoor space required!
• Caja Oasis – Combine indoor growing with an ultra-low-maintenance outdoor planter garden
• Oasis School – Create a full-scale regenerative school garden, designed and built by your students

🔍 Want a sneak peek? Check out episode 37 for a full walkthrough of one of our Oasis lessons!

🎯 Next Steps:
📅 Deadline Alert! Book a free Zoom call with me before February 21st to ask questions and find your perfect program.
💡 Already know which program is right for you? Join today:

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Let’s get your students growing! 🌿

Welcome to Episode 37 of School Gardens with Ease! In this episode, I dive into a question I often get from teachers and principals:

"Can you come in and run the school garden program for us?"

My short answer? No. But there’s a deeper reason behind it, and today, I’m sharing why having an external vendor grow your school garden isn’t the best approach, and why you are the best person to lead this initiative in your classroom.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🌱 Why I stopped running school garden programs myself and shifted to empowering teachers.
🌱 The challenges of having outside facilitators lead school gardening programs.
🌱 How the Oasis Series was born and why it attracts the right teachers.
🌱 Why students learn more, take ownership, and feel a greater sense of achievement when their teacher leads the school garden.
🌱 The key to making a school garden work: ownership, care, and connection to the curriculum.

A school garden is not just an extracurricular activity, it’s a powerful, hands-on teaching tool that integrates seamlessly with math, science, language arts, social studies, and more. And you, as the classroom teacher, are the best person to make it happen!

Join the Oasis Program!

The Oasis Programs give you everything you need: lesson plans, growing guides, and support, to make school gardening simple and successful. Doors close on February 21st, so don’t miss your chance to join! If you’re listening after that date, hop on the waitlist for the next round.

👉 Learn more and sign up here: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Let’s grow a thriving, abundant school garden—together!

🎙 See you next week for another episode!

Let's delves into the common misconception that funding and approvals are the primary obstacles to creating a successful school garden. How about some insights on how to make the most of available resources and an emphasis on the importance of a well-connected teaching plan over physical garden infrastructure.

Key Points:

1. Funding Myths: Addressing the false belief that money and approvals are essential for starting a school garden.
2. Common Mistakes: Highlighting the pitfalls of investing in unnecessary tools and expensive setups.
3. Classroom Gardens: Demonstrating how impactful gardens can be created indoors with minimal budget.
4. Outdoor Gardens: Discussing how to utilize Permaculture techniques to build gardens without a big budget.
5. Focus on Education: Emphasizing the importance of a cohesive teaching plan that integrates the garden with the curriculum.
6. OASIS Programs: Introducing the OASIS lesson plans and their benefits for educators.

Resources Mentioned:

• OASIS Programs: Ready-to-use lesson plans with a success guarantee. Open until February 21st. Join the waitlist if you missed the deadline: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs
• Episodes 33, 34, and 35: Detailed guides on how to write effective lesson plans for school gardens.

Connect with Us:

• Visit our website: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/
• Follow us on Instagram @kidsgrowingcity and @schoolgardensforteachers
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KidsGrowingCityGardens

Call to Action: If you're passionate about creating a school garden, focus on building a solid teaching plan first. For more tips and ready-to-use lesson plans, check out the OASIS programs. Let's grow an educational garden together!

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain to give you a sneak peek into one of the gardening lesson plans from my OASIS programs. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to seamlessly integrate gardening into your curriculum while engaging your students in a hands-on and meaningful way, this episode is for you!

Join me as I walk you through the essential seven layers of a successful gardening lesson plan, and stick around to see a practical example featuring the "Sunlight and Sunflowers" lesson from our OASIS Classroom program. Whether you're growing an indoor or outdoor garden, this framework ensures you’re set up for success.

Resources Mentioned:

- Check out the visual version of this episode on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mvpKszVOuKw
- Visit Kids Growing City and explore the OASIS programs to see how these tools can transform your teaching:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs
- For seed timing and planting information, visit GrowVeg.com.
- For my recommended seeds list go here:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers
- For the two previous episodes go here:
https://youtu.be/heJjOhYvFOE

Ready to create your own garden-focused lesson plans? Tune in now and let me show you how easy it is to connect gardening to your curriculum while keeping students excited to learn. Don’t forget to subscribe for more practical tips to bring gardening into your classroom with ease!

Welcome back to School Gardens with Ease! In this episode, we’re diving into part 2 of writing effective lesson plans for your school garden project. If you haven’t listened to Episode 33 yet, make sure to go back and do that first! It’s packed with essential information on how to map out the tasks required to grow a garden with your students.

This episode focuses on how to turn garden tasks into step-by-step activity guides that make gardening fun, hands-on, and educational. I also share how we’ve structured the lesson plans inside the Oasis programs to connect gardening activities with key curriculum concepts. 🌻

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why you should start with garden tasks and build lesson plans around them
✅ The difference between activity guides and full lesson plans
✅ How to create a 10-15 week program to grow a garden during class time
✅ The key concepts students should learn, from germination and soil health to the water cycle and biodiversity
✅ Ways to make learning fun and practical through hands-on activities like building water filters, sundials, and sub-irrigated planters
✅ How to incorporate science, geography, history, math, language, and arts into your garden lesson plans

Why This Approach Works:

Creating a school garden is about more than just growing food, it’s about helping students build a deep connection with nature while making core subjects engaging and tangible. 🌎 By using gardening as a tool for learning, you’re showing students that what they learn in class has real-world applications.

To find out more about our Oasis Series of Lesson Plan Packages and Programs go HERE:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Today, on the School Gardens with Ease podcast, we’re talking about a crucial part of creating successful school gardens: lesson planning.

If you’re new here, one key thing to know is that school gardens should be grown by students, led by teachers, and supported by the community. Not parent-volunteer projects outside of class time.

Why Lesson Plans Matter:

If school gardens are built and maintained during class time, they must integrate with the curriculum. That’s non-negotiable. Gardens can enrich science, math, language arts, social studies, history, geography, health, and more. Without solid lesson plans, a school garden won’t achieve its educational goals.

But here’s where many teachers go wrong:
❌ Don’t start with your curriculum goals and try to fit random gardening activities to meet them.

The Right Way to Write Gardening Lesson Plans:

✅ Start with the garden itself.
Think about the tasks needed to grow a food garden. This includes:
1️⃣ Selecting seeds
2️⃣ Planning the timing based on your growing zone
3️⃣ Using sub-irrigated systems for seedlings
4️⃣ Creating a step-by-step plan for students to follow

Then, connect these hands-on gardening tasks to your curriculum. 

A garden that grows consistently over time provides ongoing educational opportunities, not just sporadic activities.

Final Reminder: It’s All About the Plan

A thriving school garden isn’t about hard work or personal time sacrifice. It’s about having a good plan.

And if you need help? My Oasis Suite of done-for-you lesson packages (https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs) gives you everything you need: growing guides, curriculum connections, and student activities.

Want more details? Download my free seed selection guide (https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers) and check out my guide for a low-cost, foolproof way to start your seeds indoors (https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout).

Thanks for listening! See you next time on School Gardens with Ease!

Welcome back to Part 2 of my conversation with Shant, a passionate teacher who has made classroom and school gardening a cornerstone of his teaching practice. In this episode, we dive deeper into Shant’s experience:

• Transitioning from indoor to outdoor gardening with the Caja Oasis program.
• The surprising simplicity of managing a school garden and how it fit seamlessly into his teaching schedule.
• The powerful community connections Shant built through gardening and fundraising initiatives.
• How gardening has positively impacted his students’ engagement, teamwork, and overall learning.

Shant also reflects on how gardening became a personal passion, spilling over into his home life and helping him discover new hobbies like making hot sauce from his harvest! He shares valuable advice for teachers considering classroom gardening but feeling overwhelmed by the idea of taking on more work.

If you haven't listened to Part 1, make sure to go back and catch it to hear how Shant got started on this journey. His story will leave you feeling inspired and ready to bring the magic of gardening into your own classroom!

Links and Resources:

To learn how to grow school gardens with ease, join our free annual School Gardens with Ease webinar here:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease

And to learn more about the Oasis programs go here:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review to help more educators discover how they can easily integrate gardening into their classrooms!

In this special two-part series, I sit down with Shant, an inspiring grade eight teacher who transformed his classroom with the Oasis Classroom program. Shant Sourian shares his journey from being, a hesitant new teacher, to becoming a passionate advocate for classroom gardening. In this episode, we explore:

• How Shant discovered the Oasis Classroom program and why he was initially hesitant to take it on.
• The unexpected ways gardening engaged his students and enhanced their learning.
• Creative ways Shant integrated gardening into his STEM curriculum.
• How gardening became a central part of his teaching strategy, making learning more tangible and enjoyable for his students.

Shant also shares heartwarming stories about his students' excitement and pride as they watched their garden flourish. You'll hear how Oasis gardening programs helped Shant create a vibrant, hands-on learning environment that empowered his students to make real-world connections.

Make sure to tune in to Part 2 (released in a few days), where Shant delves into his outdoor gardening journey and reveals the transformative impact gardening had on his teaching and personal life!

To learn how to grow school gardens with ease, join our free annual School Gardens with Ease webinar here:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease

And to learn more about the Oasis programs go here:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Welcome to the Final Episode of 2024!
In this reflective and inspiring episode, Leila Mireskandari wraps up the year by encouraging you to look back on your school garden journey (or none thereof) in 2024 and dream big for 2025. It’s the perfect time to evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and how to make your school garden dreams a reality in the coming year.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why the end of the calendar year is an ideal time to plan your school garden.
• The importance of reflecting on your past efforts:
  • What stopped you from starting?
  • What challenges did you face?
  • What successes should you repeat?
• Why the primary goal of a school garden should always be education, and how to avoid common pitfalls like involving the wrong people or setting the wrong goals.
• How simplicity is key to starting small and growing successfully.
• Why dreaming big is essential to achieving your goals and creating a lasting legacy for your students.

Upcoming in 2025:

• A sneak peek at January’s first episode: an inspiring interview with a teacher who has successfully implemented the Oasis Classroom and Caja Oasis programs for 3 years.

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Webinar: Learn how to plan, fundraise, and build your school garden for success: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease
• Oasis Programs: Comprehensive, curriculum-connected lesson plans and resources to make gardening with your students easy and rewarding: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Key Takeaway:

Reflect, learn, and dream again! Your 2025 school garden journey starts now, with the right mindset, clear goals, and actionable steps. Together, we can change the world, one school garden at a time.

Happy Holidays and New Year!
Thank you for joining us in 2024, and we can’t wait to grow with you in 2025. 🎉

Thriving School Gardens don't happen by accident!
In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, I’m guiding you through the steps to create an impactful, sustainable, and educational garden at your school. Whether you’re a teacher or a supportive parent, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you avoid common pitfalls and set your garden up for success.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The Power of School Gardens: Discover how gardens enhance student learning, life skills, and environmental stewardship.
• Common Mistakes to Avoid: Learn why parent-led gardens, extracurricular projects, and overly complex setups often fail.
• The 2-Phase Solution: Start with a classroom garden and expand to an outdoor garden with confidence and ease.
• The Role of Lesson Plans: Understand why cohesive lesson plans are the key to connecting gardening tasks with curriculum goals and staying on track.

Episode Highlights

1. What Doesn’t Work:
   • Parent-led gardens often lack educational alignment and become unsustainable.
   • Extracurricular gardens demand too much personal time and lose focus.
   • High-maintenance or overly complicated setups set everyone up for burnout.
2. What Works:
   • Gardens should be student-grown, teacher-led, and managed during class time to maximize educational impact.
   • Starting with a classroom garden builds confidence and avoids summer maintenance challenges.
   • Outdoor gardens thrive when designed with low-maintenance techniques like Hugelkultur, sheet mulching, and biodiversity.
3. Steps to Success:
   • Phase 1: Classroom Garden
     • Use simple supplies like seeds, soil, and a sunny window.
     • Write cohesive lesson plans that align with your curriculum and schedule.
     • Plan ahead for what to do with seedlings at the end of the year.
   • Phase 2: Outdoor Garden
     • Incorporate smart design techniques to reduce maintenance.
     • Engage students in every step, from planning to planting.
4. The Oasis Programs:
   • Oasis Classroom: Perfect for growing impactful classroom gardens.
   • Oasis School: Supports both classroom and outdoor gardens with regenerative designs.
   • Caja Oasis: Ideal for limited space, using sub-irrigated planters.
   • Each program includes ready-made lesson plans, student resources, and personalized coaching.

Resources Mentioned

• Free Guides: 

My Recommended Seeds List for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

Seed Starting in Schools Guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

• Hugelkultur Guide: 

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/8WLA6Gpd/checkout

• Annual School Gardens with Ease 70-minute Webinar: 

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease

• Oasis Programs Suite: 

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Creating a thriving school garden doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right approach, you can turn your garden into a hands-on teaching tool that inspires students and transforms your classroom.

Looking for a shortcut to an easy school garden?
Welcome to Episode 28 of School Gardens with Ease! In this special episode, your host Leila Mireskandari shifts gears to share what’s been on her mind lately—her annual free 70-minute webinar, starting December 1st. This webinar is all about empowering educators and parents to grow school gardens with ease, and in this episode, Leila offers a short and sweet version of what you’ll learn in the webinar.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The core philosophy behind School Gardens with Ease: working smarter, not harder, by aligning with nature and using Permaculture principles.
• Why school gardens must be led by teachers, entirely maintained by students, and supported (not run!) by parents to ensure success.
• Common mistakes that make school gardens harder than they need to be—and how to avoid them.
• How to integrate gardening seamlessly into your curriculum, using it as a hands-on educational tool for math, science, language arts, and more.
• The key role of lesson plans in keeping the garden project structured and stress-free for teachers.

Highlights:

• The “Ease” Mindset: Growing school gardens doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming!
• Why All Work Must Be Done by Students: The garden isn’t just a project; it’s a hands-on classroom where kids learn how to grow food and connect with nature.
• Teachers, No Extra Work for You: Learn how to use prep and class time to manage your garden without adding to your workload.
• Parents as Cheerleaders: Discover the specific ways parents and the community can provide support without stepping on the toes of teachers and students.
• Avoid the Pitfalls: Lunchtime gardening clubs and weekend planting events might sound fun but often lead to burnout and reduced educational value.

Don’t Miss the Free Webinar!

This episode is just the tip of the iceberg. For a detailed step-by-step guide on building an abundant and easy school garden, join Leila’s free School Gardens with Ease webinar. You’ll also receive three free guides to help you get started.

📅 Webinar Details:

• Recorded sessions available 3 times a day from December 1st to mid-February.
• Perfect for teachers and parents who want to start school gardens the right way.

👉 Click here to sign up for the webinar!
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/main-registration-page-school-gardens-with-ease

Let’s grow school gardens with ease together! 🌱

Don't grow whatever whenever!
Seasons matter!
In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari dives into a crucial aspect of gardening success: timing and seasonal planning. Whether you’re a teacher eager to grow educational gardens or a parent supporting a school gardening project, understanding the seasons is non-negotiable.

Leila explains why growing plants out of season (like tomato seeds in fall) leads to poor results and disheartened students. She stresses the importance of planning and preparation during fall and winter to ensure a thriving garden in spring.

Highlights:

• Why seasons are essential when planning and growing school gardens.
• Common mistakes like planting at the wrong time and how to avoid them.
• The importance of considering a plant's full lifecycle and teaching kids responsibility and care.
• Tips on how fall and winter are the ideal times for planning, gathering resources, and preparing for spring gardens.
• Details about Leila’s Oasis Fall and Winter Program and her upcoming free webinar on planning spring gardens (starting December 1st).

Links and Resources:

• GrowVeg.com – A helpful resource for seasonal planting.
• Oasis Fall and Winter Program – Check out this program for bringing gardening into classrooms during the colder months.
• Join the free spring planning webinar waitlist here.

Take Action:

• Teachers: Plan now for spring! Avoid the stress and disappointment of late starts.
• Parents: Use this season to talk to teachers and gather resources to support a successful school garden.
• Don’t wait! When spring arrives, it’ll be too late to begin planning.

Ready to start? Explore the links above and reach out to Leila now. Let’s ensure your school garden thrives with proper timing and preparation.
Saw this episode late? Still use the links above to add yourself to waitlists for next year.

Let's welcome Lauren MacLean, a passionate children's author, educator, and outdoor learning consultant. Lauren’s books, including Me and My Sit Spot and Finding Common Ground, inspire young readers to connect with nature, and her work as an educator brings hands-on outdoor experiences into the classroom.

Lauren shares insights on integrating school gardens into the curriculum and offers practical tips for teachers looking to overcome common barriers, such as finding time for outdoor education. She explains how she creatively weaves subjects like math, science, and social studies into outdoor learning, making the garden a year-round, interactive classroom. Lauren’s journey from a former field hockey athlete to a teacher passionate about outdoor education highlights her commitment to fostering environmental stewardship among young learners.

Lauren also introduces her new book, Sitting with Nature: An Educator's Guide to Sit Spots, a comprehensive resource filled with weekly prompts and lesson ideas to engage students in nature-based activities.

Topics Covered:

• Lauren’s inspiring transition to outdoor education and how mentors influenced her teaching approach
• Practical advice on using school gardens to meet curriculum requirements in various subjects
• Addressing teachers' common concerns, like scheduling outdoor time and managing behavior in outdoor settings
• The concept of "sit spots" and how repeated visits to natural spaces build deeper connections to nature
• How Lauren's books bring the magic of nature into classrooms and homes
• The upcoming virtual launch for Sitting with Nature on November 26th—an event for teachers interested in outdoor education

Resources and Links:

• Lauren MacLean’s Website: Teach Outdoors
• Me and My Sit Spot - Amazon
• Finding Common Ground - Amazon
• Sitting With Nature: An Educator’s Guide to Sit Spots - Outdoor Learning Store

Connect with Lauren:

• Website: teachoutdoors.ca
• Join the virtual book launch on November 26th to celebrate Sitting with Nature!

Subscribe & Follow:
Don’t forget to subscribe to School Gardens with Ease and check out more resources on bringing gardens and nature into the classroom!

Build a Resilient School Garden with Hugelkultur!
In this episode, Leila shares an innovative and regenerative gardening technique that can make your school garden more resilient, water-conserving, and low-maintenance — hugelkultur! 

Leila discusses how this permaculture technique, which involves creating a raised garden bed with a foundation of buried wood, can significantly reduce summer maintenance needs and provide long-term benefits to both the garden and the learning experience. Hugelkultur is not only water-efficient and nutrient-rich, but it also extends the growing season, supports local wildlife, and serves as a hands-on educational tool for students. This episode provides a step-by-step guide to building a hugelkultur bed with your students and highlights how this method can make your school garden more self-sustaining.

Topics Covered:

1. What is Hugelkultur?
   • Definition and translation of "hugelkultur" (mound or hill culture).
   • How to create a raised garden bed using layers of wood topped with soil.
2. Benefits of Hugelkultur Gardens:
   • Water Conservation: Wood in the bed acts like a sponge, retaining water and reducing the need for frequent watering.
   • Nutrient-Rich Soil: Over time, the decomposing wood enriches the soil, eliminating the need for additional fertilizers.
   • Extended Growing Season: Heat from the decomposing wood helps keep the soil warmer, allowing plants to thrive for longer in colder climates.
   • Biodiversity and Wildlife Support: Hugelkultur beds attract beneficial woodland wildlife and mushrooms, enhancing the ecosystem around the garden.
   • Resilience and Low Maintenance: Fewer watering requirements and built-in nutrients reduce the need for summer maintenance.
3. Science and Educational Value:
   • Opportunities for teaching students about natural water cycles, soil health, decomposition, and biodiversity.
4. Practical Considerations:
   • Recommended wood types (avoid chipped wood, willow, and black walnut).
   • Where to source whole, dead wood for building the bed.
   • Tips for constructing a stable, tidy hugelkultur bed with students.

Resources Mentioned:

• Guide to Building a Hugelkultur Garden with Students
• Oasis School Program, which includes step-by-step gardening lesson plans and resources:

https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

• Guide to Setting Up a Watering Chest for Summer Maintenance 

Don’t Miss Out:
Leila shares her personal experience with hugelkultur and how it transformed her approach to school gardens. This episode is packed with practical advice and educational insights that will make your school garden setup a breeze!

Let's tackles the "Expensive" myth surrounding school gardens: 
Drawing from over a decade of experience growing school gardens, Leila Mireskandari, reveals why the idea that school gardens are costly is often rooted in misconceptions, and how a well-planned garden can actually be both affordable and sustainable. 
From examining why people assume school gardens are pricey to offering practical, low-cost alternatives, Leila guides listeners through the steps to make school gardening an achievable goal. 
Discover the common pitfalls that lead to budget-busting gardens, the traps of unnecessary equipment, and the benefits of keeping gardens student-led, teacher-guided, and connected to the curriculum. By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped with insights to build a garden that’s as cost-effective as it is impactful.

Key Takeaways:

1. Why People Think School Gardens Are Expensive: Leila explains the influence of social assumptions, flashy but unnecessary equipment, and past failures.
2. Three Reasons School Gardens Fail: Discover the main factors that lead to costly and unsuccessful gardens, including community-led models and gardens disconnected from curriculum.
3. Affordable Solutions for Effective Gardens: Learn how to use Permaculture principles, prioritize student involvement, and minimize expenses.
4. Avoiding Unnecessary Costs: Leila highlights items and features often mistaken as "must-haves" that can actually drive up costs without adding value.
5. The Value of Doing It Right: Gardens built with intention, sustainability, and the right support become worth every dollar.

Resources:

• Previous related episodes: Episode 6 and Episode 7 for ideas on classroom gardens.
• Links to more resources for teachers: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/Gardening-for-Elementary-Teachers

In this episode of the School Gardens with Ease Podcast, host Leila Mireskandari shifts focus to address parents who are eager to bring a garden to their child's school. While primarily aimed at parents, the episode offers valuable insights for teachers as well, particularly in building partnerships with parents to create sustainable, educational gardens.

Leila reflects on her own journey, starting as a concerned parent without a background in gardening, before transforming her passion into a full-time career. Sharing personal stories from her early days of volunteering for after-school gardening programs, she highlights the challenges and lessons learned along the way, including the reality of burnout and the lack of teacher engagement when gardens are treated as extracurricular projects.

Key Takeaways:

• Sustainability of School Gardens: The most effective and sustainable school gardens are those led by teachers, grown by students, and supported by parents. These gardens integrate seamlessly into the school day and curriculum, making them more impactful and easier to maintain.
• Parent Involvement: Rather than spearheading garden projects themselves, parents should focus their energy on supporting the garden after it’s established. Fundraising for supplies and lesson plans, as well as helping with summer watering, are the best ways to contribute.
• Avoiding Burnout: Leila emphasizes that parent-led after-school programs or garden clubs, though well-intentioned, often lead to chaos, exhaustion, and unsustainable projects. She advises parents to resist the urge to take on the full responsibility and instead collaborate with interested teachers.
• Lesson Plans and Support: Leila has developed comprehensive lesson plan packages and provides coaching for teachers to ensure that school gardens are educational and integrated into the curriculum. Parents are encouraged to help fundraise for these materials.

By the end of the episode, Leila urges parents to find a passionate teacher and send them her way for guidance and resources, emphasizing that this is the easiest and most effective path to a thriving school garden.

Resources Mentioned:

• School garden lesson plan packages and coaching support by Leila Mireskandari: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/Gardening-for-Elementary-Teachers

Tune in next week for more tips on making school gardens easy and impactful!

Welcome to School Gardens with Ease! I'm your host, Leila Mireskandari, and in this episode, I explore how food gardens can serve multiple purposes—beyond just growing food.

Last week, I spoke with Victoria Hackett from Outdoor Classrooms about her system for outdoor education, where she identified four types of gardens:

• Gardens that feed
• Gardens for art and beauty
• Gardens as outdoor learning stations
• Gardens that attract wildlife

If you missed that episode, I encourage you to check it out and connect with Victoria if outdoor education interests you.

A Food Garden That Does It All

In today’s episode, I discuss how the food gardens we create in my Oasis programs—like the Oasis School and Caja Oasis—can serve all four functions at once. Using Permaculture principles, we integrate multiple elements into our garden designs to meet diverse needs. Here's how:

1. Feeding People
   • The primary focus of my programs is to grow food during class time and align it with the curriculum, teaching students not just gardening but also math, science, language arts, and more.
2. Creating Outdoor Learning Stations
   • These gardens become living classrooms, providing hands-on learning experiences, even for older students up to grade 8.
3. Attracting Wildlife
   • Through polyculture and companion planting, our gardens invite beneficial insects like bees, butterflies, and ladybugs. Edible flowers like marigolds and nasturtiums add beauty and attract essential pollinators.
4. Serving as Art and Beauty Spaces
   • Inspired by nature, we design gardens with curves rather than rigid rectangles. These organic shapes—like circles and mandalas—add aesthetic appeal and mimic natural ecosystems, making the garden inviting and magical.

Permaculture Principles in Action

While I don’t teach Permaculture directly, its principles influence every element of my programs—from lesson plans and plant selection to student booklets and step-by-step growing guides. Concepts like valuing diversity and integrating elements ensure our gardens serve multiple purposes.

If you're curious about how the Oasis Program Suite can help you build a multi-purpose school garden with ease, check out the link below:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, host Leila Mireskandari welcomes her first-ever guest, Victoria Hackett, M.Ed., an award-winning nature-based educator and advocate. Victoria shares her journey from being a parent envisioning a better outdoor space for her children’s school to becoming a leader in the creation of outdoor classrooms. Together, Leila and Victoria discuss the transformative power of outdoor learning and how it impacts both children and educators.

Key Discussion Points:

• Victoria's Journey: Learn how Victoria’s experience as a parent led her to create her first outdoor classroom, and how this inspired her to help educators integrate nature into their teaching practices.
• The 5 Phases of Outdoor Teaching: Victoria breaks down her approach to outdoor education, which includes creating the infrastructure, getting kids outdoors, teaching and learning in nature, embracing weather challenges, and ensuring sustainability in outdoor spaces.
• The 4 Types of Gardens: Explore the different types of gardens that can be created in an outdoor classroom: Gardens that Feed, Gardens that Attract Wildlife, Gardens for Art and Beauty, and Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations.
• Overcoming Barriers: Victoria and Leila discuss the common challenges teachers face, such as lack of time and discomfort with outdoor spaces, and offer practical solutions to help teachers feel more confident about teaching outside.
• The Benefits of Outdoor Learning: Discover the numerous developmental and emotional benefits children experience when they spend time outdoors, from reduced stress to improved behavior and deeper connections with nature.

About Victoria Hackett, M.Ed.

Victoria Hackett is a passionate leader in outdoor education with over 30 years of experience in various educational settings. Through her work with educators and parents, she provides tailored support to help cultivate outdoor classrooms that enrich children's learning and well-being. She is the creator of the Outdoor Classrooms Podcast, CIRCLE membership community, and the upcoming Outdoor Classrooms Teacher Certification Program. Victoria is dedicated to combating nature-deficit disorder and fostering environments where children can thrive outdoors.

Connect with Victoria:

• Website: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• Email: victoria@outdoor-classrooms.com
• CIRCLE Membership Community: Join Here

Victoria will be launching her new Outdoor Classrooms Teacher Certification Program in late December 2024/January 2025. Stay tuned for details!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, host Leila Mireskandari reveals the biggest mistake teachers make when writing or finding gardening lesson plans. Spoiler alert: it's all about how you approach them!

Leila explains that many teachers start by focusing on their curriculum needs—like teaching math, science, or language arts—and then try to build a gardening lesson around those topics. While that method might work for some hands-on activities, it’s not the right approach for growing a garden. Leila breaks down why this strategy leads to scattered, non-cohesive lessons that won't help you or your students grow an actual garden.

Instead, Leila shares her expert approach: Start with the garden! From there, create a step-by-step list of tasks needed to grow your garden, then tie those tasks back to your core curriculum. Whether you’re planning a classroom, container, raised bed, or in-ground garden, this method ensures that your students grow a thriving garden while learning a variety of subjects in the process.

Highlights of this episode include:

• Examples of ineffective gardening lesson plans
• Why gardening isn’t a one-off activity like cooking
• How to connect gardening activities to multiple curriculum subjects
• The importance of proper timing and task management in growing a garden
• Leila’s secret for creating impactful, cohesive lesson plans for classroom gardens

Leila also introduces her Oasis series of programs, which offer ready-to-use lesson plans designed to help teachers grow a full garden during class time in just 10 hours over spring. Whether you’re new to school gardens or looking to improve your gardening lesson plans, this episode is packed with actionable advice.

Key Takeaway: Start with the garden and build your lesson plans around what needs to be done to grow it—then link those tasks to your curriculum.

Resources Mentioned:

• Oasis Series Programs: Find pre-made lesson plans and guides to grow your classroom garden effortlessly.
• Leila’s Recommended Seed List for Schools – Click here for a list of easy-to-grow seeds for your classroom garden.
• Learn the best technique for indoor seed starting for classrooms that guarantees your success in growing strong and health seedlings using this Indoor Seed Starting in Schools: PDF Guide

If you have any questions or need more tips, feel free to reach out to Leila for future episode topics. 
Leilam@kidsgrowingcity.ca

In this episode, Leila dives into the single biggest mistake teachers make when starting a school garden. Drawing from over a decade of experience working with hundreds of teachers, Leila reveals why trying to grow a garden outside of class time is the number one error educators should avoid. She explains how this common misconception leads to frustration, exhaustion, and disengagement—and how to avoid it.

Leila emphasizes the importance of integrating garden projects into class time, making them a hands-on, experiential teaching tool that connects to various subjects like science, math, language arts, and social studies. With real-life examples and actionable advice, Leila shares how designing, building, and maintaining the garden as part of the curriculum can enhance student engagement and learning.

Key Points Discussed:

• Why growing a garden outside of class time is the biggest mistake teachers make.
• The misconception that gardens must be set up outside class before being used for education.
• The importance of connecting the garden to the curriculum as a hands-on teaching tool.
• How gardens can facilitate the teaching of subjects like soil science, water cycles, biodiversity, math, and social justice.
• The challenges of managing a garden grown outside class time, including coordination, time, and resources.
• The benefits of engaging students in every aspect of the garden, from design to maintenance, to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility.

Stay tuned for the next episode, where Leila will discuss the biggest mistake teachers make when writing lesson plans for school gardens.

Connect with Leila:

• Website: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/
• Instagram: @kidsgrowingcity
• Twitter: @kidsgrowingcity
• Facebook: @kidsgrowingcity

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila Mireskandari takes a step back from technical tips to bust the biggest myths about growing a school garden. If you've been overwhelmed by the idea of starting a garden at your school, this episode is for you! Leila goes straight to the heart of five common misconceptions that might be holding you back.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Myth 1: The more volunteers, the easier it is – Not necessarily! Learn why too much help can actually create chaos.
• Myth 2: School gardens are hard work – Only if you’re doing it wrong. Leila shares how to simplify the process.
• Myth 3: Growing a school garden requires extra time – Wrong! Discover how to make it part of your teaching without giving up your weekends or afternoons.
• Myth 4: Summer is the growing season, so school gardens don’t make sense – Leila explains why spring and fall are key, not summer.
• Myth 5: You need to know how to grow food to start a school garden – Find out why teaching skills are more important than gardening skills.

Leila shares her decade of experience, offering practical advice that will help you grow your dream teaching garden with ease. Plus, check out her Seed Starting Guide for schools, linked in the show notes, to help you get started strong.

Don’t let myths hold you back from creating an amazing teaching tool for your classroom!

Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In today’s episode, we're breaking down one of the most confusing aspects of gardening for many teachers: planting seeds. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the timing, spacing, or whether to plant seeds indoors or outdoors, this episode is for you. Leila simplifies the process so you can confidently start your school garden without wasting time on complex details.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The importance of timing for planting based on your gardening zone
• How to use the free tool at Growveg.com to create a custom planting schedule
• Which seeds need to be planted indoors vs. outdoors (and which don’t like transplanting!)
• Leila’s three fun seed-spacing categories: Sprinkles, 1-Inchers, and 1-Footers
• Why you can ignore the stress around perfect spacing, and how companion planting can save the day
• How to make your garden look lush while conserving water and preventing weeds

Helpful Links:

• Growveg.com – Get your custom planting schedule based on your zone and the seeds you want to grow.
• Leila’s Recommended Seed List for Schools – Click here for a list of easy-to-grow seeds for your classroom garden.
• Learn the best technique for indoor seed starting for classrooms that guarantees your success in growing strong and health seedlings using this Indoor Seed Starting in Schools: PDF Guide

Tune in and gain the confidence to tackle the seed-starting process with ease!

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease, Leila shares creative and engaging gardening activities perfect for fall and winter.
Even without an outdoor garden, you can bring greenery and food-growing projects into your classroom with low-cost, hands-on activities.
Learn about seed stratification, making seed balls, growing microgreens, and more!
These activities are fun, educational, and easy to integrate into your lessons, keeping students connected to nature year-round.

Download the accompanying checklist for all the activities mentioned in this episode:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/fall-and-winter-gardening-checklist-for-classrooms

And here's Leila's complete course with step by step Lesson Plans, Student Booklets, and Classroom Wall posters plus an optional supplies delivery for Greater Toronto Area schools on this very topic:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/oasis-fall-and-winter-indoors-2024

In this final installment of our series on pitching your annual vegetable school garden, we're diving deep into two essential topics that will take your garden proposal to the next level: cost-effective garden design and budgeting strategies.

Join Leila Mireskandari as she reveals powerful permaculture design techniques, like Hugelkultur and sheet mulching, that can transform your school garden into a regenerative, water-conserving powerhouse—all while staying within budget. Learn why curvy, natural garden designs outperform traditional straight rows and discover how to source materials like wood and soil for free or at minimal cost.

Leila also tackles the crucial aspect of budgeting for your garden project. From seeds and soil to the often-overlooked need for high-quality lesson plans, she breaks down exactly what you need to include in your budget to ensure your garden is both educational and sustainable. Plus, find out which commonly purchased garden items are a complete waste of money and what to invest in instead.

Don't miss this episode if you're ready to pitch a school garden project that impresses funders, engages students, and keeps costs low!

Key Takeaways:

• Why you should embrace natural curves in your garden design.
• How Hugelkultur can drastically reduce your garden's water needs and build rich soil over time.
• The benefits of sheet mulching and how it can save you from digging up grass.
• Essential items to include in your garden budget—and what to avoid.
• The critical role of lesson plans in making your garden a true educational experience.

Links & Resources:

• Download the summary PDF of this 5-episode series [Link in show notes].
• Learn more about the Oasis Series programs for ready-to-use lesson plans, student booklets, and classroom wall posters: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs
• Guide to setting up a watering chest for your garden: https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/c5FtFUCe/checkout
• Hugelkultur Guide:
  https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/8WLA6Gpd/checkout
• Contact Leila at Leilam@kidsgrowingcity.ca for personalized advice or questions.

Subscribe & Review: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review! Your feedback helps us reach more teachers who are passionate about school gardens.

In Episode 14 of the School Gardens with Ease podcast, Leila Mireskandari continues her deep dive into crafting a winning proposal for your school’s annual vegetable garden project. This episode is a must-listen for teachers ready to transform their classrooms and schools into thriving green spaces that enhance learning across all subjects.

What You’ll Learn:

• Timing is Everything: Discover how to seamlessly integrate garden activities into your daily class schedule without adding extra work or stress.
• Perfect Placement: Learn why the location of your garden is crucial and how to choose a spot that gets optimal sunlight, is easily accessible for watering, and remains visible to foster community support.
• Classroom vs. Outdoor Gardens: Get expert advice on whether to start with a classroom garden or dive straight into an outdoor garden project. Leila shares the benefits and challenges of each, helping you make the best decision for your school.
• Preventing Garden Vandalism: Understand why visibility is key to protecting your garden from vandalism and theft, and how personalized student-made signs can create a sense of community ownership.
• Looking Ahead: Stay tuned for the next episode, where Leila will introduce low-maintenance Permaculture design ideas and budget-friendly tips to help you build a sustainable and impactful school garden.

Whether you're a first-time garden planner or an experienced educator looking to enhance your current project, this episode is packed with practical tips and insights to ensure your school garden proposal is a success. Don’t forget to check out parts 1-3 of this series for a comprehensive guide to pitching and planning your school garden.

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In Episode 13 of the School Gardens with Ease podcast, host Leila Mireskandari continues her insightful series on how to pitch and plan your annual vegetable school garden project. This episode focuses on one of the most crucial aspects of your proposal: the integration of lesson plans that turn your garden into a powerful educational tool.

Key Takeaways:

• The Core of School Gardens: Discover why lesson plans are essential for transforming a school garden into an educational experience and how they differentiate school gardens from any other garden.
• Budgeting for Educational Success: Understand the often-overlooked cost of developing lesson plans and why it's critical to include these in your garden proposal's budget.
• Strategic Lesson Planning: Leila shares her secret to writing effective garden-related lesson plans—starting with the garden tasks and integrating them with your existing curriculum. Learn how to create a series of lessons that align with the natural schedule of gardening while covering key subjects like science, math, language, arts, and social studies.
• Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Learn why one-off gardening lessons aren't enough and how a well-structured, integrated approach can ensure that your students not only grow a garden but also gain meaningful, curriculum-aligned learning experiences.
• Preparing for Your Pitch: Get tips on how to communicate the importance of lesson plans in your pitch or proposal, setting the stage for a well-rounded, funded, and educationally impactful garden project.

If you're preparing to propose a school garden or looking to enhance your current project with structured educational content, this episode is a must-listen. Stay tuned for the next episode, where Leila will discuss the timing and location of your garden, crucial factors that influence your project’s budget and success.

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

To figure out the timing of seeds for your growing zone:
Growveg.com

In Episode 12 of the School Gardens with Ease podcast, your host Leila Mireskandari continues the essential discussion on creating a compelling proposal for your annual vegetable school garden project. This episode is part 2 of the series and dives deep into the heart of your proposal: the detailed plan.

Leila explains the critical elements your plan should cover, including the "who," "what," "when," and "where" of your garden project. She emphasizes the importance of ensuring that students, not adults, are at the center of all garden activities, from building to growing. This hands-on involvement is crucial for making your school garden a true educational tool.

In this episode, Leila also breaks down what types of plants to include and avoid in your garden. She provides insights into choosing the right plants that align with the school schedule and growing season, ensuring that your students can enjoy the fruits of their labor before the school year ends or return to a bountiful harvest in the fall.

Whether you're planning an outdoor garden or a classroom garden, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you build a garden that thrives with minimal maintenance over the summer. Leila also highlights her Oasis Classroom program, perfect for those interested in creating a robust indoor garden experience.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The essential components of a detailed school garden plan
• Why students should be the ones doing all the garden work
• How to select plants that are easy to grow and fit the school calendar
• Tips for minimizing summer maintenance with smart plant choices
• The benefits of classroom gardens and how they can be a great alternative to outdoor gardens

Links Mentioned:

• Episode 6: The Unsung Heroes of School Gardening – Classroom Gardens
• Oasis Classroom Program
• Free Recommended List of Seeds for School Gardens
• GrowVeg.com Garden Planner (7-Day Free Trial)

Tune in to ensure your school garden proposal is complete, compelling, and sets you up for a successful growing season. And don’t forget to join us in the next episode, where we’ll explore the “what to teach” component of your garden plan.

n this episode of the "School Gardens with Ease" podcast, host Leila Mireskandari dives into the first part of a crucial topic: how to create a compelling proposal for an educational food garden at your school. This episode, the first in a multi-part series, focuses on the foundational elements you need to make your pitch irresistible to school decision-makers like principals, directors, school board committees, and parent councils.

Episode Highlights:

• Introduction to School Garden Proposals: Learn why it’s important to craft a solid proposal or presentation, especially if you need approvals, funding, or other forms of support.
• Key Elements of Your Proposal:
  1. Type of Garden: Why an annual vegetable garden is the best choice for educational purposes, and how it stands out from other garden types like pollinator gardens or fruit orchards.
  2. The "Why" of Your Garden: Detailed benefits of a school garden, including its role as a versatile educational tool, its hands-on experiential learning opportunities, and its potential for fostering teamwork, empathy, and environmental stewardship.

Leila also emphasizes the empowering nature of food gardening, offering students a tangible way to contribute to environmental solutions. By the end of this episode, you'll be equipped to start building a proposal that not only secures support but also turns stakeholders into enthusiastic advocates for your school garden project.

Tune in next week as Leila continues with the detailed plan and budget components of your school garden proposal.

Resources Mentioned:

• My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
  https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers
• Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
  https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout
• To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
  https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Don’t miss this insightful guide to making your school garden dreams a reality!

In this episode we will talk about how not to engage your community in your school garden project and how to do it properly and at the right time.
This goes against the grain but is something we should talk about.

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In this episode we will talk about what to do if you were given an old garden and was told to take over, revive and use it. Or if you discovered an old garden and decided to take over, revive and use it.

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

Indoor Seed Starting in Schools guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In this episode we answer the question, who should grow the school garden.
Cause it seems like a lot of work and those who do it seem to struggle a lot. Should it be the teachers? The parents? Vendors and Community Partners?

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Classroom gardens are underrated.
More teachers should grow them and more people should talk about them. So let's talk about them in this episode:

Here are the links I mentioned in this episode:

My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

The Sub-irrigated Indoor seed Starting Guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/pZ2cNrYj/checkout

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

Growveg.com garden planner:
https://www.growveg.com/

In this episode let's talk about how overrated outdoor school gardens and those expensive equipment indoor gardens are!
How inaccessible and out of reach they are to most teachers and how unfair it is that majority of students don't have the chance to learn how to grow their own veggies because of that.

To learn more about my Oasis Suite of programs you can visit the following link:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/links-oasis-programs

In this episode we focus on the most important summer maintenance chore, watering.

Here are the links and downloads I promise you in the episode:

Watering Chest Guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/c5FtFUCe/checkout
Hugelkultur Guide:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/offers/8WLA6Gpd/checkout
Caja Planters:
https://www.thegrowingconnection.com/
Caja Oasis School Gardening Program:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/cajaoasis2025
Amazon finds:
Watering clay spikes
Olla Pots

In this episode of School Gardens with Ease podcast we focus on the topic of summer maintenance.
Here are the two downloads that I promise you in this episode.
Guide to a School Garden with Almost No Summer Maintenance:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/school-gardens-with-almost-no-summer-maintenance-free-guide
My Recommended List of Seeds for Schools:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/get-seed-list-gift-for-teachers

In this episode, we will continue to discuss the difference between Community Gardens and School Gardens and why you should never pitch the idea of a school garden as a community garden.

As this is Part 2 of this topic, I encourage you to listen to the previous episode first so this episode makes more sense to you.

In this episode, we will discuss the difference between Community Gardens and School Gardens and why you should never pitch the idea of a school garden as a community garden.

In this episode we get into the story behind School Gardens with East podcast, why you might wanna listen to it as a teacher, and how it could help you.

In case you are interested in following this work elsewhere or are interested in getting in contact outside this podcast, here are some information:

Kids Growing City website:
http://kidsgrowingcity.com
Link to School Garden programs:
https://www.kidsgrowingcity.ca/Gardening-for-Elementary-Teachers
Social media:
@kidsgrowingcity
@schoolgardensforteachers

COMING SOON! I'm Leila Mireskandari, the founder and director of Kids Growing City, a non-profit with the mission to teach the next generation how to grow their own food!
I have dedicated over a decade of my life to supporting teachers to grow classroom and school gardens, full-time, have studied in this field, have written countless growing lesson plans and built many growing programs.
And I'm on a mission to help Elementary and Middle School Teachers...

... TEACH their flourishing, producing, and empowering classroom and school gardens into existence!

With EASE!
And WOTHOUT the usual hassles!
I wanna show you that this is much easier than you could ever imagine, if you do it right! 

YOU can do this!

Whether you are a seasoned school garden grower or a complete newbie, I've got you covered with expert advice, tips, tricks, tactics and techniques to make growing food with your class super easy, fun, and rewarding!