How-To
Best Butterfly Gardening Web Sites
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/unpave/monarchWWW.html
From Journey North
Butterfly gardens are easy to plant, and you can design one that gives monarchs habitat throughout their breeding cycle.
Creating a Pollinator Garden
http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/jan03/pg1.html
From Kids Gardening
By cultivating a garden, schoolyard, or even a few containers that allure these important plant partners, students can provide vital oases amidst deserts of buildings and concrete. They can, in turn, set up investigations of animal visitors and their sometimes flashy floral partners, and begin to understand how these threads of life connect.
Designing Gardens and Habitats
http://www.kidsgardening.com/themes/design1.asp
From the National Gardening Association
Whether you are replanting last year's garden beds, expanding your outdoor classroom area, or beginning to dream of a green schoolyard, the National Gardening Association offers a step-by-step program to get started or to expand and existing garden.
Ecoregional Planting Guides
http://pollinator.org/guides.htm
These ecoregional planting guides are tailored to specific areas of the U.S. Enter your zip code and you’ll get a 24-page pdf file with native planting information that will help you select plants for pollinators.
Green Thumb Challenge
http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/index.php
From the Green Education Foundation
The Green Education Foundation (GEF) provides gardening instructions; checklists for school approvals; plot location guidelines; container garden suggestions; funding resources; garden plans, vegetable and flower suggestions; and more. In addition, GEF is calling on schools and youth groups nationwide to plant 10,000 classroom and outdoor gardens – the largest youth gardening initiative in history!
GreenWorks! Guide from Project Learning Tree
http://www.plt.org/greenworks/greenworksguide.pdf
The GreenWorks! Connecting Community Action and Service Learning Guide is for educators who want to partner with a business, nonprofit, or other community organization on an environmental action project – and for the people in those organizations who want to partner with a local school. The guide also supports teachers wanting to involve their students in service learning activities.
The guide has five parts that cover:
- An overview of community action projects and their benefits to students
- The connection between service learning in the curriculum and environmental action projects
- How to develop, plan, and implement a successful project
- Examples of successful GreenWorks! projects
- PLT activities, templates and other tools, and resources
Happenin’ Habitats
http://happeninhabitats.pwnet.org/
From the National Wildlife Federation and Prince William Network
Explore this web site to learn about habitat and for a wealth of information how to create an accessible wildlife habitat site, or outdoor classroom, right in your own schoolyard!
Monarch Watch's Monarch Waystation Program
http://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/
To offset the loss of milkweed and nectar sources, Monarch Watch encourages people to create, conserve, and protect milkweed/monarch habitats. "Monarch Waystations” can be established in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land. Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline to extremely low levels.
People's Garden Initiative
CLICK HERE for information about the People's Garden Initiative, an an effort by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which challenges its employees to establish People's Gardens at USDA facilities worldwide or help communities create gardens. People's Gardens vary in size and type, but all have a common purpose - to help the community they're within and the environment.
The People's Garden: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities
CLICK HERE for a brochure about the People’s Garden, which is an initiative by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that challenges its employees to establish People’s Gardens at USDA facilities worldwide or help communities create gardens. People’s Gardens vary in size and type, but all have a common purpose – to help the community they’re within and the environment.
Planning a Pollinator Garden
http://www.kidsgardening.com/Dig/digdetail.taf?Type=Art&id=2149
From the National Gardening Association
Making a place in your schoolyard specifically for native pollinators can help preserve struggling local populations. Students benefit from having a space for real-life observation and exploration, and can feel pride in their environmental stewardship. Learn about native pollinators and their habitat needs, and collect the necessary information for creating such a habitat in your schoolyard.
Plants Attractive to Native Bees
From the USDA Agricultural Research Service
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=12052
Here is a list of plants attractive to native bees.
School Garden Wizard
http://www.schoolgardenwizard.org/
From the U.S. Botonic Garden and Chicago Botanic Garden
Gardening and plant-based learning open a door to discovery of the living world. It stimulates even as it focuses and calms. Within the school environment, a garden offers an unparalleled platform to help kids achieve learning goals in ways that are recommended by the National Science Standards and most state and local educational bodies. This web site includes sections on: making the case for a garden, planning for success, crfeating the garden, learning in the garden, and keeping it growing.
School Gardens
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/child/school/sgintro.htm
From the Texas Agricultural Extension Service's 4-H Association
This web site also offers advice and a step-by-step guide.
Schoolyard Habitat: Stewardship Through Action
http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/schoolyd.html and http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/pdf/habitatguide.pdf
From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has developed a guide to provide the basic steps needed to restore or create wildlife habitat. It is designed so that students complete several tasks that will lead to establishing a forest, meadow or wetland on school grounds. The projects can range in size from a small 20’ by 20’ area to an acre or more. These steps were developed from the experiences of several schools that have completed similar projects. The process incorporates critical thinking and decision-making skills while challenging students in reading, writing, science, mathematics and language arts.
Schoolyard Habitats
http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There/Educators/Schoolyard-Habitats.aspx
From the National Wildlife Federation
To help reconnect today's children to the outdoors, the National Wildlife Federation assists schools in developing outdoor classrooms called Schoolyard Habitats®, where educators and students learn how to attract and support local wildlife. These wildlife habitats become places where students not only learn about wildlife species and ecosystems, but also outdoor classrooms where they hone their academic skills and nurture their innate curiosity and creativity. For worksheets and how-to instructions, go to http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There/Educators/Schoolyard-Habitats/Create/How-To-Guide.aspx.
It is also recommended that you search on the web for school garden information in your school division and state. Many states have developed programs to encourage schoolyard gardens.