Garden in a Box
Nutrition Curriculum Resources for School Gardens
School gardens are a great opportunity to engage students in active learning. It’s a good way to teach youth about the importance of nutrition. Creating a curriculum that works for your students is key. Below are some resources that may help tailor your lesson plans. Grow It, Try It, Like It!: A free nutrition education…
Read MoreYouth Lessons and Activities for Gardening
Lessons and activities are a fun way to engage students with a school garden. We’ve included some resources to check out for ideas below. Youth Grow Garden Lesson Manual: A good comprehensive guide for K-5. The manual includes classroom management, food safety, evaluations, plant parts, seeds, pollinators, and more. Both lesson plans and activities are…
Read MoreFood and Flowers Grow in Fairgrounds Garden
A small plot packed with food and flowers grows in the heart of the Mower County Fairgrounds in Austin. The fairgrounds garden is called the Mower County Master Gardeners’ Teaching and Donation Garden and it benefits from both MSHS community outreach programs: Garden-in-a-Box since 2019 and Minnesota Green in 2021. In coordination with the University…
Read MoreGIAB Resources: KidsGardening.org
KidsGardening.org is a great resource for anyone interested in starting or growing a school garden. They have more than 100 lesson plans and activities available to educators. Resources are available for students K-12. The wide variety of gardening activities is great for customizable education plans. After subscribing to their monthly newsletter, most resources are free…
Read MoreGIAB Resources: School Garden Support Organization
As schools work to include more local and fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches, school gardens have become much more common. Nonetheless, it can become difficult to keep a school garden going and to secure funding and interest. The School Garden Support Organization Network (SGSO) is an online community that allows school garden professionals…
Read MoreGIAB Resources: Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom is an organization dedicated to increasing agricultural literacy through education. Because agriculture affects our quality of life so significantly, it’s important for students to understand its role and value. The organization has a program called Agriculture in the Classroom to improve student achievement by bringing agricultural-based content to the classroom.…
Read MoreNetwork Supports School Gardens
As there is a growing push to include more local and fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches, school gardens have become much more common, including here in Minnesota and through the hort society’s Garden-in-a-Box program. However, schools struggle to secure funding and interest to keep gardens growing. The School Garden Support Organization Network (SGSO)…
Read MoreOur Garden Outreach Programs Stepped Up in 2020
This article by MSHS Community Outreach Manager Courtney Tchida originally appeared in the January/February 2021 issue of Northern Gardener. Year in Review: Garden-in-a-Box and Minnesota Green Covid-19 may have shut down schools and local businesses, but it certainly didn’t stop our program participants from growing. We were inspired to dig even deeper—finding ways to continue…
Read MoreGarden-in-a-Box Fosters Horticultural Therapy
This article by Courtney Tchida originally appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of Northern Gardener. The benefits of gardening are many, including to our physical and mental health. We were frequently reminded of the relaxation and stress-relief gardening provides this year as we planted, weeded, watered and harvested through a pandemic. Time spent in the…
Read More2019 Was a Great Season for Garden-in-a-Box
This article by Maria Brosofske appears in the November/December 2019 issue of Northern Gardener. In 2019, the MSHS Garden-in-a-Box (GIAB) program distributed a whopping 545 gardening kits throughout Minnesota! MSHS worked with more than 75 participating groups: 58 percent of these groups were located in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, 24 percent were based in…
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