Primary Focus: Science, Conservation
Duration: One month
Timing: Spring (start seedlings early, in the classroom)
- Students collect and clean plastic beverage bottles to use as germination pots.
- Students paint old tires to use as garden beds.
- Students plan and prepare a school or community space for the garden.
- Students plant and grow flower, vegetable and herb plants from seeds.
- Possible sponsors: LOWE’S, Home Depot, Walmart.
- Parents, local builders, farmers, landscapers and Master Gardeners could provide planning and planting support. Extra dirt and mulch will help.
- Stack old tires to build walls and places to sit.
- If plastic bottles have lids, fill similar-sized plastic bottles with sand, rocks or dirt and stack them to form walls.
- Bury filled bottles close together, side-by-side and upside down, halfway in the dirt, to edge flower beds.
- If necessary, plastic zip ties are convenient and economical ways to tie bottles together, and they’re available in bulk from most hardware stores.
MAKE IT EPIC:
Gardens can be assembled and disassembled easily on school grounds, but securing a public place is even more exciting for students. Possible venues include local libraries, retirement centers, and hospitals. Even if public places aren’t available, invite the hospital or retirement center’s landscaper or gardener to talk to the class about their jobs and what grows best in the region.
Students can apply for endorsement as a “Certified Wildlife Habitat” from the National Wildlife Federation. Follow the steps online at http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx, and receive a plaque.
Check out a creative recycled public garden attached to a wall at: http://www.recyclart.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/vertical-garden-bottles-sao-paulo-1.jpg
See a greenhouse made of plastic bottles at: https://dengarden.com/landscaping/How-to-Build-a-Greenhouse-Made-From-Plastic-Bottles
3d Events 