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 Greening
School Grounds
Green spaces and new places in school yards What If You Could Decide?
 Back
in 1990, some researchers traveled across England, asking school
children all across the country how they would design school
yards if it were up to them. Not surprisingly, the kids didn't
say they would choose paved, empty, fenced-in rectangular play
spaces.
The children said they preferred interesting spaces. If it
were up to them, they would choose different surfaces, shapes,
and colours. They would have places to run and play games, and places
to sit and talk. They liked small places, corners, shelters, things
to run around, places to hide. They liked bumps and paths. They
had lots of idea. And they told the researchers that they liked
places that had grass, plants, flowers and trees.
The results of that study led to a movement in England that
later spread to Canada to "green" schoolgrounds. It
became clear that the school property outside school buildings
could be more like the classrooms inside: a place of interest and
variety, a place for different kinds of play, and a place to learn.
A big part of the idea of re-designing school grounds was "greening" planting
or gardening to change the landscape.
Some parents noticed that their children's paved, rectangular
schoolyard playgrounds were a bit "plain." They worked
with schools and school boards to set up gardening committees.
Teachers realized that trees and shade are important addition to
outdoor play spaces when the ozone layer is not as ample as it
used to be. They learned to raise money and work with their cities
and communities to organize tree-planting programs.
 Other schools
decided that schoolyards were a place where they could create "learning
grounds" to do science, art, drama, writing and vocabulary
growing. And both parents and teachers interested in teaching about
the environment found school yards a new place to "naturalize" the
landscape. They created spaces where native plants and also small
wildlife such as birds and butterflies could find a new place
to live within human communities. Over the past ten years, school
ground greening has become an important new part of school communities.
Green School Grounds and Climate Change
Plants make a great difference to a place. They change the
colours and the forms of the landscape. They change the soil quality,
and actually improve it over time. They change the degree of moisture
in the air, and the "micro-climates" of the places they
grow. They change people too. Scientists say people behave differently
in green spaces: they are happier, calmer and more peaceful.
 Plants
also have a lot to do with carbon dioxide. Plants absorb carbon
dioxide in the process of photosynthesis, during which they release
oxygen. Mature trees particularly make a difference in the amount
of carbon dioxide removed from the air. Adding a garden to a school
property is not only an addition of outdoor learning, more beautiful
space, cooler play spaces in warm weather. It's an effective carbon "sink" as
the experts call it, a way to capture some of those greenhouse
gases from the air.
In addition to soaking up carbon, trees clean the air. During
photosynthesis, tree foliage removes chemicals from the atmosphere,
such as nitrogen oxides, airborne ammonia, some sulfur dioxide,
and ozone, that are part of the smog and greenhouse effect problems.
So schools that plant trees and gardens make an important
contribution to improving the air in their communities.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
The advice nearly all school gardeners give for starting a
garden is, "Start small!" But after that the ideas
for school ground gardens are wonderfully varied. Schools are now
planting food gardens, small habitats for birds and butterflies, "go
wild" areas to see what grows naturally in an untended patch.
They're planting trees, local ecosystem restorations, and wetlands.
They're building ponds with pumps run by solar panels to keep them
aerated. They're building outdoor classrooms and classroom plots.
They're having harvest festivals and summer watering play-days
where parents and kids get together take care of school gardens.
 There
are now seed exchanges for community gardeners, and seed "banks" where
people save and reproduce seeds of no-longer commercially grown
varieties of food and flowering species of "heritage" plants.
Some schools are participating in heritage seed programs to keep
local varieties of heritage plants viable for future generations.
There are also school gardening programs that teach students
about "organic" gardening. The term organic is used to
describe growing things without synthetic chemicals or toxic insect-
and week-killing products. Fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides
all need oil for their production. So by using compost and natural
fertilizers, gardeners can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide
generated in the manufacturing of agricultural chemicals. They
also keep toxic products away from their gardens where they can
have harmful effects on children, pets and bird populations. Organic
gardening means getting some exercise weeding the garden, and keeping
growing spaces healthy.
Getting Started
If you have a team of people interested in "greening" a
part of your school grounds, there's no reason to feel alone. These
days there are many good resources available to help you get started
with school gardening.
Resources
Here are some organizations who have websites, published materials,
learning programs and good links:
- Evergreen Toronto and Vancouver
- Canada's national naturalization organization. Their mandate is
to create healthier, greener school communities and home gardens.
They also work to help local communities naturalize public green
spaces. Their school gardening program is called Learning Grounds,
with a special
Teachers' Corner to get teachers started using their school gardens as
classrooms. www.evergreen.ca/en/index.html
- Canadian Biodiversity Institute - Ottawa
- The CBI helps schools transform their grounds into stimulating,
biologically diverse classrooms and healthy, enjoyable
play spaces. Their website shows transformed school grounds,
and provides
how-to
materials, advice and networking. If you're in Ottawa,
you can contact them directly. www.biodiversityonline.ca/schoolgrounds/
- Kidsgardening USA
- Projects, plans, and teaching resources for school gardening
from the National Gardening Association. www.kidsgardening.com/
- Recommended Canadian Resources
ACTIVITY 1
- Imagine a typical fenced schoolyard
with black asphalt.
- What types of games can you play
with your friends? Explain.
- According to the article, what are the advantages of having
a natural landscape with different plants instead of a paved
play area?
What would you like best?
- Why is it important to garden 'organically' in
a schoolyard garden?
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