Programs

A school garden is not the place to spend your money on "quality" tools. 

We rarely use tools with our students.  When you put a tool in a student's hand, the tool becomes the focus.   

• We have raised beds where we add a thick layer of leaf compost each fall.
• We do not turn the beds or work in the compost - nature does that for us..
• We never walk in the beds.
• When we plant seeds in our spring garden, students are instructed to locate a strong stick from the woodchips in the path and "scratch" the soil where they are planting.
• We use garden trowels to plant potted plants and daffodil bulbs.
  • Buy trowels that are one step above the least expensive. 
  • Plastic trowels are useless in real soil.
• The tool we use most often is buckets.  We use them for hauling compost and woodchips with volunteers and students, for storing our garden trowels and multiple other uses.  Not just any five-gallon bucket will do.  We learned early-on that the round ones stick like crazy and are very frustrating.  We have used donated kitty litter buckets for years.  We hear the industry is getting away from the plastic buckets.  What we have will probably last about three more years- they get a lot of wear and tear and suffer from sun damage.
• Water bottles are used by the students to water the plants or seeds as they plant them.  In our program, it is not practical for the classes to be responsible for on-going watering of the gardens. 
• The kid size shovels we refer to are kid size but not made for children.  It is small enough for even a four-year-old (young lady pictured from one of our summer programs) but as strong as an adult shovel. The name brand is Lil Hog - Made by Union Tool.  When we bought our first batch back in 2002 they were $7.99 They are about $10 now at Home Depot/Lowe's.  We are still using the original shovels but have added to our supply as our program grew.  On occasion, we have found a knock off  at Odd Lots for about $5 here and there.  If you can find them, these hold well enough because the students only use them to harvest potatoes and fill buckets with compost/woodchips. The handle grip tends to come off but a screw through the handle takes care of the problem.  These shovels are the one thing we have not been able to get donated. 
• Wheel barrels are very popular with the kids, especially the boys.  Younger students will often try and share the job of pushing a wheel barrel - one on each handle.  It's guaranteed to turn over.  Again, wheel barrels for kids are useless in a school garden (unless you're working with preschoolers)
• We have full size shovels for staff and volunteers. Wheel barrels like the inexpensive one in the photo are a good size for the kids but they do not hold up.  Fortunately, a car repair center down the road from the school repairs all of ours as needed.  All of our wheel barrels were donations and are of various quality and age. The large contractor wheel barrels are favored by our adult male volunteers.  We rarely need to have one of these repaired.
• A round, pointed shovel is best for digging and for digging compost.  A flat, wide, square shovel is best for woodchips.  (Our woodchip pile is on blacktop making it easy to shovel from the bottom of the pile with the flat shovels.)  We keep a large number of these tools (20 each) on hand for when we have groups of volunteers.  We buy less expensive ones (about $8-10 each.  We have to replace 4-5 of the round ones each year from someone using them as a pry bar.
• We call this our "claw planting tool."  Different versions are available at prices from $7-$40.  It is sold for removing weeds but we use it for planting seeds in the flower gardens.  Sprinkle a few seeds on the ground.  Stick the claw tool into the same area and give it about half a twist.  That is usually enough to open the soil enough for the flower seeds to settle into the soil.  Tap the area lightly with one foot and you are done. (Do not step on it.) It is also great for digging holes in our river bottom soil.  We have great soil until about a foot down when you hit what was the river bottom eons ago.  Twisting the planter tool into the bottom of the hole loosens the rocks so they can be removed.  It works better than a post hold digger - even a hydraulic - tool for this purpose.
• We use garden forks to for harvesting potatoes and loosening compost.  They can also be used for planting seeds in the same manner as the claw foot tool.
• We have a number of pruning sheers for trimming bushes i.e. roses and butterfly bushes. 

Scissors - both adult and child, are very important in our gardens.  Students use theirs primary for picking flowers.  The cheap $1 kid scissors do not hold up.  Fiscars are the best at about $2.50.

We provide the staff with a heavy duty extra long scissors.  Granny's discovered how useful these could be years ago when she began using a pair of retired dressmaker sheers to cut flowers.  Since it was the tool in hand, she started using it to dislodge weeds and found it worked great! She even uses them in a pinch to transplant small seedlings from one place to another.  One day while working with a class a little boy who had just transferred in spoke up to tell her, "Granny, that is an improper use of a tool." Anytime you see Granny, she will have a pair of scissors in one of her green apron pockets.