Contact: Molly Brown
Phone: 540-463-6454
E-mail: molly@rockbridge.net
Web Site: http://waddell.ci.manchester.ct.us/g_intro.html
County: Rockbridge

This is a garden where young children, known as Shoots, and older community volunteers, known as Roots, grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs together as "garden friends." The Waddell Elementary School and the Lexington community have formed a close partnership to provide a unique learning experience for 300 students. Each grade has its own theme garden with carefully designed lesson plans allowing diversity and continuity to the year-round garden program. Roots and Shoots now serves as a model for other schools.

Each grade has its own theme garden in a carefully designed plan to meet the needs of a teaching garden. There is a Scarecrow Garden, a Colonial Herb Garden, a Farm Garden with a sunflower house, a Butterfly Garden, a Peter Rabbit Garden, an Alphabet Garden, a Fairy Garden, and a Pond Garden. This garden program includes both indoor and outdoor classes following detailed lesson plans. The garden is an integral part of a year-round school program: after spring planting and harvesting, the summer school adopts the garden, and in the fall the students dig potatoes, dry herbs, make corn husk dolls, pick their pumpkins, etc. The bonds of friendship between the school and community are invaluable in creating a sense of pride, shared ownership, and enjoyment. We depend upon Master Gardeners, members of garden clubs, community service organizations, businesses, and parents to keep us growing each year. Community residents help build the garden, maintain it, provide financial support and share their time in the classes with the children. Our garden is a bridge between the generations.

Our Roots and Shoots Garden has become a model for other school gardens. It has received the American Horticultural Society's 2001 Jane Taylor Great American Gardeners Award for Youth Gardening Excellence: "The AHS salutes this model as one of the finest and most thoroughly documented school garden program today."

We have available for sale two Down to Earth Handbooks, (200+ pages each). Volumne I contains everything you need to know about implementing your own school garden. This notebook binder format includes useful information, detailed lesson plans covering science, literature, music, art and math. In addition it includes detailed designs, planting, equipment and structures for 7 theme gardens.

It suggests ways to get started, how to recruit and train volunteers, fund raising strategies, and how to create effective publicity.

Volume II, published in 2003, contains new lesson plans for each grade, detailed lessons for a summer garden program, complete plans for an all-school garden reading program and additional theme gardens. You'll also find advice for promoting your garden program within the school and in the community.

To order these handbooks, please visit the Roots and Shoots Web site and click on "handbook/slide show."

Number of Kids Involved: 300
Square Feet of Gardens: 3760

Grades Involved:

• K - 4

Gardening Contexts/Emphases:

• Outdoor, Vegetables
• Outdoor, Flowers
• Trees
• Indoor Light Garden
• Community Service
• Pond / Wetland
• Intergenerational
• Butterflies
• Special Needs
• Birds
• Multicultural
• Garden Art
• Weather Stations
• Garden Themes
• Vermiculture (worms)

Level of Student Participation (hours/week/child): 5+

Number of Participating Teachers: 18

Number of Participating Parents / Volunteers: 30

Number of Parent / Volunteer Participation (hours/week/person): 5+

Funding Sources:

• $ Donations
• In-Kind Donations
• Grants
• Private
• Public
• Local

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