Best Practices in Middle School Gardens

Middle school teachers, staff, students, volunteers and administrators across California are interested in establishing and sustaining instructional gardens. To build on the work that has been done at the elementary school level, the California Department of Education and the UC Davis Children’s Garden Program visited inspirational school garden programs at junior high and middle schools. In these pages, through interviews, photographs, and sample curriculum, we highlight the unique contributions of each program to provide a landscape of ideas you can adapt to your school setting.

Each school story provides a glimpse into the ways garden programs can be structured and the myriad rich opportunities they offer. They show the wealth of experience of teachers and garden coordinators who have worked with youth in hands-on settings. From them, we can see how instructional gardens support

• California State Content Standard
• Environmental Education
• Service Learning
• Culinary Arts
• Community Partnerships
• …and more

Best Practices

Middle School Stories 

• A River Runs Through It: Ecology in Action Carmel Middle School, Carmel, CA
• Culinary Arts and School Gardens: A Perfect Marriage Petaluma Junior High School, Petaluma, CA
• Reflecting the Valley: Life Skills through Agriculture Blaker Kinser Junior High School, Ceres, CA
• Farmers, Festivals and Friendships: A Mosaic of Gardens Baird Middle School, Fresno, CA
• Around the World in the Garden: Growing Curriculum Emerson Junior High School, Davis, CA
• Perennial Partnerships: Cultivating Diversity Roosevelt Junior High School, San Diego, CA
• Building Community Partnerships: The Team Comes First Chico Junior High School, Chico, CA
• Helping Kids Help Themselves: Service Learning and the Garden University Heights Middle School, Riverside, CA
• Stewards by the Sea: Science Education in the Garden Los Osos Middle School, San Luis Obispo, CA 
• Plants Inside Out: Science Horticulture Nobel Middle School, Los Angeles, CA
• Gardening in Urban Settings: Empowering Students Claremont Middle School, Oakland, CA