Outdoor Classrooms by Carolyn Nuttall

Author:Carolyn Nuttall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Permanent Publications
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Garden Use is Garden Maintenance

Maintenance is an essential aspect of the garden design and should not be left as an afterthought. Understanding the needs of the users, their time and energy, in conjunction with working with nature to achieve the most productive garden with the least waste and work, will ensure your school garden will be successful in the long term. Gardens can fail because they become overgrown and look unloved, which makes them appear difficult, daunting and time consuming to manage.

As discussed in previous chapters, the design for maintenance should include both the physical garden space and the invisible systems and networks that support it. The more groups that use the garden, the more chance it has to be well looked after, remaining attractive and appealing to teachers and learners.

If the energy for maintenance is coming solely from within the school itself, then the position of the garden is most important. In this case, the garden must be close to existing learning activity areas. Placing a garden out of sight or a long way from classrooms will ensure it is rarely used, used only by the faithful or will require an extra playground duty to increase its use. (This is enough to turn any teacher sour on the garden idea). So start small and close to rooms where the garden can be monitored by children and staff and used in or out of class time. If that is not practical then consider building an outdoor shelter close to the garden.

The style of garden bed construction will greatly influence the ease or difficulty of maintenance. Raised garden beds are easier to maintain than those on the ground that can easily be overrun by grass.

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