Growing In the Garden: A Study of the Landscape Project At Fayetteville School

Children’s gardens have been around for centuries with the first children’s gardens appearing in Europe in the 1600’s (Virginia Tech, 2002).  Contemporary children's gardening began in 1993 when the American Horticultural Society held its first symposium based on youth gardening entitled "Children, Plants, and Gardens:  Educational Opportunities” (Sealy, 2001).  Since that symposium thousands of school gardens have appeared across the country (Robinson-O'Brien and Story, 2009).  Two such examples are “The Edible Schoolyard Project”, in Berkley, California and the “Growing Up Green Charter School” in Long Island City, NY.  Benefits that have been reported include increases in teamwork, improved nutrition and environmental attitudes, and respect, both for self and others (Edible, 2010 and Growing Up Green, 2009).  While school gardens are generally accepted as beneficial, few peer-reviewed studies have been conducted to examine the effect that gardening at school has on students (Ozer, 2007 and Robinson-O'Brien and Story, 2009). In January 2009 a garden project began at Fayetteville School, a K-12 school on 17 acres in Fayetteville, AL.  While the project is still ongoing, much of the original design has been installed, including an expansive children’s garden and over 400 trees and shrubs.  Fayetteville’s students have been involved in planting dates with each of the 650 students having the opportunity to plant at least one plant. Many have planted countless plants and even been involved in researching and choosing plants for the garden.  The objective of the landscape project at Fayetteville School is “to engage students in the pursuit of knowledge, to teach them responsible environmental practices, and to instill a desire for lifelong learning” (Campus, 2010). The focus of this study is three-part.  Part one will examine the effects of the landscape project at Fayetteville School on student attendance and student perceptions of the school.  Faculty and parent perceptions of the school, pre and post landscape project, will also be examined.  Part two will gather perspectives of student intellectual and personal development from the school principal, assistant principal, and the teachers most involved in the landscape project.  Student standardized test scores will then be compared to the different faculty perspectives.  The final part of the study will measure the effect of the landscape project on middle and high school students’ environmental attitudes.