This is from an EarthBox company newsletter directed to educators. With all the current hoopla about installing a garden in every school, it is well worth reading if you are a parent or teacher.
A lot of taxpayer money will be needlessly wasted breaking up paved surfaces to reach soil that will often need remediation. There is a misconception that the word garden is synonymous only with growing in the ground, that gardening is synonymous only with dirt.
As sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) like the EarthBox are proving across America nothing could be further from the truth. Every school can grow a productive, nutritious garden in sub-irrigated boxes, buckets, raised beds or any other watertight container that is located to receive adequate light... even in classrooms during the winter. There is no need to break up paved surfaces.
SIPs can even live temporarily in student's homes during summer recess. They provide portability and flexibility of use not possible with in-ground gardens. SIPs can move with seasonal changes in light and find shelter if threatening weather is on the horizon.
From an educational perspective, SIPs offer an intelligent cost effective, more productive way to teach children about plant science, water conservation, the environment and good nutrition. Stow the jackhammers!
EarthBoxes to SpaceBoxes to ShelterBoxes
Students at all grade levels learned important scientific principles using EarthBoxes to grow organic vegetables. In turn, they were very receptive to nutrition lessons given by the school nurse. And what better way to impress upon the students the advantages of being a "locovore" (someone who eats food grown locally) as part of a "go green" lifestyle?
This science lab project expanded into a 2009 Earth Day celebration. Students raised more than $300 by growing and selling their EarthBox produce at the 2009 Bay Haven Spring Festival to sponsor a ShelterBox. ShelterBox Trust is a nonprofit, international disaster-relief program that provides assistance and shelter to victims of natural disasters. The box contains a ten-person tent, a cooking stove, blankets, cookware, water purification equipment, and other survival essentials for protection from the elements.
The students were given an identification number (ShelterBox No. 6076) so that they could track the final destination of their Bay Haven ShelterBox -- which was Sumatra, Indonesia, to aid survivors of a disastrous 2009 earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people.
Even after a year, this project continues to bring meaning into the lives of the students as discussions continue in science and social studies classes as part of their interdisciplinary studies. With the enthusiastic support and dedicated teamwork of the many Bay Haven parent volunteers, teachers, principal, and generous grant sponsors, the students realize that they indeed can make a difference in the world. We hope that students will always remember this project, and that they will continue to be mindful of their role as responsible stewards of this planet and as caring members of a global community.
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