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 jackhammer!
EarthBoxes to SpaceBoxes to ShelterBoxes
Last year, students at the Bay Haven School of Basics Plus Elementary in Sarasota, Florida enjoyed bountiful harvests from their thirty EarthBoxes all year long, as part of a science lab project entitled "EarthBoxes to SpaceBoxes: Growing Food in School Today, In Space Tomorrow." This was made possible through funding from the William G. Selby and Marie Selby Foundation, the Bank of America Client Foundation, sponsors of an Education Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc. grant, and from prize money from EarthBox Inc. (this project won first prize in the National EarthBox Contest).
Continue reading "EarthBoxes Helping To Teach Science In Our Schools " »




