OKC Beautiful Helps Introduce Gardening To School-Aged Students

Schools in Oklahoma City are implementing school gardens to teach kids about agriculture and nutrition.

Through OKC Beautiful, kids will get the opportunity to learn about and tend gardens.

The gardens are not just for appearances.

Micah Stover, a garden educator with OKC Beautiful, said they are providing fresh produce to urban areas where it can be hard to find.

Stover said the gardens also get kids excited about nutritious food.

"We talk about planting seeds in the fall. We talk about the anatomy of the seed,” Stover said. “They get to experience what a seed looks like it when it comes straight from a plant: a piece of fruit.”

The students plant everything under the sun: Spinach, squash, corn and more.

"We try to plant with the seasons, with the insects, with the conditions that we are given here in Oklahoma,” Stover said. “People might say that is so intense, but it gives us the opportunity to grow a variety of things.”

Right now, they have gardens at Cleveland Elementary and Bodine Elementary. There are also plans to construct a garden at Wilson Elementary.

Each garden costs about $20,000 a year to operate. The money allows for OKC Beautiful to maintain the gardens and teach the garden classes.

"We're here to provide a garden educator who is going to make sure that garden is growing through rain, sleet, anything and make sure -- no matter what – (that) this is a resource for education," Stover said.

OKC Beautiful manages the curriculum.  

"Kids get to experience -- not just scholastic growth -- but kids get to have this new sense of confidence they wouldn't otherwise get," Stover said.

OKC Beautiful is hosting a garden party July 28 to inform the community about the gardens and fundraise to keep these projects going. 

There will be garden classes, activities, a raffle, a Bondi Bowls food truck and more. Anyone is welcome to mingle and meet community members in the garden.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the OKC Harvest School Garden Program.

You can register for the garden party by clicking here.