Garden Environment
Cultivate, Nurture, Enjoy..
Farming has been an important part of Montessori education from the beginning. Learning to cultivate and care for plants builds a connection to nature and teaches children about where we get our food. They develop skills working with the plants and enjoy harvesting the fresh produce. The permaculture-inspired design of the the Red Barn garden builds biodiversity, promotes sustainability and fosters natural and spontaneous interactions with the nature. A parent recently noted that while eating lunch for 15 minutes in the garden she and her son observed a blue-bellied lizard, a gopher pulling a weed down into his hole, a hummingbird and a butterfly sipping nectar, and a covey of quail foraging.
The Red Barn garden is a labor of love that is maintained by the parent community and has grown year after year. Some of the produce from the garden is sold at the school farm stand and proceeds are used to expand the garden's resources; more shade trees for play ground, fruit trees that provide plums, apricots and the apples used in classroom jobs, and new plants for next season. It has become a beautiful outdoor classroom for the school.
The Red Barn garden is a labor of love that is maintained by the parent community and has grown year after year. Some of the produce from the garden is sold at the school farm stand and proceeds are used to expand the garden's resources; more shade trees for play ground, fruit trees that provide plums, apricots and the apples used in classroom jobs, and new plants for next season. It has become a beautiful outdoor classroom for the school.