Makawao Elementary school
Public School Garden Program
September - October 2023
We were brought onto the Makawao Elementary School Garden Program as interim Garden Coordinators. We worked with Native Nursery to coordinate the delivery of 200 native trees and shrubs that had been ordered by the school over the summer, and spent the next few weeks getting 60 trees and shrubs in the ground while keeping the remaining plants alive and healthy for the next garden coordinator. We drew detailed landscape designs for school management based on their vision and school logistics. Working with a local farm, we harvested bamboo and constructed an entrance archway for the school's main garden space, planting and training edible pakalana vines to grow on the archway. We developed a yearly curriculum for the school garden program encompassing grades K-5, along with a featured plant program intended to engage students with informational drawings of a plant in the garden, recipes, take home harvests, and growing/harvesting and cooking classes for the weekly garden class. Finally, we planned and advertised a community workday in the garden, having volunteers construct bamboo trellises for the school garden beds.