Cambridge Early Learning Center

An important part about gardening and connecting people with food is education for the next generation to understand where food comes from! We often partner with Plant the Seed and do larger installations for their garden education program. Plant the Seed is a non-profit that provides experiential education through garden-based learning to school children ages 4-14.

One of Plant the Seed’s sites is Cambridge Early Learning Center. We’ve installed just about the entire garden space at this school! Take a look at these photos over the years as we’ve installed and added to this garden education space. The main raised beds have ample space between them to allow students to gather around, and offers plenty of space for kids to learn gardening hands on. We also put in raised beds along a fence, to grow strawberries and an arching trellis for climbing vegetables. The soil mound with bricks running around is an herb spiral! This technique provides different soil conditions that are ideal for different kinds of herbs. There’s even a space for mushroom logs, so the children can learn about fungi and see the shiitakes when the caps grow out! We’re excited for these beds to be used to help youth learn more about the importance of food! At one point the kids play area regularly pooled with water and made a muddy mess. Our solution was to dig a dry well beneath it! We dug this large hole and filled it with rocks and a layer of gravel, then covered the hole with geo-textile fabric (a water soluble and sturdy fabric for landscaping) and playground mulch. This kept the area soft and kid friendly on the top, but left a large area where water can collect and drain away beneath them.