The California School Garden Training Program and the California School Garden Network are putting on 7 statewide Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden workshops to help schools start and maintain gardens.  For more information, click HERE.

The Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, in collaboration with the Sonoma County Dept. of Health Services and the UC Cooperative Extension, announced the launch of an online program to allow local gardeners to sell or donate their eligible produce from school, community or home gardens. The free online self-certification program reflects the County’s commitment to support locally grown healthy foods and increase access for consumers.  The Agricultural Commissioner’s Office will be hosting two informational meetings about the program on April 16th and May 13th from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the Agricultural Commissioner’s conference room located at 133 Aviation Blvd, Suite 110 in Santa Rosa.  All interested gardeners are encouraged to attend.  Please go to http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/360310 to register for one of the informational meetings as space is limited.  The Approved Produce Gardener Certificate website can be accessed from https://secure.sonoma-county.org/agcomm/produce_gardener/.

The School Garden Program at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) is hosting hands-on, residential School Garden Teacher Training workshops for school teams over the summer.  OAEC’s School Garden Program is dedicated to cultivating ecological literacy among youth through garden-based transformation in the outdoor learnscape. Applications for the summer program are due by March 15, 2013.  For more information and to apply to the program, go to http://www.oaec.org/school-garden.

Welcome to the School Garden Network’s new and improved website!  The biggest change to our website is the Community Forum where registered members can exchange ideas and information related to school gardens on a daily basis.  We hope that you will join the group!  Also, check out the grants, programs and resources that we have to offer and the opportunities available to you to become involved in the school garden community.

School Garden Network is pleased to announce a new collaboration with U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Schoolyard Habitat Program.  The Schoolyard Habitat Program helps teachers and students create wildlife habitat at their own schools.  A schoolyard habitat project is a naturalized area that is used for classroom field studies and observations. A well-designed project that is integrated into the curriculum will help foster long-term ecological stewardship in children of all ages. Qualified schools or organizations serving kindergarten through 12^th grade students are eligible for funding and may receive up to $8,000 for their projects!  Click here for more information.