Youth Lessons

Our garden-based activities offer an assortment of lengths and formats. Activities can be appropriate for one afternoon, a six week project, or can be incorporated into a longer program. Formats vary from one-pagers to full length publications.

Highlighted activities and resources:

Featured curriculum

sow logoProject S.O.W: Food Gardening with Justice in Mind

The Project S.O.W. (Seeds of Wonder): Food Gardening with Justice in Mind curriculum, created for educators who work with young people ages 13-19, centers personal growth, community connection, and equity. Project S.O.W. has been created for groups of 6 to 20 participants, yet is adaptable to smaller and larger groups, and can be used in a wide variety of school, afterschool, and community settings. All youth engaged in Project S.O.W. are encouraged to have a food gardening experience. The curriculum has been designed with flexibility to support youth having diverse growing experiences- indoors or outdoors; in containers or the ground. We define a garden as any space in which you intentionally cultivate plants.

Project S.O.W. complements and integrates well with Cornell Garden-Based Learning’s Seed to Supper program, a program for adult gardeners. Seed to Supper is an accessible gardening course that gives beginner gardeners the tools they need to connect with others in community, grow in confidence, and successfully grow a portion of their food on a limited budget. Many educators in New York State requested a similar, age-appropriate, curriculum for youth, which is how this curriculum came to be.