Our Story
The JWE Outdoor Learning Center is a 6,600 square foot natural school garden that serves as an interactive science lab and outdoor classroom for students at Jacob’s Well Elementary School in Wimberley, Texas.
The garden beds have been maintained by the afterschool Garden Club. The school garden has a greenhouse, fruit trees, herb gardens, a succulent garden, a butterfly garden, a digital weather station (coming soon) and various vegetable garden beds. We have a 3 Sisters Garden bed, a type of bed that American Indians used, a key hole garden that fertilizes itself and a “Pizza Garden”.
We plan to use the garden as a tool for education, ie. math, science, social studies, language arts, even writing. Gardens improve life skills such as teamwork and responsibility. Gardens foster a deeper understanding of the benefits of eating healthy and increases environmental awareness. Positive attitudes are cultivated by getting students involved with nature with a hands on approach. This natural environment creates a place for students to “wind down”.
School Garden Purpose
Beyond academics, the garden provides more expansive life lessons including teaching youth about healthy lifestyles which includes proper nutrition and physical movement. Through a gardening program, students gain first hand experience with fresh fruits and vegetables. They discover that produce does not magically appear on store shelves and they learn how to grow food themselves. We are working on Healthy Habits for All!!!
Maintenance Plan
We started an after school garden club in 2015 to keep our school garden maintained. In 2023, a few teachers decided to help with the maintenance and their classes maintain the garden. Both ways have worked beautifully.
Our duties include:
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water, pick weeds, general cleanup of all garden areas
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maintaining vegetable gardens
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add art features to garden
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create additional beds
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keep bird feeders full
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grow our garden
January 11, 2023 – Freezing Weather is Coming
Freezing weather was on the way and the weather predictions say it will be around 15 degrees for a day or 2. We decided to cover our plants and harvest what vegetables we had. We were able to harvest green tomatoes, green lettuce, cabbage, red lettuce, broccoli and so many peppers!
