project leader
Susan T
500 19th St.
(Windsor Terrace)
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the project

The Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS) garden currently consists of a student-created food garden in the recess yard behind the school and a native habitat and herb garden in front of the school. These outdoor classrooms are valuable but we have more control over our school's interior spaces than the exterior, and interior gardening can be done year-round.

To this end, we are seeking funds to expand our gardens within the school building through the addition of a series of complementary vertical indoor food garden systems in several separate locations within the school.

  1. One system would occupy the windows of the Garden Room where students take Sustainability 101, as well as other Science courses.
  2. The other system would occupy the stairwells and some of the hallways, and lastly,
  3. Students are researching the best movable classroom garden such as the Tower Garden.

See attached pictures!

We received a generous grant from Grow to Learn for $2,000 in matching funds, but we need your help to raise the $2,000 to activate it and bring us fully funded to $4,000.

the steps

  1. Students research best options for the 3 components:  Window units, walls/hallways, and the moveable Tower-like system.
  2. Students plan, budget, and appropriate supplies.
  3. Students work with staff to build and/or install.  
  4. Interdisciplinary Sustainability Coordinators work to leverage the potential learning from these units into a range of course work. 
  5. Students plan for summer care and contingency plans. 
  6. Harvest and eat any yields during Spring school celebrations, lunch, or classes!

why we're doing it

BUGS wants to expand the garden learning indoors and year round.

We have more control over maximizing an interior garden in our rented space, than our exterior gardens.

Interior mobile units like the Tower can be brought to multiple classrooms as needed, and hallway and classroom wall units add not just learning opportunities but freshness, texture, and life to students' days as they walk between classes.  

BUGS focuses on the 3 pillars of Sustainability:  

  1. Environmental,
  2. Economic and
  3. Social Equity.  

The garden aspects of our school's name is sometimes a symbolic, and sometimes a literal, centerpiece of our sustainability studies.   


Disbursed budget:

RAISED = $2,848.00
 less ioby Platform Fee  $35.00
less ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $81.93

Original budget:

1. Prefabricated Vertical Garden Systems Indoor garden systems   $600 x 3 $1,800.00
2. Woolly Pocket plastic planters Indoor garden planters  $35 x 12 $420.00
3. Soil and compost Planting materials  $15 x 20  $300.00
4. Seeds and Seedlings Planting materials  $2/$3  x 25/50  $200.00
5. Lumber Building DIY garden structures  $10 x 12  $120.00
6. Hardware, overflow trays, sandpaper and zip ties Building and hanging garden structures $20 x 10 $200.00
7 .Drills and safety goggles Building DIY garden structures  $50 x 10  $550.00
8. Drill bit and driver sets Building DIY planters  $50 x 5  $250.00
9. Painting supplies Painting DIY garden structures  $40 x 3  $120.00
10. Tubing and drip hoses Irrigation systems  $20 x 2  $40.00


SUBTOTAL = 4,000
ioby Platform Fee  $35
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $120



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This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration


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