This Guide is laid out in the following format:

1. Introduction: The first section of the Guide provided a bit of background on Stephen Ritz and aeroponics, and hopefully got you thinking about why you want to build a garden in the classroom.
2. Get Ready!: You've read the intro, now it's time to make your plan. This section walks you through everything from goal setting to how to talk to your students' parents about the classroom garden project.
3. Time to Plant! This is the fun part! This section provides practical information like how to set up your Tower Garden but also provides resources for setting up soil-based alternatives.
4. Maintain The not-so-fun (but necessary--and still kind of fun) part. This section covers topics like how to care for your garden over the holidays and how to get everyone's commitment to care for the garden.
5. Teaching With Plants In this section, we'll discuss how to use the garden to "teach across the common core," as Stephen likes to say, as well as provide a few sample activities to do with students.
6. Celebration! Read this before you start your soil-based garden.
7. Green Resources More information and additional resources to help you along the way.

As you read through this Guide, remember that there isn't one single "right" or "wrong" way to build a classroom garden. Variables such as the age of your students and the size of your classroom will inevitably affect the type of project you take on, so embrace those unique characteristics and build a garden that fits your environment.

As mentioned on the previous page, this Guide assumes you are using a Tower Garden system, because that is Stephen's method of choice for growing in the classroom. That does not mean that growing plants in traditional, soil-based environments isn't a great idea! ( In fact, it's an amazing idea, and we encourage you to take a look at these other Guides that show you how ).

But, for growing in the classroom, Stephen recommends using the Tower Garden system for the following reasons.

1. It's easy to assemble, easy to set up and easy to use.
2. It's a lot less messy and won't bring unwanted bugs into the classroom!
3. It's capable of producing a lot more produce per square foot than comparable soil-based environments.
4. The Tower Gardens can be reused over the years, which means less investment in repurchasing soil and other growing materials for each new group of students.
5. Did we mention it's less messy?

VERY IMPORTANT: Just like a garden, this guide depends on the participation and cooperation of everyone involved in order to thrive, and everyone's input is valued. So, if you discover alternative solutions that you think could work for other teachers, please add them in the comment sections (located at the bottom of every page) so that other teachers can learn from your experiences.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT: REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN! Growing a classroom garden with your students can be one of the most rewarding projects you take on as a teacher, so dive in head first and don't worry about making mistakes. Mistakes or fails are just opportunities for learning new things, which is really what this is all about.