Our Garden Education

We are a group of learners, teachers, staff, and community members who create excellent garden education at Richard J. Lee Elementary School in Dallas (Coppell ISD), Texas. 

Our garden is home to an array of vegetables, flowers, and beneficial insects, and we engage in many fun and creative activities, such as:

• Growing seedlings in self-water pots
• Giving names to the plants
• Painting rocks to make plant signs
• Holding Garden Ice Cream sales made from our harvest 
• Monarch Waystation project
• Farmers Market & fundraisers
• Growing & tasting Microgreens in the classroom 
• Worm Composting
• Nature Walk at School year-round 

My name is Keiko Nishino, and I serve as the Garden Education Specialist at our school, as well as the owner of this blog. Known fondly as Ms. Keiko by the learners, I manage the school garden and provide garden education programs, working alongside teachers all year round to benefit learners at every level.  

Our school values outdoor education, and our teachers flexibly implement it into the K-5 grades, STEAM, Practical Academics, and Active Learning curricula, with enthusiastic support from our principal.

We hope the garden experience brings happiness and valuable learning opportunities to benefit our learners throughout their lives.