Most school gardens die in the summer holidays. The one at a government school in Hyderabad is now in its fourth year, and the reason is unglamorous: a rota, a named plant per child, and a teacher who kept a key.
How it started
Twelve pots, one class, and a bag of coco peat. Each child sowed coriander in a labelled pot, and each pot had exactly one owner. Ownership turns out to matter more than any curriculum — a shared pot is nobody problem, and a pot with a name on it gets watered.
The rota
Two children a day, ten minutes before assembly. The list is on the classroom wall, and the teacher signs it. Over the holidays, four families who live nearby took ten pots home each. That single arrangement is what carried the club through its first summer.
What it grew into
Sixty pots, a compost bucket fed by the mid-day meal peelings, a pollinator tally that has been kept every Friday for two years, and a seed-ball planting day on the bare slope behind the playground. Last year the club sold surplus saplings at the school fair and bought its own tools.
If you want to start one
Our Green Club Handbook sets out the lesson plans, the rota template and the tally sheets. Teachers are welcome at the Green Club Leaders Meet — details on the Community page.