Off the shelf
Many children only ever meet finished vegetables
A carrot means orange, straight, washed. Pull one crooked carrot out of the soil and growth, weather and patience all make sense in a single afternoon.
Schools · Nurseries · Clubs
Where children put down roots.
Gartenkern brings the garden into the classroom, into the nursery group and into the club, so children can see where food actually comes from and a bed stays in their memory for years.
- Free for institutions while the programme runs
- Servers in Germany, no accounts needed for children
- No advertising, no tracking
Why it matters
A garden bed explains more than any worksheet
Gardening with children is not a craft hour. It is the shortest path from a question to an experience, and it takes a whole season to walk.
Sown themselves
Children who sow it waste less of it
A lettuce the group has watched for twelve weeks does not get tossed without a thought. Respect for food grows out of work, not out of being told.
Year after year
The bed stays, the children move on
When last year's cold frame is written down, the next class does not start from zero. The garden becomes the memory of the institution.
These are observations from school and community gardens, not research findings. You know best what works with your own group.
A garden bed forgets nothing.
Neither does a child who once built one.
Who it is for
Three ways to share one garden
Schoolyard, nursery raised bed or club grounds: Gartenkern adapts to the way you already work.
Schools
A school garden with a memory
One shared garden for every class that takes part. Teachers keep the overview, and the knowledge stays in the building when a year group moves on.
- A class workspace with roles for teachers and support staff
- Documentation builds itself from photos and short notes
- Printable plant profiles for lessons and for bed labels
- Beds sponsored by groups, with no accounts needed for children
Nurseries
A group bed you can touch
For the youngest it is about what they can see and taste. The diary lives on pictures rather than on text.
- One group bed with a photo diary across the whole season
- Big pictures instead of long text, easy to show on a tablet
- Ideas for nibbling beds: strawberry, sugar snap pea, nasturtium
- Harvest celebrations, with a recap ready for parents' evening
Clubs
Community garden and plots
Allotment associations, community gardens and neighbourhood initiatives keep land, people and dates in one place.
- Shared areas and individual plots kept cleanly apart
- Members with roles and one calendar everybody can see
- Listed in the public club finder, with contact details and location
- Share cuttings, seed and harvest within the club
How you work with it
From the first seed to the season recap
Three things that make the difference when many hands work on one garden.
- 01
One garden, many hands
Every group tends its own beds and everyone sees the same picture. Who watered, who sowed and what is still open sits on the plant itself, not on a note in the staff room.
- 02
The season made tangible
Sowing, pricking out, planting, harvest: all of it thought in calendar weeks, the way gardeners plan. Mid May · week 19 says more than soon, and it fits into any weekly timetable.
- 03
A recap you can actually share
At the end of the season a recap comes together with the best pictures and numbers. Your institution shares it as a link, with parents, supporters or the club newsletter, and nobody needs an account to open it.
The support programme
What we contribute
We make Gartenkern available to the places that garden with children and with their neighbourhood. The conditions are written out here, so you know them before you register.
Education
Schools and nurseries
Free while the programme runs
The full range for a school or nursery garden: beds, plantings, calendar, photo diary and season recap. The AI features are the one exception, and the questions below explain what that means.
Community
Clubs and initiatives
Free for non-profit work
Non-profit garden clubs and neighbourhood initiatives get the same range, plus an entry in the public club finder. Commercial use is not covered.
Partners
Supporting partners
Companies that make beds happen
Supporting partners do not back us, they back the institutions: with raised beds, soil, seed, tools and materials. We connect what is needed with the partners who can provide it and, if they wish, name the partner at the institution they support.
We are starting with a limited number of places and agree the conditions individually with each institution. Once you register we get in touch and work out what you need.
Waiting list
Register your institution
Tell us briefly who you are and what is growing with you. We will get in touch as soon as a place opens up. Required fields are marked.
Questions
What to know before you register
- What does it cost?
- Nothing for schools, nurseries, non-profit clubs and neighbourhood initiatives. We are starting with a limited number of places and will get in touch after your registration to agree the conditions with you.
- Who can take part?
- Schools, nurseries, non-profit clubs and neighbourhood initiatives. Not included are for-profit education providers and commercial use, such as nurseries or businesses that earn revenue from the garden.
- Do children need their own accounts?
- No. It is enough for teachers or support staff to have an account. Children appear as a group or as bed sponsors, for example Class 3b or the Ladybird group. We do not process any data about children.
- What about the AI features?
- The AI chat is not part of the support programme. Plant identification from a photo is included, with a daily allowance that covers everyday work in the garden.
- How long does it last?
- We grant a place for twelve months to begin with and extend it without fuss as long as the conditions still apply. If anything about the programme changes, we will tell you early and with plenty of notice.