ASLA-NY Student Stewardship Program

The American Society of Landscape Architects, New York Chapter (ASLA-NY) and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) have created a unique partnership where we work directly with elementary and high school students to develop career discovery in landscape architecture and participate in garden stewardship projects at their schoolyard. Since 1996, The Trust for Public Land’s NYC Playgrounds Program has designed and/or built 190+ school and community playgrounds across the five boroughs. Through an interactive, participatory design process, TPL works directly with students in the site analysis, planning and design of their schoolyard with an end result that transforms mainly asphalt schoolyards into vibrant, green community playgrounds.

Many of the schoolyards built have tree beds and gardens that benefit from ongoing stewardship. This program pairs landscape architects with school groups to provide guidance on programming, plant installation and maintenance while engaging students in garden stewardship. The primary goal is to inspire students to discover landscape architecture in hopes they will choose that as their career path.

Our team of volunteers will coordinate with schools that have gardens and planting beds in need of maintenance to prepare a program customized for the needs of the school.

The project will include: 

1. Discussing what Landscape Architecture is
2. Conducting a site analysis with students
3. Sketching ideas to develop a garden vision
4. Preparing garden beds
5. Planting and mulching
6. Developing a maintenance plan to provide on-going stewardship of their garden

We feel that direct, hands-on engagement is the best way to fully understand landscape design and environmental stewardship and have a greater sense of "ownership" of the community space. We are passionate about raising environmental awareness and creating healthier, stonger communities through participatory activities.