How do you feel about our school landscaping? Landscaping within a school can serve multiple purposes, for example sectioning off areas and/or providing shade, while also supporting students well- being in helping with relaxation, socializing with others, connecting with nature, or by offering educational purposes to all students.
A school landscape is important because it can help improve a student’s focus and performance academically. School landscapes can help improve students’ performances, help them with relaxation, help them connect with nature, help students with socializing with others, and help improve students’ mental health. But some cons of a school landscape include the cost, the time it takes to fulfill a good and positive school landscape and being able to manage or keep the plants alive.
School landscapes help improve students’ connection with nature. “Installing plants and trees has been proven to be powerful for student stress management. One path to creating a calm zone is adding sensory gardens. Calming scents and refreshing flower colors give students an escape from indoor busyness and into nature’s peace.”
Shaded places within a school landscape can help improve school stress within students and even staff. Yellowstone Landscape, a commercial landscape company based in Florida, states that “shade trees have provided tranquil retreats from school stress for centuries. Trees offer UV protection, better air quality, and access to songbirds—which have a bonus calming effect. Thoughtful campus landscaping could help every student feel welcome and safe. An experienced landscape designer will offer insightful options to ensure wide pathways, clear sightlines, and availability of both sheltered and open spaces. In these ways, students with varying ability levels can all enjoy the green spaces.” These quotes show the readers that it takes a lot of components to create a good, safe, and positive landscape for children and adults to enjoy. These few quotes piled into one say that calming scents and refreshing flower colors give students a place to escape the busy indoors. The more trees in a school’s facility, the better air quality. Trees go through a cycle that is called photosynthesis (where carbon dioxide is taken in by trees and turned into oxygen), since there are so many children and adults exhaling carbon dioxide, the more trees the school has around it, the more carbon is taken in, the more better oxygen and air quality they release for the students and adults. Trees also attract cool and colorful species of birds. Some studies have found that the more colorful the bird, the more students want to learn about them.
A school landscape can help improve students’ mental health. MMC Land Management, a family-owned company based in Pennsylvania that offers comprehensive landscaping, erosion control, and snow/ice management for commercial, corporate, and residential properties, states that “research in environmental psychology consistently shows that exposure to natural spaces improves emotional well-being. Studies have found that people who spend time in well-maintained green environments experience lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and increased levels of serotonin and dopamine, which contribute to happiness and relaxation. Simply being in nature—or even viewing a natural landscape—has been shown to boost cognitive function, enhance creativity, and even accelerate recovery from illness.” These quotes explain to their readers that research has shown that students and even adults continuously exposed to natural spaces like school landscapes, including trees, plants, and flowers improves a student’s or an adult’s well- being. Research and studies have shown that people who spend more time in well maintained green environments like landscapes have shown to experience lower stress levels and an increase of happiness and relaxation. It has been proven that simply being or experiencing nature or even just viewing a natural landscape can improve happiness and relaxation and even boost recovery from illness.
A school landscape can help improve a student’s socialization with other students. MMC Land Management “A combination of cozy nooks for solitude and open spaces for socialization ensures a well-balanced environment. Warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows): These colors exude energy, warmth, and optimism. Sunflowers, marigolds, and red roses add vibrancy, stimulating socialization and activity.” These quotes show the readers that something in a school landscape is like a cozy nook for students which leaves spaces for socialization between other students, and school landscapes guarantee a well- balanced environment for students. Warm colored flowers like sunflowers, marigolds, red roses, and even some tulips release energy, warmth, and optimism stimulate socialization and activity between students and even adults.
A con of school landscaping is the cost of it. The cost of a school landscaping can be very expensive. landscaping cost as there are so many variables based on the landscape’ needs and size. According to the Turfscape website, some schools spend anywhere from $50k to $200k+ depending upon the scope of work. When a landscape company estimates your project, multiple staff members should be spending from between 100 to 500 hours on your property doing the preliminary work necessary to give you the best plan and price possible and best landscape. They do this to get the best feel for traffic and pedestrian flow on your site, as well as focal areas that need refinements. A con about it is what if you were to pay over $50k-$200k or even more than that just for you to not get the building you might not like it the best.
A major con of a school landscape is managing the landscape and keeping up with it or the plants. According to a school landscape pdf “Their maintenance costs are also relatively high, if done properly, which argues for their being used judiciously and for a purpose. It might be to clothe a blank wall, for visual delight, to form an herb garden or herbaceous plants for cut flowers, to shelter, screen or define external spaces, or, most importantly, to attract birds and insects right up to the classroom window for observation by the pupils.” Maintenance of a school landscape is one of the major cons because if done properly the cost of it can be very high. Schools have already paid enough for having the school landscape get done already, but for the maintenance they have to pay even more to get their school landscape properly taken care of. But after the maintenance is all taken care of the school landscape looks great.
There are lots of major positive and major setbacks to a school landscape. Some major positive things about a school landscape are that they can help improve students’ performances, help them with relaxation, help them connect with nature, help improve a student’s mental health, and help students with socializing with others. But some cons of a school landscape can be the cost and being able to manage the school landscape.
