Riley Creek School Garden in Gold Beach

The Riley Creek School Garden is a beautiful collaboration between Riley Creek School, Curry County Master Gardeners, and Curry Watersheds Partnership, along with extraordinary support from our greater community.

During the school year, students participate in garden activities with lessons tailored to meet Oregon Common Core State standards in the classroom and out in the garden. Students are involved with all aspects of the garden including, preparing soil, seed starting, planting, weeding, harvesting, and composting.

Harvest from the garden is served in the school cafeteria during the school year as well as for the Summer Lunch Program, which feeds kids all summer for free. More than 300 pounds of produce was provided in 2022.

During the summer months, the garden is open to the Gold Beach community and offers weekly activities for children.

The garden houses a 20’×40’ greenhouse which allows for year-round growing, seed starting, and an outdoor classroom in inclement weather.

Each year we host two family events in the garden: the Strawberry Festival in Spring and the Fall Fest in Autumn. These events give students an opportunity to show off their hard work in the garden to their families as well as participate in fun garden related activities and fresh healthy snacks are served, often with ingredients harvested from the garden.

Curry County Master Gardeners provide the majority of volunteer support in the garden, and the garden would not be what it is today if it weren’t for them. The Central Curry School District has hired Curry Watershed Partnership as Outdoor Education Coordinators to engage classes in the garden. Dedicated Master Gardener volunteers maintain the garden and assist with in-garden educational activities.

We are proud of our garden and what it means to Gold Beach. We’ve seen children turned on to eating new, healthy, delicious, fresh produce and this is the beginning of creating healthy lifelong habits in our community.