Gardening and biodiversity programs and resources

Schools for Wildlife program

Places in the Schools for Wildlife program for the 24/25 financial year are full. Delivered by an educator from CERES and fully funded by Council, this program is designed to help students design and plant a wildlife-friendly garden on school grounds to increase biodiversity in Boroondara.

If you have questions about the program or eligibility criteria, you can email us at [email protected].

Eligibility of schools

To be eligible to apply, your school will need to meet the following eligibility criteria.

Your school must:

• have a suitable location, up to 8 m by 8 m in size
• commit to participate in all program sessions (site inspection, teacher information session, and three student sessions)
• commit to conducting all site preparation required (as advised by CERES) such as clearing of grass and weeds
• commit to the ongoing maintenance of the garden
• allocate a contact teacher to liaise with CERES and to supervise all program sessions
• provide up to three photos of their proposed site when submitting the online application form.

Program details

This program caters for one group of up to 30 students in Years 3 to 6, or Years 7 to 10.

The program is broken into a site assessment, teacher information session, and then 3 sessions for students:

1. Site assessment - teacher involvement only, and assessment is conducted by a staff member from CERES
2. Teacher information session - 60 min information session for staff members involved in the project, held online
3. Student session 1 - 60 min to 90 min introductory webinar for students held online
4. Student session 2 - 90 min onsite (indoor and outdoor) student garden planning session at your school
5. Student session 3 - 90 min onsite outdoor student planting session at your school

Materials provided

Participating schools will be provided with the following materials:

• soil, compost, and mulch as required which is delivered to your school
• tube stock Indigenous plants, up to 120 plants (as required)
• plant stakes and sleeves (as required)
• planting equipment (such as gloves and gardening tools) for all participants for the duration of the planting activity.

How to apply

Places in the Schools for Wildlife program for the 24/25 financial year are full. However, if you have questions about the program, you can email us at [email protected]. 

Biodiversity garden materials and education resources

We offer a range of free biodiversity materials and resources to support Boroondara schools and kindergartens to take climate action.

Once each financial year, schools and kindergartens in Boroondara can apply for free biodiversity garden materials from us, including:

• Indigenous (locally native) plant tubes (voucher for 50 plants)
• Indigenous trees (numbers and types to be confirmed based on location)
• mulch delivery (up to 3 cubic metres)

Schools and kindergartens can also apply for the following free education resources:

• 30 ‘swap cards’ of images and stories about local flora and fauna
• 5 copies of our A2 poster featuring local wildlife and plants.

We also have our Backyard Biodiversity booklet and our Managing Environmental Weeds booklet available for free to download and use in your class.

How to apply

To apply, email [email protected] with the following information:

• your full name and position at your school or kindergarten
• the address of your school or kindergarten
• an acknowledgment in writing that the materials you order will be used exclusively at the school or kindergarten indicated in your application.

We will also need to know which materials you are applying for. Based on this, we may need additional information.

If you are applying for:

• Indigenous plants you will need to tell us the size of the proposed garden area at your school or kindergarten.
• Indigenous trees you need to provide an image or description of where you would like to plant the trees - we'll work with you to find the best amount and type of trees for your location.
• mulch you will need to tell us the size of the area you want to use these materials on - we’ll work with you to organise a delivery time, but we need at least one week’s notice for these materials. Mulch deliveries can only take place on Wednesday mornings.