Landscaping for a Learning Environment

It might sound silly when you say it out loud, but when you take a moment to think about it, it makes sense that the condition of a school’s landscape could affect the way that students learn, focus, and draw inspiration.

Consider how a student might feel about their school, or how they might focus on their studies if they have to worry about their safety due to landscaping issues if their school property is unkempt and ragged if they don’t feel confident or happy on their school’s property.

If a student is consistently focused on an untidy, unsafe, and uninspiring environment, it leaves less room to focus on what they’re actually learning, right?

Ensuring that your learning environment has a top-notch landscape is the first step (of many) toward ensuring the atmosphere you’re offering students is as pristine as possible.

After two decades in the landscaping business, working on schools and learning environment landscapes, and tons of trial and error, we’re confident that crafting a beautiful, well-kept landscape in a school environment makes a huge difference for students!

Want to know how? We thought you might. Check out our reasoning here to get a better grasp of what we believe to be true about landscaping’s direct effect on a learning environment.

Studies Show a Beautiful Landscape Improves Performance

This is perhaps the most important reason to dedicate time, money, and effort into your school’s landscape.
Several studies show that better school grounds and landscape can create better behavior, increase focus, and even reduce bullying (though, this typically applies only in schools where adolescents attend).  According to a study from the University of Illinois Department of Landscape Architecture, it’s even been proved that students will perform better on exams, and in the classroom, if they have a view of a well-kept, well-maintained outdoor landscape.

This study claims that a student’s capacity to pay attention increased by nearly 13 percent if there was a green, beautiful view outside their window. Now, think about your school’s landscape. Do your students have a view of a green, tidy area? If no, consider how your landscaping might be affecting your students’ attention spans.

Landscaping Can Improve Mood

Did you know that the way a landscape looks (and is maintained) can dramatically affect someone’s mood? This isn’t theory isn’t specific to students, but you can see how it might apply, right? People naturally respond better to natural experiences and studies show that spending time in a natural setting can have a positive effect on mood, cognitive function, working memory, and anxiety, too.

According to some studies, positive moods (cheeriness, energy, optimism, etc.) are often associated with landscapes rich in prospect versus refuge (enclosed spaces that aren’t landscaped).

It’s also probably no surprise that a better mood makes for a better student, right? You can see the connection here.

Curb Appeal = Student Pride; Student Pride = Focus

A student is going to work harder, focus better, and put more dedicated effort into their schoolwork and education if they’re proud of their learning environment, right? If a student isn’t proud of their school, which includes the appearance of their school, they’re likely not going to give their best efforts to their school work.

By paying attention to the curb appeal of your establishment, performing regularly scheduled maintenance, providing weed-free turf, seasonally rotating flowerbeds, properly pruning shrubs, and consistently trimming trees, you can boost your school’s appearance and give your students something to be proud of. In turn, they’re more likely to turn that pride into a reason to work hard for their school, focus on their studies, and overall, perform better.

Serious Landscape Gives the Learning Environment a Serious Vibe

Have you ever heard that expression “you are what you eat?” We thought you might have. In a way, that expression sort of applies here, except it’s more of a “you are what your school looks like.” Maybe you have the absolute best curriculum in the state, can offer students more extracurriculars, budgeting dollars, and attention than any other school, and have the most opportunities of any school within 300 miles of you – if your landscape is ragged and unkempt, people are likely not going to take you seriously.

What’s worse? Your current students might not take their studies seriously. It might sound silly, but the mindset here is more of an “if the school doesn’t care to take care of their own landscape, what else do they not care about?” It’s vital to provide your students with a clean, professional, and serious landscape in order to promote the idea that they should take their studies and environment seriously.

The good news? It’s not all that hard to do this! It’s not even that expensive if you do it right (there are plenty of cost-cutting ways to go about this!)

All you need to do is focus on maintenance and tidiness, optimize with fun and exciting color, and adopt some new, fun ways to enhance your landscape seamlessly.

Preparedness & Security Means Less Distraction

If you have a student who is concerned about the upcoming hurricane season (the season in Florida that requires the most preparedness) or a student who’s consistently worried about the overgrown tree limbs falling down or a student who’s afraid of tripping on the cracked, rooted up sidewalks, they’re not going to be able to fully focus on their education.

A student whose mind is preoccupied with safety and security concerns is never going to be able to dedicate their entire attention to the book or teacher in front of them – why make it more difficult for them to focus? If you have a student that’s more worried about dealing with the flooded school property (due to forgetting to clean out the gutters before hurricane season or not checking out your irrigation system regularly) you can bet that their homework isn’t going to be the first thing on their mind.

By providing your students and school property with ample maintenance to ensure that you’re pruning, trimming, and taking care of potentially harmful trees and hedges, prepping your school’s landscape for hurricane season, and ensuring that your students never have to be concerned about their safety on your grounds, you’re gifting students (no matter their age) the opportunity to fully focus on their education.

 

We hope our article about landscaping your school or other learning environment was incredibly helpful!

If you weren’t aware of the affects that landscape has on students, we hope we were able to bring it to your attention and fill your head with all the useful knowledge you need to make changes to your school. Want to talk with us directly about how we can help improve your school’s landscape?

We thought you’d never ask. Give us a call at (727)-201-3947. Want to get creative, find some inspiration, and glean even more landscaping advice from us? Check out our Landcrafters blog for weekly updates on tips and tricks, ideas for your lawn, and helpful tip sheets to get your landscape exactly where you want it to be!