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Verner Experiential Gardens (VEG!) at North Carolina Outward Bound School is a collaboration among four non-profit organizations: Verner Center for Early Learning, North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS), the Roots Foundation, and Warren Wilson College.  

Our garden has a variety of features including garden beds and hugel mounds, fruit trees, a herb spiral, a cistern, and composting bins. Once a week classrooms alternate visiting the garden for a guided experience lead by an intern or a partner from the Roots Foundation. Throughout the year, teachers take their classrooms down to the garden to connect with nature.   

The Verner Experiential Gardens at North Carolina Outward Bound School are safe, beautiful, abundant places for learning, growing and gathering that:

  1. Provides and outdoor classroom distinct from existing environments at Verner, where children explore and engage in self-directed learning
  2. Connects children to the source of their food, leading them to healthy eating habits
  3. Connects Verner to the broader community
  4. Provides a place for NCOBS and Verner staff to meet, relax, learn, play, and eat
  5. Is aesthetic and welcoming to look at and be in all year round

At VEG! multiple generations gather and interact, share space and food and stories, and collaborate in exploring ways of growing, learning, and working together that regenerate and give health to people and the earth.

Interested in volunteering at the garden? Fill out the volunteer application here for more information

Interested in interning in the spring as an Outdoor Learning Facilitator click this link to find out more.

We would appreciate any donations of lumber, gently used tools, stones, plant starts/seeds, and any other garden related items. Please contact Garden Coordinator, Jess Woodall at jwoodall@verneremail.org for more information.

Special thanks to:

  • Chris Martin for building our beautiful garden shed
  • Warren Wilson College for providing us with regular deliveries of mulch and compost, bringing us starter plants, and for making our beautiful garden sign
  • To all of our community partners for helping us maintain the garden