A few dozen children took turns shoveling soft, brown dirt into long berms outside their Oxnard school Friday.

By spring, officials at Fremont Intermediate School hope to see shady trees in the dirt, which will surround seven new garden plots.

"It's outstanding," said Principal Stefan Cvijanovich. "It's something the school needs."

He and several teachers have wanted to add a garden to the campus for a while, and now, a hefty state grant has given them a jump start.

State officials announced this year that they planned to invest $15 million in school gardens, and districts throughout Ventura County signed up to get some of the cash. Schools from Ojai to Thousand Oaks recently received word that they got grants from $2,500 to $5,000.

California's Instructional School Garden Program was approved by state lawmakers last year to help pay for schools to create, maintain and expand instructional gardens. More than 3,800 schools received grants this year, totaling $10.8 million. Not all of the money was spent, however, which means schools will get another chance to apply for the cash early next year.

Local educators said the investment won't yield just tomatoes, peppers and fruit but also will boost instruction in subjects such as math, science, language arts and social studies.

"When kids get in there with their hands, it brings meaning to them," said Jeanine Gore, superintendent and principal of Mupu School in Santa Paula. "They watch it grow. They have a personal investment in it."

Mupu plans to use its money to revive an underused, overgrown gardening plot on its campus, she said. For the small school of about 125 students, the grant was particularly appreciated. The grants were not doled out based on the number of students, a process that typically makes it difficult for smaller schools, she said.

Public schools with fewer than 1,000 students simply received $2,500 grants. Larger schools, including Fremont, got $5,000.

The program benefited traditional public schools and public charters, some with classroom-based instruction and others with independent study programs, like Valley Oak Charter School in Ojai. The school of 65 students plans to use its grant to start a gardening elective on campus this year.

In Oxnard, Fremont teachers plan to develop three-fourths of an acre on campus into seven plots, one for each academic department, including science, math and English language arts. Each department will then plant its own garden and use it as an outdoor classroom.

On 2,500 square feet outside Mountain Meadows School in Moorpark, students harvested pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet peppers, squash, cucumbers, watermelons and marigolds this year, said teacher and garden coordinator Rise Tyloch. The grant will allow the school to go even further, paying for teacher training and a solar-powered timer for the garden's irrigation system, she said.

Students have math lessons in the garden, where they measure, count and plan where to plant seeds. In science, they used the garden to discover concepts, including life cycles of plants and properties of matter. They even write about their garden work in language arts class and learn about adjectives that describe their produce.

It not only connects them to the real world, but it also "touches all of their senses," Tyloch said.

Elsewhere in the county, students at La Mariposa School in Camarillo will update existing gardens, develop a new bed for fourth-graders and buy tools and soil. Near Fillmore, Santa Clara School officials plan to plant a vegetable garden, which can be used as an outdoor classroom and benefit the school's wellness program, allowing students to sample the produce they grow.

Natalie Johnston, a third-grader at Santa Clara, can't wait. "I think it's better to actually watch it. You can experience how it grows," she said.