The Educational Garden
Many urban children are disconnected from their food. Many have never seen a farm, while others have never worked in a garden. Many children don’t realize that their food comes from the earth and grows in deep rich soil. Food comes packaged from the grocery store. A child in our program once looked at the raspberries growing on her school grounds and said, “I’m going to the store where I can get some fresh berries.” An O’Donnell School teacher tells of a student who upon sampling lettuce from the garden exclaimed, “I’ve never eaten food that grew out of the floor before!”
Some children may have once had a garden. Many of our students talk of the gardens they had in their countries of origin, or of a relative’s garden they can visit. Other children have gardens, and these children take a certain amount of pride in sharing the knowledge they already have.
The garden is a place where an awareness of where our food comes from awakens, and where children can see plant life cycles firsthand. Seeds quickly germinate and sprout, and many types of plants will flower or be ready for harvest before the school year is finished. The children can plant and eat their crops soon after planting (radishes are particularly fast) which helps the children be more patient about slower growing varieties. An educational garden begs to be used over the summer when children will have the opportunity to harvest a wider variety of foods and flowers.
Lessons in EarthWorks’ gardens often begin with some sort of group building activity. A cooperative game is a good way to build a team feeling among children who are often pushed into competitive roles. Cooperative games also help communicate that the garden belongs to each of the children and we are all working in it as a team. EarthWorks discourages the children from marking the plants and seeds they plant with their names as a way of building a cooperative spirit. EarthWorks encourages the children to take pride in the crops they grow, but stresses that the garden belongs to everyone – the children and the neighbors. We want everyone to be able to enjoy it.
After the cooperative game, we begin our work in the garden by making something for the group to eat or drink. Sun tea is a favorite of children. All the children get an opportunity to see and smell the “Herb of the Day” before they are sent out to harvest enough to make a tasty tea. The children often find similar looking plants, but before harvesting them they smell them to make sure they have the right one. EarthWorks’ educational gardens are planted with a lot of mints, as they are hardy perennials that can take heavy harvesting. This way we can almost always offer the children some of the garden’s bounty.
After the herbs have been torn and added to water in the sun tea jar, the children are given a variety of garden chores. Weeding, mulching, turning and spreading compost are always popular. Given the chance to do a job, especially if it involves some sort of tool, the children take their chores seriously. The opportunity to use tools is a huge draw for the children. So often children are not trusted to use a tool, both for their own and for the tools’ sake. These fears are often unfounded. After a safety lesson, the majority of students use their tools properly. Using tools well builds confidence and pride. The children will rise to high expectations if given the opportunity to succeed.
In each of EarthWorks gardens, there is a designated digging spot where the children can dig without having to worry about destroying any plants. Many children spend most of their time in the garden simply digging. This often has a focusing and centering effect on the children, who often discover worms in their excavations, which leads to discussions of where the soil comes from.
The real draw of the garden is the harvest. Cilantro, parsley, kale, basil and lettuce have been big hits. They children love to take home the nutritious food and flower bouquets for their families. They swell with pride when they say, “I grew this!”
The garden year ends with planting garlic for harvest in the spring, and then by putting the garden to sleep for the winter. Pulling weeds, turning and spreading compost, and mulching the beds is a good way to talk about decomposition and the need to care for the soil. At each and every turn the garden provides opportunities to build concern and stewardship for the Earth, and to explore how we are very dependent upon the processes of nature for our own survival.
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