Raised Bed Gardening Blog

School Gardens

Created on Tuesday, 02 February 2016 16:46

One of the most satisfying experiences with Grow Y'own is helping elementary schools set up their gardening programs, and working with the young children. The first school we installed was here in Santa Fe, at Larragoite, with about 100 kids. Many of the kids who went there relied on their school lunch as the main meal of the day. On the day of set up, myself and one helper and 100 kids planted 6 raised beds with starts and seeds. A lot of the children didn't know what kale, arugula, sorrel, beets, or many of the herbs even were, or had every eaten anything like them. When we were planting the carrot seeds, they had no connect that this is where they came from, rather than from the Albertson's store! This was in May, at the end of the school year. When they came back at the end of August, they were excited and dumbfounded to see what had become of the seeds and starts they had planted. On harvest day, each child picked things that they had help to plant. They then marched single file, down the hall, toward the cafeteria, holding their 'prizes' in their little hands...beaming. It was so rewarding, experiencing this symbiosis of knowledge and joy, and the realization that from that time forward, they would know where a carrot came from, what it really tasted like, fresh out of the ground, and that they could do it again and again over the course of their lifetimes.  

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