Learn about the environment and the world through gardening

Gardening, after hunting, gathering and one more well known activity, is one of the world’s oldest professions. It is practiced by novices and professionals alike.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"] Raised bed of lettuce, tomatoes, 6 different types of basil, marigolds, zinnias, garlic chives, zucchini.[/caption]

Gardens come in all sizes from the pot of herbs on the back steps to the farm environment, although as the site gets bigger, gardening morphs into farming.

Gardens and the time spent in them produce many benefits, perhaps the least discussed is learning. A garden can be sued to teach the basic skills of literacy and numeric and once those have been mastered the door is wide open.

Let’s consider math; to get something growing in a garden, it is necessary to plant either seeds or plants; in order to do that, it is essential to know what their requirements are. This information is either written on a seed pack or other printed source.

The seed pack lists the depth at which the seed must be planted, how far apart the seeds must be placed and to get it right, it is wise to measure these distances. It is also necessary need to know the size of the garden and how much space each plant requires so you can calculate the number of plants you can place in each plot. There is more than math and language literacy skills one can develop by gardening, there are the personal or lifestyle skills that will help you make your way through the world. Patience is a lesson gardeners must learn early. Plants to not grow instantly, no matter how much you will them to grow, time will pass before they do.

The successful gardener will understand the role that pollination plays in the growth process and come to know the many pollinators who help the garden grow; without them, no flowers, vegetables, or fruit will appear. An appreciation for spiders and earthworms as well as bees, evolves.Formal school is important; however, it is wrong to dismiss the value that the practical experience of growing things gives. School gardens are a must, but, parents, if at all possible must involve their children in the gardening chores. The time spent will pay huge dividends as the years pass.

I wrote the following in a earlier article:

“Unfortunately, formal schooling seems to remove the wonder from the process and reduce it to rote, repetition, right and wrong. Learning demands experimentation and experiments are attempts to discover something.”

Time in the garden will renew that wonder.

We Need Gardens Everywhere

Bob Ewing --Every school needs a garden. Many of the subjects on the curriculum can be taught in a garden whether that garden is indoors or out. We posses the technology to create indoor teaching gardens at a reasonable price. The garden, to be an effective learning tool, does not have to be large; it just needs to be accessible.

Community centres, government buildings, churches, and recreation centres are also good garden sites. In addition to the potential learning the garden will provide fresh food for local food programs, for example.

Across North America, many schools have incorporated gardens and many cities have community garden programs. Now it is the time to expand these programs towards creating community food security and environmental stewardship.



[caption id="attachment_15355" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Thunder Bay: Regent St Community Garden"][/caption]

What can gardening teach us; perhaps, the most important lesson we learn when we garden is patience. Plants do grow instantly, even radishes, which are fairly quick growing and an ideal plant for a child’s garden take some time; most varieties of radish mature in 28 days, fairly quick as vegetable grow.
Responsibility is another lesson the garden offers. Gardens demand care and attention, if this is not provided the plants will suffer and eventually die,
Both biology and botany lessons can be provided as the gardeners plant the seed, nurture it watch it grow, and harvest flowers, food and seed. The cycle of life is taking place right in front of us as we garden.
If we want we can learn some Latin as the plants’ official names are all in Latin. This can be useful when you want to be sure that you are getting the correct plant, using the Latin name will make this easier.

We can learn math and the value of measuring as we determine how many plants will fit in a row that is six feet long and each seed is plated six inches apart.

History is another lesson that we can experience in our gardens; roses for example have been around for many, many years and the story of how they traveled from China, for example, to North America can be a valuable history lesson.

We can learn how to grow, some or all of our own food and develop our ability to take care of ourselves and our families. This helps us move towards self-reliance and independence.

We begin to understand the complexity of the ecosystem that we inhabit as our understanding of how we are not alone when we garden but that we have many helpers working with us each minute, birds, bees, butterflies and millions of many very tiny beings who make our soil fertile and help the plants thrive.

Gardening enables us to put life into perspective as we begin to realize that we play a vital role in keeping our home, the Earth, vibrant through our gardens. We bring nature and civilization together and create a place where cooperation makes all beings prosper.

We can broaden and deepen our educational experience by setting up gardens at our schools, our vacant lots and our own homes. It is time to get back to the garden.