Thursday, April 4, 2013

How to Teach Children Gardening

 Children need a lawn to play?  Children need a place for imagination to play.


Schools across USA plant vegetable plots for children to learn 'gardening'.
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That's not gardening, it's agriculture.
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Who teaches children ornamental horticulture increases agriculture yields almost double?
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Do you know how ornamental horticulture increases agricultural yields?
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic from Castles, Crowns & Cottages.  Lucky me, I've never stopped going into brambly gardens to play.  Luckier, I've had girlfriends to come with me.  Only once attracting a police chopper !  No, not caught.

12 comments:

Suzanne Allen said...

Tara, I'm a Master Gardener in Tennessee. I'm interested in your statement, "Who teaches children ornamental horticulture increases agriculture yields almost double." Can you give me a cite on that?

mamacita said...

No, I don't know how ornamental horticulture increases agriculture yields! Do tell.

Tara Dillard said...

Obviously, I knew the questions were difficult.

And, makes me sad.

They should be known, as the air we breath.

Science, credentials? Of course. And, more sadness that it has to be asked.

I've been lecturing on this topic for years. It's become more popular than my Vanishing Threshold lecture. Amazing.

XOT

Gatsbys Gardens said...

Schools do not just have vegetable gardens. In fact more and more each year are developing literacy gardens that integrate literature, animals, habitats, insects, seasons, climate change, etc., etc., while learning about the culture of ornamental plants.

I have been a big proponent of gardening with children all my life both with my own children and my students.

Eileen

Jean Campbell said...

"Children, can you say beneficials and pollinators and native plants? Can you just say NO to chemicals?"

Sorry, no credentials here. I'm just an old farm woman. One doesn't have to know much if one knows whom to ask or where to look.

Divine Theatre said...

I'm no one special but I do know that ornamental horticulture increases agricultural yields. One need only look at an espaliered tree.
Books don't grow on trees...

xo

Andie

Barbara Pilcher said...

My mind has been running in this groove lately because I'm working with a small committee -- The Dirty Dozen -- to organize a community organic garden for our small town. Of course we want to make it interesting and educational for children, as well as provide produce and sustainability examples for local citizens. AND it has to look pretty because there are private homes on adjoining lots, and just because...

I married a man who grew up on a farm. I'm picking his brains to get this garden off the ground, because we need the practicality an agricultural background brings to the table, plus the aesthetics a lover of the natural world brings to the plan.

You post is encouraging.

Maybe "ornamental horticulture" is just too much of a mouthful for children. We should call it Bugs and Blooms or something.

Suzanne Allen said...

I love your blog and read it daily. Not to put too fine a point on it, as a Master Gardener, I'm interested in research-based information. Saying "it is well-known that ornamental horticulture increases agricultural yields" is fine and intuitively I agree. However, you must be basing your lecture material on some kind of controlled research? Can you tell me your source?

Tara Dillard said...

Garden Rant has a post about Master Gardeners. Loads of comments.

I teach Master Gardeners. With engineering & horticulture degrees I'm qualified. Of course 2+ decades studying historic landscapes across Europe was a better education.

Suzanne, start with Wendell Berry. Move on to Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. Of course 2 clicks on google will get you what you want too.

There are myriad sources. I won the top instructor award at Gwinnett College. Students either hated or thrived with my project assignments. I won't hold a hand and guide, best to be in the background and coach.

Why give you my direct sources when what you find will be MORE AMAZING?

The science is there, need as many different paths leading to it as possible. Including yours.

Joseph Campbell said if the path was easy, we are not on the right path.

XO T

Suzanne Allen said...

How nice, Tara. Thank you.

nanne said...

learning most anything always starts at home...let your children see you garden. they will ask questions, you will answer. they will see the end result up close. they may or may not be interested in it, but they will absorb lessons & remember the garden they grew up in.

Anonymous said...

Well, they do really need to know about it.. Indeed it all starts at home.