Gardens
What is a community garden?
It can be any piece of land gardened by a group of people. It can be…
- Urban
- Suburban
- Rural
- In a school
- At a hospital
- In a neighborhood
It can grow…
- Flowers or vegetables!
Why start a community garden?A community garden can…
- Improve the quality of life for people in the garden
- Provide a catalyst for neighborhood and community development
- Stimulate Social Interaction
- Encourage Self-Reliance
- Beautify Neighborhoods
- Produce Nutritious Food
- Reduce Family Food Budgets
- Conserve Resources
- Create opportunity for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education
- Reduce Crime
- Preserve Green Space
- Create income opportunities and economic development
- Reduce city heat from streets and parking lots
- Provide opportunities for intergenerational and cross-cultural connections
Why teach gardening in your classroom?
A class garden (being a model of a community garden) will create a classroom community that will reap the benefits mentioned above! Students will discover where their food comes from and the work involved in its production. This classroom garden may lead into a larger project resulting in a community garden in your students' neighborhoods.
How do I start a classroom garden?
- Check out your state science standards
- Use questions from this site to connect to your students' background knowledge
- Allow students to explore the gardening process (observe and visit a local garden)
- Gather materials (seeds, soil, planters, etc.)
- Plant seeds
- Care for plants (transplant outside if possible)
- Dissect some of the plants to learn about parts of a plant and how they grow
- Harvest for a healthy snack (be aware of food allergies and parental consent)
- Link the gardening concept to other important ecological concepts (i.e. photosynthesis, the water cycle, composting, micro-communities, and the social aspects of building community)
Here is an example of our Exploring Your World Day Community Garden display:
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Community
Water
Compost
To learn more about the American Community Garden Association, click here: American Community Gardening Association
page revision: 14, last edited: 05 May 2011 21:01