The Garden as Learning Laboratory

Published in the Spring 2005 issue of Organic Family magazine.

Dark green crocus leaves peek out from beneath the damp soil, reminding Luke and me that spring isn’t far away. The strengthening winter sun warms our shoulders as we crawl along the edges of the flower beds pulling weeds to make way for the perennials, most of which are still waiting underground. We dig with our bare hands to get a better grip on the errant clumps of clover and bentgrass and I feel the pressure of the mud collecting under my fingernails. Luke, who’s five years old, soon loses interest in weeding and grabs the pruners. He prowls the garden, looking for dead branches – anything, really -- to clip. Once he’s pruned all he can, he tosses the clippers aside and begins to turn over rocks and pieces of wood, searching for slugs. A while later I look up to mop my brow and breathe in the fragrance of the daphne blooming nearby, and I realize we’ve spent about thirty minutes working companionably together. Thirty minutes…that’s a long time for Luke. The garden engages my high-energy son in ways few other activities can.

It’s a no-brainer, really: the garden – specifically the organic garden – provides an ideal learning laboratory for kids. I’ve watched minutes melt into hours as young children sift through the pathway gravel or delight in a pillbug’s comical journey down the sidewalk. Even older children under the spell of the television find relief in the garden’s quiet rhythms, sometimes searching out a hidden spot in which to retreat and reflect. The boundary between play and learning softens in the garden, each growing out of the other.

Most of us know this instinctually, but hard data supports the validity of garden-based learning as well. Research collected by the National Gardening Association points to its tangible benefits, including increased self esteem, improved behavior and communication, greater interest in science and nutrition, and a more pronounced awareness of environmental stewardship.

Some forward-thinking schools have put garden-based learning into action. At The Garden’s Noise Preschool in Portland, Oregon, a spacious organic garden forms the centerpiece of the school’s activities. The lush, productive garden is actually the backyard of director Michele Miller’s home, where the school is located in a spacious and bright basement. The garden is situated on a double lot, so there’s plenty of room for the school’s thirteen students to plant potatoes, make mud puddles, and clamber up the old apple tree-turned-slide.

Gardening comes naturally to Miller, a former garlic farmer and avid home gardener. She started Garden’s Noise in 1997 and, through word-of-mouth (she actually makes an effort not to publicize her phone number), she now maintains a waiting list of hopeful applicants (and parents).

“The garden sets the rhythm for everything, from the songs we sing to the art, cooking, and gardening projects we do,” says Miller. For example, fall welcomes children back to school with apples to peel and bake into pies and crisps. Teachers encourage kids to collect leaves and seedpods from their own gardens, which they then use in art projects at school. Fall songs and stories revolve about the harvest and the changing colors. Winter tasks include maintaining feeding stations for the wild birds and squirrels, and “tucking in the garden” with a thick layer of straw mulch. Springtime brings the surprise of blooming daffodils and tulips, all of which the children planted in the fall. Spring is also the time for sowing seeds. For the last five years, the children have planted flats of lettuce, cucumbers, and other vegetables which they nurture into transplantable starts. The school then donates the starts to Growing Gardens, a local non-profit organization that provides training and resources to low-income people who want to grow their own food.

Miller stocks the school with toys and fabrics made from natural materials, and tries to steer clear of too many toys that specifically render anything. “Non-specific toys encourage the kids to use their imaginations. A basket of chestnuts becomes money, food, or the borders of a path. Squares of painted silk turn into blankets, capes, and wings,” she says.

Of course, working and playing in the garden is also just good, messy fun. Children dig in the dirt (they’ve dubbed one particularly muddy area in the corner of the garden “Witchy Camp”), they hide among corn stalks, and they turn over stepping stones in search of squirmy treasure.

Learning to cooperate and seeing beyond “me” are two of the greatest skills Miller hopes students take with them into kindergarten and beyond. “When two or three children plant a row of peas, they have to communicate. They learn to work together,” says Miller. She also hopes that by integrating the garden into the learning the children do inside the school, they’ll come to understand that the Earth is alive -- something to be cared for and renewed.

Garden-based learning seems a natural fit for a home-based preschool. But what about a public middle school? At Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, every student participates in the Edible Schoolyard, a one-acre organic garden situated right on the school grounds.

The Edible Schoolyard is the brainchild of Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, and a well-known advocate for local, sustainable agriculture and environmental education. In 1994, Waters collaborated with King’s principal, Neil Smith, to transform an empty lot adjacent to the school into a working organic garden. Today, with the help of six full-time staff and two Americorps volunteers, students care for the Edible Schoolyard, growing seasonal crops of fruits and vegetables which they then transform into delicious meals in the kitchen classroom. (Butternut squash ravioli with sage and brown butter! Lemon verbena tea! In middle school!) Waters maintains an active role in the direction of the garden, and eventually hopes to integrate the food grown in the Edible Schoolyard into the school’s lunch program.

When one steps off the school blacktop and onto the Edible Schoolyard’s soft bark-lined paths, everything quiets down. Bumblebees buzzing among the lavender muffle the greetings shouted between students as they head to class. Evidence of hard work is everywhere: the fruit trees lining the garden, the rows of vegetables and herbs tucked behind bent willow borders, the compost bins, and the gazebo-like Ramada at the garden’s center, constructed with branches and shaded by vines of kiwi, chayote, and runner beans.

Garden Manager Kelsey Siegel is amazed -- but not surprised -- by how much King students accomplish in the garden. Under his guidance, students produce as much food as possible for the school’s kitchen classroom (“Seed to table” is a key phrase in the Edible Schoolyard). Extra food goes home with the students, many of whom have never seen some of the vegetables they grow. “Kale can be tricky,” laughs Siegel.

“Unlike preschoolers, middle schoolers can be reluctant to ask questions and explore. Many students here have never been exposed to a working garden and don’t want to get their clothes dirty or touch bugs. My job is to encourage their curiosity,” Siegel says. He tries to balance directing the students with letting them explore and even play. “It’s easy to forget, but they’re still children,” he says.

The Edible Schoolyard is an outdoor classroom: teachers accompany their students there each day. All the kids’ garden work is tied to their academic work, so, for them, ecology and nutrition literally come alive. Just as important, the kids learn cooperation and teamwork firsthand. Siegel sees the garden as a “level playing field;” a welcome change to the often rigid and stratified social structure in middle school. What’s more, kids get to enjoy the results of their hard work in the kitchen classroom. “For some, this is the only time they sit down at a table and share a meal. My hope is that the kids learn how to not only nourish their souls and each other, but their families and community,” Siegel says.

Many schools around the country are integrating garden-based learning into their curriculums, however modestly. The National Gardening Association has created a website specifically devoted to the topic of gardening with kids. At kidsgardening.com, you can search for school gardens in your area. Or, if your child is already settled in school, the site contains a primer for involving your kids with gardening at home. Needless to say, a garden project need not be complex or time-consuming to be effective (and delightful). A stand of fast-growing sunflowers or a trellis of beans can keep toddlers and preschoolers engaged for weeks. Older children might enjoy cultivating a cutting garden and then collecting the flowers to decorate the dining table. Most kids, regardless of age, relish simply exploring the garden; prospecting for bugs at dirt-level, feeling gravel and stones fall through their fingers, watching the nascent leaves emerge spring and transform into a colorful show in autumn. As long as you and your child enjoy the process of gardening together and aren’t too attached to the end result, you’re sure to learn something new – about the garden and about each other.

Comments

[Cara Fletcher]

The process of gradening is something unique for me.You see how the food grows in front of your eyes.It's awesome.The best way of gardening in my point of view is the organic one.

[gail arnold]

Some basic ideas to get teachers started and to catch the vison.