Learning Garden 10: How Does Your School’s Garden Grow?

Contrary to popular belief, carrots do not come from a plastic bag and lettuce is not grown in the supermarket. To help dispute this growing myth, schools, like mine, are showing students exactly where their food comes from – by turning the classroom into a garden.

I was honored, when Nutrients for Life hosted a satellite media tour in Benton’s Backyard, our school’s outdoor classroom and learning garden. We transformed the area into a remote TV studio where we broadcast live nationwide. From 6:45 A.M to 11:00 A.M., I was interviewed by twenty-two morning television and radio talk show hosts. I am proud and passionate about our learning garden and embraced the opportunity to share the importance of bringing students out of the traditional four walls of the classroom and into nature where they can experience real life application of science and math. Allowing students to dig in the soil and grow a garden will teach them how to grow their own food from seed, as well as, an appreciation and connection to American farmers who are growing the food that we purchase at the supermarket.

Here is the interview that I did with Norma Holland at WHAM ABC 14 in Rochester, New York:

Link: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/3700505

It is our hope that this media tour will inspire and encourage parents, teacher, and community leaders to “dig-in” and start a learning garden at their school.

Read more about classroom gardens in our Learning Garden blog series:

Learning Garden 1: Overview

Learning Garden 2: Long-Term Sustainability

Learning Garden 3: Validation

Learning Garden 4:  Designing the Garden

Learning Garden 5:  Volunteers

Learning Garden 6: Building

Learning Garden 7:  Raised Beds

Learning Garden 8: Plant Selection

Learning Garden 9:  Rain Barrels

Learning Garden 10:  How Does Your Garden Grow?

Learning Garden 11:  Planting Day

Learning Garden 12: Teach the Teacher

Learning Garden 13: First Harvest

Learning Garden 14:  How Do You Say Thank You

Learning Garden 15:  Plant a Seed and Watch It Grow

Learning Garden 16: From the Learning Garden to the Cafeteria