1 Getting Into Gardening During the spring and summer of 2014 a garden bloomed in the courtyard of Mount Pleasant Elementary School MPE in Livingston New Jersey Parent volunteers and MPE Counselor Jennifer Kelner conceived the garden idea and the school embraced the thought of teaching students about healthful eating and gardening The goal was to show students where food comes from prompt kids to try new foods and give them a hands-on gardening experience Together students parents teachers and the principal obtained a grant from a local farmers market as well as a donation of lumber Several volunteer families built six raised beds in an unused courtyard and a landscaping company volunteered to clean the space move soil and prepare the garden beds Students quickly became involved They chose to plant foods that grow well in New Jersey including tomatoes eggplant basil corn chives peas and yellow squash Students brought recycled containers to use as starting pots They planted seeds watched them grow into seedlings and School gardens are on the rise across the United States 4
Recycled containers such as cans serve as great starting pots for plants then planted them in the garden beds Counselor Kelner and parent Jodi Rothfeld planned lessons and led classes in gardening Students learned about plant life cycles healthful eating sustainability using resources so they are not depleted and horticulture growing and managing garden 6
plants During the summer more than twenty volunteer families cared for the garden with the kids thoroughly involved in watering weeding and harvesting When school started again students and teachers harvested the many vegetables The MPE garden started small but the enthusiasm of students teachers and parents was contagious Parent involvement made it a community garden and plans quickly evolved to extend the growing season into the spring fall and winter so that all students not only summer volunteers could participate In 2015 the MPE garden was selected as one of twenty winners of the Youth Garden Grant sponsored by the Kids Gardening division of the National Gardening Association This grant donates money tools plants and supplies to winning gardens to ensure that their gardening projects can continue Gardening projects such as the MPE garden are on the rise Gardens produce healthful and delicious fresh foods Even though gardening is hard work it is also great fun and it teaches many skills making gardeners more self-sufficient Early American Farms and Gardens Since people began settling into villages they have grown gardens Through trial and error they learned which plants grew well in their particular soil and climatic conditions They often developed a deep knowledge of these plants and used this knowledge to improve their gardens For example the Iroquois nation of the northeastern United States used companion planting growing plants with complementary characteristics together in their three sisters gardens 7
