Learning Gardens produce fresh vegetables, serve as outdoor classrooms, and bring communities together—but that’s not all! We celebrate unique learning and growing experiences that happen in gardens across the country. Take a look at some of the special moments that happen in Learning Gardens each day—or share your story with us!
Eat What You Grow
“We are serving what we grow in the garden at lunchtime. There was a lot of resistance from the lunchroom staff and even adults trying the salad from our garden. So having it there provided an opportunity for kids to be exposed to different types of foods. They’d never tried chard or kale. The thing is, they liked it, they just had never been exposed to it.” – Katina Makris
Find Love in the Garden
“[My students] are never going to have a school experience that is like other kids. The garden is the one equalizer for every student…It’s the one place where they can all have equal access. In the [Learning Garden], there’s no social dynamic. It’s not ‘we’re the leaders and you’re the followers,’ it’s everybody is equal. Everybody is in it in the same way…When they find love in the garden, that’s important for them because that may be the only time they are happy the whole day.” – Special Education Teacher/Garden Team Lead, Los Angeles
Changing School Culture
“Our Learning Garden really transformed that area. It used to be just a gate and a bunch of kids waiting behind a chain link fence to get picked up. You put in the garden and it becomes a community where we’re meeting the parents in the garden; families are sitting together. There are people out there. It really changed a side of the culture of [our school] and it’s well loved by a lot of people.” – 5th Grade Teacher and Principal, Colorado
Gardening is Therapy
Being able to garden is therapeutic. Even if you don’t realize it, you’re helping something breathe life into itself. You’re seeing something grow from a seed into a flower or fruit or herbs. Being able to repeatedly see something grow, it felt like an accomplishment.
-Real Food Lab Student, Memphis
Summer Gardening in Chicago
88 students at Ole A. Thorp Elementary participating in Thorp’s Summer Funstitute program harvested pea shoots, kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and turnips this summer. The two students in the picture prepped the produce and every student got to make a salad the following day and taste test different salad dressings. One of the school’s administrators said, “Our kids had such a fun time with your group! Our salads were incredibly successful. We made 3 massive bowls of salad – red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and ranch. The kids ate every bit of salad we prepared! The turnips were also a huge hit, with kids trying them and then asking for more.”
– Marla Guggenheimer, Garden Educator
