This year, Gardening Know How's School and Community Garden Sponsorship Program was fortunate enough to help support 20 gardens with $1,000 each. These gardens represent a wide array of community and school programs, from Florida to Saskatchewan and many places in between. Each has its own unique and powerful story, and we're excited to share them with you. Every other week we highlight one of our sponsorship recipients to help spread the word about how amazing they really are. This week we're featuring the "Let's play in the dirt" Gardening Club.
Back in 2015, the Dowell Elementary School in Marietta, Georgia first launched the "Let's play in the dirt" club, a school-wide initiative for students in grades Pre-K through 5 to experience gardening and healthy eating first hand. Since then its quarter acre of land has grown to include 15 raised beds, a small greenhouse, a compost area, and an outdoor classroom. Teachers integrate the garden into classes whenever they can, and the fruits and vegetables the students grow are prepared and served for lessons on nutrition and alternatives to junk food.
The garden club is such a success, in fact, and so impactful on the lives of students, that it only makes sense to expand it. The club would like to make growing easier, and to make teaching more fun and involved. With that in mind, the next steps are to install a dripline irrigation system, and to construct an outdoor area for cooking demonstrations. That's where Gardening Know How comes in.
With the grant from Gardening Know How, the "Let's play in the dirt" Gardening Club will be able to expand its capabilities, teaching elementary students how to grow, prepare, and eat healthy, locally grown produce.
We're proud to be able to help them realize their dream.
-
How To Grow Garden To Table: A Guide For Home CooksWhat could be better than a meal that comes directly from garden to table? Show off your gardening and culinary skills with the very freshest food.
-
Want a Backyard Mini Orchard? Create Your Own Container OrchardEasier to care for in small spaces, a backyard mini-orchard makes sense for busy gardeners and juicy fruit is the reward.
-
The Grow Garden at GIVE - 2022 Grant RecipientThis alternative school in Georgia is using its garden to teach kids in all new ways.
-
Common Ground Community Garden - 2022 Grant RecipientThis Texas community garden has been getting people out of their apartments and into nature for 12 years.
-
Valley Daycare - 2022 Grant Recipient -
Douglas Discovery Garden – 2022 Grant Recipient -
Ben Franklin Elementary School – 2022 Grant RecipientThis hundred year old garden in Cleveland, Ohio is still going strong with a unique educational program for fourth graders.
-
Kin Park Community Garden - 2022 Grant RecipientRead about the small town in Vancouver that's bringing its people together with fresh produce and garden plots.
-
Elmsdale Community Garden – 2022 Grant RecipientThe Elmsdale Community Garden is striving to bring food security to rural Nova Scotia, one garden bed at a time. Read their story here.
-
Gainesville Giving Garden - 2022 Grant RecipientThe Gainesville Giving Garden was born from a dream of freedom from food insecurity during the height of covid. Read its story here.
