KGI News: Growing Gardeners

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KGI News:  February 2011 Dear Kitchen Gardener, One of the primary goals of education is to prepare young people to be healthy, well-rounded members of society who are not only able to provide for themselves, but to give something back as well. The garden teaches these lessons in a way that no traditional classroom can. And, plus, as garden humorist John Hershey ( a.k.a "America's Least Knowledgeable Gardening Expert") points out in our lead article, watching kids play in gardens is also good, clean fun, well...maybe not that clean! On a more serious note, children today face a barrage of unhealthy food messages far greater and more cleverly cloaked than those served up to previous generations. We gardeners and our friends may not be able to outspend the junk food peddlers, but we can out-organize them! Whether you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or another upstanding member of your local community, getting more kids into more kitchen gardens, at home and at school, is everyone's business. I hope you'll heed the call and find a way to grow not just a new garden this season, but a new little gardener or two. Good gardening wishes, Roger  Connect with me here:	Featured Content:   1) Inch by Inch, Row by Row...When is This Stupid Plant Going to Grow? 2) Why & How to Build a Raised Bed Garden 3) Rooftop Urban School Gardens: Veggies Where They have No Business to Be 4) A Brief History of School Gardens 5) Cultivating Healthy Young Minds and Bodies Down Under 6) Thinking of Starting a School Garden? Here's your Checklist 7) Slideshow: School Garden in India 8) This Month's Poll: Your Involvement in Youth Gardening 9) This Month's Featured Book 10) Everything Else! #20ate Campaign Update According to a study by Yale University, the average US preschooler saw 2.8 TV ads for fast food every day in 2009 while children 6-11 years saw 3.5 and teens 4.7. KGI's 28-day campaign to say "no" to junk food promotion and "yes" to real food instead is caching on with mentions in several prominent blogs and tweets by celebrities and food writers from the New York Times and Washington Post. Please join the campaign and help us spread the word through facebook & twitter.
Inch by Inch, Row by Row...When is This Stupid Plant Going to Grow? By John Hershey of RakishWit.com Working in the garden with kids is lots of fun. You're outside. You're playing in the dirt. Sharp bladed tools are flying around. It's pure quality time. And it's educational! Gardening teaches kids important lessons about the "cycle of life." But parents, be ready to answer tough questions about why your child's pumpkin plant died. Continue reading here Back to top
Why & How to Build a Raised Bed Garden Raised bed gardens are often the best choice for school gardens in that they help prevent little toesies from stepping on flowering posies and other things you might want to protect. They also make good sense for home gardeners who are looking to get the most of their space and growing season. Need convincing? Continue reading here Back to top
Rooftop School Gardens: Veggies Where They have No Business to Be By Sarah Zoubek of New York Sun Works "We have a mini-cucumber!" It was against all odds, but there, nestled amidst the plant's large leaves, were the beginnings of a cucumber. The news quickly spread throughout Public School 333, and another cucumber was soon to join it. Before long, our peas plants began to fruit - and lo, peas!  Continue reading here Back to top
A Brief History of School Gardens By Rose Hayden-Smith of The Victory Grower School gardens had been used in parts of Europe as early as 1811, and mention of their value preceded that by nearly two centuries. Philosophers and educational reformers such as John Amos Comenius and Jean-Jacques Rousseau discussed the importance of nature in the education of children; Comenius mentioned gardens specifically. The use and purpose of school gardens was multifold; gardens provided a place where youth could learn natural sciences and also acquire vocational skills. Continue reading here Back to top
Cultivating Healthy Young Minds and Bodies Down Under By Josephene Duffy of The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation When Roger asked for contributions to the KGI newsletter on school gardens, I couldn't resist the opportunity to share a bit of my organization's work in Australia. I work as the communications director for the The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. The Foundation was started by Stephanie, a renowned Australian chef, at Collingwood College in inner-city Melbourne in 2004. The Program proved such a success that now 180 schools across Australia are involved. Continue reading here Back to top
Thinking of Starting a School Garden? Here's your Checklist By Dorothy Mullen of The Suppers Program I've tried to put ten years of failing-my-way to success into check points to help prevent others from reinventing their wheels. In school gardening there are so many considerations beyond the horticultural needs of the plants that your really need a checklist to be prepared for the problems that will undoubtedly crop up.   Continue reading here Back to top
Slideshow: School Garden in India   Kitchen Gardeners International is partnering with the Gundbala Welfare and Education Trust to plant a school garden and carry out nutrition education in Gundbala, a little village of 610 people nestled in the foot hills of Karnataka's Western Ghats in India.   Watch the slideshow here.   Back to top
This Month's Poll and Last Month's Results   Click on the image above or here to vote     Back to top
This Month's Featured Book How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle With step-by-step tasks, advice on everything from raising funds to garden designs, materials lists, and lesson plans that connect garden activities to curriculums and meeting school standards, this unique guide paves the way for getting a garden off the ground, so to speak, in a yearlong overview that covers ideas for building planting beds, delicious recipes, and composting. The bounty of information is presented in ways that will generate excitement and provide inspiration for teachers and their volunteer partners. Buy the book via KGI's Amazon affiliate link here Back to top
Everything Else!
In the News:   Gardening -Why it pays to get the inside story on your soil - Irish Times -Sustenance, edible and otherwise, from the garden - Chicago Tribune -Master Gardeners: Spring is a perfect time to start planning a kitchen garden - Marin Independent-Journal -Checking Up On Michelle Obama's Anti-Obesity Effort - NPR -The kitchen garden model to solve malnutrition - Times of India -Man's dream of a community garden takes root - Pensacola News Journal   Climate Change Prince Charles gives climate change skeptics a good telling off - Unthinkable Climate Commission ploy to sell tax: Hunt - Sydney Morning Herald Understanding soil could help tide over climate changes - Sify House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton Denies Human Role In Climate Change ... - Huffington Post Stronger cyclones to menace miners, crops in warmer - Reuters     Food Security -Food producers, policy-makers look to grow Alaska's agricultural industry - Homer News -Fruit-bearing trees distributed for environmental and food security program - Philippine Information Agency -Madagascar: Food Insecurity Tightens Its Hold - Bernama -Food security: Ignore it at your peril ... - Arab News -Lack Of Expertise, Expensive Fertlizer Blames For Kenya's Food Insecurity - Bernama -Food security: Institute challenges Fed Govt on agric policy - The Nation Newspaper -Nicolas Sarkozy has food-and-mouth disease - Globe and Mail   Peak Oil WikiLeaks cable: Saudi oil estimates may have been exaggerated - CNN   Q&A:   -What are the advantages of raised bed gardens? -What steps are involved in starting a new a school garden? -What is the best method for winter sowing vegetable seeds in containers outdoors? -How do I build a raised bed garden? -Is it posible to harvest crops planted in a greenhouse year-yound?   more Q & A here   Recipes:   -Vegetarian Borscht -Caldo Verde: Portuguese Kale Soup -Curried Squash Soup -Harira -Potato and Leek Soup   more recipes here     Discussions:   -Hello from Nova Scotia, Canada -Huffington Post a big supporter of City Farming -Seeds sent by Kelli Hinns and friend Alan. -Patio tomatos with medium/low sun -Square Foot Questions   more discussions here     Crop Tags:   Fava Beans Cabbage Tomatoes Cauliflower Rat-tailed radish Raspberries Rosemary Cucumbers Winter Squash perennials Scallions Tomatillos pigeon peas Purslane Arugula pickling cucumbers Squash Kohlrabi Poletschka Bean Vegetables Zucchini Potatoes Onions Rhubarb Radishes Belgian Endive Pole Beans Currants Cilantro Basil  Bok Choy Dandelion Spinach Mint Swiss Chard Fennel Herbs Brussels Sprouts Turnips Leeks Summer Squash borage Garlic Apples Lettuce Sweet Peppers Okra Strawberries Pumpkin Corn Salad Beets Carrots Parsnips Parsley Asparagus Bush Beans Radicchio Kale Peas   E-store:   Looking for something kitchen garden related. We might be able to help here.	Blogs Posts:   -Farmer Dave's homesteading story -Two Options for Growing Salad Greens When it's Snowing -Spring Sprouts. -Charlie -Inch by Inch, Row by Row...When is This Stupid Plant Going to Grow? -Salvaged Apples, Hard Cider -A Brief History of School Gardens -Cultivating Healthy Young Minds and Bodies Down Under -School Gardens -Mini-Cucumbers Where They Have No Business To Be -Responsible carnivory: Nose-to-tail eating article -Five Tips for Starting Vegetable Seedlings Indoors More Cheaply -#20ate - Real Food Campaign -Growing vegetables urgently -Seed starting basics   more blog posts here     Pods: (Pods are like Google or Yahoo Groups for gardeners in the same local geographic area. Use them to get together online and in person)   Lexington, Kentucky, US Scarborough, Maine, US Paradise, California, US Akron, Ohio, US Keene, New Hampshire, US Bloomingdale, Indiana, US Overland Park, Kansas, US Purcellville, Virginia, US Tampa Bay, Florida, US Adelaide, S Australia, Australia Nashville, Tennessee, US Beverly, New Jersey, US Mission Viejo, California, US Sydney, NSW, Australia Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Dayton, Ohio, US Atlantis, Western Cape, S Africa South Portland, Maine, US Seattle, Washington, US Oak Bay, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada ISLAMABAD, Punjab, Pakistan Henderson, Nevada, US Savannah, Georgia, US Winsted, Connecticut, US Camarles, Tarragona, Spain Santa Rosa, California, United States Montreal, Quebec, Canada Fort Bragg, California, United States Halfmoon, New York, United States     Groups: (Groups are like Google or Yahoo Groups for gardeners sharing the same areas of interest)   -Northern Gardeners - Zone 3, 4 and 5 -Square Foot Gardening -Growing bananas in pots -Gardening with Kids -Food Life Beyond the Grocer's -Greenhouse Gardening -Edible Landscaping -Biointensive Gardening -Community Gardens -Grupo en espanol -Orchards -Quotes and poems about gardens -Rooftop Gardens, Balcony Gardens & Container Gardens -Victory Gardens LA! -small kitchen gardens -Plant Diseases -Australia -Garden Pests -Tools -Ontario Gardeners -Great Garden Reads -Garden Construction -Preserving the Harvest -Berry Growers -Wild Gardening -Backyard Kitchen Herbalists -Solitary Bees & native pollinators -Beekeeping - honeybees -Permaculture -Gardening in the South East -Wisconsin Driftless Gardeners -Pod Organizers -Inland Empire Gardening -Bahcemiz -Community Gardens -Walled Kitchen Gardens -Gardening in the tropics -N. Kentucky Kitchen Gardeners -School Gardens -Website and Drupal gurus -Jardiniers Francophones     Map: Check out our group map here. Be sure to zoom in a couple times to make the markers appear
Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit community of kitchen gardeners from over 100 countries. We answer each other's questions through blogs, forums, and social networking; work with like-minded partners around the world; organize local, national, and global activities; and sow high-impact projects such as our campaign to replant a kitchen garden at the White House.  3 Powderhorn Drive Scarborough, ME 04074 United States Click here to unsubscribe: http://kitchengardeners.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/optout&reset=1&jid=100&qid=365150&h=fa758b942227ee2a