Discovering the Joys and Value of Gardening with Children: Garden Buddies in Habitat Park
From May through October, the Museum is lucky to have several Master Gardeners from the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Program. They specialize in teaching about sustainable food supply practices through hands-on planting, maintaining, and harvesting of fruit and vegetable gardens. Through this partnership, we are able to continuously plant and harvest throughout these months.
Steve Cook, our main Master Gardener, has been with our Garden Buddies program for the past 2 ½ years. He is an incredible resource from both the wealth of knowledge he brings to the actual plants and seeds he brings to our garden. During our growing season, he is here every Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Not only has he helped to make this program a summer staple, he has gone to great lengths to create a healthy foundation for our garden to expand. This year we added two more raised garden beds bringing our working total to six raised garden beds and we are hoping to add even more in 2016.
When I asked Steve what he hoped participants would gain from being part of our Garden Buddies program, he replied, “To show kids where the vegetables come from… [and] to get kids interested in gardening and sometimes a parent may become interested too.”
It is really fascinating to watch children come back week after week to the garden to see how it has changed and grown. Not surprisingly, recent studies have even shown that participating in garden-based learning positively impacts the child’s overall academic success. Steve highlights our visitors’ enthusiasm, remarking that “The kids have planted everything. Many kids come back to see how it’s growing and harvest what they have planted.”
One of my favorite stories was told to me by one of the exhibit guides in Habitat Park. Apparently, a little girl had pulled a leaf off one of the plants in the garden bed and began to eat it. The mother exclaimed, “What are you doing?” The little girl replied, “Eating swiss chard!” She was correct - and obviously a repeat Garden Buddies patron.
Steve is a great resource for parents as well. He is happy to answer any questions about gardening and help a patron figure out how to make things work in their own garden or start one! He happily reminds us, “Kids like to be outside and play in the dirt and this gives them a chance.”
In our garden you can explore using all of your senses. Steve is encourages our patrons to smell and taste herbs from our garden. Children have fun identifying what we have grown, especially when it comes to our herb garden. Not only do children taste the herbs but they explore ways to identify an herb from its characteristics: what it looks, smells and feels like. By turning it into a game, Steve will ask children if they like pizza or spaghetti sauce, like in these pictures, and as a result the little girl figured out this herb was on her pizza!
All of our fruits and vegetables are grown organically. This year our crop has been abundant! We are proud of our long list that we have been able to cultivate from our small raised garden beds: growing beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, head lettuce, cabbage, beets, radishes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, Swiss chard, zucchini, garlic, onions, celery, leeks, strawberries, peas, and herbs (parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, dill, cilantro, lemon basil, basil, sage and stevia). Our biggest grow of the year? Pumpkins! Next year we hope to have even more pumpkins of various sizes.
In season, there is always something growing in our garden, as fruits and vegetables get harvested, space becomes available to plant more seeds! Many children return both to plant more seeds and also to see how the vegetables they planted are growing. Steve said, “They are very excited and know exactly where to look for which vegetables they planted.” Steve also enjoys asking children what their favorite vegetable is and then showing them how it grows. This enables many children to be able to see the life cycle of the plant. And what better way to get a child interested in eating vegetables, then to have them take ownership of planting and growing the vegetable! This echoes another recent study by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
I asked Steve what he thought was the best way to engage children in the garden. He told me, “Let them do it, you can’t mess things up.” So go for it, play around with gardening! If you want some help getting started, we are still working with our garden!
In October, we will explore “Amazing Seeds,” discovering what is inside a seed and how seeds get from one place to another. And don’t forget we will still be planting, maintaining and harvesting the plants for the rest of our growing season. If you find yourself at the Museum on a Friday but the weather keeps you out of Habitat Park, you will find Steve inside with our worm bin. Children have the opportunity to touch the worms, learn about worms and their importance to gardens and the food we eat.
We still have one month left to garden together. Come see us in Habitat Park. As the weather turns more autumnal, we will be adding an exciting indoor extension: a Garden to Table cooking program every other Tuesday afternoon. In October, we’ll be making colorful carrot salads: beautiful AND healthy! Stay tuned!
--Gail Schuck, Museum Education Specialist
Garden Buddies and Garden to Table have been underwritten by the Whole Kids Foundation.