Blog For You | Comments | Inside Scoop | Show And Tell

Nutrition For Children And Adults - A Vegetable Garden

Nutrition is important for all of us. Vegetables are a vital part of both children and adult diets. How many times have all of us struggled with getting children to eat certain or any type of vegetable?

A great solution as well as learning experience, is to create a vegetable garden in a wide variety of environments. This is such a great educational tool and can be incorporated in health and science lesson plans.

More and more today urban areas all over the globe are creating vegetable gardens right in the heart of a city. Many schools and families are beginning to understand the value of allowing children to go through the learning process of how to plan, prep, and plant a vegetable or any other type of garden or landscape.

I am fascinated to see urban cities as well as rural locations take a small area and create a garden that will teach children about the nutrition in a variety of different vegetables.

There are a couple ways to create this special educational experience for any location. Any age group can participate in this wonderful learning adventure, from a family setting in a backyard, a small area on a school property, or on a campus at a college university.

This is a very simplistic illustration of a garden that has been constructed in some urban areas. It is the first type of vegetable garden you can think about doing.

The size of the garden will vary depending on the location. This is constructed with pressure treated lumber. You can use railroad ties or any other material that is suited for you budget. The length and width can be made to fit your location.

In planning for a school, city, town or home project, the first step is to find the right location. If you are creating this garden in a city, you may need to have this approved by your local officials. This will get the ball rolling.

Scout out the possibilities of a good quality and safe location. If you are planning this project in a school, campus or home, go ahead and find that ideal location that would allow as many people to participate, as well as a good environment for plant specimens to grow.

The second step is to plan the design of the garden and think of what type of vegetables you could plant. The involvement of students, parents, officials, and community will not only allow the children to experience all the phases, but it will show children the importance of nutrition to all ages.

If you go back to the drawing, notice how the first row is wider. This is a great row to plant vegetables that need more room to grow, such as squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and corn. Research what vegetables will grow best in your climate. Identify from the start that planning with the children, will result in their learning not only about vegetables, but nutrition. Getting excited about this project can create a positive learning environment for everyone.

Once you have planned this project, go ahead and do the proper prepping. Have parents involved and any other group that would make this a more intimate learning experience.

To me, it is the planting stage that really allows children to visualize and touch the materials. Getting their hands dirty allows them to feel and watch the process of each vegetable starting from seed, or as a small plug. The end product will show them the established plant that can be enjoyed and eaten.

Universities and college campus's are developing wonderful facilities to help Horticultural students learn different techniques to provide a variety of methods for helping adults and children identify the value of nutrition in vegetables.

An option, is to create a variety of simple vegetable gardens by using different soil amendments. What ingredients have to be added to a clay, sandy, wet, or dry ground? Using different soil amendments will give the students an overall picture of different environments in addition to their own geographic location.

The other possibility of teaching children about nutrition with vegetables, is a container garden. The container garden can be done if there is limited space. There is an article in the garden project section, on doing a container garden in a small space. The process of doing a vegetable container garden is done the same way as a ground garden, plan, prep, and plant.

There are also thousands of herb specimens that provide nutritional as well as possible medicinal value in our society. In the spices and herb section, there are many different varieties of herbs and spices. This is another option, adding some herbs or spices to a vegetable garden.

I do believe that any city, town, school or family has the ability to create some form of a vegetable garden.

This is an invaluable teaching tool to provide hands on learning. It can teach children not only about nutrition in vegetables, but also allows them to witness the entire process in an outdoor setting. Has your community, university, school or family created a vegetable garden?

We would love you to share your experience as well as see any pictures. Go ahead, and whether you have a garden in a city, several gardens on campus, or a small garden at your home, share your knowledge and give others some ideas to develop their own vegetable garden.

Do you have some information about projects you are doing to provide education to children on nutrition or other experimentation of different plant specimens? Please feel free to share this information with all of us. You could be getting the ball rolling for other communities to begin a project for their children and families. What a great experience for all of us!