The Providential Gardener

No Child Left Inside ~ An Article for Background

The Providential Gardener loves hearing about "No Child Left Inside" efforts.* Sanne Kure-Jensen, a Rhode Island landscape professional and great news source herself,  sent along this link sent to her..... Here is an article written by the man who wrote the book on the subject.

See this Orion Magazine article "No Child Left Inside," published in 2007, by Richard Louw.

And speaking of children, I'll mention again the Children's Garden Network, which aims to have gardens at every school and youth organization throughout Rhode Island by 2010. Visitors to the Garden Show are responding enthusiastically to the program ~ clearly a good idea whose time has come. Let's help them make their goal, but also do what we can to see that these gardens are sustained over time.

*"The growing movement to reconnect children and nature, and to battle 'nature deficit disorder'"

RI Spring Flower & Garden Show News

I've always enjoyed going to the Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show, and so I'm looking forward to this year's show ~ Thursday, February 21st through Sunday February 24th, 2008.

LECTURES & DEMOS ~ AND Children's Activities.

Each year there are special presentations, but if you're like me, it's not easy to remember when the ones I want to hear are scheduled. Then there are separate lists for lectures & demos, which adds to the challenge.

This year, I've put all the special activities at the Flower Show into the What Grows On in Rhode Island Calendar. Scroll to February 21-24, and you'll see all the special events listed in "Agenda" view, but you can also change this to a Calendar format.

By the way, I am very close now to upgrading the Calendar software, which will make the Calendar much easier to use.

School Gardens and Landfills

A postscript about a recent post highlighting the short film,"Inch by Inch: Providence Youth Gardens for Change:"

The filmmaker, Ilana Friedman, also wrote an article in 2005 about developing a garden at the Del Sesto/Springfield School in Providence that you might like to read. Ilana write that even though the Springfield Middle School was built on a "dump," they got approval to construct safe, raised beds ~ but then authorities changed their minds and removed the gardens ~ and in 2005, the teachers were trying to figure out how to have gardens on stilts. We need updates. What's going on now with gardening at this school? If you know, please add a COMMENT (click on the tiny type below this post and write!)

Inch by Inch ~ Providence Youth Gardens Grow

I love talking with folks when I check out Providential Gardener Calendar events. There's always something new to learn. On Sunday, when I was at the Urban Greens West End Garden Tour, I heard about an 8-minute film made by Ilana Friedman while she was a student at Brown four years ago called "Inch by Inch: Providence Youth Gardens for Change." It shows how teachers can implement gardening programs in schools:

...Lessons emerge organically as garden settings help students address issues specific to their school. Building academic skills through hands-on learning, students also grow healthy food, develop literacy in a bilingual setting, make public art, and bridge the deaf and hearing communities. This video motivates educators to get growing with their youth.

It strikes me that this is a good Fourth of July story: about taking charge of the urban environment and developing self-sufficiency ~ and personal independence. Yet how interdependent we are on those who teach us and on those enabling organizations like Southside Community Land Trust, which continues to develop school gardens in Providence.

You can see this film right now on Media That Matters, a site worth exploring in itself. Read the story about the film for more details. Four Providence schools are featured: Community Prep and their Freedom Garden, Flynn Elementary, City Arts!, and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.

One more thing: Stu Nunnery (Rhode Island Farmways) and many other people involved in The Children's Garden Network are hard at work on the Garden at Every School in Rhode Island by 2010 project. I have written about that program in other posts, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more from them in the coming school year. But for now, back to the parades and fireworks.