Getting your hands dirty can be educational as well as fun.
A group of Summerland Middle School students are literally digging into their education, thanks to a program put on by Friends of the Garden volunteers at Summerland Ornamental Gardens.
Bev Krieger, one of the organizers, said this is the fifth year they have run the program, offering it to both Summerland and KVR Middle Schools.
The program is as popular with the volunteers as it is with students. Krieger said they had 18 experienced gardeners volunteering this year.
“They take five or six kids at a time, and they plant gardens with them,” said Krieger, explaining how Grade 8 teacher Lana Manuel works in other topics, like math, science, socials, and personal planning while she teaches about gardening.
“It’s a really thematic approach to education.They use gardening as kind of a centre point,” said Krieger. “We cover themes during the year too. We show them how to make compost, we show them how to mix soil, then we do a whole lesson around seeds, planting, soil temperature, irrigation, that kind of thing.”
“We also tour the gardens quite a bit, and do lots of lessons on pollination and drought tolerant plants.”
For some of the students, gardening is a brand-new experience. Krieger said she has had students that didn’t realize radishes or potatoes grow in the ground.
“A lot of them, when we have our big celebration luncheon, which we had last week, haven’t eaten things like kale or arugula or any of the herbs that we plant or radishes even,” said Krieger. “It is a big learning curve for them, and they all eat the salad because they grew it themselves.”
Krieger, a master gardener, said it is a rewarding experience passing on her knowledge.
“It is really rewarding,” said Krieger. “Adolescents are a funny bunch. you don’t know they’re paying attention until all of a sudden, they surprise you, saying back to me what I taught them five months ago.
“I think that is why the teachers keep coming back. We have teachers on a waiting list who want this program. Kids love it.”