JW: Calling all grown-ups, if you have a little one in your life that you love, why not introduce them to gardening? And if you think you don't have a green thumb, well then it's a perfect project for you to explore together. I'm Judy Wagley. This is “From the Ground Up!” I'm at Dow Gardens in Midland with Debbie Anderson. She is the Education and Volunteer Manager. Debbie, thanks for having me today.
DA: Oh, thank you for coming on over and we're excited to talk about this topic.
JW: Debbie, why is it a good idea to start gardening with young people? Kids of all ages, even the littlest ones, can help.
DA: Yeah, so gardening has a lot of really great benefits for kids. And I'll say adults too. But one thing it helps to do is grow patience. Kids have to learn that things don't come automatically and jump out of the ground. So they have to wait for seeds to grow. They have to wait for flowers to bloom. It also teaches them a level of responsibility to check their plants and make sure they don't need water--to care for something. It increases their connection to nature a bit just by understanding how plants grow and how things interact with the plants. I have also found a lot of times it increases the willingness for kids to try new foods increasing maybe that healthy eating habit or just they've grown it. There's a sense of pride and they might try a carrot when they've never really had one before, or they might try something they weren't willing to try before. I did start my daughter out with herbs. We always had herbs in our garden and there was a place she could pick something out of my little herb bed. It's really good to teach kids all sorts of things and lessons that they learn from trying to experiment with gardening.
JW: And it gets them outdoors. And they could learn a little bit about science.
DA: Yeah. So we have a program here where we help teach kids about that, there are things like weeds. What do plants need to grow and why do weeds take up that area, the space, the nutrients, the water. It just helps to teach all of those little science aspects. You always see insects in your garden, whether they're good pollinators or whether they are pests that are eating the leaves of your plants-- so they're always lessons that you can kind of learn. And I do find that most of the time the parents are learning right along with the kids and sometimes the kids are teaching the parents things-- which is very empowering for them. So that's kind of fun. They might have learned something in school that they can make a connection with as well.
JW: It's always good to get outside. That's what I always say, “No child left indoors.”
DA: That's right. That is an absolutely perfect catch phrase for the things we try to do here at Dow Gardens.
JW: Debbie, what's a good way to get started?
DA: So I always tell people start small, start really, really small. Because if you try to tackle putting in a really big garden in your yard, you might be thoroughly disappointed. Because it might be more than you can handle and then nothing works. And so I always encourage people to either to start with a small raised bed and herbs which are very reliable and also come back year after year, or start with a container a very large pot that you could maybe either grow some lettuce in--that comes up really quick. Radishes are super-fast and you can see results very quickly. So for children that's important. Beans and peas also sprout pretty quick and you can start to see some progress right away. But those pots, if you put a container near your front door or near a water source where you gonna walk by it all the time. We might not forget to water it or forget to teach the kid to remember to check it every day and things like that, so easily access to water and also very close to be able to keep an eye on it. So a front porch or a space that you use a lot outdoors.
JW: And also just to watch it grow!
DA: Yeah. And always being able to see something new, like, “Oh my gosh, there's a flower!” You know, they appear overnight, or through the day something like that. So it's always great to see that progress. It is surprisingly quick sometimes.
JW: Debbie, do you have suggestions for some easy things to grow? Some plants, flowers-- you mentioned herbs, but maybe some other things too?
DA: Yeah. So I think things like radishes, they come up, they sprout in less than seven days. So you can see them coming out of the ground as long as they're, you know, maintained. Beans are really neat. If you can get a pole bean, you can put a sort of a little trellis in a pot and you can see it climb up and it'll sort of bloom and give you something to eat. Peas are also the same way, and sometimes I even start things indoors, so having little seeds and little pots inside with a little light over them. It's something you can do when the weather's not as nice as it could be in the spring, so those are all really great things to try. Flowers are also wonderful. I do see a lot of our families trying sunflowers in pots and things like that. Because they do get big and surprising, and then things like snapdragons things you can interact with are also kind of fun.
JW: Herbs, flowers, a few vegetables, maybe. Get those kids to try some healthy foods. Maybe pick a bouquet of flowers to put in the house. Wow. Such wonderful things could happen when you get together with a young person and grow a garden!
DA: Yeah, it's really exciting and it's neat to. I've had to make myself step back and be slow. Because I know a lot about gardening, but I have to look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn't know, and really explore it a little deeper with them and that kind of has helped me grow as a gardener too.
JW: And what kid doesn't want to dig in the dirt?
DA: Yeah, and digging in the dirt is actually really healthy. I know parents might be like, “Eew!” Or there are kids who don't like to have that tactile sense on their hands. So there are little gardening gloves. There are some kids who have some of those sensitivities and they still can get in there and explore and experiment and not be afraid to get a little dirty. That's one of those things that, you know, maybe instead of making mud pies and eating them, we can do something a little more constructive with our dirt experience!
JW: Gardening for kids of all ages?
DA: Yeah, I think kids, little kids, are learning a lot. Older kids might actually have a little more mental health benefits from it. So being able to slow down, it's a very mindful activity. If you're pulling weeds or, you know, doing something different with the plants, it kind of can get you out of your own head and maybe help with some mental health aspects too.
JW: Start a garden with your kids!
DA: Yeah, I highly encourage it, even if it's just some planters. If you live in an apartment and have a patio or you, you know, can do something just to bring those plants in-- and maybe it's house plants. I mean, not everyone has the ability to garden, so maybe it's doing something in the house. If you have a sunny window, you might be able to grow some of those herbs I talked about, which are fun to smell, to taste, to cook with. They're all sorts of opportunities.
JW: On “From the Ground Up!” I like to say let's “Get out and get growing!”
DA: Yeah. So some of our my catch phrase, I always sign off some of my emails in the in the beginning of the season with let's grow together just because I think that gardening has the ability to grow us as people, to grow kids in their like knowledge base, but also in what they want to experiment with eating. I know it's helped my daughter tremendously.
JW: Debbie Anderson is the education and volunteer manager at Dow Gardens in Midland. Debbie, thanks for joining me today for from the ground Up!”
DA: Thanks for having me. This is one of my favorite topics of the year.
JW: As we continued our conversation, Debbie Anderson told me about “Growin’ Gardens” here at Dow Gardens.
DA: Yeah. So we have a wonderful program that's been here over 20 years where families come out, and they each get a 4 by 4 garden. Then they select from the seeds and plants that we have available, they pick out what they want to grow and we teach them how to plant. We teach them about weeds and what plants need to grow. We teach them about where their food comes from around the world and why it's really important to grow some of your own things. We talk about pollinators and pests, there are all sorts of different lessons! So we have 8 weekly lessons that they learn, and they I help them--we help them along with our volunteers, cultivate in their garden. And then when we end the program at the end of July, the garden is theirs to keep tending through the rest of the summer till we hit about Labor Day. And then we kind of put the garden to bed, which they also can help us with. But it's really a wonderful thing to see. Families growing throughout the season and what they learn. Sometimes I think the parents learn more than the kids even, but we ask that the family do it as a unit so that they all can learn from each other. The parents help the kids with some of the tools that we have to use-- everything from trawls and cultivators to small pruners. So obviously that requires parent supervision and control. But it's really wonderful to see them getting things, taking things home. We try to make sure there's a selection of different kinds of plants. They're growing things that are available early, like radishes, things that they can't really harvest till almost the end of the season, like carrots-and tomatoes are usually after our classes are done, they start to ripen just because of the length of the season. We'll see what happens with this year's weather.
JW: So there are many families here together doing the same thing?
DA: Yeah, we have a capacity of about 80 different families. So we break it into multiple sessions, different sessions throughout the week, so that it's not everybody at once. And that really helps to kind of spread out and let us pay close attention to each group.
JW: What a great way for families to get together too, and for people to meet lots of other people who are doing the same wonderful thing.
DA: Yeah. And you know your class may be on Tuesday morning, they're all gardening in the same area so that we can kind of help them all together, but they can also get to know each other. Sometimes they help each other tend to the garden because they're going to be out one week for vacation, and the next week, their neighbor’s gonna be out. So it's a really great way to kind of grow a community. And I think they do get to know each other a bit. And sometimes people come and garden next to each other.
JW: Debbie, I have to confess. A minute ago when you said at the end of the program, I thought you were going to say we have a big picnic with all of the produce that we harvested from the garden.
DA: We don't do that, mostly because everybody's coming at different times. Things are only ripening when they're ripening. So by the time we're done, radishes better be out of the garden or they're going to be woody! And there are things just here and there. So we do taste them as we go. I kind of talk about how we might eat a particular thing that's harvestable that week. So we do learn about that and I do bring in other options of produce. We talked about what plant part the produce is and I send them on a scavenger hunt in their own refrigerators sometimes. So there's lots of opportunities for eating, but we don't have a big picnic. That's a lot to coordinate--with eighty families.
JW: Debbie Anderson, the education and volunteer manager here at Dow Gardens in Midland, speaking about the “Growin’ Gardens” program-- a wonderful program. Thanks for coordinating that. How cool is that?
DA: It is a lot of fun and it's one of our favorites for the year! It takes a lot of background work, but really it worth it when you see the families come through and the excitement that builds from planting to making their scarecrow to harvesting and beyond.
JW: Debbie, thanks for joining me today for “From the Ground Up!”
DA: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
