Shouldnt gardening be taught in schools?

I've been following this thread for a while with great interest. I'm located in a very rural county. Less than 40,000 people, largest city less than 8,000. Agriculture is not just the biggest thing in the county, it's damn near the only thing. Almost completely family owned farms, mostly growing peachs, plums, & nectarines. A lot of cattle, feed corn & hay too. Because of this, gardening is taught in schools. In fact there is a 4 year course called "Ag", short for Agriculture, 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th grade. It's half class room, and the other half is out-doing-it type. In addition to working in their school gardens, they also learn everything from agro-economics; small engine repair & maintenance; how to build & maintain fences & barns & other outbuildings; the care, breeding, everything of all sorts of farm animals. Basically, everything.

Plus, the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and 4-H clubs are very active with many civic, social & educational events. They are involved in everything from keeping the roads clean to helping feed the elderly to a real big county fair.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

My parents taught me gardening and they learned from their parents and so on back through time.

 

My grandmother and my great aunt were my teacher, my parents too. I grew up in the country and most people grew their own fruit and veg.

I taught my big sons and now my youngest is learning.

I also taught them to cook.

You have to know what to do with what you grow!!

I understand that there is a growing trend to have urban community gardens. How great is that!?

 

Its a long tradition in my family, both on my mom's and dad's side. I learned to love cooking from my parents, too.

The other night I had a meal of bean soup with Indain woman beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, winter squash, and kale all from what I grew last year. I can't grow everything I'd like, not yet at least, global warming needs to get here faster, but I do grow a huge amount of kale, cabbage, mustard, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cron, potatoes, and dry beans every year. I'm trying a white variety of sorghum for grain this year to see if it can handle the odd climate where I live.

Urban gardening is great way to build strong communities and caring about your neighbors.

 

It also teaches kids where food comes from and encourages them to develop a taste for fresh food rather than processed food. It can also help people on lower incomes to become partially self sufficient.

And lets not forget, it is learning a vital life skill really.

I worked with an initiative a while ago to get people involved in commmunity gardening and collaborated with a local healthy eating project which gave free cookery classes, teaching people how to cook from scartch.

 

I agree 100%. Even being able to produce a few salads or meals of string beans is eye-opening for many people. Of course its not always easy to grow food. There are weeds and rabbits to contend with, frosts, hail. But I think even those bad experiences can give a person a greater appreciation of what our ancestors' lives were like.

I have my own garden in a rural place where I live so I don't have much to do with urban community gardening other than sometimes going to presentations and forums.

 

So we also learn patience and how to live with the seasons, how to be resourceful by protecting plants from the weather and even learning to read it.

I live in a rural area also and have the luxury of having growing space. You can grow food anywhere if you put your mind to it!! Just takes a little imagination and experimentation..balconies, window sills. Grow tomatoes indoors instead of a rubber plant!!

 

When I lived in a city I used to buy lentil, mung, and wheat seeds and sprouted these in jars. It was about all the gardening I could do but it was fresh food in the winter. In summer I would help my folks at their place and get pounds and pounds of onions, carrots, and potatoes.

I'm slowly developing a fruit orchard (apples, plums, some pears). Lot's of trial and error here. Everything looked good the first year. Its funny how you think you know what your doing only to find out you didn't really when peach borers kill of all your plum trees or fireblight starts eating off whole branches from apple trees.

Last year I thought I'd solved my potato scab problem only to have a new one: voles chewing on the tubers. No scabs just vole tooth marks. Still a decent harvest but it could have been better. This year should be better!

 

I learnt gardening from my dad. The first eight years of my life was spent on rations, but we always had loads of fresh vegetables, thanks to my dad. He rented an allotment from the council and gave me a little plot to tend.


I tagged along behind him, helped with the planting and weeding and then the harvesting. Everything was eaten in season and the taste was unbelievable.

Years later I got my own allotment, hard work, but truly rewarding.

 

True, self sufficiatce and if one were caught out in the wilderness they would be able to tell which plants are safe to eat if any. In Africa, gardening, taking care of a household, and thigs like weaving baskets and making clothes are a norm in school. I dunno why American doesnt do that or any other places for that matter.

 

But if we became self-sufficient or at least more independent in food, clothing, and other basics wouldn't the economy collapse? And think of the poor credit card companies.

If the schools don't teach it you could learn on your own or seek out people who can teach you or who are interested in the same things. I learned a lot about wild foods from my folks but they actually learned about them on their own by reading books from the library and talking to wild crafters.

 

i hope u were kidding

 

I think he was kidding about the credit card companies.
Increased agriculture was the turning point in civilization. When a person could cultavate the land and produce more crops and grain than his family needed , this freed up people to persue trades to produce tools, pottery, weaving, shoe making and FM radio disc jockey's. Just kidding on the disc jockeys.
If we all had to go out and spend 12 hours a day tending our gardens there wouldn't be much time for anything else.
My grandfather was a farmer and he didn't learn it in school, he learned it from his father. Granpa had over 600 acres under the plow. Did well, raised 8 kids.
But yes, I do think basic gardening should be taught in school, at least city kids will know where their food comes from.

 

And *decreased* ag was another turning point! Because at some point the pie chart turned all wonky, and instead of local farmers growing food and feeding the community with it, agriculture itself turned into a big business... most of the smaller-time, family farmers couldn't cut it in that big business world and went on to other things, and now we are left with a handful of massive farms that churn out insane amounts of food to feed almost everybody. But in order to come up with the enormous crops that are necessary and to keep them from spoiling before they can be eaten, they are treated with chemicals and sprayed with pesticides and coated with wax and who knows what else.
I can appreciate the ability we all have to do our own thing - learn our own trade, be it tool-maker, weaver, or disc jockey. But there is definitely something to be said for deliberate, small-scale, intentional living and community. Thoreau was on to something!

 

Yeah I thought so. :lol:

 

science course for me in grade 9 was agriculture .....what to plant ....how to determine what type of soil you had,the different farm implementations ,what kind of horse for what ,how to distinguish them ,cows ,pigs ,hens etc .,........i actually hunted down an old school text .wealth of information .even what time of the year to cut down alders etc. so they don't grow again ..........one book i wish we wold have had in school ack then was reader's digest 's BACK TO BASICS .......if you don't have a copy ,get one

 

I think they try with the 4H program. But I think its more geared toward the mega-farm method, not homesteading.
Another good source for the simpler way is a book series called: FOXFIRE
It was put together by students in appalachia, as a high school project gone good. It was inspirational to me when I wore a younger mans clothes.
Peace to all of you..... Farmout

 

I was joking about the credit card companies but I don't about Alaskan's reference to disc jockeys! Are you sure you didn't mean AM shock jocks?

Farming is hard work especially where I live. The soil is poor and we get frosts in July some years. It can be frustrating. I think I've figured out what will reliably grow here but I'm always experimenting and pushing some plants to survive and reproduce. One success story is an heirloom variety of bean (Yellow Indian Woman). Its a long season variety but after several generations I have managed to select seeds from plants that can mature and dry on the vines. This year I finally ate some. Delicious!

 

I love heirloom food seeds,trees etc. I am a firm believer in planting as much native species to the area/counrty produce as possible, be it trees and hedgerows, veg gardens, fruit orchards.... There is a reason why a traditional seed grows wel in a particular location.