Monday, May 14, 2007

First Ever Summer Program!

We are very excited to announce . . . for the first time ever:

Urban Sprouts and the Garden for the Environment invite middle school youth ages 11-13 to join our Summer Program!

When and Where?
  • Program Dates: June 25th through July 7th. Every weekday from 9am to 1pm (lunch included), with our Final Day Garden Party on Saturday July 7th.
  • Location: The Garden for the Environment is located on the corner of 7th Avenue and Lawton Street in the Inner Sunset;
What will We Do?
  • Work in the garden at the Garden for the Environment
  • Harvest, prepare, cook and eat healthy food for lunch every day
  • Learn about gardening, cooking, where food comes from, healthy eating, and how to take care of the environment in your community.
  • Be creative and make garden art.
  • Play games and get to know new people.
  • Learn to be a leader in your school and at home – teach others about gardening, healthy food and the environment!
  • Celebrate at our Final Day Garden Party on the last day, Saturday July 7th from 11am to 1pm, and invite your friends and family.
What will We Learn?
  • Healthy Eating – how to read food nutrition labels, how to make healthy food choices, and how to LOVE eating fruits and vegetables!
  • Environmental Skills – how to grow food and flowers in the garden, how to take care of the environment through gardening, composting, recycling and water conservation!
  • Physical Activity – how to stay strong and healthy by working your body in the garden!
  • Leadership – learn new skills and become a stronger, more confident leader in your school and community.
  • Job Skills - how to get and keep a job - and get paid too! Youth receive a stipend for completion.
Made possible by support from San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and their Families!



3 comments:

klh said...

GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
USA: TX, MS, FL, CA, AR; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire, Nigeria,
Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan

minifarms@gmail.com

Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, using drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español

Proven Practices for School Gardens

These are based on the internet, US & international magazines, experiences teaching gardening & farming in many countries, research and gardener/farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable. There is unlimited, documented proof.

Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. An Indian gardener has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years. A Malawi gardener has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years. A Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 11 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden.

No technique yet devised by mankind has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as No-till (Baker)


1. Maintain the healthy soil [Healthy soil produces healthy vegetables to have healthy children and youth and prevents most diseases, pests and weeds]
2. Feed the soil; not the vegetables
3. Increase soil organic matter every year
4. Maintain plant diversity [with vegetables and/or green manure/cover crops]
5. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody, for the garden. Certain things are recommended]
6. Leave all crop residues on top of the soil.
7. No-till: no digging, no tilling, no cultivating [No hard physical labor needed, so children can easily garden]
8. Permanent beds [crops]
9. Permanent paths [walking]
10. Hand tools
11. 12-months production [economical nearly everywhere. DIY equipment]
12. Organic fertilizers [12-17 probably not needed with healthy soil]
13. Organic disease control.
14. Organic herbicides.
15. Organic pesticides.
16. Biological pest control.
17. Attract beneficials [bats, birds, toads, spiders, garden snakes, frogs, lizards, grasshopper mice, prairie deer mice, white footed mice, opossums, lacewings, ladybird beetles, syrphid flies, ground beetles and assassin bugs]
18. Protect pollinators [honey bees, native bees, wasps, yellow jackets, dirt daubers, butterflies]
19. Protect soil organisms [worms, micros]
20. Soil always covered
21. Use mulch/green manure/cover crops.
22. Feed the soil through the mulch.
23. Organic matter [Free. Delivered free? When economically feasible, transport to the garden. Use as mulch]
24. Compost: Do not make. Too much time and work. Put OM in beds for mulch. It will compost there. Pile up surplus for later use.
25. Vermiculture: Do not use. Worms will be in beds making compost.]
26. Drip irrigation [Purchase or DIY drip lines]
27. Alternative/foreign/ethic crops [grains, fruits, roots, fibers, herbs, nuts, dyes, medicinals, flowers, syrups, crafts, seed, sweeteners, vegetables, ornamentals, spices]
28. Protect nature [wildlife, native plants, streams & riparians, ponds & lakes, wetlands, forest and prairies, deserts]
29. Imitate nature. Most gardeners fight nature. ¡Nature always wins!

Ken Hargesheimer

When Soil is Dug or Tilled
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed.
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.

After only one tilling, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.

But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form. Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)

Video Game: food-force.com [download free]

Websites: Starting a garden at your school
kidsrgen.org, edibleschoolyard.org, kidsgardening.com;
kidsgardeningstore.com/bookchart.html; aggie-hortculture.tamu.edu/kinder/consid.html;
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kinder/steps.html; http://www.csgn.org/; thefoodproject.org/blast; http://foodsys.cce.cornell.edu; ecoliteracy.org

Websites: Curriculum: ecoliteracy.org [Rethinking School Lunch]; slowfoodusa.org [Education]; thelearninggarden.org;
deq.state.ok.us/mainlinks/ediblegardens.htm.

Websites: Gardening: dirtdoctor.com, tearfund/tilz [Footsteps: English, French, Portuguese, Español]; invisiblegardener.com; organicgardening.org;
jardins-familiaux.org [english français, deutsch]; organicconsumers.org/school/organicstudy090405.cfm; photosynthesisproductions.com/gmstore/; urbannutrition.org/;

-Food $ENSE CHANGE 10-week gardening and nutrition curriculum available for download
http://king.wsu.edu/nutrition/CHANGEpdfs.htm
-kidsgardening.org
-Book: Earth Child
-ceeonline.org (Click on Curriculum Library and type in Garden)
-www.growing-minds.org
- www.csgn.org. If you go to the “links & resources” page, you’ll find a lot of popular curricula under “linking to academic content”.
-http://www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/
- http://www.heifered.org/getit/
http://www.fao.org/schoolgarden/index_more_en.htm.
-communitygarden.org

Children & Youth gardening: ecoliteracy.org/programs/wellness_policy.html; slowfoodusa.org/education/index.html; Curriculum: Farm to Table-nehbc.org/education.html; slowfoodusa.org; sustainabletable.org/schools, earthboundfarm.com/Kids/index.aspx; kidsregen.org; kidsgardening.com; thefoodproject.org/blast; gardenorganic.org.uk/schools_organic_network/index.php; greenschools.net; csgn.org/; gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/ [Arabic, español, français, Russian]; Setting up and Running a School Garden. fao.org/docrep/009/a0218e/a0218e00.htm; For teachers, parents and communities. [English, Spanish, French]; cnaturenet.org/; sierraclub.org/youth/

youtube.com/watch?v=hOQkBP5nioY
youtube.com/watch?v=mMd53OOaah4
youtube.com/watch?v=ymBXgMOsVJg

DVD Videos
“The Impact of Food on Learning and Behavior”
15 minutes video about Appleton Alternative HS. Mail $3 to Ken Hargesheimer, Lubbock TX 79408-1901
Gardening – school, home, community: Includes: “You Do What You Eat” odemagazine.com Sept 05. How healthy food can reduce aggressive behavior, NDD [Nature-Deficit Disorder], OG article. Mail $3 to Ken Hargesheimer.

Anonymous said...

Great work, keep it up.....

Work from home :
http://www.homebizguide.com

Valery said...

I think that you are what you eat, so healthy food is very important! Eat only healthy calorie!And be healthy!