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Speaker 1: From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.

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Speaker 1: Each week right here, we come together and talk about

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Speaker 1: all the topics important to you and the place where

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Speaker 1: you live. Good to be back with you this week.

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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Davis. Gardening and owning a plant both require

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Speaker 1: a lot of time, patients, and disciplined routines. That's probably

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Speaker 1: why I keep killing all my plants. But those are

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Speaker 1: also good lessons for kids. That is part of what

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Speaker 1: inspired the team at City Sprouts and Cambridge to start

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Speaker 1: introducing gardens into local schools. Not only are the gardens flourishing,

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Speaker 1: so are the kids coming up. In a few days,

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Speaker 1: City Sprouts is hosting educators, gardeners and others from all

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Speaker 1: over the region in Cambridge talking about how their success

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Speaker 1: can blossom at other schools. Let's learn more about their

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Speaker 1: program from executive director Susan Diller. And Susan, City Sprouts

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Speaker 1: has actually been around about twenty five years and that's

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Speaker 1: a lot of time to I guess plant the sea

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Speaker 1: to be your idea, so to speak.

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Speaker 2: So City Sprouts was initially started by a parent in Cambridge,

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Speaker 2: Jane Hershey, and she had this idea to build and

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Speaker 2: take care of a garden with the students in her

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Speaker 2: child's school in Cambridge, and from there it became more

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Speaker 2: and more parents wanted to see that in their schools,

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Speaker 2: and the schools began to recognize the value of getting

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Speaker 2: kids outside, getting kids to learn science and other subject

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Speaker 2: matter through outdoor learning, particularly hands on outdoor learning in

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Speaker 2: their own gardens. So what I think is really spectacular

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Speaker 2: about city sprouts is that they don't go visit someone

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Speaker 2: else's garden. This is the garden in their school. They

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Speaker 2: get to see it every day, They get to see

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Speaker 2: what happens every day, they get to feel responsibility. So

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Speaker 2: I think over time the schools have started to feel

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Speaker 2: like this is embedded in our program. This is like

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Speaker 2: a gym class or an art class. This is something

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Speaker 2: or a math class or a science class. This is

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Speaker 2: not a nicety, This isn't essential.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me a little bit then, about you work

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Speaker 1: with young children, you work with kids in middle school.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about how you work with

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Speaker 1: these kids. Designing a certain type of curricula and garden

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Speaker 1: for kids who may not even really necessarily know what

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Speaker 1: exactly they're doing in the garden just yet.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's it's based We have developed the curriculum and

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Speaker 2: the lessons based on the science standards in Massachusetts and

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Speaker 2: national science standards. So we look at the kind of

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Speaker 2: skills that we want kids to be being be able

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Speaker 2: to grow and connect with over time in kindergarten, pre

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Speaker 2: k kindergarten, et cetera. But it's not it's not hard

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Speaker 2: because some of those skills are things like observation, critical thinking,

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Speaker 2: making solving, problem problem solving, and engineering problem solving. And

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Speaker 2: when you try and figure out what are we going

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Speaker 2: to do about these vines who are growing all over

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Speaker 2: the ground, kids come up with trellis that's in and

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Speaker 2: then they figure out how to build it and that's

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Speaker 2: you know, stem work. So there's a natural progression of

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Speaker 2: wanting to solve the problems, wanting to see what's happening

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Speaker 2: in the garden. You know, we get aphids, what are

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Speaker 2: we going to do about that? And how do we

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Speaker 2: respect the world that we live in by not spraying

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Speaker 2: pesticides on them? So there's so many different subject matters

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Speaker 2: that come into play even when we just have a

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Speaker 2: simple curriculum or simple lesson on who's in our garden, worms, aphids, butterflies, rats.

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Speaker 1: We are in the Boston area. That is a necessity.

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Speaker 1: You have to have at least one rat eating all

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Speaker 1: your stuff.

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Speaker 2: You do, I'm funny, you know, and like and so

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Speaker 2: what do we do about it? So it's not a

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Speaker 2: pristine experience, it's a real life experience. So there's science learning,

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Speaker 2: and then there's social emotional learning, there's problem solving, there's

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Speaker 2: math and literacy learning, and we also bring into it

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Speaker 2: opportunities to look at the history in the gardens, things

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Speaker 2: about you know, the cultures that the kids come from,

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Speaker 2: and thinking about what kind of plants and vegetables their

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Speaker 2: families need and can we grow them here. We're not

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Speaker 2: in the same climate that the same things that grow

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Speaker 2: in a more a warmer, all year climate that we

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Speaker 2: can't grow here. But what can we do and what

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Speaker 2: you know, what are the things that are native to

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Speaker 2: our area and what are the things that are not

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Speaker 2: native but invasive. There's so many ways to bring about

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Speaker 2: learning in the garden and so many different areas. And

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Speaker 2: one of the things that we're able to do with

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Speaker 2: middle schoolers in particular is get them involved in the

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Speaker 2: responsibility of their neighborhoods. Look, you know, their role in

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Speaker 2: green spaces, their role in understanding their their communities, and

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Speaker 2: their responsibility to the communities that they live in, not

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Speaker 2: only the physical structures of green spaces, but food food

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Speaker 2: needs and the ability to grow nutritious foods, fresh foods

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Speaker 2: in their own neighborhoods.

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Speaker 1: It's got to be a really great way to get

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Speaker 1: kids away from the screens. Oh, because I had so

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Speaker 1: many kids these days. I mean, they spend so much time.

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Speaker 1: It's like, you can't see this because this is radio,

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Speaker 1: but I'm staring at my phone about two inches from

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Speaker 1: my face. Because that's what a lot of people are

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Speaker 1: doing these days. It's like Generation Alpha. These kids are

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Speaker 1: learning how to live on screens. And it's a nice

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Speaker 1: way too. As the kids say, touch grass essentially exactly.

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Speaker 2: And not only are they on screens at home, but

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Speaker 2: they're on screens often in schools. They're learning screens. This

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Speaker 2: actually takes them outside in natural lighting, putting their hands

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Speaker 2: in literal dirt, dirty, experiencing their muscles. I mean, when

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Speaker 2: you think about little kids, kindergarteners, if they don't learn

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Speaker 2: how to dig, then they don't know what their body

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Speaker 2: can and can't do, and they don't understand power of

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Speaker 2: their own bodies.

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Speaker 1: It's true.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's an opportunity just in the act of

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Speaker 2: getting into dirt and digging with shovels, of being able

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Speaker 2: to understand the power of a shovel and the power

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Speaker 2: of an arm muscle.

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Speaker 1: An emotional regulation too. You bring up a good point

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Speaker 1: and that when you're outside, there's really nothing like nature

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Speaker 1: to literally ground.

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Speaker 2: You, exactly. And we have teachers who come out to

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Speaker 2: the garden for on their own when we're not there,

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Speaker 2: just for that reason, to bring the kids outside for

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Speaker 2: some settling, for some calmness. It's a safe and secure place.

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Speaker 2: No one's going to jump out at you in a garden,

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Speaker 2: and you're going to see things in a new way.

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Speaker 2: You're going to see a million different colors of green

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Speaker 2: and when you know, so when kids think about green,

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Speaker 2: they think green. When you take them out into the

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Speaker 2: garden you say how many greens are there? They see

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Speaker 2: green and green and green and green, and it's eye

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Speaker 2: opening for them. And you know, one of the things

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Speaker 2: I've noticed with kids who particularly live in cities, getting

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Speaker 2: their hands dirty is a new thing because they experienced

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Speaker 2: dirt as dirt and not as soil. Right, and when

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Speaker 2: they can see it as soil, as something beautiful and

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Speaker 2: active and vibrant, changes the way they think about their

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Speaker 2: relationship to the world.

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Speaker 1: You're working with schools in Boston and Cambridge, and I'm

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Speaker 1: seeing here about a two or three dozen schools. So

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Speaker 1: certainly you've got your plants planted in many different areas.

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Speaker 1: Your seed's planted. How do you connect with the school

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Speaker 1: to work with them? How does this all work?

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Speaker 2: So in each of the schools we provide, we work

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Speaker 2: on the gardens, We helped maintain and sustain and plant

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Speaker 2: the gardens, and then we fight a garden educator, so

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Speaker 2: one of our people that we've educated to be in

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Speaker 2: the school using our curriculum and our lesson, plants with

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Speaker 2: students and they're in the schools one day a week,

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Speaker 2: working with usually five to six classes in a day,

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Speaker 2: and we connect with the principles. We connect with the

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Speaker 2: districts to make sure that we are providing to the

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Speaker 2: classes that they want to see this kind of opportunity.

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Speaker 2: So with kindergarteners and pre k ors and first graders,

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Speaker 2: it's really easy because getting outside is just amazing and wonderful.

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Speaker 2: With fourth and fifth graders, it might be can they

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Speaker 2: come out and do a particular lesson. Can they do

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Speaker 2: something that supports the work that they're already doing in

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Speaker 2: this classroom, like when things decompose, So they might be

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Speaker 2: doing a lesson on decomposition, and then they get to

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Speaker 2: test it out and have theories and test it out

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Speaker 2: in the garden itself.

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Speaker 1: You've got the Boston Area School Garden Conference coming up.

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Speaker 1: This is your third annual conference. So this is not new,

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Speaker 1: but you know it's still relatively young. Why is this

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Speaker 1: important for you to put on and what does it involve?

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Speaker 2: Well, let me just tell you that the first time

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Speaker 2: we did it, we thought to three years ago, we thought, oh,

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Speaker 2: it would be nice to put together a few people

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Speaker 2: to talk about gardens and garden education and other organizations

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Speaker 2: that are doing the same work. We had about twenty people,

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Speaker 2: maybe thirty. The next year we did it again and

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Speaker 2: we had almost eighty people show up. We were, oh,

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Speaker 2: this is a thing, this is more than we had expected.

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Speaker 2: And so we've really seen the desire of educators and

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Speaker 2: people who are engaged in the greener future, the prospect

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Speaker 2: of a greener future for our students and our children.

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Speaker 2: As an opportunity to create a movement together to be

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Speaker 2: able to say that we are local educators and gardeners

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Speaker 2: and people who support this kind of work, and we

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Speaker 2: have a lot to share with each other, whether it's

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Speaker 2: how to build a garden, how to sustain a garden,

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Speaker 2: how to engage with schools, what kind of lessons can

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Speaker 2: we use, how can we get funding, how do we

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Speaker 2: respect different cultural differences as we are in our gardens

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Speaker 2: in different schools, in different neighborhoods. So there's lots of

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Speaker 2: ways that people are hungry to bring this to their

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Speaker 2: schools and to sustain it, because what we've sometimes seen

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Speaker 2: is schools will build a garden and then there's nobody

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Speaker 2: to really hold on to it to make sure that

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Speaker 2: it's thriving. So there's always good intention, but how do

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Speaker 2: you maintain it and how do you make it essential

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Speaker 2: to the school and not a nicety that's cute, because

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Speaker 2: if it's just cute, it's going to last a year

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Speaker 2: or two and then people are going to get tired

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Speaker 2: of the work that it takes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to really find a way to integrate

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Speaker 1: it into everything you do, kind of like gardening in

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Speaker 1: real life. You know, if you're going to plant a

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Speaker 1: garden outside. We're not going to talk about all the

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Speaker 1: plans I've killed, but you know it's true if you

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Speaker 1: don't make the time and make the effort to keep

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Speaker 1: it going. I mean, that's a life lesson you could

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Speaker 1: learn across the board.

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Speaker 2: Right exactly, that it takes time and effort and sometimes

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Speaker 2: you're not successful and you have to figure out what

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Speaker 2: to do to turn it around. And that's a learning

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Speaker 2: thing too, which we really want the kids to experience.

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Speaker 2: So it's not a garden that is magically maintained by leprechauns.

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Speaker 1: Oh you know.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's a that they have responsibility for. And

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Speaker 2: that makes a difference as well. I've seen older kids

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Speaker 2: say to the younger kids, oh, don't puck, don't you know,

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Speaker 2: don't pull that up, that's a carrot. You know that

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Speaker 2: they are not only learning for themselves, but teaching their

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Speaker 2: next generation about respect for the garden.

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Speaker 1: And that's important too. And I love seeing younger or

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Speaker 1: older kids actually take that initiative and work with the

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Speaker 1: younger kids. I mean, that's incredible to me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's actually some of our after school programs

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Speaker 2: engage high school students working with our middle school students

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Speaker 2: to do exactly that.

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Speaker 1: So you've got this conference coming up if anybody is

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Speaker 1: interested they want to maybe learn how to bring a

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Speaker 1: garden to their own school. And this is not limited

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Speaker 1: to anybody in the Cambridge of Boston Public schools, right

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Speaker 1: any educator can come.

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Speaker 2: Any educator, any gardener, anybody just interested in the topic.

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Speaker 2: It's an all day conference, but if you want to

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Speaker 2: just come for the morning, we'll welcome people to come

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Speaker 2: find out about it and come learn about it. And

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Speaker 2: you know, there are different tracks so you can explore

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Speaker 2: curriculum and lesson models, best practices, how to create, how

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Speaker 2: to meet the needs of different kinds of students in

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Speaker 2: the garden. We find that students with special needs really

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Speaker 2: thrive in the garden. You know, kids who don't do

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Speaker 2: well in a classroom sure do perfectly well in a

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Speaker 2: garden because there's no language issue, there's no processing issue.

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Speaker 2: They're just there in the moment. So it's beautiful for

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Speaker 2: kids with special needs as well, and just to commune

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Speaker 2: over good food and coffee and people who are thinking

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Speaker 2: about similar things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of the food, you've got life alive involved

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Speaker 1: in this, and I mean I am well, very familiar

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Speaker 1: with their food and their work and what a great

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Speaker 1: combo you two have going.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a great point to reach out to.

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Speaker 2: Our sponsors like Life Alive and Whole Foods have graciously

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Speaker 2: been able to provide us with lots of food to

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Speaker 2: because you need nutrition, as you know from a garden

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Speaker 2: to be able to keep your your energy going.

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Speaker 1: Yes, So somebody wants to sign up for the conference

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Speaker 1: if they're interested, This is on the twenty eighth, so

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Speaker 1: in about a week and change. It's on the twenty

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Speaker 1: eighth that the Putnam Avenue Upper School in Cambridge. So

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Speaker 1: if somebody is interested they want to sign up, how

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Speaker 1: can they do that?

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Speaker 2: Just go right to our website City sprouts dot org

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Speaker 2: and look for the program under the programs and you'll

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Speaker 2: see it an opportunity to registers a small registration fee

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Speaker 2: which we can waive if it's if it's a barrier.

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Speaker 2: We want people to be able to come and we

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Speaker 2: look forward to seeing lots of people share our day

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Speaker 2: with us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. In Citysprouts dot org, that's the place where people

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Speaker 1: if they want to volunteer with you perhaps or if

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Speaker 1: they want to get involved with the curriculum, they should

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Speaker 1: go there as well.

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Speaker 2: So our curriculum is fully downloadable, So first of all,

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Speaker 2: if you're interested in accessing the curriculum, it's there so

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Speaker 2: you can you can download that. We get lots of volunteers,

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Speaker 2: especially over the summer because as you know, school are

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Speaker 2: closed in the summer, so we need people to help

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Speaker 2: us support the gardens. And it's a lot of gardens

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Speaker 2: to take care of over the summer, which is the

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Speaker 2: major growing period, so we volunteers to care for the

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Speaker 2: gardens and you get to harvest whatever is growing. So

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Speaker 2: it's like your own personal CSA.

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Speaker 1: Love that, okay, And again it's in Cambridge and Boston

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Speaker 1: where you're set up right now. But this is a

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Speaker 1: program that can happen anywhere.

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Speaker 2: It is a program that and that can happen anywhere,

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Speaker 2: and there were very unique models. There are other models

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Speaker 2: where there are gardeners who come in and support the gardens.

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Speaker 2: They might come like just in the spring or just

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Speaker 2: in the fall. We're there all year long, even in

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Speaker 2: the winter. We're in the classroom doing mushroom kits and

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Speaker 2: worms and snails and understanding what's happening in the garden

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Speaker 2: in the winter. And why it's the winter is part

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Speaker 2: of our seasons, and it's an important part of our seasons.

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Speaker 2: So a unique program, but it's certainly something that other

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Speaker 2: organizations other communities, and we would always be happy to

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Speaker 2: spread our wings in other communities as well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and donations. Every nonprofit needs money. Everybody needs the help.

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Speaker 1: You can't grow it on trees last time I checked.

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Speaker 1: I've tried, so I'm sure that any donation, even if

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Speaker 1: it's just time and energy, but fiscal would help as well.

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Speaker 2: Nicole, thank you so much for bringing that up. We

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Speaker 2: are supported by individual donors, foundations, grants, family foundations, and

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Speaker 2: the schools themselves, and we put all those funds together

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Speaker 2: to do the work that we do and it makes

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Speaker 2: a huge difference, whether it's a small donation or a

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Speaker 2: large donation to have that support.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so Citysprouts dot org. And you're on social media.

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Speaker 2: Too, right, oh, Instagram, Facebook, You got.

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Speaker 1: It all right? Fabulous Well, Susan, thanks for getting our

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Speaker 1: kids out into the dirt and getting them into the

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Speaker 1: grass and teaching them all these beautiful lessons. Really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time here on the show.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Nicole. I appreciate you asking about US and

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Speaker 2: supporting us with this time.

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Speaker 1: Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again

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Speaker 1: next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole

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Speaker 1: Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio