Speaker 1: So for years I've been suddenly trying to point out
Speaker 1: to my kids how good I am at things like
Speaker 1: I make a point of lifting things that are just
Speaker 1: a little heavier than they can lift to show them
Speaker 1: how strong I am. I parallel park our tiny car
Speaker 1: and spaces fit for trucks, and then point out how
Speaker 1: well I parked. Sometimes I'll use my phone to solve
Speaker 1: a math problem, then scrunch up my face and concentrate
Speaker 1: and say the answer out loud, like I figured it
Speaker 1: out in my head. I am not ashamed at these things.
Speaker 1: But there comes a moment in every parent's life when
Speaker 1: their kids realize their parents aren't perfect. Sometimes it's gradually
Speaker 1: over time, where sometimes it hits in the single event.
Speaker 1: So Ruby, I'm curious. I'm doing this podcast about plants,
Speaker 1: and I want people to know. Would you say I'm
Speaker 1: good with plants? I mean, you're good at all. I
Speaker 1: think soccer, what about gardening that much? And my kids,
Speaker 1: Henry and Ruby have figured it out sooner than I expected,
Speaker 1: partially because of gardening. But I'm relishing this new dynamic
Speaker 1: because Ruby sees it as this opportunity to teach me
Speaker 1: everything about gardening. And Henry, who scurries away to build
Speaker 1: afford any chance he gets, is coming up with lots
Speaker 1: of ideas for landscape design, and when we walk through
Speaker 1: our backyard together, sometimes I learned stuff from them, but
Speaker 1: I'm always learning stuff about them, the way they see
Speaker 1: the world, how they process big ideas, and also why
Speaker 1: we need to wear shoes when we're outside, because there
Speaker 1: really are a lot of slugs in our garden right now,
Speaker 1: and I've heard a lot of descriptions of what they
Speaker 1: feel like under bare feet. Hey there, I'm mongas Utigular,
Speaker 1: co host of Part Time Genius, one of the founders
Speaker 1: of Mental Floss, and this is Humans Growing Stuff, a
Speaker 1: collaboration from My Heart Radio and your Friends and Miracle Growth.
Speaker 1: My goal is to make this the most human show
Speaker 1: about plants that you'll ever listen to. And along the way,
Speaker 1: we'll share sweet, inspiring stories, tips and tricks to nurture
Speaker 1: your plant addiction, and just enough science to make you
Speaker 1: sound like an expert. In this episode, we're talking about
Speaker 1: gardening as a family, How putting down our screens and
Speaker 1: spending just a little bit of time together each week
Speaker 1: tending to plants. How that encourages better mental health. Strengthens
Speaker 1: relationships and sparks curiosity. This week it's me and all
Speaker 1: of my little roommates in the Garden, Chapter four families
Speaker 1: Growing Roots, Plant Roots. So, Henry, I know you're inspired
Speaker 1: by the Garden to read a poem, right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was very inspired and I really want to read it.
Speaker 1: That sounds great. Why don't do that now? And now
Speaker 1: for another trip to poetry corner, this time with Henry
Speaker 1: The Life of Rabbit. I love to roam the carrot patch.
Speaker 1: There's delicious food to eat, but right before I fill
Speaker 1: my mouth, far work chase is made from my tree.
Speaker 1: One of the strangest parts of Quarantine, especially when it
Speaker 1: first struck here in New York, is that my family
Speaker 1: was always around each other. We were stuck in this
Speaker 1: apartment together, but we didn't have much we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about. All day, the kids would include to their
Speaker 1: screens trying to do class work. My wife and I
Speaker 1: too were on our computers, just hiding behind closed doors
Speaker 1: and meetings and conference calls, and somewhere in this mess,
Speaker 1: we'd hustled together a lunch or figure out groceries, but
Speaker 1: so much of our worry was about keeping the family
Speaker 1: healthy and in our fatigue, my wife and I were
Speaker 1: looking for something fun, something positive we could train our
Speaker 1: families focus on in a way, Playing with plants this
Speaker 1: fall and getting dirty in the garden has given us that.
Speaker 1: In the last few weeks, we started arguing about whose
Speaker 1: turn it is to miss the house plants. Who knew
Speaker 1: missing plants was a thing or that it was so
Speaker 1: much fun We dig together and talk about worms. We
Speaker 1: noticed the different birds out back, something we never did before,
Speaker 1: and we talked about the plants, the ones that have
Speaker 1: grown and the ones that definitely have not. It's like
Speaker 1: we're rooting for the same team here, even when our
Speaker 1: team is losing. What's funny, though, is how this has
Speaker 1: seeped into my other conversations. When I was pestoring Mr
Speaker 1: Plant Geek Michael Perry about gardening and mental health, I
Speaker 1: also asked him how I could use plants to pique
Speaker 1: my kid's curiosity, and he told me about this dancing plant,
Speaker 1: the cod Aio Callax motor us. It actually sways and
Speaker 1: bends when you sing to it. He also told me
Speaker 1: how you can plant and work it upside down to
Speaker 1: defy gravity and it'll grow beautifully. So I've added those
Speaker 1: to my project list. But it wasn't just him. Bear
Speaker 1: Tounday talked about how tending to his plants made him
Speaker 1: think of his mother. Kadija Williams told me all about
Speaker 1: how her family garden together and how it brought them closer.
Speaker 1: So I want some of that. The other thing I
Speaker 1: know is that my kids love learning through experiences, and
Speaker 1: they learned better that way. I know. Gardens are basically
Speaker 1: classrooms if you treat them right, places where you can
Speaker 1: work on fine motor skills, but also pick up some
Speaker 1: science and love for the environment, and maybe even practice
Speaker 1: patients in this world of instant gratification, But what else
Speaker 1: might our family gained by getting our hands dirty? Once
Speaker 1: a week I called up Shelley Casto for some answers.
Speaker 1: Shelley is the executive director of the Highland Youth Garden,
Speaker 1: this urban agriculture project that works with more than three
Speaker 1: hundred students in the Highland neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, and
Speaker 1: it gives them this hands on learning experience in the garden. Hey, Shelly,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. Hi, how are you man? Guests?
Speaker 1: I am so excited to be chatting with you. I
Speaker 1: want to start by just having you tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Highland Youth Gardens and how it
Speaker 1: got its start. Absolutely so we are almost half acre
Speaker 1: Urban Agriculture Project a k A farm that was established
Speaker 1: ten years ago by a group of volunteers in one
Speaker 1: of the most under resource neighborhoods in Columbus, in partnership
Speaker 1: with Oakley Full Gospel Baptist Church who wanted to offer
Speaker 1: children in that neighborhood an opportunity to learn about gardening
Speaker 1: and fresh produce. Would you mind walking me through what
Speaker 1: the garden looks like. So it is essentially half a block.
Speaker 1: We have an Arab garden with lots of signs in
Speaker 1: Spanish and English to tell people what we've planted to
Speaker 1: give a little education about the ecological aspects of the site.
Speaker 1: And it is planted with tomatoes. We often have strawberries
Speaker 1: in there and squash, rhubarb, beats melon. It's also where
Speaker 1: we plan create all of our seedlings that we give
Speaker 1: away to people in the spring. Right now, it's filled
Speaker 1: with sunflowers where kids can just get in among all
Speaker 1: the sunflowers and feel like it's a little house. In fact,
Speaker 1: a girl I was working with yesterday was just so
Speaker 1: She's like, I could just move in here surrounded by
Speaker 1: nature and that and that's you know, that's exactly what
Speaker 1: we're looking for. We just yesterday dug up a bunch
Speaker 1: of sweet potatoes, found a snake. Um. That was the experience.
Speaker 1: Super cute little garden snake that was being very fierce um.
Speaker 1: And most of the kids said, not, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't see snakes in the middle of the city very often.
Speaker 1: Tell me what what is your day to day like
Speaker 1: and and how much do you actually get to be
Speaker 1: with kids in the garden? Yeah? Absolutely, I make sure
Speaker 1: I get out there once a week, and I was
Speaker 1: there yesterday and we had garden club with five neighborhood kids.
Speaker 1: We started out by chasing him on our butterfly and
Speaker 1: then trying out creed sweet potatoes stew, which many of
Speaker 1: them had never had, And then we went and dug
Speaker 1: up the sweet potatoes themselves and found the garden snake,
Speaker 1: and then did some journaling. So it was a great afternoon,
Speaker 1: a full afternoon. Yeah. Absolutely, it recharges me for sure.
Speaker 1: So what are some of the things you're observing as
Speaker 1: kids start growing in the garden For the first time,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing curiosity be peaked. You know, what is that
Speaker 1: work I'm doing in there? Oh my gosh, what's that butterfly? There?
Speaker 1: Is it gonna hurt me if I try to catch it?
Speaker 1: You know, that sort of direct curiosity with the world
Speaker 1: right around us in a very hands on way is important.
Speaker 1: I'll also talk about a teenager who started with us
Speaker 1: a year ago and came to us with no knowledge
Speaker 1: of gardening or interest in in gardening, and was very shy.
Speaker 1: And at this point she is the queen she is.
Speaker 1: You know, when anybody comes to a tour, she is
Speaker 1: the one who's going to show them around. She knows
Speaker 1: absolutely everything about what's growing right now, what tasks are
Speaker 1: most needed at this moment. We had her present to
Speaker 1: our city council. She is now confident she has expertise.
Speaker 1: She doesn't talk about being a farmer at all, but
Speaker 1: he has set up a greenhouse in her backyard. You know,
Speaker 1: she has this knowledge base that is unusual for her peers,
Speaker 1: and she's celebrating herself for that and embracing it and
Speaker 1: growing because of it. I'm curious, are there any sort
Speaker 1: of um success stories that you point to in this
Speaker 1: youth garden that sort of keep you inspired, or or
Speaker 1: that you'd love to let the community know about. Absolutely UM.
Speaker 1: A week ago, two weeks ago, there was a drug
Speaker 1: bust right next to the garden and it was unannounced.
Speaker 1: It was in a duplex where the children on the
Speaker 1: other half of the duplex spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: with us in the garden. We know them well. So Wednesday,
Speaker 1: early evening, the folks in the garden heard loud banging
Speaker 1: and saw a black van pull up. They were setting
Speaker 1: off explosives, they were breaking the door, they were smoking
Speaker 1: them out. It was really scary for those children. So
Speaker 1: you know, the next day they were able to come
Speaker 1: to the garden and escape from that and process their
Speaker 1: feelings about it with with us, with the volunteers and staff.
Speaker 1: If we hadn't been there, where would where would that
Speaker 1: have gone? Especially right now where they're not going to school.
Speaker 1: Nothing's open, so they're not getting to interact with other people.
Speaker 1: So it's hard to see how that need would have
Speaker 1: been met had we not been there. That's wonderful that
Speaker 1: the space that UM. I am curious about family. How
Speaker 1: do you see gardening and exposure to gardening affecting families
Speaker 1: and and maybe even the communication they have within them,
Speaker 1: sharing of skills between parents and children and vice versa,
Speaker 1: children and parents, exploring and experimenting together. I think it's
Speaker 1: so important in forming those bonds between parents and children.
Speaker 1: I think there's a real opportunity to do that with
Speaker 1: gardening in particular. I know I am by far the
Speaker 1: least experienced gardener among the whole crew. With the gardens. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, like I I have nightmares that they're going
Speaker 1: to look at my back. I have to confess. I
Speaker 1: I looked at your Instagram and saw that little vegetable path,
Speaker 1: your prowding up. Yeah. Yeah, it's a little sad, but
Speaker 1: I'm trying. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying. And that's and that's
Speaker 1: the great thing, Like, uh, big deal. The only way
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn is by trying by doing. So I
Speaker 1: think that opportunity to to do that together. I gardened
Speaker 1: with my daughter and she's really into it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: for for me too. I I just look at it
Speaker 1: as this almost this way to um to have conversations
Speaker 1: and root for the same thing. Yeah, exactly, right, right,
Speaker 1: right right U. And and to discuss, oh, you know
Speaker 1: that didn't really work, so what are we going to
Speaker 1: do next year plan for that relationship in the future.
Speaker 1: You know, how do you how do you talk about
Speaker 1: failure at the youth garden When a crop doesn't come
Speaker 1: upright or like the weather effect something, we talk about
Speaker 1: why and discuss what are the inputs or outputs that
Speaker 1: made that happen, so that there's some science and learning there,
Speaker 1: and then brush it off and say, well, this is
Speaker 1: what we're going to do next. You know, one thing
Speaker 1: that I really have been impressed about at the garden
Speaker 1: is that I was afraid that it would feel like
Speaker 1: you had to follow certain rules of best practice because
Speaker 1: there there is a lot of expertise actually that's going
Speaker 1: into this garden, a whole group of people who have
Speaker 1: earned Master Gardeners certification and so they really know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. But there is a real openness to not
Speaker 1: redirecting people in a way that stifles their curiosity. And
Speaker 1: you know, yesterday we we we literally destroyed the entire
Speaker 1: sweet potato catch and I look terrible this morning. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, what's our farmer going to say?
Speaker 1: But I know she's going to be really chill with
Speaker 1: it because it's it's just like we're not doing it
Speaker 1: to have a perfect garden. We're doing it too to
Speaker 1: have kids have the experience. I love that. Do you
Speaker 1: find that the kids bond over gardening? Do you see
Speaker 1: friendships emerged in the garden from the programs you run? Absolutely? Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I think this summer in particular, we had some friendships
Speaker 1: pop up among the teens that were seemed unlikely, seemed
Speaker 1: like they might not click, but they did. Really different
Speaker 1: backgrounds and experiences, but just the idea of working hard
Speaker 1: and complaining together about how it is and like, how
Speaker 1: am I? You know? Farming? It's really hard. It's a drag.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I was going to get into here,
Speaker 1: you know, And oh my gosh, it want us to
Speaker 1: weed again? You know? Didn't we just do that? So
Speaker 1: it forms a camaraderie. I think it's like you're all
Speaker 1: in it together, you know, and it's hard work, the
Speaker 1: hard work, and do that. I am curious, like, as
Speaker 1: you've been in this, uh, this space, what are the
Speaker 1: lessons that you've seen the kids love the most? The
Speaker 1: picking things right off the branch and eating it right away.
Speaker 1: That is super popular, you know, the cherry tomatoes, the strawberries,
Speaker 1: just that direct. I'm gonna grab it. I'm gonna pop
Speaker 1: it in my mouth. You know, that is big. But also,
Speaker 1: you know, finding the worms and talking about what worms do,
Speaker 1: that was that was a big just a big point
Speaker 1: of conversation yesterday. When we're digging up the sweet potatoes,
Speaker 1: the worms were all the focus until we found the snake.
Speaker 1: And when they're picking these vegetables off for these these fruits,
Speaker 1: are they noticing the difference between like supermarket vegetables and
Speaker 1: these Yeah. Absolutely. We actually do taste tests with them.
Speaker 1: So we'll buy, for instance, grocery store cherry tomatoes, bring
Speaker 1: them in and then have them harvests them and then
Speaker 1: have them decide which is better. I'm guessing there's an
Speaker 1: overwhelming favorite. Yeah, there is. I mean, they really can
Speaker 1: tell the difference. There's no question. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: so sad to give kids produce that doesn't taste the
Speaker 1: way it should, because then that implants in their mind,
Speaker 1: well I don't really like cherry tomatoes. But to give
Speaker 1: them a first experience of what it's supposed to be like,
Speaker 1: then they look for that and and appreciated and value
Speaker 1: it and are more more open to different kinds of food. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, it's eye opening. Well, are there any vegetables
Speaker 1: that you're surprised like? Yeah, no question. Kale. Apparently kale
Speaker 1: wraps were a big thing for this last all. I
Speaker 1: know it's kind of crazy, but you know, we would
Speaker 1: we would take kale over to the elementary school and
Speaker 1: have kids make veggie wraps with them and they like
Speaker 1: it that way. But you know, it's picked that day
Speaker 1: so that it's super fresh. So I think we have
Speaker 1: you know, a number of listeners out there who are
Speaker 1: probably inspired by your story and the story of this garden.
Speaker 1: How would you ask them to help? We have an
Speaker 1: incredibly beautiful website that was not designed by me but
Speaker 1: by one of our board members and volunteers, you know,
Speaker 1: so they are welcome to come check things out. We
Speaker 1: have a wishless people can volunteer if they're in Columbus.
Speaker 1: But I think the bigger, bigger question is we all
Speaker 1: need our communities in this country to turn their attention
Speaker 1: to our food system. Look at how much it fell
Speaker 1: apart during this pandemic. Turning your attention into your own backyard,
Speaker 1: learning how to to grow yourself and be a little
Speaker 1: more self sufficient, support your farmer's market. Look for those
Speaker 1: community guardens to spring up and get out there and
Speaker 1: get your hands dirty and participate. It's really essential. I
Speaker 1: think as we move into the next fifty years that
Speaker 1: we all reconnect with how food has grown and get
Speaker 1: more directly involved. I couldn't agree more humans growing stuff
Speaker 1: will be right back. After a short break in first grade,
Speaker 1: I entered an invention contest. I took a glow in
Speaker 1: the dark triangle and I glued it to the flap
Speaker 1: where you open your tent. And I figured that way,
Speaker 1: if you had to run outside to use the bathroom
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, you'd see that flap
Speaker 1: and be able to open the zip quickly. And I
Speaker 1: was so proud of this thing. But when it came
Speaker 1: time to vote for the best class invention, I lost
Speaker 1: to a girl who invented a lollipop bush. Her idea
Speaker 1: was that you could plan a seed and this bush
Speaker 1: would grow lollipops. And no one knew how it worked,
Speaker 1: but you brought in a small shrub with lollipops stuck
Speaker 1: inside it, and everyone voted for it, including me. It
Speaker 1: was a superior idea, and we all wanted lollipop. The
Speaker 1: truth is kids have the best ideas. Sometimes they're impractical,
Speaker 1: sometimes they are irrational, but often mixed into that ridiculousness
Speaker 1: is this wonderful wisdom and room for possibility and also
Speaker 1: joy that I really need right now. So I sent
Speaker 1: out my fifth grader, Henry and my producer Molly to
Speaker 1: talk to a few kid gardeners about what they love
Speaker 1: about gardening and what's the best way to get started. Hi, Jared,
Speaker 1: how are you. I'm glad, I'm great. Thanks for asking.
Speaker 1: So I took my dad's mike and I'm hiding in
Speaker 1: my closet and I took over his girl Name Podcast
Speaker 1: Question number one A j we have a gardening class
Speaker 1: in our school and you are the only person who listens.
Speaker 1: What do you like about gardening? I really just care
Speaker 1: about plants, and it's fun to be outside and doing
Speaker 1: like planting flowers and seeds, and it's just put fun
Speaker 1: to do because you're like hoping to old, and you're
Speaker 1: like hoping yourself just like get some time, just relieve
Speaker 1: from extress with like school work and all that. It's
Speaker 1: a good place to just little and like calm down.
Speaker 1: It's also good place stuff I had and seek. So
Speaker 1: what do you when you think of a garden, what
Speaker 1: do you think of it? And I think of a garden,
Speaker 1: I do think of like something beautiful flowers and no
Speaker 1: all like the types of from you notice that it's
Speaker 1: a really beautiful thing to have in this world. And
Speaker 1: we would we don't know where we would be if
Speaker 1: we didn't have that. You are right. My name is Donardo,
Speaker 1: my age is ten, and I live in Texas. Tell
Speaker 1: me how you got into gardening. How did it all start.
Speaker 1: I got into gardening because my mom wanted an herb
Speaker 1: garden to put in or her food so she didn't
Speaker 1: have to buy it. So we got a few basic
Speaker 1: herbs like basil and other herbs and started growing them,
Speaker 1: and me, being the lazy person as usual, did not
Speaker 1: water them. Later I got I got into cooking because
Speaker 1: women are usually the ones cooking at home and I
Speaker 1: don't want to change that because that's kind of stupid, sculpting, sexist.
Speaker 1: And that's when I started to fall in love with
Speaker 1: the herbs because they can produce stacks on stacks on
Speaker 1: stacks of herbs that I can use in my food
Speaker 1: so that tastes better for free. If you had to
Speaker 1: like sum it up, what do you love most smoker thing.
Speaker 1: It's really the harvesting that makes it that makes it
Speaker 1: good because you know you you, I mean like you
Speaker 1: get stuff from it. It's it's just a reward after
Speaker 1: how long you've waited, because plus the time to grow,
Speaker 1: plus like a lot of time to grow. Take their
Speaker 1: sweet times. Hi, I'm raaking and I'm for you all.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite plant to grow and to take care of?
Speaker 1: Cucumbert Yeah? How are they your favorite? And very really yammy? Yeah.
Speaker 1: If there was one vegetable that you would not want
Speaker 1: to grow that you would want to take out of
Speaker 1: the garden, which vegetable would it be? Camga? I don't
Speaker 1: like camados. Tomatoes are my favorite. Reagan, I know camato
Speaker 1: is doing. I'm bigger. What's the funniest thing that's ever
Speaker 1: happened to you while you're gardening? The birds eating noise plants?
Speaker 1: The birds eat your plants. Do they have a favorite
Speaker 1: plant to eat? Which one? Cucumber? They like cucumbers too.
Speaker 1: Do you think planting and gardening is good for the earth? Yes? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why Hey, it's good, great answer, great answer. Do you
Speaker 1: sing to your plants? Leo, I'm thinking of doing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like they'll grow better because they're happy. Oh,
Speaker 1: the actually like you? What would you? Can you give
Speaker 1: me a little like? What would you sing to them?
Speaker 1: So maybe like children, mobile bies or something? Can you
Speaker 1: give me a little taste? Imagine I'm a plant leasing
Speaker 1: to me green under the moon? How beautiful and shiny
Speaker 1: are you? Bathing under some like bathing under the moon? Like, oh,
Speaker 1: how green and tasty are you? Hey? Everyone, here are
Speaker 1: four simple tips getting your kids in the garden and
Speaker 1: getting them to love it. Give them their own space.
Speaker 1: Choose a little plot of garden that's not too small
Speaker 1: and just let them dig in. Let them see what
Speaker 1: it feels like to have their own little plot to weed,
Speaker 1: and tend to get them kids sized tools. When they
Speaker 1: have their very own set of tools, they're going to
Speaker 1: want to use them, and they'll feel more invested in
Speaker 1: getting out there each week and caring for the plants. Also,
Speaker 1: using tools that fit more comfortably in their smaller hands
Speaker 1: will make tasks a lot easier for them, and it's
Speaker 1: pretty adorable. Brag show them how proud you are, take photos,
Speaker 1: use positive words of encouragement, and use what they're growing
Speaker 1: and you're cooking. Let them choose what they want to grow.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a pizza garden where they think about all
Speaker 1: their favorite toppings, or maybe it's something else. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: all their favorite flowers. But a pro tip here, try
Speaker 1: to steer them towards plants that grow a little faster,
Speaker 1: like radishes or loosely flattish or even sunflowers, which can
Speaker 1: sprout up within seven days and can grow up to
Speaker 1: two ft in a month. When the days are long
Speaker 1: and we've each been looking at our own screens, the
Speaker 1: easiest thing for us to do as a family has
Speaker 1: been to sit on a couch and just focus on
Speaker 1: one screen. We watched baking shows and travel shows and
Speaker 1: sometimes old movies, things that are feel good and often
Speaker 1: vaguely educational. But early into the pandemic we tried to
Speaker 1: move away from that. We used to do a mocktail hour,
Speaker 1: and so every day at six pm, we'd break and
Speaker 1: blend things with ice and then toast and sipped together.
Speaker 1: But sometime around June we lost steam. I ordered a
Speaker 1: bunch of kits online, these cardboard pinball machines you could assemble,
Speaker 1: and we spent one glorious rainy afternoon doing just at
Speaker 1: the kids loved it, but now those pinball machines just
Speaker 1: gotta sit stacked in a corner. Gardening, though, that's been different.
Speaker 1: There's always something to do and learn. Sometimes it's moving
Speaker 1: plants around or just turning them to face the sun.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's taking a pair of scissors and learning that
Speaker 1: you can cut a stem and grow a whole new plant.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just planning for what we hope will happen,
Speaker 1: knowing that only some of our gardening ambitions will actually
Speaker 1: come to be. There are lots of studies about the
Speaker 1: positive effects gardening has, especially on children. We heard some
Speaker 1: of it from Shelley, but kids who grow their own
Speaker 1: food are more likely to eat fresh fruits and vegetables,
Speaker 1: and they express a preference for those foods. Kids in
Speaker 1: schools where gardening is part of the curriculum do better
Speaker 1: on science tests. Kids who spend time in outdoor gardens
Speaker 1: show improved attitudes in the classroom, and gardens helped kids
Speaker 1: form a deeper relationship with plants and trees, all of
Speaker 1: which gives them an increased desire to take care of
Speaker 1: the environment. This is from studies that have been taking
Speaker 1: place for the last twenty years, and the evidence is
Speaker 1: really overwhelming. But for my part, I've realized that gardening
Speaker 1: as a family has really brought us together. My kids
Speaker 1: are curious, so they're always asking questions, a few of
Speaker 1: which I can answer and many that I can't. But
Speaker 1: that's great too, because it gives us a chance to
Speaker 1: look things up together. But more than that, there's a
Speaker 1: quiet comfort that comes from being in the yard. Every
Speaker 1: parent has their own struggles, their own things that they're
Speaker 1: trying to help their kids work through. For some, it
Speaker 1: may be talking through how to respond to bullies or
Speaker 1: instilling pride for their culture even as they face a
Speaker 1: world that doesn't understand and tells them to hide their differences.
Speaker 1: For me, one of my children does want to be
Speaker 1: defined by their gender. They don't want to defend themselves
Speaker 1: every time they go to the bathroom or explain over
Speaker 1: and over through a day who they are. And it's
Speaker 1: hard to watch your kiddo go out into the world
Speaker 1: and constantly have to stand up for themselves. But in
Speaker 1: the garden, it's a place you can just be. Everyone
Speaker 1: is welcome among the basil and the sunflowers. You don't
Speaker 1: have to identify as anything, or explain your gender or
Speaker 1: race or religion to anyone. The plants don't care about that.
Speaker 1: You can just dig a little and pour some water,
Speaker 1: hopefully not too much, and wait, you can make bad
Speaker 1: jokes and laugh and get dirty. It's a place for
Speaker 1: all of us to slow down and focus on caring,
Speaker 1: because when you think about it, that's all these plants
Speaker 1: are asking of us. To come as you are, pay
Speaker 1: attention to the world sprouting around you, and spend some
Speaker 1: time caring for another living thing, and every once in
Speaker 1: a while sing green under the moon, Oh how beautiful
Speaker 1: and shiny are you? Bathing under some like bathing under
Speaker 1: the moon, like, oh how green and tasty are you.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's episode. Don't forget whether you're a
Speaker 1: beginner like me, a pro trying something new, or someone
Speaker 1: in between enjoying your community garden. There are incredible resources
Speaker 1: waiting for you on the Miracle Grow website. Next time
Speaker 1: on our show, we'll focus on the underrepresented gardeners, those
Speaker 1: who have always been getting their hands dirty but aren't
Speaker 1: always a part of the narrative. If you like what
Speaker 1: you heard, don't forget to rate and review the show
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. It really helps us out and we
Speaker 1: want to hear from you. What are your inspiring plant
Speaker 1: stories and relatable struggles and growing questions? Tag us in
Speaker 1: your post or tweet using the hashtag Human Growing Stuff
Speaker 1: and you may just hear your story featured on an
Speaker 1: upcoming episode. Humans Growing Stuff is a collaboration from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and your friends at Miracle Grow. Our show
Speaker 1: was written and produced by Molly Sosha and me Mangy
Speaker 1: Chatigler in partnership with Ryan Ovadia, Daniel Ainsworth, Hayley Ericsson,
Speaker 1: and Garrett Shannon of Banter Until next Time, Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening.