Bringing the Old-time Survival Skill of Gardening to the Next Generations...

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@trucklife-family asked for the @Abundance.Tribe Bi-weekly Question >Given your talents, passions and values. How could you use these resources to serve, to help, to contribute, to the environment, to other living beings and /or to different causes? Find the details [here](https://peakd.com/hive-181465/@abundance.tribe/abundancetribes-biweekly-question-given-your-talents-passions-and-values-how-could-you-use-these-resources-to-serve-to-help-t) if you care to respond to this question. Thank-you @trucklife-family for asking that question!

I've recently retired from my position as an Educational Associate in the Pre-K "Play and Exploration" program where it was my privilege to have numerous children under my care. My desire for them was to see them grow to their greatest potential. I loved opening new worlds to them and scaffolding them to new levels.

Now my focus is on opening the world of gardening to the next generations, giving that old-time survival skill of gardening and growing your own food. There is that old Chinese proverb about teaching a man to fish - I like to look at it this way: >Give a someone some fresh produce and you feed them for a day Teach them to garden and grow their own food and you feed them for a lifetime" With gardening, it is a lifelong skill that can ensure you might never have to know hunger. In these times with the rising costs of foods and disruption of our distribution systems, accessing fresh organic foods can be difficult for some so this could be a very valuable skill to have. Not only this but it connects folks to nature and with the amount of time kids are spending in front of screens in cyberspace there is a need to have something to bring them into the natural world. Something that is not only benefiting them both mentally and physically but it is also benefiting the earth. By growing your own food there is less packaging, less pollution from transporting those goods, keeps the food scraps out of the landfills for they can be composted. Gardeners use that compost to build the soil creating healthier soils which in turn produces healthier plants giving more nutrients to make for healthier people! When kids are actually producing fresh fruits and vegetables in their garden they will want to eat more of them and let's face it, food picked fresh from the garden tastes so much better! This in turn has them make healthier food choices and can lead to a healthier food culture.

Once kids get some experience working with Mother Nature and being involved in the growing process by caring and nurturing for their plants and reaping the rewards of that, then it is easier to teach them about caring for the environment and seeing that this can have it's rewards too - Healthy Earth - Healthy People! There are many more benefits to gardening, just do a search on "benefits of gardening" and you'll be amazed!

To help bring this skill of gardening to the kids I developed a program "Got Dirt? Gardening For Kids" where I get them teaming up with Mother Nature and her superheroes, taking them step by step to create a garden, all the way from planning out their gardens to bringing in the harvest. The 8 week course consists of 5 modules each with a comic book style lesson, video demonstrations and other resources like workbooks, journals and ebooks. - **Module 1** Plans on Paper Now Let's Start Making It Real - **Module 2** Calling on Mother Nature's Super Hero - Soil - **Module 3** First Green Shoots - Caring and Nurturing For Our Babies - **Module 4** Harvesting - Bringing in Those Garden Goodies - **Module 5** It’s a Wrap - Reviewing So It’s OnWards and Upwards Each week we will have a live (virtual) meet up with the Gardening Grandma (that's me - I want to be that person who, for those who may not have someone, teaches them about gardening) And for the kids to be able to get together and talk about what's happening in their gardens, and share photos and such, "The Kids Gardening Club" has been set up for them on Discord. We'll be starting up in April so if you want to join us or find out more Go to [www.TheGardeningGrandma.com/Gardening4Kids/](http://thegardeninggrandma.com/gardening4kids/) Top image was from public domain, others are mine or of my creation. **Thanks for stopping by!** https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdZG7yvPzVj55gFmVH5tFbb7Ji8ufeYhLX4sSvZEDyNLu/porters.gif

Discover previous ecoTrain magazines at @ecoTrain plus news on the Eco-Village at [www.ecovillages.io](https://www.ecovillages.io/) _{Join The Best Natural Health Community on Hive Creating Abundance on Hive}
Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/hive-181465/@porters/bringing-the-old-time-survival-skill-of-gardening-to-the-next-generations