A Growing Program

Young gardeners dig deeply in Chicago parks

By Zvezdana Kubat

A horticultural trend is happening in Chicago. People with small green thumbs are gaining interest in urban gardening with the help of a park district program called Harvest Garden.

For 11 years, children ages 8 to 12 have been taught the importance of organic gardening, both edible and ornamental. Program participants discover how edible gardens help create delicious dishes while making fruits and vegetables much more tantalizing than they once were. In addition, children discover how an ornamental garden can lend itself to creating beautiful bouquets.

The program is designed to give these gardening enthusiasts the skills to plant a garden and how to further sustain it. Each year, the program focuses on a different topic, such as nutrition and healthy eating. In this way, participants learn something new each year.

Spreading Enthusiasm

In 2000, the park district only offered the program at nine parks during the spring and summer to coincide with existing after-school programs and summer day camps. In 2001, the program was expanded to include 15 parks and a third season--fall. The following year, raised beds were installed in each garden to ensure the quality of the soil, and to make the gardens more accessible and easier to maintain.

Now, the sites are scattered throughout 16 parks in the city, giving kids in many neighborhoods the opportunity to participate. The size of the beds--from 75 to 200 square feet--give kids enough room to fit all the strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, beets, carrots, cucumbers, herbs and edible flowers they need.

Spring Planting

Meanwhile, in each season a different aspect of organic gardening is highlighted. In spring, the kids meet after school from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. once a week to begin working on the gardens. Before amending the soil with compost, the gardeners learn a little about the worms that they will encounter. The young gardeners also learn about seeds and some basic ideas of vegetable-garden design and plant companions. Before spring ends, the gardeners do a little tasting of herbs, lettuce and any other early spring produce.

Summer Concoctions

During summer, the garden begins to flourish, and youngsters see the fruits of their labor come to life. Participants can prepare foods that they have grown, and engage in a variety of activities related to their gardens, including crafts, music and cooking. They can now use their produce to prepare herbal vinegar, salsa, pickles and ice cream.

They learn that chives give off an interesting aroma and that something as simple as adding them to plain cream cheese gives a bagel added flavor. At this point in the program, kids discover that the awful vegetables they dreaded to eat before are not all that bad. In fact, kids are more likely to eat them now after patiently waiting and watching them grow all season.

Celebrating Success

At the end of summer, a Harvest Fest brings the kid gardeners together in celebration of their hard work. The festival typically includes day-camp children, and hosts about 200 participants in potato-sack races, crafts, face painting, square dancing and ice-cream making. They bring a basket of their garden produce, as well as some other projects they have completed throughout the summer, to compete for the “Best in Show” prize ribbon. The participants also are invited to the Garfield Park Conservatory’s County Fair, where they exhibit their produce, compete for prizes, and participate in a variety of fair activities.

Fall Into Winter

The program culminates during fall with a continuation of garden harvesting and, more importantly, learning how to “put the garden to bed” for the winter. Gardeners do more cooking, learn how to use all the “spent” plants to create beneficial compost, plant some garlic bulbs for next year, and then get to bring home a bounty of vegetables before the winter freeze.

Creating Healthy Habits

In incorporating nutrition, reading, writing, art and science throughout the three seasons, the goal of the program is to provide a fun and memorable way to learn about gardening. One former gardener--now in his late teens--met some of the kids in the program harvesting cucumbers and dill to make pickles. After five years, he still remembered the recipe. Some of the original Harvest Gardeners are now in their 20’s, and possibly moving out on their own. Hopefully, they are able to make better choices about the foods they eat, and how they view the natural world around them.

Zvezdana Kubat is the assistant press secretary for the Chicago Park District. She can be reached via e-mail at Zvezdana.Kubat@ChicagoParkDistrict.com.