By Michelle Infante-Casella
For parents and children adjusting to remote schooling – and more time at home this spring – because of the COVID-19 crisis, gardening is a hands-on activity that can enhance learning, while helping to rebuild a sense of security.
For elementary school children, working in a garden can reinforce concepts of measurement, addition, subtraction and organization, sorting into categories and colors, while building motor skills and work ethic.
The history of trying times in America gives many examples of the importance of gardening to our entire society. When World War I and World War II caused food shortages, the federal government encouraged Americans to plant Liberty Gardens and National Victory Gardens. The U.S. School Garden Army taught children to garden and fostered a sense of contribution toward the war efforts.
Posters created during WWII to promote Victory Gardens.
During the Great Depression, millions of out-of-work Americans gardened to survive. Potatoes and beans were easy to grow, calorie-rich, filling and nutritious. In 1944, 40% of the food grown in the United States came from National Victory Gardens. Gardening became popular again during the 1970s amid exorbitant energy costs and high inflation that caused food prices to soar.
In this time of COVID-19, our country is again at war and facing a struggling economy. Americans can turn again to the physical and mental benefits of gardening to help the national fight against a pandemic. For those not born with a green thumb, educational programs on the web can help hone your gardening knowledge.
The best sources are land grant universities such as Rutgers University and cooperative extension websites that have peer-reviewed, non-biased, science-based information such as the Rutgers Community Gardening Series. Start with advice on choosing the best garden location, watering practices, soil quality and disease-resistant vegetable varieties.
For long-time gardeners, spring is a time of joy. A connection with the Earth that harkens to earlier times when most people planted for sustenance. An invigoration of the senses that comes from digging, watering and tending with your own hands. For new gardeners, especially children, the joys resulting from gardening multiplies as the months pass, watching their carrots and tomatoes magically grow from seeds to something on their dinner plates.
So, whether you’re 7 or 70 years old, let’s get outside and grow!
Michelle Infante-Casella is an agricultural agent and professor at Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Gloucester County. She is also the State Coordinator for the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
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