The New London Children’s Garden was selected from hundreds of gardening programs nationwide to receive a 2003 Youth Garden Grant from the National Gardening Association, based in South Burlington, Vermont. This award winning youth gardening program will receive an assortment of tools, seeds, and other garden products donated by leading companies in the lawn and garden industry.
“The National Gardening Association is proud to support this terrific kids’ garden,” says Amy Gifford, Director of the Youth Garden Grants Program. “This program was selected because of a demonstrated commitment to engaging youth, both actively and creatively, in the gardening process in addition to improving the community. We were able to see from their application that the garden program will be sustained for years to come.” There were a total of 300 winners this year, representing 45 states.
The Children’s Garden is a place for children to discover the magic of planting a garden. The Children’s Garden is a living learning laboratory where children can begin to understand an awareness and sensitivity to nature. The goal of the Children’s Garden is to increase opportunities for all children to become connected with nature. They have twelve-week programs that involve individual-plot gardening. They take a multi-disciplinary approach to learning.
The Children’s Gardener’s are between the ages of 5 and 12. Each child plants, maintains, and harvests his or her own 5X5 foot plot. Children get to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs and edible flowers, experimental plants, bird plants, and butterfly plants. The Children’s Garden also has specialty gardens, these include: The Bean Tepee, The Sunflower Tower, The Corn Patch, and A Boot Garden. The cost of the program is $20 and scholarships are available.