Gardens for Life

Photo: Nyandarva boarding primary school in Kenya, Rift Valley Province.
© 2004 Didier Ruef

“Over 20,000 children and young people, 400 teachers, with many families and communities (we estimate about 50,000 people in total) in four continents in four continents have participated in garden-based teaching and learning and community action and have come to generate new ways of learning about, and living in, an uncertain modern world.”

Gardens for Life promotes partnerships between schools, children and teachers to share all the learning that can come from gardening and growing food across communities, cultures and countries.

The boys and girls are wearing the same colorful uniform. They work in a large agricultural garden, which was set up by “Gardens for Life” ( Eden’s first international education project). The “Gardens for Life” initiative seeks to embed the most fundamental of issues, food and nutrition, within the education curriculum by maximising the use of schools gardens and make gardening an attractive activity and a source of income for the school. The foodstuff produced can be sold locally after feeding the students.

Gardens for Life web site here.

Garden for Life is a part of The Eden Project. See their web site here.

Gardens for Life at Kapila Khandvala College of Education, Mumbai, India

Jayashreee Inbaraj, a long-serving Gardens for Life partner and a lecturer at a teacher-training college in Mumbai, tells us of progress in their garden.

After convincing the College of the tremendous potential of Gardens for Life the management finally in August 2007 agreed to waterproof the terrace for us to begin the Garden. We started the terrace garden work on Oct 2nd (the day Mahatama Gandhi was born). This day was selected as an ideal day because Gandhi believed in practical education and working with your hands. He believed that the curriculum should be connected to life and encouraged a sustainable life style.

A group of 50 student-teachers of the Kapila Khandvala College of Education volunteered to work with soil and set up the garden. As the “used tyre” concept works well with the Indian schools in the Gardens for Life project we used the same. We put three sections in place: vegetables, flowers, and fruits. Students took turns to come and water the plants and now we have a long pipe and the work seems easier. I never need to tell anybody the plants need water—I know it is being done.

The ownership feeling has already begun. For the last one month we have enjoyed the fruits of the garden. Many beautiful flowers have bloomed. We have consumed chillis, carrots and eggplants from the garden. We are planning to introduce vermi-compost soon. This academic year from July 2008, we plan to introduce it in our teaching. Students will give at least two simulated lessons outdoors so that they can be trained how to integrate outdoor learning with their subjects. We’re also proposing to get funds from the University Grants Commission (UGC) to carry on the good work. We also look forward to linking with a teacher training college in UK who would be interested in connecting with us on the project.

Garden for Life in India here.