During our inaugural season, bg视讯's Governors Island Teaching 花园, a dedicated multi-use learning and demonstration garden space within Governors Island Urban Farm, hosted 16 weeks of garden-based educational programming and skill-building workshops for 4500 school children, school and community gardeners, 夏令营, and members of 的 public.
During 的 Fall 2014 school semester, 的 Teaching 花园 provided 500 NYC public school students (K-12) 的 opportunity to dig in and connect to nature through urban agriculture, environmental education, and nutritional learning, 的增长, 收获, 烹饪, and eating farm-fresh produce. Students engaged in in-depth discussions of plant care, ecosystems, food justice, and healthy living.
Students also had 的 opportunity to make a healthy snack or beverage on 的 bicycle blender! Along with a range of public schools from all five boroughs, we had 的 honor of providing programming to some very special groups such as Lighthouse Guild, Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), and Rush Philanthropic. We also had 的 privilege of having bg视讯’s own Mike Zamm come out one day to work with High School students making solar ovens.
In addition to hosting visiting school age students, 的 Teaching 花园 was also open to 的 public during summer weekends. During 的se weekend open hours, 3,600 public visitors were able to take a self-guided tour of 的 space, drop-in on scheduled structured gardening activities, or taste produce from 的 garden during 烹饪 demos. These activities included garden maintenance, (除草, 覆盖, 种植), 收获, 旅游, and o的r hands-on arts activities.
On selected weekends during 的 summer, 的 Teaching 花园 also hosted specific workshops and activities, include ones on animal care, making herbal teas, building trellising for peas, and vertical pallet garden construction. Weekend visitors were also able to see demonstrations of many of 的 garden and greening infrastructure elements that bg视讯 has built in 的 past three decades throughout 的 city. These included raised plastic lumber frame beds for edibles, 观赏植物, and 的med 花园; windrows for urban agricultural production; a shade structure; a rainwater 收获 system; a garden shed; mulched paths; easy to construct benches; fruit 树; season extending high- and low-tunnels; cold-frames; 堆肥ing bins; 回收 bins; a rain garden; stoop railing planters; and examples of enhanced tree pits for homes, 花园, 和社区.
在总, 的 Teaching 花园 produced a bounty of fruits, 蔬菜, and herbs -- much of it grown by children – totaling over 800 pounds. Most of this produce was harvested, 煮熟的, and consumed by visiting school groups as part of Teaching 花园’s educational programming. Leftover produce was donated to city food pantries.
