The Clinton School is a co-sponsor of an upcoming conference on building and sustaining school and community gardens in Arkansas. The “Making Your Garden Grow” conference will be May 3 at the new Central Arkansas Library Children’s Library and Learning Center in Little Rock.
The school has worked for several years with the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research institute on the Delta Garden Study program, which promotes school gardening in rural Arkansas schools. A team of students is working with the program this year for their Practicum public service project.
Little Rock, Ark. (February 10, 2013) — Registration opened February 15 for Making Your Garden Grow, a conference on building and sustaining school and community gardens in Arkansas. The event will be held Friday, May 3 at the CALS Children’s Library and Learning Center in Little Rock.
To register, visit MakeYourGardenGrow.eventbrite.com. The cost of attendance is $10 and includes all sessions, lunch and an afternoon garden party and seed swap.
Across the state, a growing number of communities, neighborhoods and schools are developing gardening programs to foster healthy eating, increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, build civic engagement and preserve the tradition and skills of small-scale gardening. Making Your Garden Grow is designed to help gardening enthusiasts, teachers and principals, business owners, mayors and other leaders learn how to establish successful team gardens in their own communities. Participants will get to share ideas with other gardeners from across the state and learn practical skills to make team gardens successful.
Workshops at the event are intended for gardening pros and rookies alike, with opportunities to learn from peers and experts. Topics will include horticultural skills like crop selection, irrigation and compositing, along with organizational skills like volunteer management, fundraising and program development.
Making Your Garden Grow is presented by a team of partner organizations, including Arkansas Community Foundation, the Childhood Obesity Prevention Research Program at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, the City of North Little Rock Fit 2 Live Initiative, the Delta Garden Study, Feed Communities, FoodCorps Arkansas, the National Center for Appropriate Technology and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.