Hilltown Families 
Plants Sales Support Multidisciplinary Learning in Your Backyard
Community Plant Sales & Swap Support Local Causes & Embedded Learning
Tending to a family garden not only provides food for your family and adds beauty to your surroundings, but the process of growing and caring for plants brings with it ample opportunity to learn about everything from edible plants to soil science! Here in western Massachusetts, gardening season is just kicking into full swing – meaning it’s time to start planning and planting your family garden!
Before choosing envelopes of seeds and six-packs of seedlings, it’s important to create a plan for your garden. Without proper planning, plants might end up being overcrowded, poorly positioned, or not properly cared for. It might be most efficient to let garden planning be a task for adults, but involving children in the process can empower them with responsibility while offering multidisciplinary learning. Get kids thinking about annuals and perennials, and the benefits of permaculture and xeriscapes. Using tools such as Math in the Garden curriculum or naturalist Sharon Lovejoy’s book Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children, families can discover ways for children to practice math, science, sustainability and literacy concepts all by participating in planning the family garden.
Another title that would be great to have in your family garden library is Slugs, Bugs, and Salamanders: Discovering Animals in Your Garden. Putting into context the concept of the food chain, this book will use the family garden as a launch into learning about pests and their natural predators.
Once you know where you’ll be growing your garden and what types of plants you’d like to put in them, commit to locally sourcing your plants. This time of year our region is rich in plant sales & swaps, giving families many options for obtaining locally-grown plants that have been dug up from the gardens and properties of other community members, local farms and community gardens. Along side, six-pack containers filled with potting soil and starter plants, you might also find more interesting things like cuttings from trees and bushes, potted house plants, wildflowers & grasses, medicinal & culinary herbs, hand-preserved (dried and harvested) seeds, and plants that aren’t usually grown straight from seeds – like asparagus roots and rhubarb crowns.
Many of these plant sales are also fundraisers that support valuable community resources like libraries, schools and museums, and often times the community member whose garden the plant originates from is on hand to answer your questions and offer gardening tips. Even if you’re not gardening or your gardening space is very small, plant sales are a fun place to freely share gardening information with one another, supporting kids in their development of gardening skills.
UPCOMING PLANT SALES
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[Photo credit: (cc) Keith Simmons]
A great way to find out would be to join the Amherst Garden Club listserv: https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/studentgroups/community_garden/node/84135
On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Hilltown Families wrote:
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5/5/15 Wondering when the Amherst Garden Club’s annual plant sale will be held this year. Anyone know?
The Reuse Committee will hold a collection and swap of plant pots, in conjunction with Northampton Education Foundation’s “Save Our Schools” Plant and Garden Market between 9am and 1pm on May 10, 2014. The public is invited to bring unwanted rigid garden pots and plant trays. All collected pots and trays will be available to the public free of charge; remaining items will be sent to a regional recycling facility. Six-pack plant containers and other crinkly/non-rigid containers will NOT be accepted.