Gardening Ed

**E*@aol.com**

To Roger,
On a recent NPR Morning Edition program (week of March 13th), they 
interviewed Alice Waters (Chez Panise(sp?) who has championed the idea of incorporating 
gardening and food science/prep in the Berkley, CA schools -- (I think I've 
got this right.)  Anyhow, it's happening, though ever so slowly.  

On a recent visit to a Marriott hotel resort in Florida, they offered "kids 
camp" activities which included a visit to the on-property vegetable garden 
where the kids learn about what's growing, have an opportunity to pick what's 
ripe hen take into one of the hotel's chefs who coaches them through preparation 
and cooking.

To Jeff,
You are so right about Master Gardeners partnering with elementary schools -- 
and that's just what we're doing in and around Charlotte, NC.  Now adays, the 
garden's summer bounty and the school calendar are not as out of sync as they 
were when I was growing up in Indiana and we had 90 days +/- school-free.  
Plus, it's a great opportunity to for cool season crops, succession planting, 
cold frames, etc.  Big Idea = Mother Nature never sleeps ... something's always 
going on outside!

A final thought on the Native/Invasive rant:
We've had a number of debates around here at the county level about what is a 
native -- pre-Columbian, post-Cherokee migration from the coast, 20th 
century, etc.  They decided to use a text book that documents the vascular flora of 
the Carolinas.  Right or wrong, that's the standard (which is actually a very 
good one).

To better define what is invasive and where, we have a document (spreadsheet) 
that covers a wide range of plants grown/available in the Carolinas.  The 
information includes how the plant reproduces, the rate at which it multiples and 
provides comments, such as "well-mannered growth in garden setting, but need 
marsh/wetlands is very aggressive." 

I've really enjoyed the views shared here over the last few days.

Ellen Goff
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