Cleo Grater
Professor Petrequin
Outside Event Paper
21 March, 2016
My outside event was the day the class went to the school’s garden. We helped the men clean up the garden so they can install a fish tank and we also got taught to plant different plants like fruits and vegetables. The two men showed us how to set up the soil, form the lines to separate the plants so they have room to grow, and how to properly insert and cover up the seeds. We also replanted green onions around our plants so they can keep away bugs and insects. The workers did a great job on showing us how to properly use the gardening supplies that were there and how to advance your growing process with little tips.
Now to connect the experience with the reading provided, I found many similarities within both. To start off the article: The Victory Gardens Leader’s Handbook said that people took food for granted and I still believe that happens and that people think that if they have the money for it they can just buy it in an endless amount. I felt that really applies to college students and they don’t think about those things and you learn more once you’ve grown. Before we started to garden the workers told us about how the school is trying to achieve a successful garden and to encourage the students to support it as well. They were planning on expanding and hopefully making the garden bigger and more diverse. I remembered this conversation when I read The Victory Gardens Leader’s Handbook on page 3 when it talks about “neighborhood committees, community committees, county committees and so on are organizing to achieve 6 million carefully tended farm gardens and more than 12 million carefully tended town and city gardens (Victory Gardens Leader’s Handbook pg. 3).” Also, I found a statement in the book about when summer hits and the garden gets abandoned to the weeds in the heat of the season. I understood there that that is what happened to the school’s garden because the worker was talking about how it has been losing momentum due to the time of year and now I know that it gets abandoned in certain times. The handbook states to have a garden plan to avoid this.
There was also a great connection with the second half of the reading as well. The section on build your health goes back to what I said before on college students taking advantage of food. This goes more in depth on how a nutritious diet is needed in war time and in our situation it is needed in college. Like stated “people need 50% more greens and yellow veggies and about 20% more tomatoes and citrus fruits in that time an I believe that it is the same (The Victory Gardens Leader’s Handbook).” Students don’t see their diet as important during this time and lack in certain categories so they need more help just like the people the handbook is referring to. To add on the handbook has a section on gardening is fun. Sure it does have its challenges with patience and bugs but it feels good and relaxes the nerves. I felt the same way when planting at school and luckily the result of the weather that day helped with that feeling of relaxation.
What a college wants are for the students to give more and help in the community and that’s why I believe we had that class time in the garden. The handbook states “they stimulate a creative spirit that influence other community activities… they develop the kind of civic pride which spurs on the best in local enterprise (The Victory Gardens Leader’s Handbook pg. unknown).” That statement I believe is the key in what the message of this experience was trying to have us realize and reflect on.
Work Cited
The United States Department of Agriculture. Victory Gardens, Leaders' Handbook. N.p.: n.p., 1942. Print.