GUIDEBOOK ON THE INTEGRATION OF ECOLOGICAL LIFESTYLE INTO EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR YOUTH
Topic
GARDENING – EASY OR NOT?
Hanoi, July 2018
Implementation: Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (C&E) This guidebook was compiled and published under the sponsorship of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – Southeast Asia Copyright: This guidebook can be copied or cited for non-commercial purposes only Compile: Tran Thi Kim Hoan, Ngo Thi Phuong Thao Edit: Vu Van Tuan, Bui Thi Thanh Thuy, Nguyen Viet Trung Design: Nguyen Khanh Linh Photo: C&E Center, colleagues and internet Address: No 12 lane 89 Xa Dan street, Dong Da district, Hanoi Phone number: +84 24 3573 8536 Email: ce.center.office@gmail.com Website: ce-center.org.vn
PREFACE Within the course of the project “Scaling up and mainstreaming innovative approaches on ecological movement into activities of universities” the year 2018 funded by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, the “Guidebook on the integration of ecological lifestyle into educational activities for youth – Topic: Gardening – easy or not?” is one of the 6 educational toolkits on ecological lifestyle. The toolkits are designed for teachers, trainers and youth activists with topics related to Tourism, Food, Water, Waste, Shopping and Gardening. This guidebook is written with the purpose of leading youth activities towards the concept of gardening, especially in urban setting. Hence, the young generation would have a better understanding of the importance of gardening from the smallest scale. At the same time, they will be equipped with more knowledge and motivation to act. Another objective of this guidebook is to support teachers, trainers and youth activists to inspire their learners in a diverse, scientific-based and interesting way. It introduces methods to integrate the topic “Gardening – easy or not” into educational program as well as activities in order to change learners’ awareness and action. As a result, learners can apply this into their future career and spread to their community where they live, study and work. Furthermore, this guidebook is not designed for teachers, trainers and youth activists only, it is a simple tool for every individuals and organizations who seek to understand and integrate topics related to ecological lifestyle into extracurricular, training or educational activities for young people. No matter who you are or where you work, you can be an inspirer to your community. The compilation team hope to receive comments and suggestions from individuals and organizations to better revise and publicize this guidebook in upcoming times.
The compilation team C&E Center
CONTENT
01
ABOUT GARDENING
6
What is gardening?
7
Understanding gardening
7
Types of garden
8
How important is gardening?
12
Gardening is important to you
12
Gardening is important to the world
18
Gardening is easy
24
Basic steps of gardening
24
Introduce popular types of garden
28
Why do we need to integrate this topic into education? 34
02
METHODOLOGIES TO INTEGRATE THIS TOPIC INTO EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR YOUTH 35 Forms of integration
36
Training methods
40
Experiential learning cycle
40
Best practice analysis
43
Project 48
03
RECOMMENDATION FOR TRAINING PROGRAM 50 Lesson plan – Everyone can garden
51
In-door lesson plan
51
Practice lesson
52
Field-trips 53 Further reading materials
04
54
REFERENCE 55
6
PART
01 About gardening
7
We are certainly not new to the terms “gardening” or “planting”, however not everyone knows how to garden or has ever plant a tree with their own hands. You might not recognize this, but the movement of self-producing food by gardening has been spreading around the globe, especially within cities. It is such moments and projects of urban gardening Keep Growing Detroit, Earthworks, Brother Nature Produce that gave life back to the city of Detroit after its economic crisis in 20131. From 80 urban farms within the city in 2000, in 2016 there were more than 1400 urban farm in operation.2 So, what is gardening, how to do gardening and why it became such an important and vibrant topic in the world we are living? More importantly, how is all this connected to you – as an individual and an educator?
WHAT IS GARDENING? Understanding gardening According to Oxford dictionary, gardening is the activity of tending and cultivating a garden, especially as a pastime. A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature.3 A garden is often seen with a variety of plants and is planted for many different purposes, either for beauty, landscape, entertainment or food, medicine, raw materials… There are various ways to classify gardening following different criteria such as the scale of the garden, main purpose, planting technique… In this guidebook, the act of gardening implies all human’s act of “planting with purpose”. No matter if it is on a piece of land in the countryside or in some boxes on the balcony, you can still practice gardening.
1 Detroit was a metropolis with the highest income per capita in the Unites States. In 2013, The Fall of Detroit announced the biggest metropolis bankruptcy in the US after a few years of economic crisis. 2 Source: Citylab 3 Source: Wiki-pedia
8
Types of garden We can categorize gardens based on many criteria such as geographical features, dominant types of plant or gardening technique. Here are some main ways of sorting gardens:
BASED ON GARDEN’S MAIN FEATURE EARTHEN GARDEN An earthen garden is what most people picture when thinking of a home garden. Earthen gardening usually have 2 basic steps which are weeding and planting directly into the earth. Besides, the soil needs to be enriched with compost and mulching. In earthen gardening, there are several cultivation methods that gardeners can look into such as: organic gardening (no chemicals use and follow principles of organic agriculture), permaculture (planting in a systematic view following the natural and ecological law). This type of gardening is not only constraint to the countryside or suburb. Small piece of land inside the city can also be made use of to plant suitable types of vegetables and plants. Furthermore, there is one option for families that do not have land area but do have space of grass or cement ground – it is raised-bed garden. For a raised bed garden, you’ll create a short barrier and fill it with soil. The bound wall can be made from a wide range of materials, mostly recyclable, such as wooden pallets, sheet metals, bricks or rubber. However, make sure you use a non-toxic material that won’t leach into the soil. .
Photo: Dốc Mơ Farm – Đồng Nai (Source: Facebook Dốc Mơ Farm)
9
CONTAINER GARDEN This type of garden is particularly suitable for people living in cities and urban areas with limitation of land and space. Plants with be placed inside containers such as bucket, box, bottle… and can be designed creatively in forms, shapes and colors depending on the gardeners.
- Rooftop garden: this type of garden works best on buildings with empty rooftop. In the past people usually plant on rooftop for landscaping and decoration purpose. However, in recent years, many people have started to build rooftop garden. These gardens do not only create a greenery beautiful space, provide food but also purify the air and regulate temperature. Photo: A rooftop garden in Hanoi (Photo – Phạm Đức Thắng)
- Balcony garden: usually contains of small pots being placed or hanged around the balcony area to plant vegetables, flowers or small plants. This type of garden is very suitable and popular among city apartments and houses with small area. Even if there is no space for a rooftop or a yard, a home usually has a balcony or windowsill that can be used for plants. Photo: Balcony garden – Fami Farm
10
- Vertical garden: if you do not have space for small balcony garden, vertical garden might be a better choice. This type of gardening extends the space for planting by using the vertical dimension. A blank wall or empty balcony would be enough to start planting. Plants are put into small pots which are hanged onto a rack or wire system. Another way to do vertical garden is green wall, you can create them by planting creeper plants. Photo: Vertical garden made from recycled bottles in Sao Paulo - Brazil
SOIL-LESS GARDEN Talking about gardening, you might immediately think of a basic ingredient that is soil and start to worry of not having any soil to plant. However, you can still plant without soil. In soil-less gardening, there are 2 types that are popular and applicable in Vietnam: hydroponics and aquaponics. - Hydroponics: is the method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent, the roots may be supported by an inert medium. The medium can be sand, rice husk, coir or peat‌ The key of this technique is to provide enough minerals for plants at the right time. With enough nutrition, sunshine and CO2 for photosynthesis, O2 for respiration, plants will grow strong as gardeners expect them to. - Aquaponics: refers to any system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or
Photo: Hydroponics (Source: Internet)
11
Purified water
The growth medium
prawns in tanks) with hydroponics in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in
Clean water Waste water Pump
the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponics system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrifying bacteria initially into nitrites and subsequently into nitrates that are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water
Photo: A basic aquaponics model (Source: thuysanhanoi.vn)
is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system.
BASED ON TYPE OF PLANTS In some garden, certain types of plants are grown depending on the purpose of gardeners such as herb garden (to collect herbs for tea or medicine‌), vegetable garden (to harvest food), fruit garden, pollinator garden (provides natural environment for pollinators such as bee, insect‌), flower garden (for beauty) and medicine garden (mainly grows herb and medical plants). A garden can also be a combination of different types above and in fact the most common cases are gardens with multi-cultivation style, multi-functioned and have more than one type of dominant plant. We are growing more and more understanding of the importance of diversity in gardening. It is not random that many species and life forms live and support each other in nature. Your garden is a mini ecosystem. Therefore, with an attitude of paying attention to its diversity and showing respect to the harmony of nature, many people develop models such like food forest (or forest garden), natural garden and permaculture A food forest, also called a forest garden, is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature.4 4  Source: projectfoodforest.org
12
HOW IMPORTANT GARDENING?
IS
Let’s look into the answer for “why should we garden? What good does it make for me and you?
Food is what keeps the world going. Food is the energy of the world. Food is life and life is food. - Vandana Shiva -
Would it make the world a better place?”
Gardening is important to you There is no doubt that the first one who benefits from gardening is you.
GARDENING NURTURES YOUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH Gardening is how you can have the freshest and healthiest source of fruit and vegetable. It is the freshest because the distance from the garden to your kitchen can not be shorter. You do not have to wait for food to travel a long way to reach your dining table, there is also no need for time, energy and chemicals to store them. It is the healthiest because when you grow your own food, you can decide whether it is organic or not and where the seeds might come from. Modern researches have been showing that many human’s disease has either direct or indirect cause from diet, particularly obesity, diabetes and heart disease… According to Doctor Hiroshi Shinya – the author of best seller book on nutrition “The enzyme factor” – a healthy diet needs at lease 85 – 90% plant-based food. However, many people are concerning about food safety due to information about unsanitary food or vegetable and fruit that contain too much toxicants from pesticides and preservatives. Especially, if you are not really convinced about the credibility of organic shops in your city, growing your own vegetable would be the most guaranteed way. We can always maximize the amount of home-grown food within our capacity and condition. A balcony garden might only provide some green vegetable, spices and small perennial plants like chili, tomato… A rooftop garden or an urban community farm can help you grow many different types of plants, even tubers (like carrot, potato) and creepers (like beans, chayote, zucchini)…
Photo: Bearfotos - Freepik.com
Grow your own nutrition VEGETABLES Lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, green vegetables… Vegetables provide water, vitamin and minerals that help the body to digest nutrients, to have better skin and balance nutrition. Vegetables also can prevent the risk of cancer and heart disease. FRUITS Apple, mango, fig, watermelon, banana, berries, orange, guava… Fruits help us to grow, have a healthy skin and avoid infections. Fruits contain fiber, which is important for good digestion. They help to prevent constipation and diseases. Fruits and vegetables are regulating foods, because they provide large doses of vitamins and minerals not found in other foods, and they also help other nutritious, energy-rich foods to carry out their functions properly. TUBES Potato, sweet potato, carrot, taro, radish… Tubers provide a lot of energy from starch along with vitamins and minerals. LEGUMES Lentils, green beans, red beans, cowpea, black beans... This is the source of plant-based protein with low fat and less cholesterol than GRAINS
other protein food.
Rice, wheat, maize, corn, oat… Grains provide a lot of energy and nutrition in starch. Some grains provide fiber as well. (5) Nuts, seeds & fatty fruits
Fruits and vegetables
Wholegrains
Legumes A suggestion on ratio of plant-based nutrition
While doing gardening, take some time to learn about the nutrition provided from different types of plant and consider which plants would fit the best with your need, favor and condition.
14
Not only providing us with nutrition from home-grown vegetable, gardening is also a form of physical exercise that seems light yet effective. Planting and taking care of plants and tree around the house give you a great reason to stand up, move and get in touch with nature (not only with plants, but with the soil, water and sunshine too). If your garden has quite a big size with plenty types of plants, the work of weeding, digging, planting, watering, harvesting require strength or stretching no less than any other type of exercise. Comparing to other work-out methods, gardening is more likely to stick to because it brings not only comfortable feeling but also visible goals and achievements. Another important “side effect” of gardening that many amateur gardeners have shared is the possibility of stress relief and emotional balance. Being focus into gardening can reduce negative thoughts, in some case it even improves depression symptoms. In a study conducted in Norway, people who had been diagnosed with depression, persistent low mood, or “bipolar II disorder” spent six hours a week growing flowers and vegetables. After three months, half of the participants had experienced a measurable improvement in their depression symptoms. The researchers suggest that the novelty of gardening may have been enough to jolt some of the participants out of their doldrums. Some experts have a much more radical explanation, they think that a harmless bacteria found in soil increase the release and metabolism of serotonin in parts of the brain that control cognitive function and mood, therefore made humans feel more comfortable and lighten their mood.
15
GARDENING MAKES US HAPPIER The daily pleasures of gardening are simple, inexpensive and profoundly satisfying: eating a head of lettuce that was cultivated with care among friends, taking in the morning perfume of a flower clinging to the banister of a balcony, biting into a strawberry warmed by the sun. Urban agriculture is a veritable way of life and enables the population, collectively or individually, to take pleasure in new, green spaces that meet its needs for relaxation and leisure. (2) Whether you garden for the purpose of landscaping or not, a garden will certainly color your life space. Plants are full of life and color from flowers, leaves, young buds. The shape and color of plants varies seasonally along with the growth of plants. Therefore, your garden will keep changing its look and you would never get bored. More amazingly, you can design your garden intentionally to fit with your interest and personality. It can help you feel more connected and in love with where you live. Many share that the mere act of watering, weeding, taking care of plants or harvesting to them is not only leisure or exercise but it is also away to practice mindfulness, find stillness and focus on the present. Planting does not always require you to carry heavy things or using a lot of muscles but it can take your total concentration and devotion. When taking care of your garden, you can temporarily put aside unfinished business or put your mind a way from what has been troubling you. Another aspect that gardening can bring to you and make you feel happier is the feeling of contribution and improvement. Anytime you look at your achievement in the garden, could be a blossoming flower, a young bud growing strong, a new fruit popping out, a bunch of vegetable being ready for harvesting, you can smile and feel proud of yourself. Sharing your fruit or vegetable to family, friends and people around you would triple the happiness. Gardening is a good method to teach children about responsibility and independence. You can try letting them be responsible for some young plants, you will be amazed of how much love and responsibility they will put into this little project.
16
GARDENING CAN HELP SAVING POCKET MONEY When deciding to start a garden, you obviously will need to put on some investment on seedlings and tools. If you want to have a no-cost garden, you only need to spend some more time on collecting old materials and asking for seeds from friends or gardening communities. When your garden goes into stabilizing phase, you will find yourself earning a lot of benefit economically. In fact, a balcony garden or vertical garden can hardly be the main source of vegetable for your family. With small garden, planting flowers or perennial plants would be a better choice. If you have enough space in your garden to plant some creepers along with organic vegetable rows and fruit tree, the garden can provide up to 30-80% vegetable need of a family with four members (in the case of multi-culture and constant re-planting). If you have more than enough, you can give the rest to friends, family as gift or sell them. Note that home gardening does not guarantee of saving money on buying vegetable. If you really aim towards saving money by gardening, you should pay attention to some points below: • Plant the types of vegetable your family like to eat • Grow a variety of plants to change your daily menu and not get bored • Inter-cropped, and plant perennial plants such as creepers and herbs together with vegetable • Create a detailed plan to reduce input cost (by eliminating tools that are not really necessary, increase recycle and reuse, seed saving…) • Make use of organic waste to make compost, you will save money on pesticide and at the same time have stronger, chemical-free plants. • Do not stop learning about gardening and spend a certain amount of time taking care of your garden. In addition, gardening will indirectly save you money on other entertainment with the time spending on planting, taking care of your garden and with the leisure it can provide. Another potential saving is medical cost, growing your own healthy food is how you can cure the root of many food related diseases.
Photo: Gardening is a way to save money
17
GARDENING REDUCES YOUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT If you are a nature-lover and care about environment, this would be the most convincing reason for you to start your own garden. Everyone of us need to consume for our living needs, while doing so, we leave an ecological footprint on the Earth. The ecological footprint is a measure of demand for land and water capable for biological productivity necessary to provide for the needs of human life (food, wood, energy, infrastructure land, CO2 absorption area, the ability to contain and assimilate waste). (Global Footprint Network).
H ow gardening can help reduce our ecological footprint? • Reduce “travel route” of food from production site to your table. Instead of buying food that was grown, processed and transported from far away, which consumes a lot of electricity and gas, you can simply go out in the garden, harvest and cook any food you like. • People who garden tend to eat more vegetable and less meat. A study posted on Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetic, conducted on more than 1100 junior students in 8 universities in the United States, shows that the students who have gardening experience eat 20% more vegetable and fruit comparing to those who do not garden. Reducing meat consumption is another way to reduce resources needed for your diet.5 • Garden can keep you there instead of spending time for other carbon-consumed leisure activities. • If you make your own compost, you will release a large amount of organic waste out of the conventional waste management where it will be mixed with other types of waste and be thrown away wastefully. Instead, you not only reduce your family waste but also “feed” your garden with high nutrition compost. 5 Source: Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, online November 30, 2017.
18
Gardening is important to the world Gardening not only brings many benefits to you and your family, it can help create a better world. Sounds hard to believe? Let’s find out more.
SOCIAL BENEFITS HEALTH AND FOOD SECURITY There are approximately 7.6 billion people living together on our planet. According to the nearest report of the United Nations (UN) in 2017, this number is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. With roughly 83 million people being added to the world’s population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue.6 This put a huge pressure on our natural resources and food security, especially in urban areas. By 2030, some two thirds of the world’s people will be living in cities, according to UN projections. The rapid urbanization goes together with a rapid increase in urban poverty and urban food insecurity. (6) Poverty and food insecurity have been considered for decades to be rural problems. Some analyses have shown however, that urban poverty is not only growing rapidly, but has tended to be underestimated in the past. In urban settings, lack of income translates more directly into lack of food than in rural settings because most urban citizens do not grow their own food like in the countryside. Therefore, urban citizens, especially low income families, are dependent on a food system that is expensive with low quality. Many choose to have a diet that is rich in calories but poor in nutrition because these types of food are way cheaper comparing to high quality and nutrition food. The consequence is health problem such as malnutrition, food related diseases. It is important to have a strategy to ensure food that is safe and rich in nutrition is available and accessible to people, especially in the urban and sub-urban area; together with bringing better livelihood to food chain stakeholders. Urban and peri-urban agriculture contributes to food security, nutrition and livelihoods in a combination of ways: • Providing for family self-consumption, thus contributing to healthy diet and allowing for saving on food expenditures • Providing a source of income, through sale of surplus or specialized and intensified commercial oriented production systems • Improving the supply of local markets with fresh and micronutrient rich foods at competitive prices 6 Source: United Nations - World Population Prospects 2017
19
• ensuring a continuum of tree cover through landscape management and use of agroforestry systems. According to World Health Organization (WHO), engagement in farming in urban areas has also been shown to be associated with greater dietary diversity in most countries. (WHO, 2003). According to a research of FAO in 2005, Urban and peri-urban farms already supply food to about 700 million city dwellers -- one-quarter of the world’s urban population. This will be the answer to food security and a path to boost the participation of citizens in social-cultural issues. (6) COMMUNITY CONNECTION Urban gardening can be a connection channel for community and increase the social life of urban citizens who seem to be more and more focus on work and personal life without connecting to people around them. The process of planting and gardening stimulates learning and experience sharing among gardeners either urban or rural, which then create an honest and warm relationship. When one person has surplus of vegetable, fruit or seeds, he will naturally have an urge to share it with others. Once one man shares, others would like to do the same thing. In the long run, it would nurture the seed of a friendlier and less crime society. Especially in community garden model, many people from different families live close to each other geographically can work on a same piece of land. This model helps to connect generations, creates a space for not only gardening but also culture exchange and community events.
8
20
GREEN SPACE We all know that the basic life function of plants is taking CO2 from the atmosphere to produce energy and release Oxygen. Meanwhile, we human and other animals need to inhale Oxygen for our body function and exhale CO2. Naturally, plants and human is a perfect match. Furthermore, you will experience clearly the importance of plants and tree as a green lung while living in a crowded city with high level of concrete. Tree not only cleanses the air, provides us with precious oxygen but also gives shade to protect us from rain and sun, and mitigate the impact of urban heat island effect7. Green spaces in the city are ideal places for families to rest and relax at weekends, áť? they can be used for educational activities, outdoor camping or group work. Not only city parks can serve this function but a beautifully designed rooftop or community garden with shades from fruit tree or creeper tree will also be loved by society. These city gardens are solution to take back unused and sterile spaces like rooftops, patios and balconies and to transform them into livable spaces that are lush, productive and purifying. Gardening, together with recovering and decontaminating water, cultivating organic food, composting organic waste as well as filtering and cooling down air are all part of a mindset to make our established landscape more sustainable. (2)
Photo: A flower garden inside Seattle Park 7  An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces. Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor. (Wiki-pedia)
21
ECONOMICAL BENEFITS COST EFFECTIVENESS FOR THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN The development of transportation, technology and globalization takes away the need and ability to produce local food in many communities, especially in urban area. It later leads to the food inequality on different levels. The food producers sell their products at a very low price to earn money and buy pre-processed food with low quality. The consumers pay a large amount of money for food which was processed with lot of preservatives and loses most of its nutrition. Today, most cities have lots of vacant land, empty rooftops and balconies due to urban sprawl and home foreclosures. This land could be used to address food insecurity via urban agriculture. This could save money being spent on transportation of fruit and vegetable imported from other places. One study of Cleveland shows that city could actually meet up to 100% of its fresh produce need. This would prevent up to $115 million dollars in annual economic leakage.8 This saving comes from reduction of cost for food preservation, transportation and middle commercial trade. SAVE MONEY FOR ENERGY AND PREVENT URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT Greenery in the city is the hero in the fight against urban heat island effect. Urban areas are, on a yearly average, almost 3˚C warmer than the areas surrounding them. Exposures to high temperatures can lead to adverse health effects (including death) particularly among children, pregnant women, older adults, impoverished populations, and people with chronic health conditions. Higher urban temperatures can also increase the formation of ground-level ozone. This is the same stuff that protects us from ultraviolet radiation in the upper atmosphere, unfortunately, at ground-level ozone can lead to or worsen respiratory diseases.
8 Source: Grewal, Sharanbir S.; Grewal, Parwinder S. “Can cities become self-reliant in food?”. Cities. 29
22
Urban trees can help reduce the urban heat island effect through shading, they also cool the air through a process called evapotranspiration. The presence of trees, and other vegetation, close to buildings can lower the air temperature in a building by as much as 3°C in the summer. This has the potential to reduce electricity use for air conditioning, as well as provide relief for those who do not like air conditioning. It is estimated that the evapotranspiration of one tree, on a sunny day, has the potential to cool the air comparable to the power of more than 10 air conditioners. (9) Imagine your city buildings all being covered with vegetation around and on top, how much energy for electricity can be saved! Besides the expenditure above, urban gardening also has an indirect impact on saving the cost urbaners have to spend on medical bills once their health get better from the healthy diet and clean living space. Furthermore, in the cases of food crisis potentially caused by flood, fire or jam, food transportation from outside the city will be challenging, the direct source of local food planted inside the city will be the saver.
“The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the importance of building sustainable cities,” says Maurizio Baruffi, Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Milan, Italy.
“The City of Milan is partnering with urban areas around the world to embark on this journey, starting from food”
ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURE BENEFITS REDUCE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, NOT ONLY AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL As mentioned in the previous part, urban agriculture (including gardening) can reduce ecological footprint of a region by reducing food miles.9 Moreover, consuming vegetable and fruit produced directly from your garden will cut down carbon emission on the entire life cycle of food comparing to using meat, processed, packaged and preserved products. In addition, these areas can act as carbon sinks offsetting some of the carbon accumulation that is innate to urban areas, where pavement and buildings outnumber plants. Plants absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and release breathable oxygen (O2) through photosynthesis. The process of Carbon Sequestration can be further improved by combining other agriculture techniques to increase removal from the atmosphere and prevent the release of CO2 during harvest time. However, this process relies heavily on the types of plants selected and the methodology of farming. Specifically, choosing plants that do 9 Food miles is a term which refers to the distance food is transported from the time of its production until it reaches the consumer. – Source: Engelhaupt, E (2008). “Do food miles matter?”. Environmental Science & Technology. 42: 3482
23
not lose their leaves and remain green all year can increase the farm’s ability to sequester carbon.10 Reducing carbon footprint, or ecological footprint in general, of a region or a country is the best way to ease down the pressure of natural resources extraction and waste assimilation that human is putting on the Earth. RE-CONNECT TO NATURE Nature is an ecological system with strong connection and support within each of its components. However, the impact of human activities on nature has heavily changed these connection. Its demonstration can be seen in the over-use of chemicals in agriculture, deforestation to extract natural resources, hunting other living beings to the bank of extinction to serve human’s need. It also demonstrates in the acceleration of urbanism and concretion cover which damages the diversity of nature eco-system. As a result, not many living beings can adapt and take shelter in the city. Urban gardens give human the change to redeem ourselves. Each garden will be a small eco-system providing living environment for not only plants but also animals, insects, mushrooms and microorganism to thrive. At the same time, human have a chance to re-connect to nature. It is challenging to ask people to protect what they do not feel connected and passionate with. The modern lifestyle with concrete, steel and glass surrounded us, with high technology bringing so much comfort and with no physical connection to rivers or forest, is driving human away from nature. Urban gardens will be the bonding thread for us to find joy in nature again, to show our gratitude to other life forms on Earth that are supporting our existence.
10  Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_agriculture#Resource_and_economic)
24
GARDENING IS EASY Nowadays, the young generation, especially those who live in the city, is benefiting from the convenience of modern lifestyle, one of which is the high specialization and systematization of food production and urban planning that makes it so easy for products to reach consumers. Not many urban dwellers have to produce their own food, hence most young people do not have the drive to do gardening. Once they understand the beauty and importance of “green up� their living space, they might worry that gardening requires knowledge and skills that they do not have. This guidebook aims to introduce basic information about gardening and types of garden in order to prove that gardening is not so difficult, and that there are many options to choose from based on condition of each individual or group.
Basic steps of gardening What are the basic step of earthen gardening? Planting
Composting
Weeding
PLANTING Planting is the first and most basic step for any garden. Many people also find it the most exciting part! You have two options when planting your future produce: seeds and starts. If you want the experience of growing your garden from scratch, choose planting from seeds. You can keep the seeds from what you eat or purchase them from the store. To start seeds, you can plant them in trays in your house before putting them in soil, however it is not compulsory to do so. Be sure to plant
Mulching
Watering
25
more seeds than you think you will need, in case they do not all sprout. If you live in cold climate or plant in cold season, you need to keep the seeds indoor until they sprout into seedlings and are strong enough to live outdoor. Make sure to keep them well watered, and be prepared to provide some initial shade. You can also purchase already grown plants ready for transplanting, they are called “starts�. Especially if you want to plant fruit tree or perennial tree, planting from seeds might take quite a long time and more risky (seeds will not sprout). Keep in mind that you should inter-crop plants to increase its resilience to weed and make the most use of nutrition and minerals in the soil. With vegetable and annual plants, rotate them frequently instead of planting one type continuously on an area to avoid soil degradation.
MULCHING Apply mulch to your garden as soon as you get your plants in the ground. Mulched soil holds more water, reducing the water needs of your seedlings. Perhaps most importantly, adding a layer of mulch around your seedlings will drastically cut down on the weeds in your garden bed. Good sources of mulch include grass clippings, shredded leaves, and straw, which eventually decompose into the soil. You can also use plastic garden sheeting or landscape fabric if needed. Make sure that whatever material you choose is free of herbicides and pesticides, as these can leach into the soil and damage your plants.
26
WATERING After planting, watering your garden is the most important garden chore you’ll be performing. Without adequate watering, all your newly planted seedlings will dry out, wilt, and eventually die. How much water a plant needs depends on the plant itself, it is always good to study a little bit about the plants you want to grow. Don’t worry too much about building the perfect watering schedule, because your garden will let you know when it needs water. The earth next to plants that need watering will be very dry to the touch and may have cracks along the surface. Plants that are very dry will also start to wilt. When it’s time to pull out the watering can, focus on watering the plant’s roots and water deeply. Soak the soil until the earth is damp to the touch. Watering early in the morning will help prepare the plant for the midday sun.
WEEDING Not all gardening methods include weeding, therefore this is not a must. You can cut down on your weeding by mulching. If your garden is particularly prone to weeds, try adding a layer of newspaper or cardboard over the weeds before you mulch. Without access to sunlight, the weeds will die and the paper will feed your soil. Another option is to preemptively plant a cover crop to keep weeds from ever getting established. If you start weeding early and re-weed often, your garden will stay in great shape. Make sure you pull out all of the weed’s root, which many of them need in order to regenerate.
COMPOSTING Compost is a mixture of decomposed material that is high in organic material and nutrients and is the best fertilizer that you can provide for your plants. Though seem invisible to the human’s eye, there are millions of bacteria living in soil and they are very beneficial to insects and plants. If this bacteria system dies, soil will die can no longer support plants. Therefore, nurturing soil with compost is very important. The effort you put into making your compost will pay off in spades in your garden. Providing organic matter to soil will increase its ability to hold water, soften the heavy component like clay, create more air holes and help plants’ root to grow, at the same time it will become food for in-earth living organisms. (1)
Low-cost gardening No matter if you want to save money or you are a fan of “minimizing natural resource extraction”, there are many ways you can choose to reduce materials and therefore, save money while doing gardening. Make use of old things – ask for reusable tools and materials that others no longer use Share resources – you can share tools with other gardeners. Things like shovels, crowbar, scissors, cover plate… Groups of gardener will be a great place for these 2 saving tips. Reuse, recycle things around the house for gardening purpose. For example: plant vegetable into plastic or glass bottles you no long use instead of buying pots. Some people even plant in old bathtub. Minimalism gardening: think carefully about stuff you really need for your work and only buy when there is no substitutes. Keep seeds and share them: in order to not having to buy new seeds all the time, you can keep the seeds from fruit you ate. You only need to spend some time learning how to keep the seeds of each fruit. This will guarantee you can grow the right variety you like, and you can even share or give seeds as presents to other gardeners. Take good care of garden tools by maintaining them often to reduce breakage and re-new. Hand-made as much as possible using recyclable material or abundant material such as doing compost from kitchen scraps, making organic pesticide from alcohol, garlic and chili…
28
Introduce popular types of garden In this part, we will introduce more details about some popular types of garden with basic information for you to look into and find the one that best fits with your condition.
WINDOWSILL GARDEN
A windowsill garden is a delightful addition to a classroom, a kitchen, or a balcony. The natural beauty of plants provides a splash of color and stimulation. Plants growing in our homes and classrooms remind us of our inherent connectedness with the Earth as they provide us with clean air to breathe. Windowsill gardens are small container gardens on windowsills or on ledges of buildings. They are usually inside and can range in shape and size. A windowsill or ledge can be effective for starting seeds before transplanting to an outdoor garden. Windowsill gardens can also be used to grow some plants that thrive in small environments with diffused light and slight changes in temperature. Think of a kitchen windowsill full of herbs or a bed-room window decorated by flowers. Checklist for your windowsill garden: • Small container for starting seeds, such as repurposed cups, egg cartons, egg shells, used nursery cell trays, nursery pots, tea tins, or coffee mugs or a planter box or tray that fits the windowsill space (note that your container need to have small holes underneath so that water will not be logged inside) • Soil, compost • A plate or tray to catch the water that will drain out of the containers • Seeds • Water and watering can
29
VERTICAL GARDEN A vertical garden is a garden that grows up rather than out. Usually, people install vertical gardens to save space, but they also can offer fascinating aesthetics. They work well in small areas and urban environments with little outside space for a garden. Plants in a vertical garden can grow up a trellis, arbor, or pergola, or even up a wall, fence, light pole, or drainpipe. There are also soilless vertical gardens that include planter pockets and hydroponic systems. They are ideal for growing plants that climb naturally, like runner beans, peas, gourds, chayote, passion fruit, kiwi, grapes, and flowering vines. Although they take up very little space as they grow vertically, they can provide shade. You can also create a hanging garden, in which plants are grown inside small pots and are hanged in a vertical frame system. Checklist for your vertical garden: CLIMBER GARDEN
HANGING GARDEN
HYDROPONICS
-A frame for plants to climb on, - An area on the wall or fence can use what is available in the to plant
A
premade
hydroponic
hanging wall kit or the materials
house structure or create new - Brackets and screws/bolts to to make one frame from bamboo, wood or attach containers to the wall or - Plants that will thrive in a steel
fence
- Tools to make the frame
- Containers
- Soil and pots
- Plants that will thrive in a small
- Creeper/climber plants
container
hydroponic garden
30
CONTAINER AND RAISED-BED GARDEN Raised beds
and
container
gardens are above the ground in a defined space full of
rich, healthy soil in which plants can thrive. You can make the bed out of Styrofoam box, old wooden box or even old bathtub. Raised-bed can be made from wooden pallets and does not have fixed shape or size, sometimes in can be mounds of soil sitting on top of the original soil bordered by wood, rocks or other materials. Container gardens and raised beds are ideal for planting in areas that appear unsuitable for gardening — such as narrow corridors, busy courtyards and playgrounds, and school building rooftops. These types of gardens can be custom-built or made from a kit and can be sized and shaped to fit the needs of the site and people who will use them. They are also relatively easy to take care of and can be both beautiful and bountiful. Checklist for your container/raised-bed garden • Container: Styrofoam box or old bathtub. Or you can make your bed from wooden pallet, rock, rubber… • Nutrient-rich soil that drains well • Drainage rocks • Compost
31
• Plants (usually suitable for vegetable, flowers or small plants) • Simple garden tools: gloves, trowels, watering can…
LARGE-SCALE GARDEN A large-scale garden is really a mini-farm, the basic condition is having a piece of land. With this garden, you will have a chance to practice natural gardening with organic methods, plant various types of plants and finish the food cycle with home-made compost. There is no fixed size for this type of garden, you can plant a wide range of plants and vegetable with an area of 2x2m. A large-scale garden can include all 3 types of garden above, however the most important feature of these gardens is that they are usually created upon existing soil. It has enough space to plant variety with different layers. There can be wooden tree, fruit tree grown together with vegetable, flowers and herbs. This is also a great playground for practicing crop rotation and intercropping. With a land big enough, you are more free to choose your farming method and there is no limitation in terms of tools. You might need more tools and types of plants comparing to the other types of garden mentioned above. Keep an open mind to learn from nature and respect diversity when doing gardening in a large piece of land. Intercropping, making compost and saying no to chemicals, the garden will not fail you. Community garden or school garden are usually grown on available land or using raised-bed technique. Community garden is a model of several individuals or families garden on a same piece of land. This model can be seen quite often in big cities in Vietnam where there are open land waiting for construction. If you do not have the condition to farm on a large land but you want to learn about gardening and farming technique, you can register to be volunteers in community gardens, school gardens or organic farms nearby. (3)
Photo: A permaculture garden – Source: Local Food Initiative
Organic agriculture According to IFOAM – International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Organic Agriculture is an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability, the enhancement of soil fertility and biological diversity whilst, with rare exceptions, prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones, creates condition for a closed circle of transformation in cultivation, uses only available resources on the land and tools following the organic production standard. Organic agriculture say no to 5 inputs including: no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, no growth hormones, no GMO and chemical compost. It uses mainly inter-cropping, organic compost, manure, bio-compost and pest-control methods. With the cultivation methods of working along with natural process, enriching agriculture eco-system, organic agriculture brings great benefits not only to the health of producers and consumers but also contribute in environmental protection and regeneration and agricultural sustainable development. 11 Source: Tin Môi Trường (Environmental News)
11
Permaculture What is permaculture?
Permaculture is a set of principles in designing society and agriculture. Permaculture is defined
as consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature. The term permaculture was first coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978. The word permaculture originally referred to “permanent agriculture” but was expanded to stand also for “permanent culture”. 12 Here are the main features of permaculture: It is a system designed for permanent agriculture model by integrating planning and ecology. It combines traditional knowledge with modern science and technology, can be applied to both urban and rural area. Permaculture takes nature system as its model and acts in harmony with nature in order to design sustainable environment capable of providing basic needs for human as well as fulfilling social and economical infrastructure to meet those needs. Permaculture encourages us to actively involve in solving many problems laying down in front of us on local and global scale. Permaculture is an innovative solution which we do not have a pattern before. It opens a door to a better life and allows everyone to join. There is no boundaries regarding gender, age, religion, education or culture. You can start with a small scale; scale and finance should not restraint us. No matter if you have 1 meter square or 1 million hectare, you can still do permaculture. The way you work tightly with soil, be responsible of how you treat the soil will bring you greater reward later. Through your life, if you only build a simple house, do not pollute, grow your own food, work on your own land, take care of plants and nature, then you already have a fulfill, creative, meaningful life with self-respect, fulfillment and ownership. (7)
12 Wiki-pedia
WHY DO WE NEED TO INTEGRATE THIS TOPIC INTO EDUCATION? The importance of plants to human and the eco-system is undeniable. In all the childhood lessons, on the media or even in government’s policy, reforestation and increasing the green cover of the Earth have always been mentioned. However, there is a dangerous fact that, even though this topic seems so obvious, it has become “too obvious” to the point that not many people, knowing the important of vegetation, take action to increase the amount of tree around them. Planting, or gardening, is usually mistaken to be labor-consuming with no economical benefit. Therefore, not many of us are keen on the idea of having our own garden or taking care of some plants around the house. Especially among the young generation who live, study and work in the city, how many of them have never planted a tree? How many do not know how to plant? Or how many of them do not even see trees around their living space? The composers of this guidebook believe that “planting – gardening” are the smallest, easiest yet most meaningful we can do for ourselves, for our community and for the environment. We hope to bring back the connection between youth and nature, to open the knot that ties young people from actively joining gardening and greening up their living space. Gardening, from being a concept that sounds un-attractive and unfamiliar, can be a strong movement, where young people can show their creativity, youth power and their love for the world. It is also where they can have true ownership of their capacity and desire. A garden, no matter how small, can help them to learn, get creative and nurture their inner self. This can only be done if the topic “Gardening: easy or not” can be integrated flexibly into educational activities. Education is by far the strongest tool to bring about change. Regardless of being a highly practical topic, gardening or urban agriculture is closely linked to bigger issues of modern times such as sustainable development, food security, green city, sustainable agriculture, ecological lifestyle, sustainable livelihood, community connection… As a matter of fact, this topic can easily be integrated with other topics. Students are thus able to relate what they learn in the classroom or extra-curricular activities to their real life actions, and will increasingly be in a better position to take the lead in changing behaviors and adopting sustainable lifestyles. Being an inseparable part of education for sustainable development – education of ecological lifestyle, in which “Gardening – easy or not” is an important topic, will help shape a better future for the world. Continued support from authorities, appropriate policies and laws, responsible action by individuals and communities, and above all a deep compassion for our planet will together serve to alleviate the global environmental crises we face today. 13 Source: World Wide Fund For Nature - WWF
13
PART
02 Methodologies to integrate this topic into educational activities for youth
36
This guidebook not only focuses on providing information about the topic “Gardening – easy or not” but also pay attention to the procedure and tools to design trainings, activities, models and organization skills which will help to shift awareness and encourage actions of young people. However, behavior change and vision formation are not easy and can not be rewarded with result in shortsighted time. This requires the investment of hard work, consistence and appropriate methodology. For an individual and a community to take sustainable action, they need to have basic understanding, know how to act as well as have strong motivation and desire to take part in. We can equip this to others by education, trainings or simply integrating information into other activities in a smart way.
FORMS OF INTEGRATION “Gardening – easy or not” is a relatively familiar topic to daily lives. Growing and taking care of plants are simple and meaningful actions anybody can do. However, the young generation nowadays is not into gardening like their older generation used to be. Therefore, the integration of this topic into programs and activities for young people both in and out of formal education has a significant importance in the education of sustainable consumption and ecological lifestyle. Following are suggestions on some forms of integration that teachers, trainers and planners can use to bring the topic “Gardening – easy or not” to young people in a practical and exciting way.
37
INTEGRATE INTO TEACHING PLAN, EXERCISE, RESEARCH Topic “Gardening – easy or not” can be approached from different angles and has a correlation with many fields from economics, environment, and production to technology, tourism, art… Therefore, the possibility to integrate this content into teaching subject is very potential. Professors, teachers can use this topic with different perspective and scale, taking gardening or urban agriculture as examples or give supporting information for the lecture depending on the specific lessons. For example: a closer look on art masterpieces about gardening in an art class, research on the impact of community garden to the society in a social science class, estimation of the possibility of economical independence of a home grown garden in a financing class, research on the technology implementation in urban agriculture… Besides, in order to let students approach actively with this topic, teachers can assign exercises or orientation to look into, research more about the topic such as assignment to design a rooftop garden for the university, or assignment to look for plants that thrive in the city condition… In many cases, personal research, scientific research for students can be used to integrate topics related to “Gardening – easy or not”. For example: scientific research on “the possibility of developing a rooftop garden on apartment buildings in Hanoi” or “efficiency comparison between aquaponics and traditional balcony gardens in Hochiminh city”… INTEGRATION INTO TRAINING ACTIVITIES Extra-curriculum training is an effective way to introduce deeper about a certain topic to students. Depending on specific conditions in terms of human resources, time, venue, finance…, these training can be organized accordingly. For example, in limited time and resource condition, trainer can organize a short sharing in about 2-3 hours on the topic “Why you should grown your own nutrition?” at a location inside the university. With the same topic,
38
you can hold a talk show inviting an expert on food to come and share with students in about 2 hours, or organize a game integrating information about urban gardens. One characteristic of this method is that the number of participants should be limited because it can interfere with the quality of the class. Depending on specific method being used, each training should have around 30-40 participants. The more interactive activities there are, the less people should be involved. With a talk show or a movie show, the number of participants can be bigger. Besides, since this is a highly practical topic, you need to pay attention to experiential activities. Not only introducing students to knowledge, let them be in touch with tree, soil, vegetable and fruit in these lessons. In the next section, we will introduce in details some suitable methods to use in training course about “Gardening – easy or not”.
INTEGRATION INTO FIELD TRIPS
This is a highly practical activity which usually attracts the participation of many students. A field trip usually lasts for at least half a day (without transportation time) and can be limited in the number of participants due to the specific location of the trip. A field trip requires more investment in preparation and organization because the visiting venue is usually outside of university (in some cases, you can use facility inside universities such as university’s garden or canteen, kitchen). Depending on the local condition as well as available resources, trainers/ organizers can choose from a diverse range of location related to the topic such as: visit and work in a garden, visit an urban home garden, visit a community garden or a public garden (in square or parks)… Give students many chances to practice what they have learnt in these field trip. For examples: making compost from kitchen Activities to visit an organic garden at a Training course of C&E centre
scraps, planting or harvesting, making some products from fruits like jam or dried fruit…
39
INTEGRATION INTO EVENTS This is a familiar form of integrating a topic to students in university since they usually have extra-curriculum events happening during all school year. These events can be varied from competition, exhibition to fair, performances or a combination of different forms. Events usually have a big communication impact and can reach a much bigger audience than training courses or field trips. Another interesting point of integrating into events is that students can participate from the planning and organizing process along with teachers. This will help them to level up in personal skills and have a better chance to research about the theme or main topic of the event. Some examples about event: a writing contest on “Tree and my life”, Photo exhibition about “Green corners of the city”, a flea market introducing organic vegetable, planting event, exchange plants…
The plant exchange event of Go Green Club
40
TRAINING METHODS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CYCLE One highly recommended method that can increase the efficiency of training and integration is experiential learning cycle, or it can be called “lessons translate into actions” (Felicia, 2011). David Kolb,
EXPERIENCE
APPLICATION
SUMMERY
PHÂN TÍCH
an American theory educationist proposed 4 steps of experiential learning model as follow: How can we design a training based on this learning model? First and foremost, the role of trainer/teacher or facilitator (hereafter we will use the word “trainer” for short) is to assist participants to learn and apply the lesson correctly. Therefore, before designing an integrated lesson plan, trainer needs to clarify what the core focus of the training is.
Trainer can follow this step-by-step guide:
01
Analyze participants
Where are they? What is their attitude towards this topic, are they eager to learn? How much do they know about the topic? How much have they practiced or applied? Do they know any gardeners or gardening network? What do they need to learn and how do they want to learn?
02
Identify learning objectives
The learning objectives need to be very clear so that you can design its content easily and appropriately. For example: what should learners receive after 45 minutes, after 90 minutes? In order to identify the objectives, you need to answer two questions: what are the objectives? (skill or knowledge, or both?) at which level? For example: the objective can be that students will understand the concept or they understand and can repeat or they understand and can explain from their point of view?
03
Design experiential activities
Experiential exercise is one of the most important indicator defining the success of your lesson. Learners will conclude the lesson points for themselves after going through each experience designed by trainer. Therefore, the experiential exercise needs to be closely related to the topic for learners to be able to analyze. Experiential activities can include: listen, watch, smell, taste, hands-on, feel or deep thinking. However, note that these activities should create emotion, excite learners and make them think deeply.
41
04
Design analyzing activity and summarize the lesson
At this step, trainer will ask questions about the activity for learners to recognize their own experience, come up with deduces and lessons.
05
Design application activity
Application activity is the part where trainer can suggest how learners can relate from lesson to reality. The application activity has different levels: relate to real life, apply to act, and apply to go deeper into the lesson. To help you get a clearer understanding of “Experiential learning cycle”, we would like to provide a detailed example.
Sample lesson design Design a lesson plan for 60 minutes on the topic “Everyone can garden” for students of economics major. STEP 1: ANALYZE PARTICIPANTS Our participants are 18-22 year old students who are studying in Hanoi. In terms of attitude, we observe that students are eager to learn. However, gardening experience varies in the group, some have never done it before because they grew up in the city, some came from the countryside and have experience in doing farming. Hence, we identify what students should learn are overall and basic information with concrete action guidance. The lesson should be designed to be cheerful, interactive with individual, group activities and real experience. STEP 2: IDENTIFY LEARNING OBJECTIVES What do you want to achieve after a 60-minute lesson? You can start from a general objective, such as: • Help students to understand the importance and simplicity of gardening • Empower students to take concrete action right after the lesson • Students have fun while learning Considering that you only have maximum 60 minutes, you should specify the objectives above to have a clearer picture of the expected result of the lesson.
42
• Students understand why they should do gardening right where they live, which type of garden and what type of plants is suitable for them? • Students have a clearer idea of which steps they should take to have a garden? • Students can sense positive energy from the plants in the real experience part of the lesson. STEP 3: DESIGN EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITY The main message of this lesson is “Everyone can garden”, hence experiential activities will aim to show the ease and simplicity of gardening, at the same time help students see the link between themselves and the act of gardening. The experiential activity can be taking some basic step of planting, distinguishing some common plants in the house, watching a short movie about urban garden. STEP 4: HOW TO CONCLUDE AND SUMMARIZE THE LESSON After the experiential activity, we can ask students some questions to conclude what they learn: • What have you seen? Which part gives you a big impression? (collect their observations after the activity or after watching the movie clip) • How do you feel? (Check their feeling and attitude towards the topic) • Did you learn something new today? • What can you do next? (Let students think of actions they can do, prepare for the next step – Step 5). STEP 5: DESIGN ACTION PLAN • There are at least 2 possible way for trainers/teachers to develop action plan from this topic: • Develop a personal action plan: participants can think of actions they can do to set up a garden or renovate their existing garden – this action plan can include steps and resources needed. • Conduct a group project: renovate school garden, design a rooftop garden for one building of the university…
43
Best practice analysis Relevant examples are usually provided as story-telling, best practices or case study. This tool is being used widely nowadays for the objective of inspiration. Sometimes knowledge about sustainability might be seen as “theorical”, “too idealistic” or even “dreamy”. Therefore, showing true stories with real people doing real actions will help make the sustainable picture become clearer and more realistic, especially in a highly practical topic as gardening. The closer the case to learners’ life context, the more persuasive it would be. Examples with setting that is more relevant to participants’ condition, the more convincing it will be. When you introduce a model of soilless gardening, for example, look around the city to find a family that is applying aquaponics or hydroponics and take them as a best practice. In case you can not find any best practice around that fits your expectation, you can find models in another city, region or country. In that case, pay attention to the difference in geographical, climate and social condition that might affect the application of that model in your city. Main values of best practices: • Examples (to understand complex issues); • To create emotions (learners will interact with real people in real life with true experience); • To be proves Using this method, trainers can fulfil many objectives such as: • Draw attention of learners (have you imagine that…?); • Check learners’ knowledge (do you know that…?); • Provide proves for their argument (it shows that…); • Help learners to connect theory and practice; • Develop critical thinking (what would you do in this situation?) and understanding about complex relationship among economics, social and environment in one country; • Raise awareness and encourage actions from learners (what can we do to achieve this?) Some notes when using this method: • Case-study need to be well prepared and checked for its credibility and update (is it still working? Is it available?) • Avoid using controversial cases with too many opposite opinions and do not have a credible source to check. • Even if the lesson time is limited, you should provide enough information for learners to connect from the best practice to themselves and their living condition. Providing more references for learners to research deeper on their own afterwards is highly recommended.
44
To assist the best practices or case studies, trainers can collect more documents like scientific researches, agriculture documents about plants, professional experience and successful stories, information about positive impact of the model. Following are some examples of best practices for topic “Gardening – easy or not” that trainers/teachers can use as reference. COMMUNITY GARDEN – VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL HERB GARDEN IN NGOC HA • Location: Ngoc Ha ward – Ba Dinh district – Hanoi • Garden type: community garden, voluntary, non-profit, specify in planting traditional medicinal herbs such as royal vines, dandelions, spices, aloe vera… • Newly designed and constructed in 2018 • This garden is monitored by Ngoc Ha communal house – Ngoc Ha ward.
BALCONY GARDEN BUSINESS MODEL - FAMI FARM • Location: Hanoi • Model: business to design garden for urban families • Website: https://www.facebook.com/famifarm2015/ • Year of establishment: 2015 • The company will consult, design and construct urban garden according to requirements and needs of families in the city. The common type of garden is tailored made wooden container garden. Fami Farm also consult and guide customers how to choose plants and grow them better with the soil, climate and their own condition.
45
INCREDIBLE EDIBLE COMMUNITY GARDEN – TODMORDEN • Location: Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England • Garden type: community garden growing herbs, fruit tree and vegetable, free to every citizen around the neighbourhood. • Starting year: 2008 • This is a well-known successful community garden which was replicated to more than 120 other models in United Kingdom and 700 models around the world.
THE UMASS PERMACULTURE INITIATIVE • Location: UMass campus – University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States • Garden type: University garden • Starting year: 2010 • UMass Permaculture provides empowering hands-on education and leadership training, community engagement, and fresh, local, organic produce to the UMass campus. The gardens are designed using permaculture principles and are installed by students, staff, and volunteers. • UMass Permaculture serves as an international model, which has inspired permaculture projects at campuses across the world. • In 2012, the initiative was honoured by President Obama as first place winners of the White House Campus Champions of Change Challenge.
46
THE COMPOST PEDALLERS • Location: Austin, Texas, United States • Starting year: 2012 • Model: Cycle to families to collect organic waste, make compost and then deliver it to gardens • Compost Pedallers use a decentralized model, meaning organic resources are distributed and composted in a network of urban agricultural centers. The network consists of commercial farms as well as community, school, and backyard gardens. Each site processes the organics from its immediate surroundings with the goal of composting everything in the system as close to where it was produced as possible. This strengthens community bonds, improves soil quality, builds local economy, reduces vehicle emissions, supports local food production, and reduces water and pesticide use. • Website: https://compostpedallers.com/
BROOKLYN GRANGE ROOFTOP GARDEN • Location: New York, United States • Founded in May, 2010 • Garden type: rooftop garden, business model. • Website: https://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/ • Brooklyn Grange is the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the US. They operate the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, located on two roofs in New York City, and grow over 50,000 lbs (more than 22 tons) of organically-cultivated produce per year. This is a successful rooftop garden model that has inspired many other places.
47
COMMUNITY GARDEN - GARDEN CITY HARVEST • Location: Missoula, United States • Founded in 1996 • Garden type: Community Garden, Community Project, Education • Website: https://www.gardencityharvest.org/ • Garden City Harvest is a non-profit organization focusing on community garden with the mission to build community through agriculture by growing food with and for people with low incomes, offering education and training in ecologically conscious agriculture, and using our sites for the personal restoration of youth and adults. • Garden City Harvest has 4 main programs: o
Community Gardens: with more than 10 gardens in Missoula. Each of community
gardens provides participants with an approximate 15 by 15 foot plot (4.5x4.5m), tools, water, compost, straw, common space and the knowledge and guidance of leadership committee members and the Garden City Harvest community gardens staff. o
Farm to School: The program encourages youth to explore connections between food,
agriculture, science, and their everyday lives. They offer hands-on, experiential learning opportunities at the community gardens and in school gardens. o
Neighbourhood farms: farms that are dedicated to grow food for the community,
especially those who are in need. Food from these farms is distributed by our Mobile Market, the Poverello Center–Missoula’s homeless shelter, the Missoula Food Bank, Youth Homes, and many other partnering agencies around town. o
Youth development: program offers therapeutic support, a chance to learn and
practice and employment for adolescents aged 16 to 18. Especially in PEAS farm there is a rehabilitation program for youth that has committed social crime or used drugs before.
For more information, trainers can find other gardening models in this article: https://foodtank. com/news/2015/07/urban-farms-and-gardens-are-feeding-cities-around-the-world/
48
Project Gardening – as stated earlier is a highly practical and applicable topic. Therefore, the best way for participants to learn is for them to experience directly and draw conclusion and lesson for themselves. Doing project is an effective method for this experiential learning technique. • What is a gardening project? – Participants, with guidance from trainers or teachers, build a project with content and activities related to gardening. The content of the project might differ based on the interest, concern, strength, resources and purpose of the participants. However, the project needs to have a specific scale and time frame in relevance with the objective and expected outcome of the project team. • Projects can be designed very diverse in terms of content: research project, community garden, recycle old stuff to be gardening tools, communication project, compost center, education for kids, eco-tourism in organic gardens… • Scale of the project: individual, group, can be proposed to the faculty, university or community where they live. • Suggestion: apply the model of 5W2H in project design.
WHY?
5W – 2H Model
Though it seems so obvious, in many projects this question was never asked. The reason, purpose or objective that drives you to do this project should be very clear, specific and it will guide all the project’s activities. When designing project steps, keep asking yourself “Does it serve the overall objective of the project? For example: The reason I do this because I want to learn how to plant and want to make my house more beautiful. WHAT – ? What exactly do you want to do? The more specific, the better For example: I want to create a vertical garden in my house with mainly flowers and perennial plants. WHO? Who will be doing this with you? Who can help you in this project? For example: a friend who has experience with vertical gardening; I can ask my parents and sister to do it with me
49
WHEN?
5W – 2H Model
The decision of when to start the project should be taken after you think of the previous 3 questions. You should come up with a detailed plan and reasonable timeline. For example: I will start in March because it is when the weather is best for planting flowers. WHERE? With a simple and personal project, this question sounds so easy. However if you are doing a project with others or if this is a community project then you need to think carefully where it will take place. HOW? What are the actions? What are the steps? Which method you will use? (type of garden, way to plant, compost or not…) Do your actions serve the objective of the project? For example: to learn about vertical garden, my action steps will be: 1. Learn about the organic vertical gardening technique via internet and asking friends. 2. Ask for seeds and used pots or make my own plant pockets. 3. Choose a structure to plant – make it myself 4. Start planting and growing If you have an additional step of “visiting aquaponics model” – note that this action does not support your project objective. HOW MUCH? Which part will need money investment? Which part you can ask for free, make use of old materials or make your own to save money? For example: - Compulsory spending: gardening tools such as gloves, scissors, and string. - Free and reused materials: seeds, old planting pots.
PART
03 Recommendation for training program
51
In this part, we will introduce some action plan to apply the topic “Gardening – easy or not” into educational activities using the above methods. Trainers and teachers can change the plan according to their participants and condition.
LESSON PLAN – EVERYONE CAN GARDEN Globalization has risen the inter-dependence of human on every aspect of life and food is the most obvious example. Many years ago, and still now, in some developing regions, self-sufficient organic agriculture with a wide range of native varieties is the common cultivation. However, with the increase of population and development of technology as well as transportation, these models have been changed dramatically. To feed the large scale monoculture agriculture, agricultural corporation, with subsidizes from the government, lower food price to the point that small farmers can not earn enough money for a living. Most of food in developed countries were produced in other places with lower labour and land cost. Mono-culture agriculture with the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers not only sacrifices soil quality, food safety and justice of producers but also creates a disconnection between us and our food. We do not know where our food comes from, how it was planted. Many young people do not know how different types of vegetable, herbs and fruit look like in nature. If in any case you have to grow your own food for survival, can you do it? 14
In-door lesson plan This is a lesson plan can be used in the class to introduce to participants about the concept and best practices of urban gardening. Class’s objective • Participants understand what urban gardening is and some basic types of it • Participants have basic knowledge of common models of urban gardening • Participants have motivation to start a garden or do gardening when they come Methodology: Lesson plan with visual aids and experiential activity Duration: 90 minutes NO
1
CONTENT
Warm up
DURATION
DETAILS
5-10
Game: what have you eaten last week?
minutes
How: sketching
14 Source: The Garden and the Farm – Bridgedale360
PREPARATION • Painting pens • Re-used 1 side A4 papers
52
NO
CONTENT
DURATION
DETAILS
PREPARATION
- Share stories of food – personal experience The 2
- Show video:
• Projector
context:
20
(1) Unsanitary food in Vietnam
• Screen
The food
minutes
(2) Urban organic gardening model
• Videos
you eat
- Discussion: how do you feel after watching the videos, have you learnt anything new? - Break into groups, discuss about - Stationary solutions they can do.
3
Solution
- Slides to introduce
45
- Trainers give them more suggestion on more
minutes
actions
actions
and
models
- Challenge: make a vertical garden from - Guide to make vertical reused bottles 4
Summary
10
- Summarize main points
minutes
- Summarize action plan of participants
garden
References: Project Getgreen Vietnam – Topic “Live like a farmer in the city” Link: http://getgreen.vn/cam-nang-song-xanh/la-mot-ta-dien-thanh-thi/17
Practice lesson This lesson will bring participants an experience of growing their own food. The objective is for them to be able to prepare a meal from ingredients they grow themselves. This will give a realistic awareness of the time and effort needed for food production. Methodology: Experiential activity, can be done in groups Duration: 30 minutes to practice and 8 weeks wait for harvest Class’s objective • Participants connect to where food comes from • Participants have the experience of growing their own food • Participants understand the benefit of multi-crop farming Guidance Tools and materials: • Seeds (or starter) of the plants you want to grow (can use the vegetable you usually eat) • Pots or boxes to plant
53
Steps: 1. Find someone nearby with a garden and ask them to show you some types of plant you can ask for seeds/or starters to grow at home. 2. Make an appointment and bring your tools 3. With the direction from the gardener, plant the seeds or starters into your pots 4. Observe the growth of plants, do not forget to water, harvest on time and enjoy the food you have from them with gratitude 1. Is this your first experience of planting? If not, when was that? 2. How do you feel about growing your food and enjoy the results? 3. Have you learnt anything new? 4. How is this type of planting sustainable? How to submit results Ask participants to take a photo of the plants they grow and submit a short sharing about this experience. Evaluation Give feedbacks, discussion and comments to participants who join the experience.
FIELD-TRIPS With the topic of gardening, trainers can choose from many options of field-trip such as: local organic garden, community garden, a rooftop garden of balcony garden of an urban family. You can choose the location based on: (1) Objective of the field-trip (2) Resources available: time, human, budget Following is a field-trip plan to an organic farm for students in Hanoi. • Duration: half a day • Objective: - Students understand what is organic vegetable and the principles of an organic farm. - Students can practice planting and making some products commonly used in the farm such as compost, Effective microorganism EM, insect rebellions. - Students have practical experience with farming
54
NO
CONTENT
DURATION
1
Introduction
30 minutes
DETAILS Introduction about Tue Vien Organic Farm. Tour around the farm and see the production process
- Distinguish different cultivation methods: organic, Vietgap, Practical
2
activity
traditional… 2 hours
- Organic detergent - Practice planting, making simple natural detergent, making compost or insect rebellion. - Sharing - Questions and answers
3
Summary
30 minutes
- Make personal plan related to the trip (sharing information about organic vegetable, learn more about it or practice at home…)
FURTHER READING MATERIALS VIETNAMESE • • • •
One straw revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka Sowing seeds in the desert - Masanobu Fukuoka Planting handbook – Action Center for City Development (ACCD) Materials of Getgreen Vietnam project
ENGLISH • A-Z Guide to Thrifty Gardening • Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture - Rosemary Morrow
ONLINE COURSES (IN ENGLISH) • Small-scale gardening – Go high-brow course - Alice Morgan • Open permaculture • Bridgedale360: www.bridgedale360.info/
WEBSITE: Vietnamese: trongraulamvuon.com English www.gardeningknowhow.com www.regenerative.com If you want to volunteer in gardens or farms, you can find more information about recruiting farms in the Facebook group of One straw revolution - “Cách mạng một cọng rơm”.
PART
04 Reference
56
IN ENGLISH 1. Alice Morgan (2018): Small-scale gardening course. 2. Alternatives and the Rooftop Garden Project (2008): Guide to setting up your own edible rooftop garden. 3. Carolie Sly, Benjamin Eichorn (2012): Creating Gardens of Goodness. 4. Claire Brown, Guy Doncaster, Karen Llewellyn (2015): A to Z guide for thrifty gardening. 5. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (2014): A vegetable garden for all – The 5th edition. 6. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (2008): Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Poverty Alleviation and Food Security. 7. Rosemary Morrow (1993): Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture. 8. Scott Kellogg, Stacy Pettigrew (2008): Toolbox for city sustainable living. 9. Taylor Mackey (2014): An Urban Food Forest for Peterborough: Planting for Our Future.
IN VIETNAMESE 10. Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (2015): Guidebook to ecological lifestyle.
The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, not for every man’s greed - Mahatma Gandhi -