Gardening : The Wonder of a ‘Radish Forest’ in a Plastic Cup : Programs give children a chance to experience the thrill of making things grow.

I would like to tell a story about a little boy I met a few years ago. His name, I think, was William, and I met him on a tour of gardens at Los Angeles schools.

He was sitting at a kindergarten picnic table, chin propped on two fists, and was peering into a clear plastic cup with the intensity of a microbiologist when new bacteria sweep into his microscope’s lens. In the cup was his first experience with gardening.

Around him on the table were three dozen other cups, each perfunctorily planted with one radish in the exact center by his classmates, who were running, skipping, teasing and tumbling in the schoolyard.

All William’s energies, however, were directed to his own cup in which grew a “radish forest.”

What he saw in that thicket of scrawny leaves, red stems and swirling roots was his secret. The awards given that day are dim in my memory but the image of William is succinct. His crop was wonder. He had become a gardener before our eyes.

Obtains Vacant Land

A radish forest may not always be the appropriate entry into gardening, but it contains the vital element of choice wisely permitted by the teacher. And it was quick, easy and fun.

An expert on children’s gardening is Rachel Surls, “youth gardening” coordinator for the Common Ground program in Los Angeles, which offers free help in educating and organizing would-be gardeners and in securing vacant land in low-income areas for food growing.

Common Ground, which is federally funded under the UC Cooperative Extension, now has 10 community gardens and six youth gardening projects under way, with several new projects pending.

For the very young child of working parents, Surls has inaugurated a pilot program, “Saturdays With Mom ‘n’ Dad.” The emphasis is on the parent and child spending time together while raising fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables to supplement their food budget.

Suggestions Offered

Based on her experience of teaching young children to garden, Surls offers these suggestions:

--Start with easy-to-grow plants, such as radishes, tomatoes, squash and marigolds but also consider interesting plants, such as peanuts, sunflowers and popcorn.

--Let children participate as much as possible; they learn best by doing, not watching.

--Limit the time on any one activity to 20 minutes. The younger the child, the shorter the attention span.

--Be patient and be prepared for lots of questions. Try to have some gardening books available.

--Settle for less than perfection. Children are not always interested in straight rows or detailed planning.

--Keep the ages of children in mind. Some may just like to scatter seeds and look at the plants. Older children may become “experts” on a single crop. In either case don’t push, allow them to take gardening just as far as they are willing to go.

--Help the children to look for ways to protect their garden against pests without using harmful chemicals. Learn about beneficial insects, garden housekeeping and resistant varieties that are natural pest deterrents.

--Inspire new gardeners by a visit to a garden that is productive and beautiful.

--Encourage children to experiment with plants and let them try out their own ideas, even if it might hurt the plant.

--Show your own enthusiasm for gardening. If you love to garden, the child you are teaching probably will also. Beginning gardeners are tender shoots themselves.

Young Veteran Gardener

After a happy initial experience, young gardeners are usually ready to tackle more ambitious projects, as well as adjust to disappointments, as Kirsten Iba did.

Kirsten is 6, and a veteran gardener of three years. She lives on the UC Irvine campus with her student father, mother and younger sister Maggie, 3.

When she finally was allocated her own plot in the Verano community garden at UCI, she was all set with her wish list--”plum tree, apple tree, grapefruit, strawberries, poppies and roses.”

But when confronted with the size of the plot and the eight months left of her father’s studies, she settled for strawberries, flowers, carrots, string beans and broccoli

Philadelphia Program

Cities differ in their approaches to helping schoolchildren learn to garden.

In Philadelphia, William Penn wrote into the city charter that one out of every five acres was to be left green. The Philadelphia Horticultural Society carries on Penn’s vision in its “Green the Schools Program,” which includes a junior flower show, monthly newsletter, basic horticulture workshops for teachers and students, and visits to school sites.

In Brooklyn, Jeanne Maloney, now a resident of Santa Monica, learned to garden through Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Children’s Gardening Program, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next year.

In Los Angeles, a pioneer in promoting schoolyard gardens through its awards program has been Los Angeles Beautiful Inc.

Garden Programs Ceased

Executive Director Gail Watson recalls when elementary school gardens were once a part of the curriculum in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In 1960, the district, according to Deloy Stromme, coordinator of science centers for the schools, the burgeoning pupil population and need for more classroom sites forced the substance of gardening--the interrelationship of man to soils, soil to plants and insects to man--to be centered in the classroom.

While gardening and horticulture programs exist at the junior high school level, it is the younger child who is at an optimum learning age to experience the wonder of the world around him, Watson said.

“The creative process of gardening as it affects that world in beautification or growing food connects him to a stewardship of his immediate environment,” she said.

Watson invites anyone interested in supporting a garden program for the younger child, especially those with the least opportunity to experience growing pansies, pumpkins, flowers and vegetables, to write her at L.A. Beautiful Inc., 404 S. Bixel St., L.A., 90017.

On tours of elementary schools as judge for Los Angeles Beautiful, I have been touched by gardening attempts by those who had neither experience, instruction nor assets.

Children’s hard-earned gardening money was spent for shade plants that were planted in full sunlight and sun-loving plants placed between light-blocking shrubs, with all of them struggling in root competition with the existing landscape.

Soil Stabilization

But I was encouraged by another enterprise. Two years ago, the students at the Mt. Washington Elementary School responded to a small landslide and ensuing erosion on their sloping school property and launched a “Save Our Soil” campaign.

Two parents, Julie Wyant and Lynette Kampe, both experienced gardeners, organized a garden club that meets Thursday afternoons, when about two dozen children scramble over the hill with their trowels and install plants with soil-holding roots.

Taylor Anderson, one of our young guides on a recent tour, informed us that 4 p.m. on Garden Club day was a very important time, “They serve cookies then.” Another escort, Annie Wrate, confessed to a problem: she has such a good time planting she almost misses her bus to go home.

The experience of the Mount Washington pupils proves that gardening for the young child in Los Angeles need not be only a “take out” growing experience of a radish forest in a plastic cup.