Urban learning gardens serve multiple purposes—they provide much needed green space for urban and blighted communities, offer the opportunity for residents in areas with high rates of diabetes and obesity to grow fresh produce, and provide valuable entrepreneurial and small business skills.
Students and adults alike learn gardening skills, are educated about food that is fresh, nutritious, inexpensive and close to home. The yield from these urban learning gardens is picked within 24 hours of delivery or purchase so consumers get fresh, richly-flavored produce.
The goal of a learning gardens is to make local produce affordable to low income families and communities, and insure food security.
Cleveland Botanical Garden—Learning Gardens
Hershey Children's Garden at Cleveland Botanical Garden—the first public garden of its kind in Ohio is a hands-on garden that offers children the opportunity to interact with plants, gardening and the environment throughout the season.
East 66th and Chester learning garden—considered the oldest urban learning garden in the city, it is an outdoor learning lab and research and testing facility where community youth gain hands-on experience in horticulture and gardening. It serves as the operational base for the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps program, offering seasonal employment and vocational training to high-school students.
West 25th and Erin learning garden—created in partnership with Cleveland Botanical Gardens and Astrup Awning, this garden provides urban youth with horticultural knowledge and small-business experience. A work-study program that trains urban adolescents in agricultural skills, pays them to install and maintain urban green-space and involves them in entrepreneurial projects.
The Lonnie Burten learning garden—currently a vacant lot flanked by the City of Cleveland's Lonnie Burten Recreation Center at E. 46th Street on one side and Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's Outhwaite Homes Estate on the other. In spring 2007, it will become the newest of the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps Learning Gardens. The site was dedicated in September 2006 in memorium for 16 year-old Lennard Pinson and 11 year-old Brandon Davis, both fatally shot in 2005.
Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps—a work-study program that trains urban adolescents in agricultural, pays them to install and maintain urban green-space and involves the entrepreneurial process. The students sell some of their harvests and use the balance to produce food products such as "Ripe from Downtown Salsa," which they learn to market throughout Greater Cleveland.
Other Learning Gardens
An urban learning garden was installed next to Lucky's Cafe in Tremont, in partnership with Oberlin's Boys & Girls Club, in the spring of 2006. With its four raised-bed gardens, it connects kids in the neighborhood with an opportunity to participate in growing produce for market. Lucky's Cafe is committed to purchasing a portion of the produce, and the rest will be sold at local restaurants and at City Fresh markets. For more information, visit Lucky's Cafe website.
Holden Arboretum—In September of 2003, Holden began a 3-year curriculum project to build interest and ability in the sciences called Growing Students and Science. Approximately 700third-grade students from Painesville City Schools and Cleveland Municipal Schools participate. To find more information go here. Also community classesare designed to provide children and adults with diverse learning opportunities that promote education in the areas of horticulture, natural history, conservation and health and wellness.
