4) Other. A church in our town donated land to create a children's garden. After school programs and various classes, K-12 grade, planted, weeded, harvested. This was a vegetable garden area of raised beds. Let me tell you my story. I led a group of middle school kids to the garden where we watered and weeded. "Where does food come from?" I asked them. "The grocery store," they answered. We are in the Midwest, the bread basket of the nation with fields of grain on every side. How could these kids be so disconnected? I tried another question. "Name something on a pizza that you can grow in a garden." "Pepperoni!" answered a girl. "Well," I said softly, "that's meat. Meat comes from animals. What else?" "Hamburger!" said a boy. Again I assured them that was meat. They were stumped. "How about tomatoes?" I asked them. They looked at me questioningly. Tomatoes on a pizza? You could see the cogs in their mind turning. "Tomatoes are in the pizza sauce," I explained. "Ohhhhh," they said. We went on to talk about green peppers, onions and other well-known pizza toppings. "What about corn?" asked a kid who was trying to be funny. "Well, corn can be a grain like wheat and wheat is in the pizza dough." He couldn't believe he'd stumbled onto an answer! I really could not believe how disconnected these kids were from their source of food.

3 - Historically, allotments were a response to poor nutrition and low morals of the urban working poor (keep them occupied and well fed (sober cannon fodder for Empire). Like a sort of modern feudalism, 20 rods (5.5square yards) was the amount of space deemed suitable...and by prevailing garden standards, a generous space indeed. Although they almost disappeared after WW2, land was still plentiful (urban bomb sites) and allotments went through a revival during the 60s, 70s and recently, the last decade (huge long waiting lists). Of course, most of the plot holders are not 'urban working poor' and they are in danger of becoming a bit of a lifestyle fad at present - given the numbers of people who want one without having the foggiest idea of what is involved. However, immigrants have often jumped at the chance to grow their own native food so many sites have seen a demographic change from elderly retired men to a much wider diversity of different ages, cultures and classes.

I have had mine for 16 years - I lease it from the local council for a laughable amount of around $1 a week for 20 poles (the standard is now 10 poles but I have 2 plots).

xiangirl-That is scary and fabulous! I did gardening with spec ed kids for several years and they loved it! BUT We are in a very AG area, so kids "kinda" know where food comes from! Nancy

xiangirl zone 4/5 Nebraska, I think the operative term here is ''middle school''.