The National Gardening Association

The National Gardening Association was founded in 1973 as a non-profit organization with the goal of educating people about different types of plants and shrubbery. The National Gardening Association is headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont. The National Gardening Association provides the majority of plant-based educational to most schools with grade levels ranging from K-12. The National Gardening Association teaches health and well being, helps develop communities, home gardening and offers various programs and activities.

The programs and activities run by the National Gardening Association are the Adopt a School Garden, the GROW Program, Vermont Garden Park, Teacher Professional Development, National Youth Garden Grants and many, many more. Aside from the programs listed here, the National Gardening Association also offers a variety of other grants and awards.

The National Gardening Association feels that children should be taught on a daily basis about plant life and how to run a garden properly. The NGA believes that gardening can strengthen a child emotionally, mentally and even physically. Teaching gardening helps students understand the natural way of life for plants and better understand where their food comes from. Not only do students learn where their food comes from but it also provides a look into healthy living; such as how to eat a proper meal to live a healthy life.

The National Gardening Association began their Adopt a School Garden program to aid in the instruction of students across the country when it comes to a healthy life and learning about the natural plant like around the world today. When someone adopts a garden for a school a representative from the NGA will complete a list of items for the adoption to get off the ground running. The list includes finding some to become the garden team leader, what area of plant education the school will focus on, send the school educational materials and literature for the teachers, finding a way to get the surrounding community involved and ways to encourage long term sustainability of the garden.

For the awards and grants that the National Gardening Association gives out, there are requirements that need to be met. They are pretty simple too. The requirements are that the school interested in receiving a grant must be teaching and gardening with students between the ages of 3 to 18 and the group can consist of no less than 15 students at anytime. Any school that wins a grant or scholarship from the National Gardening Association must fill out a survey at the end of every year that explains the impact of the program on the students. Each individual grant has a different type of impact report to file with the association at the end of each year.

Finally, the GROW Program is an ongoing project run by the National Gardening Association advocating the importance of gardening at schools, home and in communities. The GROW Program also provides year round gardening tips to beginners and experts as well as national gardening events and conferences. The National Gardening Association: "When you garden, you grow."