Garden Planting Week

Day Early Learning centers are excited to launch a vegetable gardening program for all children this spring. With grant funding, each center will purchase materials to create garden beds and grow vegetables including onions, peas, basil and lettuce. Each center has a lead teacher, or a Garden Champion, who will serve as the gardening point of contact for their center. This will be the first year of what will be an ongoing program, and will kick-off with Planting Week from May 10-14. Children and Day Early Learning teaching staff will plant and tend the gardens together, and will learn about growing plants through classroom curriculum throughout the summer.

Early Learning Indiana is grateful to Indiana University Health and Lilly Endowment Inc., through the Summer Youth Program Fund, for grant funding to start the program. In addition, Early Learning Indiana is honored to have been chosen as a Plant It Forward grant recipient from Growing Places Indy, and is grateful for in-kind support from Dammann’s Garden Company and Purdue Extension Marion County, as well as volunteers from the Day Nursery Auxiliary.