Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Benefits Of Gardening For Children, Bambi L. Yost, Louise Chawla

Bambi L Yost

Gardening provides different forms of engagement for children, including designing, planting, and maintaining gardens; harvesting, preparing, and sharing food; working cooperatively in groups; learning about science and nutrition; and creating art and stories inspired by gardens. The studies summarized below have been selected because they include control groups, pre- and post-measures, well controlled correlations, or in-depth qualitative analyses. For more studies and an analysis of this research, see Blair (2009), “The child in the garden: An evaluative review of the benefits of school gardening.” Available online at http://www.colorado.edu/cye/sites/default/files/attached-files/Gardening_factsheet_2011.pdf