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.

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