Discovering the wonder of the garden

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Oregon to congratulate the winners of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation GroMoreGood Garden Grantsin partnership with the National Head Start Association (NHSA). It was an honor to highlight six years of support of new and existing garden projects, designed to connect more of the nation's youth to the benefits of gardening and outdoor play.

In the first five years of our partnership with NHSA, the GroMoreGood Garden grant has reached more than 9,000 youths (including Head Start and Early Head Start children), benefited more than 5,000 adults and seen 58 grant winners in 26 states and Washington, D.C.

Perhaps my favorite highlight among an inspirational visit was my time at Clarendon Regional Learning Academy, a former GroMoreGood Garden grant recipient. Seeing the children's faces and wonderment as they explored the garden and the plants was magical. One grant recipient summed up the benefits of gardens so well: "As the plant grows, so does the child."

Here are a few more quotes from former grant winners:

• "The garden affords a calming change of scenery for the students and the structured layout of it allows them to…experience the natural world in a way they can't in our classroom or on the playground."
• "We used the therapeutic gardening approach to help children overcome negative childhood experiences."
• "[The children] are really soaking up the information and [are] sharing what they learned with their families…."
• Said about a child who would not try vegetables previously, "his mom cannot get him to stop eating vegetables and this small success made all the work worth it."

And that's what our purpose to GroMoreGoodis all about.