WANTED: KEEPERS OF THE GARDEN
“Any kid will run any errand for you if you ask at bedtime.” Red Skelton
Cultivating young minds and hands: Mark Cullen,
I had the honour, this past summer, of addressing a distinguished group of volunteers and staff at the annual general meeting of the Royal Botanical Gardens. We are fortunate to have them digging in with both hands to make our community a better place.
My respect is enormous for all the work and private donations made over three generations to the RBG, a 2,200-acre site in Burlington and Hamilton. It was hard not to notice, however, that the crowd of about 200 people was one of quite senior seniors.
Where then, I asked, are the young people? Who is going to steward the public gardens — the RBG and Toronto Botanical Gardens, at Lawrence Ave. and Leslie St., are the only two bona fide botanical gardens in the GTA; I am a fan, patron and supporter of both — of the future?
To find out, I went to the source and connected with Carleigh Thompson, the RBG’s communications manager; and Paul Zammit, horticulture director and Liz Hood, education director at the Toronto Botanical Gardens. Here is what I learned: What is the age range of most committee members?
At the TBG, committees and their board are made up mostly of “mature”’ people over 55 years of age. Most of these are female. Is there a need to get more young people involved in programs?
The ever-enthusiastic Paul Zammit responded with, “I would love to engage a younger demographic in our committee in order to help get a better understanding of how they view and value public gardens and what they (and their children) would want from it. We need a better understanding of the role and function of public gardens.”
At the RBG they are actively looking to botanical gardens in Europe for examples of how to engage young people with social events that are typically after-hours: garden parties, music nights, gala dinners. What is the biggest challenge in attracting young members?
The operators of public gardens have created a variety of events and programs where members and students can express their ideas and opinions and enjoy a social atmosphere. There is an emphasis on “fun.” Children’s Programs: The list is long at both the Toronto and Royal Botanical Gardens. Highlights include:
RBG features a once-monthly “family” activity including an Apple Day, Family Solstice Celebration, Hickory Dickory Dock, and more. These programs are designed to teach every family member about a natural feature, species, or time of year/season in their local environment.
In addition, the RBG provides children’s programs for kids aged 3-12, plus the Outdoors Club for ages 12-15, the Junior Naturalists Club for 7-12 year olds, plus summer-long Discovery day camps, curriculum-connected school programs and school programs via video conference.
At the Toronto Botanical Gardens, Liz Hood was animated in her response: “In a recent poll of horticultural societies I did for Kew Gardens (in London), I spoke to many groups who found that aging membership was becoming a significant problem. A few groups decided to tackle this by developing community outreach initiatives, like collaborating with school and community groups. Other groups made successful inroads in the surrounding multicultural communities and welcomed new members from those cultural groups.”
Liz adds, “Cultural diversity in our horticultural institutions is as important as diversity in age.” A good point and perhaps fodder for a future article here.
Some of the programs offered by the TBG that are directed to children include: programs for school groups for pre-kindergarten to Grade 4; March Break and summer camps for kids aged 5 to 11 years; family and special events for chil- dren aged 1 to 11 years.
Each year the TBG welcomes more than 6,000 kids through their programs. All are nature-based, interactive, experiential and for visiting school groups, designed to support the Ontario elementary school curriculum.
It is important to note that almost half of the visiting youth are children from Toronto’s under-resourced, priority neighbourhoods who, through the generosity of TBG donors, are able to take part in the programs free.
You might want to look for the upcoming Harvest Day, Family Hike in a Bag (complete with backpacks and family discovery maps), and the Halloween Howl. Details on their website at torontobotanicalgarden.ca. Internships: Both botanical gardens provide post-secondary paid summer internships. The RBG hosts 45 students each summer and at the TBG, 30 interns. Get your application in early if this appeals to you (or pass the information on to someone that you know).
However, this does not answer the question, “Where are the youth?” in our volunteer base. Liz Hood points out that busy young parents don’t have a lot of time to volunteer — she reminded me that I was rather busy when our four kids were youngsters.
Final word, then, to the eloquent Paul Zammit: “Young people are desperately needed! I believe, for younger people, gardens have a different purpose and set of values. They are our conduit to more re- sponsible horticultural practices and to developing environmentally sound behaviours.” On this we all agree: the key to the future of gardening lies in its connection to food and the environment. For more details of programs, go to Toronto Botanical Garden at torontobotanicalgarden.ca, and Royal Botanical Garden, rbg.ca. Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and garden editor of Reno and Decor magazine. You can sign up for his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com, and watch him on CTV Canada AM every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. You can reach Mark through the “contact” button on his website and follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook. Mark’s latest book, Canadian Lawn & Garden Secrets, is available at Home Hardware and all major bookstores.