Gardening would be great if taught in school - with all that unused land surrounding the building their course costs would be low if not nil . Plus the school would save on lawn maintenance!

Community gardens are becoming more popular at local churches and unused lots, so why not a school? Wouldn't it be nice to grow your lunches? A concurrent food preparation and nutrition course would be good as well.

I garden, but not like your book! It was interesting to read the science but I naturally just know what to do (many years of being a "pragmatic gardener".) I read through the list of gardening "rules" and checked off most of what was suggested with the exception of compost - I don't do that on purpose, but I do allow the plants to self compost, meaning that I turn the soil over a couple of times at the end of the gardening season and let the healthy dead material go back to where it came from :) I am aware of companion planting as well as the use of native plants, trees, shrubs etc.

Now that my kids are grown and have gone on to their own lives and family, I don't grow my own food. We have a local farmer's market a few blocks away that serves us well. I used to grow a lot of berries, apples, herbs, green vegetables and tomatoes.

Gee, my reply has turned into a post :)

I don't use chemicals - I hand pick nasty bugs and hand pull weeds. Weeding can be calming for me, although I hate hate seeing them grow back. Have you ever noticed how weeds "pretend" to be the same as the plant it grows around? Sneaky.