From April through June, the Bird Homestead will welcome second graders from the Carver Center for “Through the Garden Gate”, a hands-on, after-school program in organic gardening.
From April through June, the Bird Homestead will welcome second graders from the Carver Center for “Through the Garden Gate”, a hands-on, after-school program in organic gardening. The curriculum is designed as a gateway to science, nature, and healthy eating. The instructors are Han Yu Hung, Children’s Gardening Program Coordinator at the New York Botanical Garden, and Rye resident Anne Mottola, who teaches at the Botanical Garden.
A special fund is being established at the non-profit Committee to Save the Bird Homestead to provide scholarships for the Carver Center second-grade class of 24 children.
“We are excited to be partnering with the Bird Homestead and to bring knowledge to our children about where our food comes from,” said Janett Grose, Senior Manager of Children’s Program & Community Relations at the Carver Center.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Carver Center to bring organic-gardening education to more students,” said Anne Stillman, president of the Committee to Save the Bird Homestead. “We are proud to offer instruction from a great teaching team.”
Hung graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Botany and has a Master of Science in Horticulture from the University of California, Davis. For the past 12 years, she has developed lesson topics and guidelines for ages 3–12 for 49 gardening sessions in the Botanical Garden’s Family Garden. The program serves 550 children throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
Mottola develops and teaches garden-based lessons as a consultant for Kaleidoscope Garden Design in Katonah. She is the former Osborn School Garden Coordinator. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from Fordham University. Mottola is also a freelance graphic designer and donates her talents for “Through the Garden Gate’s” registration forms and signs.
Edible gardening was a cornerstone of the Bird family’s lifestyle. They maintained extensive vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and grape arbors. Henry Bird was a prominent entomologist and a noted horticulturalist. Combining his knowledge of both fields, he became an early proponent of the use of beneficial insects to protect crops rather than spraying. He put this policy into practice in his own large vegetable garden.
