A SCHOOL WITHOUT CLASSROOMS
Nina Clarke got a job as a nurse at a hospital in Bristol, England, and she moved there last March. The small house that she rented was perfect for her, but the garden behind it was a mess. Tall grass and old, dead plants covered every corner, and Nina hated looking at them from her kitchen window. She wanted to replace them with vegetables. The problem was that she had never grown anything in her life. Luckily, her neighbor told her about a special school near her home, and Nina signed up for a course there.(lines 1–6)
Nina's new school is unusual: it does not have a single classroom. All of its lessons take place outdoors, in a large community garden in the center of the city. A course has ten lessons, and students pay a small fee to join. In each lesson, an expert shows them how to grow a different kind of plant – for example, tomatoes, beans or herbs*.(lines 7–10)
Today Britain has more than fifty "garden schools" like Nina's, and every one of them runs a website for its students. On the website, students can watch short videos of every lesson. They can also send photos of their own plants to the experts and get advice. Before the spring, many students use the website to plan what to grow in their gardens.(lines 11–14)
The teachers at a garden school usually come from one of two groups. "Many of our teachers are retired* farmers. They have plenty of free time now, and they love passing on what they know," says Helen Ward, who runs the garden school in Bristol. "Others are young gardeners who are starting their own businesses. They hope that some of our students will hire them one day."(lines 15–18)
By August, Nina's garden was full of vegetables, so she invited her new friends from work to dinner. That afternoon, she picked tomatoes and beans from the garden for a big salad. "We ate outside until it got dark," said Nina. "Everyone was surprised that I had grown all the food myself. Now three of them want to take the course next spring."(lines 19–22)