Public gardening programs from coast to coast give kids and adults a chance to get some dirt under their fingernails and discover the fun and satisfaction in gardens and the natural world. Healthy vegetables are part of the appeal, but the focus isn't only on food. The goal of these programs is to make the world a better place -- one gardener and one green space at a time.

Gardening for good can take many forms. Neighborhood gardens tend to be gathering places, where all are welcome. Gardens and gardening programs for veterans, seniors, and disabled children and adults create opportunities for people to connect with nature and cultivate new hope. Public orchards and berry patches put fresh fruit within everyone's reach. School gardens and farm-to-school gardening projects get kids used to healthy foods and encourage teachers to make gardening and nature part of the curriculum.

City Blossoms, a public gardening program based in Washington, D.C., has designed more than 50 urban educational gardens across the country, in collaboration with schools and community organizations. The group has 13 sites in the Washington area, where kids and teens from ages 3 to 19 take care of flower and vegetable gardens in their neighborhoods. Teachers and adult volunteers help, of course, but kids are the heart of the program. "We create spaces for young people to empower themselves," says Rebecca Lemos-Otero, co-founder and director of City Blossoms. "They have a sense of pride and ownership, and when we see kids taking on these roles on their own, it's very exciting."

Nature and art go together, Lemos-Otero says, and garden art and artistic expression are part of the program. Kids paint welcoming signs for their plots, make labels for the plants, and create garden sculptures. The art projects "are a good way to bring people into the garden as a first step," Lemos-Otero says. "Maybe they're not ready to garden, but they're ready to do art."

Over the course of a summer, and through the years, the kids develop along with their gardens. They learn about community and culture, make friends, and develop new interests and abilities. They also take these skills and interests out into the world with them when they get older. Kids from the City Blossoms program have even gone on to environmental studies in college, Lemos-Otero says.

In Madison, Wisconsin, Community Groundworks brings kids and gardens together and also works with veterans and disabled adults. The organization, founded in 2001, has developed a five-acre community farm, holds workshops and maintains a demonstration vegetable garden on the grounds of the state capitol. More than 3,500 children participate in the Community Groundworks gardening programs for children and adolescents, says Ginny Hughes, the group's education director.

Gardens do not have to be very large to make a big difference, Hughes says. Even in a small plot, kids -- and adults -- can learn the basics of planning, planting, tending and harvesting vegetables and flowers. An important benefit is that gardening naturally leads to healthy eating habits, she says. "When kids are involved in the process of growing, they are more likely to eat what they grow," she says. "They may say 'I hate broccoli,' but then they try it and they love it."

Community Groundworks also runs a half-acre organic farm in Madison where school and community groups, families and teachers cultivate crops without using artificial fertilizers or pesticides. What these budding farmers don't eat themselves is donated to a local food pantry -- last year, the gardeners donated 3,000 pounds of produce. During the summer months, kids in the program come to the farm for three hours a day, four days a week. "We develop relationships, and they see all the cool things in the garden that you can't understand if you see them just once," Hughes says.

In Kansas City, Missouri, an organization called The Giving Grove has planted more than 2,000 fruit trees in 135 schoolyards, church properties and community gardens throughout the city's metropolitan area. The program, which is part of Kansas City Community Gardens, enlists the help of volunteers to plant and maintain apple, pear and peach trees; berry bushes; and nut trees that thrive in Kansas City's climate and urban conditions. The volunteers become the stewards of orchards in their neighborhoods. Giving Grove's goal is to create sustainable and reliable sources of healthy food, to raise awareness of smart food choices, and -- in the process of helping neighbors and volunteers plant, care for and harvest fruit -- to bring communities together.

The Philadelphia Orchard Project has similar goals, working with volunteers and horticultural professionals to plan, plant and maintain orchards in the city. POP has installed orchards at schools, churches and community gardens, and supports orchards at mission centers and the city's prison complex.

Enthusiasm for public fruit plantings and community orchards has spread across the country to Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Boston and Portland, Oregon, among other cities. Good-news gardening groups are growing for a reason: There can never be too many places for people to come together in peaceful, productive and rewarding enterprises. Gardens are a natural place to start.

SOURCES

In big cities and out in the country, gardening organizations are encouraging communities to discover the fun and satisfaction of gardens by developing green spaces and cultivating people's interest in growing food and flowers and enjoying some of the small wonders of nature. There's no single template for success, but the work of these organizations stands out:

-- City Blossoms (cityblossoms.org) promotes healthy neighborhoods through community gardening. The organization provides free programs for schools and organizes lively after-school and summer programming for children and adults, primarily in the Washington, D.C., area. City Blossoms also develops programs and curricula for garden programs nationwide.

-- The Giving Grove (givinggrove.org) has planted more than 2,000 fruit and nut trees in communities in the Kansas City area, with a projected annual harvest of more than 250 tons of healthy fruit. Orchards in parks, community gardens, and on school and church grounds are intended to provide neighborhoods with easy access to fresh fruit in season. Volunteers become garden stewards, working alongside Giving Grove staff.

-- Philadelphia Orchard Project (phillyorchards.org) works with communities, schools and local groups to plant orchards of fruit trees and edible plants. POP helps design and plant the orchards, and trains volunteers to care for the trees and plants.

-- Community Groundworks (communitygroundworks.org) in Madison, Wisconsin, brings people, gardens and nature together. A five-acre community farm, kids' gardens, gardens in schoolyards, workshops and other garden programming foster healthy lifestyles and diets. Curricula and guides suggest possibilities that would work in any community.

-- Urban Food Forestry (urbanfoodforestry.org) is a website of resources for anyone interested in finding or working with community orchards and public fruit projects.

The perfect patio is a destination -- the designated spot for relaxing and entertaining, and a perfect place from which to enjoy the garden. One size definitely does not fit all, but if you plan carefully, you're set up for success.

Patios introduce subtle architecture into the natural environment. They invite you out among the trees and flowers, but a sure footing of stone, brick or gravel assures you that you're not really stepping into the wild. Patios are built for comfort -- they're an extension of your home, an outdoor room where the sky is the limit.

"When I'm designing the perfect patio for a client, the house and the client's wishes give me the answers," says Sally Wittkofski, a landscape architect and owner of SWW Landscape Design in Richmond, Virginia. "Once you find out how they want to use the space, it's easy," she says. "Then you start to work on size, materials and location."

Before you settle on any of those aspects, consider all the ways you might wish to use the patio, Wittkofski suggests. Will it be a cozy spot for dinners for two, a place where you'll entertain a lot, or perhaps some of each? A large patio can serve more than one purpose. Do you need both dining and lounging space? You might also want to allow room for large flowerpots, or you may need to design the space around the trunk of a beautiful tree. A patio can also be the perfect place for a fountain or fire pit.

Patios shouldn't be imposed on a garden, Wittkofski says: They should fit gracefully into it. She has both a front-yard and a backyard patio at her own home. The front-yard patio, made with handsome rough-cut stones set into a 4-inch layer of granite dust, is her favorite. It's a circle 16 feet in diameter nestled under tall trees, just big enough for a table and four chairs. "It's simple, but it works perfectly," she says. Groundcover plants under the trees soften the edges of the space and make it a cool retreat from the hot summer sun, a green refuge. The patios she makes for clients average about 25 by 25 feet.

Deena Bell Llewellyn, a landscape architect and the owner of Bell Landscape Architecture in Miami, works closely with clients to come up with "a wish list and a dream list" for patios she designs. Around older homes, the lists often involve getting rid of existing hardscaping and starting afresh -- her clients are often also installing swimming pools, she says. They want pool patios and patios with outdoor kitchens, fire pits and even yoga platforms. Her measure of success is unequivocal: "We want to make sure these spaces are used all day and all night" -- and practically year-round in south Florida's subtropical climate.

Most clients prefer patios just outside the kitchen or family room -- easily accessible through the home's private back doors, Bell Llewellyn says. To make the transition from inside to outdoors seamless, "we build up, almost level with the interior floor of the home," she says, avoiding a flight of steps, which can be tricky to negotiate if you're carrying a tray of drinks and snacks. "We also study the architecture and make sure we understand its materials and scale -- we want it all to flow as if it were one project."

Around a pool, sunny patios are the rule, Bell Llewellyn says, but a pergola might be added to provide some shade. Elegant roofs protect some of her clients' patios, for rainstorms are frequent in the Miami area. Outdoor lighting with LED fixtures is practically standard, Bell Llewellyn says, with colored filters to heighten the drama of spectacular tropical plants in the evening. When steps are incorporated into a design, she recommends linear rope lighting under the treads for safety, which "also makes the steps seem to float," she says.

If you're shopping for patio ideas, flip through magazines and books for inspiration, but don't commit yourself too quickly to a specific size or shape, Bell Llewellyn and Wittkofski both say. The gently curving lines of a patio designed for a traditional home probably will not translate gracefully to the garden around a modern home of strongly angular architecture. Stone or brick that looks great at one site may not be the right color, texture or pattern at another. "Think of designing a patio as a collaboration between you, the designer and the contractor," Wittkofski says. All three should listen to ideas from the other sides of the table. "If one person says, 'Maybe we should shift this a bit,' they may have a good idea."

Classic mistakes to avoid are: placing a patio in the wrong spot, making it too small, and using the wrong paving materials -- or simply too much of them. Too much paving "feels cold and harsh," Bell Llewellyn says, and it usually causes glare. "You shouldn't feel like you need sunglasses," she says. A good way to find the right spot for a patio in your own backyard might be to walk outside, mark off an area with spray paint and set up a card table and some chairs. Take a cool beverage out there with you, have a seat and look around. You'll know you've found the right spot if you find yourself slipping off your shoes and forgetting, just for a few minutes, the demands of the busy world.

SIDEBAR

Tips from the pros

-- Sally Wittkofski, a landscape architect in Richmond, Virginia, likes to suggest low, flat-topped walls around a patio, for seating. The ideal height is 18 to 24 inches, she says.

-- She discourages clients from adding built-in grills. She finds they limit the flexibility of a patio.

-- Deena Bell Llewellyn, a landscape architect in Miami, on the other hand, says her clients like built-in kitchens, with all the appliances and conveniences they have indoors. A mild climate makes a big difference: in south Florida, people are practically living outdoors.

-- Where should you splurge? Wittkofski and Bell Llewellyn both recommend patios made with natural materials -- brick, stone or gravel. Custom paving patterns and designs allow you to express your style. Wittkofski likes herringbone patterns in brick patios, with basket-weave a close second. The running bond pattern, which has bricks laid end-to-end, looks like a runway, she says.

-- Measure your rooms indoors, and make a patio of comparable size: You don't want one to reflect poorly on the other.

-- Make room in the budget for landscape lighting around the patio.

-- Landscape with plants in large pots. They're more versatile than built-in planters, Wittkofski says.

-- Don't plant a perennial border right next to a patio. "They should be viewed at a distance, so if they're not perfect, you will not notice," Wittkofski says.

-- Choose comfortable, functional furniture appropriate to the style of the rest of your home. "Keep it simple," Wittkofski says. She prefers solid-colored umbrellas to busy stripes.

-- If your budget doesn't allow for generous furniture right away, "that's OK," Wittkofski says. "Splurge on the design and materials, then save for the good furniture. You don't have to do everything at once."

SOURCES:

-- Sally Wittkofski, SWW Landscape Design, 804-357-5119; swwlandscapedesign.com.

-- Deena Bell Llewellyn, Bell Landscape Architecture, 3360 Coral Way, Suite 5, Miami, FL 33145; 305-774-9662; bell-la.com.

Late bloomers put the flash into fall gardens. Just when summer's show is coming to a close, asters, Japanese anemones, sedums and other fall bloomers begin to light up the garden. While daylilies and daisies performed all summer long, these late bloomers were simply waiting their turn. When the time finally comes, they dazzle until frost arrives.

Summer gardens are giddy and glorious, but fall flowers have a different character. They're somehow richer. They're more precious, too -- you waited a long time for them, nurturing the plants through the summer, so they're deeply rewarding. Like the bright, fresh weather, they're invigorating: Change is in the air.

Lots of well-known perennial flowers are among the most steadfast and sparkling fall bloomers. Chrysanthemums, of course, are traditional fall favorites. Sedums, which are extremely drought-tolerant, soldier through the summer and come into vigorous bloom in fall, attracting butterflies to their large flower heads. Monarch butterflies, in particular, visit sedums on their migration path to Mexico.

Early fall is also the season of asters of all kinds and colors, with flowers like clouds of beautiful blues and pinks. Toad lilies produce their freckled, orchidlike blooms on long, arching stems in fall, lighting up shade gardens. Ornamental grasses send up their spectacular inflorescences, shimmering in the autumn light as the days grow shorter.

Fall flowers deserve special consideration in a garden's design. It's nice to grow them along paths or in flower beds close to the house, where you can't miss them -- or you can plant them around the perimeter of the garden, where you'll be drawn outside in the crisp fall days to appreciate their contribution to the new season. Make room for them among summer-blooming annuals and perennials, where they'll provide structure and texture all summer and then extend the season -- giving your flower beds plenty of color and interest all the way to frost.

Garden shops stock good supplies of mums and asters, as well as an increasingly interesting selection of other fall bloomers, perfect for flowerpots for the front porch or patio. They're typically sold in larger containers than spring flowers, so they make a big impact as soon as you plant them. Plants in quart-size nursery pots, or larger, can also be planted right in flower beds to fill in bare spots where summer flowers have faded. They will need a little attention to watering if it doesn't rain, but in fall, cooler temperatures reduce evaporation of moisture from the soil, and even newly planted flowers really shouldn't need much pampering.

A well-designed and nicely situated garden has layers of color and texture, from the flower beds to the treetops. In fall, the blazing reds, rich russets and intense yellow colors of changing leaves on trees get much of the attention, but the trees actually tend to produce their show quite late in the season. Shrubs with great fall flowers fill the middle layer, and they start their show in September. Panicle hydrangeas, with their cone-shaped flower heads, look like living bouquets in a garden. Caryopteris, a small shrub (sometimes called blue mist or bluebeard), is covered with flowers in fall: It seems to glow in the light. Early fall is a perfect time to walk around a garden shop looking for shrubs with autumn interest. You might spot Bloomerang lilacs, Encore azaleas, or Bloomstruck hydrangeas, which all produce a fresh round of showy flowers in early fall. Roses usually put on a strong fall display, too. Their colors are brighter in cooler fall weather, their fragrance is more intense and the blooms last longer.

Don't forget the details. A few pansies or violas here and there in the garden bloom reliably through the fall, and even weather the winter in many areas. Their bright, charming faces will draw you outdoors in all kinds of weather. Fall-blooming crocus, tucked into a spot along the front walk, will greet you and your guests with an unexpected and welcome flash of purple. The charming, reflexed petals of hardy cyclamen flowers in a shade garden look like exotic little butterflies.

Early fall is way too soon to give up on the garden. The days are growing shorter, and summer's flowers are fading, but autumn has its own colors and cadence. Make sure some of the season's fireworks go off in your backyard.