First-year college students who have gardening experience eat more fruits and vegetables while they’re away at school compared with peers who don’t have green thumbs, U.S. researchers say. The more gardening experience the college freshmen had, the greater their intake of produce, the study also found. Those who had gardened both during childhood and more recently ate 20 percent more servings of fruits and vegetables than classmates who had never gardened. The researchers found that 11 percent of students had gardened only during childhood, 19 percent had gardened only more recently, 20 percent gardened both during childhood, and 49 percent had never gardened. On average, students who gardened as children and in the 12 months prior to the study ate about 2.5 cups of fruits and vegetables per day versus 1.9 cups for those who had never gardened. In addition, recent gardeners who reported gardening weekly ate close to 3 cups of greens, while those who gardened monthly averaged 2.4 cups.