South Burlington VT photos - Growing Young Gardeners Club
Wheeler Community Gardens, SB VT.
The growing Young Gardeners Club is
flourishing at Wheeler Park on Dorset Street, South Burlington VT.
Every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon,
children are learning how to plant and maintain a vegetable garden, while at
the same time gaining knowledge of growing seeds, the ABC’s of soil and
composting, garden critters & bugs, invasive(s) and weeds, and garden to
table – the taste of their labor and love. A
sense of community is an integral root of this crop, as children themselves
bring (what they don’t sample themselves) to the Food Shelf.
Documenting their weekly journey, I have
watched these Growing Young Gardeners grow. The first step a child takes to
becoming a lifelong gardener may well be when he traces a small furrow in the
earth with his finger, and carefully places seeds within, covering them,
pushing his new knowledge into the soil along with the seeds.
Growing
Young Gardeners Diary.
Week 1. Getting your hands dirty and
sometimes getting your face smudged is a fun part of gardening. Many different
types of seeds planted, gently covered with a warm blanket of earth and our
good wishes.
A sense of community is an integral root of this crop.
Week 2. Lessons began. Our seeds sprouted, weeds emerged. Critters
harvested early, more seeds planted. Thinning the Rutabaga consisted
of spreading two fingers apart then thinning out plants in-between the two
fingers. Most of the new plants did well over the last week, with good
germination of planted seeds, and the seedlings taking well to their new home.
However, we did observe some damaged
plants with partially chewed leaves and some plants with nothing left but stems
(broccoli). Something or somebody has a taste for very young broccoli, kale,
and corn plants. Critter footprints lead from the fence and on through some of
the raised beds. Two nearby resident groundhogs quickly became prime suspects.
Meanwhile a centipede raced by the raised
bed of broccoli and quickly found a hiding place under the mulch. We imagined
it must be an enormous chore for the centipede and especially its cousin the
millipede to tie its many shoelaces, given that it has so many legs, therefore
so many feet, therefore so many, many sneakers. Perhaps they are Velcro ties!
Beans, squash, and corn are the three sister plants. "I
learned that from the Indians" one young gardener proudly proclaimed. Pole
beans grow up the corn stalks. Squash grow around the base and having prickly
stems and creating a dense mat, they discourage animals from eating the beans. Corn
is pollinated by wind so they need to be planted close together. Then the
garden students planted squash seeds in between the corn seeds. The two plants
will become companion plants-best of friends.
Beets came up in bunches. This town is only big enough for
one of us, seedlings. The thinning process begins. We firmed up the soil around
the survivor so it is not wobbly and sad about losing its neighbors.
Week 3. Today we discovered somebody left the gate open during the
past week-Oops! Some varmint entered the garden, and ate the corn plants,
leaving not a nib.
We learned to pull weeds gently to be sure to get the roots. After
pulling the weeds, we dumped them into the compost pile. They will eventually
come back to the garden as healthy nutrient laden compost.
Week 4. Heavy rains floated some of our
garden all about.
Re-building of some of the beds was in
order. We quickly brought out shovels and got right to work in organized
fashion. Weed pulling and our journal writing concluded this session.
Week
5. Today, we talked about pollinators and blooms. We happily picked our first
harvest of a few radishes and a few turnips. We delivered them to
the food shelf. It was great to see where the food goes, see people
shopping there.
Our quiz question of the day; what does gardening and community
have in common? Both instilled with commonly shared challenges and an abundance
of caring through sharing.
Click here to view Week 1 Hands and Seed(lings) meet soil. (many photos)
Bernie publishes short stories and photos reflecting Vermont values of Green and Clean and Community.
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