Help is on Its Way – Horticulture & Green Jobs

Today was the final day of class for the 2010 Garden N Grow program. The young gardeners spent time in their respective gardens harvesting, weeding and watering. Some of the gardeners plan to continue to harvest crops in the upcoming days.

Sam and a rather large cucumber from his garden.

It was hiding under some leaves and he almost

overlooked it.

After working in the garden, Marlin led the class in an interesting discussion about jobs related to horticulture. Most of the students were familiar with jobs in the field of horticulture and completed the exercise by drawing their version of a scientist.

After first completing very creative individual thank you notes for the Fairview Christian Church, the students completed their photo frame project by adding a label and photos.Each student took home their class workbook, frame, birdhouse, and photo’s on a CD. At the end of class, the pastor of the church joined us and Marlin presented the thank you notes. Students and helpers alike expressed appreciation for use of the grounds and classroom for the program.

Garden N Grow

Class of 2010

When asked “what did you enjoy most in the Garden N Grow program”, the young gardeners provided the following responses.

Drake – “Making stuff like the birdhouses”

Laurel – “Picking my peppers”

Lenna – “Watching my okra grow as tall as me!”

Baylee – “Watching all of my plants grow, then picking them, Yum!”

Nate – “Eating my cukes!”

Sam – “Eating my peppers!”

Josie – “Picking my sunburst squash, and squashing eggs out of a squash bug! :)”

Lexie – “Love working with all of the nice people”

Trading Traits – Plant Development

As you can tell from the attached photos, the garden needed lots of watering on Thursday. Most of the plants are producing lots of delicious vegetables and the young gardeners are quite proud of the bounty. The students have learned many important lessons about growing vegetables both in the classroom and in the garden. Lexie commented that she has only harvested 2 beans from her wax bean plants and Lenna discovered a very large okra hiding under some leaves. Josie got stung by a bee and Lenna came to her rescue. It was a most exciting morning in the garden.

Laurel providing

much needed

water to her

plants.

Drake's sack of lovely peppers.

The topic of today’s lesson was plant development. Marlin began the lesson by asking each of the students to name their favorite vegetable. Drake’s favorite is tiger melon in his garden and Lenna’s is okra. Marlin then talked briefly about genetic engineering and cross pollination. Marlin then challenged the students to create their own version of a genetically engineered fruit or vegetable using a variety of edible items. The creativity displayed by the students was amazing and you can see a sample of the results in the photo below.

Lenna with her version of a genetically altered food.

The young gardeners each selected and painted a bird house using a variety of bright colors. Once dry, the birdhouses can be hung in their gardens or taken home.

Friend, Can You Spare a Tomato

There was a bountiful harvest on Monday. The gardeners picked yellow and scalloped squash, bell peppers, jalepenos and okra.

Laurel, Lexie and Lenna watched a squash bug lay eggs on a leaf. They promptly destroyed eggs and bug!

Deer grazing was noted on tomato plants. Their tell-tale hoof prints were also seen. The three sisters are growing nicely.

After working in the gardens, the young gardeners went on a field trip to the Salvation Army Food Bank. We brought canned goods and fresh produce from the garden. The Food Pantry services 8-10 families every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during their open hours. Families can only use the pantry every 60 days so that means this pantry is providing food for some 200-240 families in the area.
input by Chris Veach and Gretchen Lathrop

What's it Worth?

The day started with picking produce and squashing bugs. The pepper harvest of all varieties was plentiful. Josee was excited to pick her first scalloped squash. Laurel picked a beautiful bumpy yellow squash, Baylee and Lenna picked onions, okra and beans.

Baylee, Josie, Laurel and Lenna weighed their harvest on scales. Local supermarket sale ads were scanned to determine the cost of the produce harvested. Everyone was surprised how much their family would save at the grocery store while still adding good nutrition to their family meals. Josie produce was worth $11.00

Everyone had fun making bird feeders and learned that birds will eat insects in the garden to feed to their young. Bird feeder also bring unwanted pests such as squirrels and raccoons to the garden.

The upcoming trip to the Salvation Army Food Bank was discussed. if desired everyone can bring a canned good from home to donate. Gardeners can donate from their Monday's garden harvest if desired.

Miss Kathy brought delicious pumpkin and zucchini bread for a snack.

Bountiful Harvest

We all worked in the gardens today. We did some weeding, bug patrol, and harvested beans, squash, okra, onions and peppers!


The lesson today was about how to preserve the foods harvested from the gardens. Glenda Kinder, Nutrition Specialist with University of Missouri Extension Service talked to the class about how to preserve produce.

The students learned about food safety, how to store produce and how to freeze food. Frozen grapes were a delicious teaching tool.

After the lesson, the gardeners made invitations to the garden party/picnic coming up next month.

What's Up, Doc?

Lenna's okra blossom

"Today I learned how to paint leaves on picture frames. Mr. Marlin talked about diseases on plants and how diseases spread" - Baylee

"I killed aphids in my garden today" - Josie

Josie's squash is infested with aphids, so Josie and Lexie picked them off today. This was a good lead-in to today's lesson about diagnosing problems in the garden. The young gardeners learned what kinds of things affect their plants, like animals, insects, the environment and diseases. They have seen insect and animal damage, and disease (bacterial wilt). They learned how to diagnose problems by looking at the symptoms, and comparing to normal plant conditions.

After the lesson, we worked on the picture frames we painted a few weeks ago. We took leaves from the gardens, put a layer of green paint on them, and pressed them on the frames to transfer the leaf print. The results were pretty cool!

Josie took this picture of her purple pepper

It's a Plot!

We've hit a dry spell, so the young gardeners watered their gardens today. Today's lesson was how to plan a garden and make the most use of the space, and Master Gardener Fred Deckman was on hand to help explain it all. The youngsters cut out pictures of plants for their fantasy gardens, and presented their gardens to the class. Snacks were mud and bugs, beetles and ants- yum! (chocolate pudding, gummy worms, raisins and chocolate sprinkles)

Here is a spotted cucumber beetle. Picture taken by Chris Veach last Monday in one of the gardens.