It’s been a growing season full of surprising weather and lots of hard work for the Junior Garden Club in Elmira, as kids and organizers took in the summer’s fruitful bounty at Bristow Park during a garden party August 7.
“We didn’t have to water much,” said Irene Dickau, who led this year’s group along with Barb Finn.
![Chloe and Carmen Koch were among the youths planting, hoeing and growing with Elmira’s Junior Garden Club this summer. They joined their team to admire the harvest on August 7. [Elena Maystruk / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/post_JRGarden.jpg)
This year’s garden was geared towards 8- and 10-year-old kids for the first time. In previous years the club focused on a larger variety of age groups.
“We thought they would have the interest, skills and they could do a lot of the activities,” Finn added.
Indeed, activities like hoeing, weeding – quite a bit of weeding it seems, Dickau said – and harvesting were a regular demand, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.
Sisters Chloe and Carmen Koch enjoyed planting tomatoes, that king of hearty produce and their favourite. It was a delicate process that required careful handling of the plant’s fragile stalks.
“It’s my favourite vegetable. I like to watch it grow and I like seeing nature,” said Chloe, 10.
Carmen, 8, added, “I like gardening because it gets you out of the house and it just gives you something to do on a weekly basis. It’s fun taking care of the plants and watching them grow.”
July saw the kids enjoy a healthy treat, with a salad bar where some of the freshly-grown crops were washed and made into salads to enjoy. Kids also had a chance to work with the food they planted by caring for a unique herb and coming up with recipes. Finn and Dickau focused on getting the kids to use their senses as they came up with recipes based on looks, taste and smell.
“They really enjoy some of the things and if they’ve not tasted it before, ‘Oh this is good,’ and so they learn,” Dickau said.
The two leaders agree that gardening is a trending pastime, and getting kids involved at an early age can help them learn to be food-conscious.
“If the kids get lots of experiences outdoors and then learn to start nurturing things, they can have a positive impact on the plants for themselves and others – that’s the goal,” Finn said.
