 |
| Junior Master Gardeners garden and compost demonstration sight |
I recently completed the
USDA Master Gardener training and will blog about that experience in the near future. To repay the organization for training me, some volunteer work is required throughout the year and one of the projects I elected to volunteer for is
Junior Master Gardeners. They are a cooperative program between Master Gardeners, 4H, and the USDA extension office. Their goal is to teach and develop a love of gardening in youth.
A week from last Saturday, my four year old and I attended our first meeting and we had a BLAST! There were 40-50 kids there ranging in age from one to seventeen.
 |
| Finding Shiitake mushrooms |
 |
| My boy and the log stack |
They had a log cabin style structure of white oak logs that had been inoculated with Shiitake mushroom spores. It was placed on the cooler, shaded north side of the building and an automatic sprinkler system kept the logs moist. The kids got to find harvestable mushrooms on the logs and eat them for a snack later.
Click
HERE for some info about growing your own Shiitake mushrooms.
 |
| Getting to touch and feel the produce |
 |
| Hand painted garden markers |
They each painted their own rock to go in the garden. They helped weed the garden area and added them to the compost piles. They got to plant kohlrabi, lettuce, and three kinds of potato.
 |
| Peanut sprouter next to the last of last season's spaghetti squash |
 |
| Sprouting peanut. |
They each got to make a seed sprouter to take home so that they could watch firsthand a seed become a plant. The assembly was simply 3-4 fresh peanuts in a jar with some damp yarn. A plastic wrap cover was added to maintain the moisture level. We are going to plant these peanuts into the garden this year to give him ownership of his own garden plot area. A couple of side bonuses are that these peanuts will add nitrogen to the soil and we might get to eat some peanuts.
 |
| Cooling down and enjoying a snack. |
At the end they got some simple worksheets to do while they enjoyed a healthy snack that taught them about roots, fruits, seeds, and leaves. This was a great experience and we will definitely be back next month.
Posts
