Youth Gardeners-Garden BEEs
October 2025 by Karen Powers
Welcome Fall
The Garden Bees started their October meeting indoors, where led by Karen Powers and Sheila Kahrimanian, they all painted their own terra cotta flowerpot. They added a mum to their flowerpot and reviewed the care and watering needed for the mums to survive at their home.
The older Garden Bees members had participated in a STEM project of growing sweet potatoes hydroponically. Following documenting their growth weekly for six weeks, the members then took their sprouting sweet potatoes out to the garden to plant. Once planted, they harvested more green peppers, eggplants, onions, and okra to take home to their families. Prior to heading home, the Garden Bees enjoyed their “spooky” Halloween cupcakes and juice.
Garden BEEs
Youth Gardeners- Garden BEEs
September 2025
Stepping Into the Garden
It was a hot and sunny September afternoon for the Garden BEEs first meeting of the 2025-26 school year. With the growth in popularity, over twenty, first through fifth graders, joined Karen Powers, Sheila Kahramanian, and Jane Kistler (an outstanding new member) and the staff of the Boys & Girls club to make steppingstones. The Youth Gardeners donned their aprons and gloves as each designed their own steppingstone, smoothing out the molded cement and enhancing them with stones, crystals and etchings. Once the decorations were completed and the steppingstones placed in the sun to dry, a group of BEEs planted spinach in an open bed. After a good washing up, the Youth Gardeners enjoyed cupcake treats.
The kids came back together the following week to find all their steppingstones dry and formed. The stones were removed from the molds and placed around the stone flower disc. Once a wide strip of grass is removed between the parking lot and sidewalk entrance to the teen center, the steppingstones with pea gravel fill will be arranged to create an attractive walkway. The BEEs then picked a variety of leaf lettuces to take home and share with their families.
Youth Gardeners Gardener BEEs September 2025
Summer 2025 by Karen Powers
Thanks to a rainy early summer and then to an amazing volunteer watering team (Sheila Kahramanian, Ann Hall, Sue Wyatt, Janet Jonah, Karen Kimball, Pam Gaskill, and Janet Hikes) the youth community garden thrived. The Boys and Girls Club summer camp members of all ages were busy weeding, fertilizing, watering, and most importantly, harvesting their crops. The club members were able to take home over 250 pounds of produce to share with their families. This included yellow squash, zucchini, green beans, white, red, and sweet potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, onions, strawberries, blackberries, and a few raspberries and blueberries. Extra produce that was not taken home by members was donated to RCS, including enough squash and zucchini for them to make a large casserole to share with the needy for lunch. The corn failed to produce ears (looking into the problem) and we learned that planting watermelon and cantaloupe in the same bed produced some very unusual, crosspollinated fruit. The basil grew and grew and grew despite being cut and shared numerous times. The final cutting of the basil was donated to a new restaurant, Firefly Café, located around the block. The asparagus plants are flourishing and well established, so hopefully to be able to cut some shoots next summer. The young fig tree is loaded with ripening figs.
As part of the recently awarded Rachel Ray Healthy Habits grant awarded to the Boys and Girls Club, the teens used freshly picked zucchini and freshly dug sweet potatoes to bake ten loaves of zucchini bread and eight pumpkin pies topped with home-made whipped cream. They shared their confections with the entire club and staff and received a 10 out of 10 in a vote of approval. The teens have plans to continue to utilize fruits and vegetables from the garden as they develop recipes for their cookbook project.
Zinnias, wildflowers, and sunflowers filled three beds in the front of the teen- center and the bed along the back fence with beautiful blooms. The Garden Bees members along with many volunteers from the Trent Woods Garden Club held a very successful flower sale. They used the proceeds to treat the summer campers to an ice cream sundae party and to purchase a much-needed drip watering system for the gardens. The dried sunflower seeds were toasted, seasoned, and packaged into giveaway bags that they shared with Boys and Girls club administrators and supporters.
Garden Bees Youth Garden Club
May 2025 by Karen Powers
The Garden Bees held their last meeting of the year. The members completed their curriculum on pollinators as they viewed two short videos of the life cycle of painted lady butterflies. They then observed their painted lady caterpillars crawling around and eating their specially formulated food solution. They hurried out to the gardens and excitedly picked five nice size cucumbers before a short rainfall. The club members enjoyed eating some locally grown blueberries and especially enjoyed eating the cucumbers they had grown. Once the rain passed, they went back out into the gardens and after adding the cucumber peels to their compost bin, they toured the gardens and discussed and identified all the thriving fruit and vegetable plants, thanks to all the rainfall over the previous few days. They picked peas and green beans from the few plants they had planted in mid-March. They were very happy to see all the blooms on the watermelon plants, and super excited to see a small developing melon. The club members then filled the watering cans with fertilizer and water from the rain barrel and treated all the beds. They concluded the meeting enjoying cupcakes and each member took home a butterfly craft project to make at home. Many of the club members will be attending summer camp and are looking forward to continuing to care for the garden and especially to get to take home a share of their home-grown produce.
April 2025 Garden Bees
Youth Garden Club
By Karen Powers
The Garden Bees gathered on a sunny, but windy afternoon at the Broad Street Christian Church. They were thrilled to see the daffodils, tulips, and wildflowers they had planted in the fall blossoming. The club members then started out the busy day planting spring vegetables including corn, zucchini, cantaloupe, eggplant, snow peas, and green beans. After discussing how earthworms help fertilize and aerate the soil, lots of laughter, squeals, and excited chatter was heard as they examined the squirming little critters. They then placed all the earthworms into the garden plots watching as the worms all quickly tunneled underground. The club members had planned to make a bug craft project, but as the wind threatened to blow their craft pieces away, they decided to take them home to put together later. After a good hand washing, they celebrated with cupcakes, cookies, and gummy worm treats. Finally, they generously watered their garden plots before heading home.
TWGC Garden BEEs, Youth Gardeners March 2025 by Karen Powers
The Garden Bees gathered on a sunny, but windy afternoon at the Broad Street Christian Church. They were thrilled to see the daffodils, tulips, and wildflowers they had planted in the fall blossoming. The club members then started out the busy day planting spring vegetables including corn, zucchini, cantaloupe, eggplant, snow peas, and green beans. After discussing how earthworms help fertilize and aerate the soil, lots of laughter, squeals, and excited chatter was heard as they examined the squirming little critters. They then placed all the earthworms into the garden plots watching as the worms all quickly tunneled underground. The club members had planned to make a bug craft project, but as the wind threatened to blow their craft pieces away, they decided to take them home to put together later. After a good hand washing, they celebrated with cupcakes, cookies, and gummy worm treats. Finally, they generously watered their garden plots before heading home.
Garden Bees Youth Garden Club
February 2025 by Karen Powers
After an unseasonable cold, snowy, and icy early February causing postponement of our scheduled February meeting, mother nature treated us to a spectacularly warm Tuesday to finally hold our meeting. The youth club eagerly hopped off the bus and immediately threw on their aprons and gloves. Half of the group started assembling their bird houses and then chose their colors to paint their constructed houses. The other half pulled up the recently picked broccoli plants and cleared the bed except for a few cabbage plants whose heads weren’t quite large enough to pick. They then began planting potatoes into this bed. The two teams then switched positions. While the one group began building and painting their bird houses, the other group harvested the second crop of collards as well as the last of the radishes, carrots, and lettuce. They then finished planting the potatoes. The pulled plants were added to the compost pile and the remaining beds were cleared and prepared for spring plantings in March once the risk for frost is no more. Prior to heading home, they enjoyed eating the raw broccoli doused in Ranch Dressing. In addition to their proudly made bird houses, many of the members were excited to take home bags of collards, broccoli, radishes, and carrots to share with their families.
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Garden Bees Youth Gardeners January 2025
by Karen Power
Amidst an unseasonably cold day, the Garden Bees gathered at JT Barber school to start learning about pollinators. The club members viewed a short slideshow that prompted a vigorous discussion on how birds can function as pollinators and ways that they can spread seeds. Janet Jonah and Sheila Kahramanian demonstrated the day’s project of making pinecone bird feeders. After donning their aprons and disposable gloves, the group coated large pinecones with lard and then covered them with bird seed under the help and guidance of Sheila, Janet, Ann Hall, Sue Wyatt, and Karen Powers. Each club member packaged their pinecone feeder to safely take home and hang in their own yards. Extra pinecone feeders were hung at their garden plots at Broad Street Christian Church.
Garden Bees Youth Gardener Program December 2024
by Karen Powers
Collard greens are commonly eaten as part of a Southern tradition to bring forth good luck and prosperity in the new year.
Collard greens are extremely nutrient-rich, contributing ample amounts of vitamins A, K, B-6 and C, calcium, iron, and magnesium.
The Garden Bees crop of collard greens that was started as seeds in September and transplanted into one of the garden plots in October, grew and flourished over the past couple of months. Today, the large outer leaves were harvested, leaving the young, central leaves undisturbed to allow them to mature into a future crop. The club members washed, removed the central stems, and tore the leaves into smaller pieces. The greens were placed in an Insta Pot with chicken broth and spices. After 25 minutes of steaming, the tender greens were devoured by the members, several of them enjoying two and three helpings. Although collards were not a new food for most of the kids, many voiced how surprised they were at how delicious the greens were and more importantly how proud (and a few amazed) they were that they had grown them.
November 2024 Youth Gardeners by Karen Powers
he Garden Bees spent the first part of a crisp November afternoon inspecting their flourishing fall plantings. Under the direction of Ann Hall, Sue Wyatt, Sheila Kahramanian, and Karen Powers the club members broke up into teams to construct three spectacular scarecrows. The two gentleman scarecrows were clad in plaid shirts, jeans, suspenders, and straw hats. The lady scarecrow was radiant in a brilliant pink blouse, denim skirt, apron, and straw hat embellished with bright pink flowers. After the scarecrows were firmly set amongst the fall crops, the group harvested the radishes that they planted during their previous meeting. They all tasted their home grown produce, but not surprisingly, most of them were not fans. The collards, broccoli, winter squash, and cabbage will be ready for harvesting in the next several weeks and will hopefully fare better. After enjoying some treats, they departed for home with miniature scarecrows in hand to decorate potted plants at home.
October 2024 Youth Gardeners by Karen Powers
The Garden Bees enjoyed a spectacular day of planting. They were thrilled to see that the seeds they planted in September had sprouted and thrived. They took advantage of a crisp fall day and great teamwork to transplant the collard, cabbage, winter squash, broccoli, radish, carrot, and lettuce seedlings into the prepared beds. They also planted beds with daffodil, tulip, and iris bulbs along with wildflower seeds to welcome spring. The club members added mums and pansies to beautify the beds for the fall. Finally, they trimmed the entrance to the youth building with mums, pumpkins, and a fall wreath.
September 2024 Youth Gardeners by Karen Powers
The Trent Woods Garden Club has partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain – New Bern JT Barber Elementary School Unit to establish a youth garden club. The Broad Street Christian Church has generously offered the club access to gardening plots. The initial meeting was scheduled to prepare the beds for fall plantings, but unfortunately, they had to be moved indoors due to inclement weather. The enthusiastic youth group led by Karen Powers, Ann Hall, and Sheila Kahrimanian pivoted seamlessly. The Garden Bees discussed the necessary components for germinating and growing seeds. They closely inspected the make-up of soils and compost, and after viewing a short video on seed germination, the youth group mapped out which fall vegetables to plant in the garden plots. Their choices included carrots, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, collards, lettuce, and winter squash. The youth group donned colorful aprons and gloves, then planted seeds into seed starting trays with hopes of transplanting the seedlings into the garden beds at the October meeting. The meeting was concluded with delicious ‘dirt and worms’ (chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, and gummy worms) treats.
May 2023 TWGC and the entire second grade class of Oaks Road Academy visited Cool Springs. The kids learned about different flora and fauna.
Youth Gardeners
April 2023
GARDEN BEES – by Paula Hartman
Our April meeting with the BEES was very exciting. We introduced “Butterflies”- with their life cycle. We spoke about the importance of butterflies in today’s world. Then, the BEES sat quietly as we transferred the larvae to the habitat. The caterpillars were quite active as Ms Frances had been watching them for the past week. We hope that the butterflies will emerge within 2 weeks. The teacher assured us that she will call us. We bought 2 cups of larvae with 6 caterpillars in each cup (buy one, get one…ha ha) So we are anxiously awaiting the call! We also brought a spider plant and had the BEES clip a baby which they promptly placed in a OUI jar(recycled) and placed on windowsill with water. This was the horticulture lesson for the day. They will watch for roots to emerge and we will bring flower pots and soil for them to plant for Mother’s Day . Then, Ms Kathy distributed materials to make Mother’s Day cards. That cricket is amazing! (ask Kathy)
So, all in all, we had a very bzzzy day. Also, We will be accompanying the BEES and the rest of the second graders to Cool Springs on May 12—it’s going to be so very fun and informative for us all.
Watch for updates about the butterflies!
February 2023 Youth Gardeners
Trent Woods Garden Club volunteers visited with Oaks Rod Academy second graders on Valentine’s Day. The day started with reviewing last month’s lessons and the kids had checked off the bird visitors they observed at home at their own feeders. They taught the children how to make floral designs using oasis (new Word!!), greens, and mini carnations which they placed in recycled punch bowl cups. The results were beautiful. The BEES gave an arrangement to both their teacher and the principal! They also created Valentine cards and each one was unique! They even had time to check out the gardens, pull the radishes and disperse wildflower seeds (which were from NCDOT). Unfortunately, the daffodil bulbs they planted in November have not bloomed yet—next month hopefully! All in all, our visit was very bzzzzy…can you imagine that we do this all within an hour and 15 minutes!
Another bzzzzy meeting with the Garden BEES of Oaks Road Academy. We were pleased to welcome a new member to our team: Karen Powers. We now have 6 TWGC members (Frances Eder, Kathy Perretta, Carole Letellier, Ann G. Hall, Karen Powers, and Eileen Griswold) who work together to bring fun and education to these second graders.
Our theme was “BIRDS”. We talked about cardinals and bluebirds and how one can differentiate male from female. We introduced new vocabulary such as camouflage, habitat, parts of the bird, etc. We had 4 activities running at the same time: making feeders with pinecones, lard and birdseed, writing poems and essays about birds (using new vocabulary from a word search), drawing their favorite bird and pulling radishes in the garden. Now perhaps you may think that this is rather ambitious to accomplish with 22 little ones in an hour or so…well, we did it and the children were great! They even had time to hang some of the feeders in a tree outside their classroom. For homework, after bundling their very messy creations in waxed baggies, they will watch which birds come to their feeders at home and check off on the Bird Log Poster (designed by Ann) every day for the month. (This should be a very interesting tally).
So, as usual, it was all fun, BUT WAIT…one more activity was the arrival of Gail Krielow, former TWGC President, who loves to knit, who presented each child with a hat, scarf and mittens in various colors and designs. What a special gift for these children. So, after our activities they put on their gifts for the group picture. Thank you again, Ms Gail, for bringing such joy to the BEES.
Next meeting is on Feb. 14 and we’ll have some special activities for all!
By Paula Hartman
Our meeting in December was very bzzzy as usual. We were elated to see how well the gardens are producing. The radishes were ready to pull and the collards should be full by January meeting. However, the onions are taking more time, but should be up in early spring. Today we introduced succulents and how to grow them. The BEES learned why cacti were succulents and how they are grown. We spoke about deserts and thorns and all facts about these easy to grow plants. Even more so, the excitement grew as each of the children received a succulent to take home. Next the BEES made ornaments out of recycled Christmas cards cut into circles and attached to felt pieces in a small embroidery hoop. The white felt is made from recycles plastic bottles! The ornaments were really cute but hard to describe!! We also reminded the BEES of the National Forest Service Poster contest where they are to create posters to promote Woodsy Owl’s mantra: “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.”
So, all in all, we had a very productive meeting. Thank you to all our TWGC members (Carol Letellier, Kathy Perretta, Frances Eder, Ann Hall and Eileen Griswolde) who make our visits to Oaks Road Academy so special. We visit again on January 18 if any of you are inspired to join us. Happy New Year.
TWGC met with our second graders at Oaks Road Academy. After a lesson about trees and bulbs, the group planted a tree in honor of Arbor Day and spring bulbs. The students also wrote thank you notes to Mr Roger at Tractor Supply for providing the red maple tree.
The BEES are shown here learning about the crops of Craven County from Kathy Perretta. They were able to touch and smell all the samples provided by the Craven Extension office. Here the BEES are planting their cuttings from last month’s meeting. TWGC volunteers Carole Letellier and Ann G. Hall are helping.
September 2022
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
Youth Gardeners
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
We did visit the BEES- just before they closed the school! Dave Gover, Lori Gover’s husband, is a beekeeper and gave a presentation about bees to the entire second grade class in the library. After his program, we went back to our classroom of Garden BEES, reviewed his lesson and then we had the students make butterfly favors for our cancelled convention. The BEES were very creative and enjoyed the activity. We will keep them until the meeting is held (probably at end of August). We also checked out our garden and the peach tree we put in for Arbor Day. All of which are doing well. We may not be able to meet with the BEEs again this school year. We just hope that everyone is staying safe and maybe getting a lot of gardening done.
Our February meeting fell the day before Valentine’s Day, so we had a very special agenda for our Garden BEES! First, we reviewed last month’s lessons. Ms. Ann created a unique Bird log, “the Birds I See” with pictures of birds found in North Carolina. We asked the students which ones they saw on or near their bird feeders. Their answers were quite interesting. Happily they did remember the state bird and the differences between male and female cardinals and the different size and shapes of bluebirds. Ms. Sylvia brought individual baggies of supplies so each BEE could make a Valentine card. And what would Valentine’s Day be without flowers? After a brief Floral Design 1-2-3, the children made beautiful arrangements. First, they placed greens from our yards into the chopped-up oasis in recycled mugs and then they finished by adding beautiful flowers. Each design was special, and we know their parents appreciated these gifts. The kids also had the horticulture corner where Ms. Mary and Ms. Eileen reviewed how to plant seeds and the BEES planted snap peas. We also were pleased to see the daffodils which we planted in November were blooming. So, all in all, we had a very bzzzy and productive meeting of the Garden BEES.
Here are some photos of our recent visit on January 15, 2020 to our second-grade class of Oaks Road Academy. We presented a lesson about birds specifically why they are important in our world and how to identify different birds by color, shape and size. The northern cardinal was emphasized as it is the state bird. The cardinal is the state bird of 8 other states. We taught that all birds need help in the winter to survive and so we had the BEES make birdfeeders from pinecones gathered from local forest areas, cemeteries and back yards. Lard was slathered onto the cone and then the cone was rolled in bird seed. The BEES really enjoyed this project as noted in these photos. We hung 4 feeders on a tree in the playground area so all the students could watch for visitors. Our students were given the assignment to keep a log as to which birds and how many came to their feeders.
Paula Hartman, Lori Gover. Carol Letellier and Eileen Griswold
What a bzzzy December meeting we enjoyed with the Garden BEES at Oaks Road Academy on Dec. 8. We used an onion to demonstrate how bulbs grow from the inside out and then proceeded to plant daffodils in their garden. The paper whites which we gave the teacher last month suffered from too much water, so we reinforced the lesson not to overwater plants. A surprise visitor accompanied us this month with gifts for all the children. Ms. Gail Krielow, Past President of TWGC, spent the fall knitting a hat, mittens and a scarf for each of the BEES. How excited and thankful the children were. There was an array of colors throughout the classroom. While groups were outside planting bulbs, we reinforced our lessons from last month- ie Arbor Day and recycling by distributing Word searches and work sheets.
We also mentioned again the National Forest Service Poster contest about Woodsy Owl and hope the students will practice designing and coloring an entry by mid-January. Remember, “Lend a Hand, care for the Land’ is Woodsy’s motto.
Then we all came together to hear the legend of the poinsettia, a traditional Christmas plant. In addition, instructions on the care of the poinsettia were reiterated as we surprised all the BEES with their very own plant! Thanks to Lowe’s who donated them. So we hope that the plants and the knitted attire arrived home safe and sound. In January, the focus of our visit will be birds of North Carolina. Stay tuned to what we have planned. If interested in joining us to work with these second graders, please contact Carol or Paula.
The children will plant the seeds in the spring.
October 2019 Youth Gardener Meeting
We had a slow start this year as we had a new teacher and classroom to establish before we met the children. We finally went to Oaks Road Academy on Friday, Oct. 4. What a great group of 25 eager second graders! But did you know there is preparation work to be done before this initial visit? First, we needed to get the fall garden established by picking up and amending the gardens with 1600 pounds of compost from our local landfill in Tuscarora. At our first meeting, we introduced seeds and how they grow. The BEES planted radish and spinach seeds, in addition to broccoli, collards and lettuce plants. In the wildflower area, they sprinkled seeds from NCDOT plus some poppy seeds. The BEES are expected to maintain the gardens until we return next month.
Environment and habitat were the words of the day. So, we introduced our mascot, Woodsy Owl, combining his motto of “Lend A Hand, Care for the Land” with the need to recycle and reuse to help the world around us. For a craft activity, the BEES made Woodsy puppets which they seemed to really enjoy (as witnessed by the photos). Our visit was very bzzzy as always and if you would like to join us, we return on Nov. 1. We will be introducing Arbor Day by planting a tree plus making decorations for the hospital tree. We’ll also squeeze in a lesson about bulbs and plant daffodils. Call Carol Letellier or Paula Hartman if interested! Happy Fall! The Garden Ladies: Frances Eder, Eileen Griswold, Lori Gover, Ann Hall, Sylvia Cotton, and Kathy Perretta.
TWGC reaches out every month with a visit to our second grade “Bees” at Oak Road Academy. Teaching the children about plants, trees, vegetables, nature and the environment. TWGC members help the children with ongoing projects such as: planting a vegetable garden and later enjoying the fruits of their labors, planting a tree for Arbor Day, learning about the National Forestry Service and their mascot Smokey the Bear, to craft projects the kids get to take home. A lovely healthy snack is provided and everyone thoroughly enjoys their time together!