Growing our Future Gardeners by Arlene Hendrickson, Master Gardener

The Junior Gardening Program at Julington Creek Elementary was started by Beverly Fleming and Ms. Woodward, a kindergarten teacher. I was asked to take over the program three years ago and have loved it ever since. We have a small garden outside the window of the kindergarten pods. One half of the garden is planted with perennial butterfly-attracting flowers. The other half is planted with seasonal vegetables that I put in for the children to watch as they grow. We have had luck with lettuce, radishes, tomatoes and squash.

The children are a delight, funny, honest, happy and eager to learn. Hopefully, they learn from my monthly visits with them. This year the topics included beach treasures, cacti, and succulents. They are very visual learners, so I constantly roam my subdivision for ideas for topics, and of course, for samples of plants, tree branches, bird nests, and other materials suitable for their lessons. I share their pearls of wisdom and wonderful anecdotes with our Garden Club members at our monthly meeting. These children truly give me joy. I hope that these budding youngsters will grow up to be master gardeners who love to garden as much as I do, and want to share that love with the next "crop".

Bluebirds Are Our Happiness

Our secretary, Claire, sure is a busy gal. On the morning of 10/22 she attended the District IV Environmental Studies School planning session at the Garden Club of Jacksonville's center, and then darted off to our president, Mickey's to make bluebird houses with Carolyn, Kathy, Mickey, and Dianne. With some help from Mickey's husband, John, who cut out the pieces, the gals managed to turn out five move-in ready bluebird houses. The Garden Club makes bluebird houses.

We are very happy to have received donated cedar for our project.   It's one of the best woods you can have for making a birdhouse.  Are you inspired yet?  Then get informed!  The North American Bird Society can help you get started!  Bluebirds migrate to north Florida in early February, so get your birdhouse up in January and get in the habit of checking on it once a week so you won't miss the new arrivals!