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".
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