On our 7th annual spring fun day, we had a fantastic turnout of kids, gardeners, and UMSL social work students. We weeded, spread an entire trailer of wood chips around the beds, and planted the following: tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, sweet corn, pop corn, honeydew, yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, and probably several other veggies I'm forgetting.
The kids had fun decorating a pot and planting a flower for mom or grandma. We also had several hula hoop contests and bubble and sidewalk chalk fun. Several kids learned about composting after lunch when they were finished with their apples or bananas. In fact, this was a turning point in our garden today: more kids wanted to help plant/work/learn than play! One of the teens stuck around to the very end to help clean up, and then he thanked us for teaching him to garden. He's been coming to the kids' events for several years. He admitted he thought it would be boring the first time, and was amazed that he enjoyed it and looked forward to the fun days. I look forward to seeing him more often at the garden than just on the fun days.
We had several visitors throughout the day, including two Kinloch officers that are looking to start a community garden in Kinloch. We love talking about our successes, and aren't afraid to talk about what we learned along the way that didn't work. I hope they are able to bring the idea to fruition in their community.
THANK YOU to all the kids, UMSL students, incredible volunteers and gardeners. Everyone involved contributes to the continued success of this amazing community space!!!
