The big lime green Mrs. Meyer’s van showed up at Rosa Parks Elementary School on Friday, June 14th, and out popped four ambassadors to help with our CommunityGrows Summer Science Program. They came because we won a grant from the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA), which promotes community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada. The Mrs. Meyers grant not only gave us funding, but will also be providing gifts throughout the summer. Our first gift, which arrived last week, was hoses, knee pads and information boards on composting and other garden tips.
The highlight of the morning was working with the Buchanan YMCA youth in the upper garden, gleaning and breaking down the snap pea bed. First the kids got to eat the peas, then they got to dismantle the trellis, compost the vines, and re-purpose the soil. Then it quickly became an exploration of the underworld! Here was the “meat” of the day. Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! Inchworms, snails, creepy-crawlers, pincher bugs, sow bugs, spiders! What an exploration! Science can be so absorbing and interesting!
After cleaning their trowels, everyone got to pick juicy, ripe strawberries, wash them off, eat and savor them before they took off for their next adventure.
The Mrs. Meyer’s crew had so much fun! We hope they’ll come back another day.
