Wow, there is some of everything in this project! Exercise, writing, reading, great food, intergenerational opportunities (truth, beauty, justice...all that good stuff).
Kathy Larson at the Bloomer Public Library teamed
up with some area Chippewa Valley Master Gardeners to provide a gardening class
at the Library this summer. Children met weekly for a brief lesson to learn
gardening tips from area Master Gardeners.
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| Making compost! |
The group walked to the Bloomer Community Gardens where they planted and tended
to plants.
Then they walked back
to the library where children reflected on their experience at the garden and
created a journal entry about the weather conditions and how the plants looked
in the garden that day.
The program has been well attended with an average of fifteen children at each program. Parents often
attended with their children and occasionally senior citizens from the nearby
senior housing wandered over to the garden to chat with the children.
After six weeks of hard work in the
garden, the children had a garden party where produce grown in the garden was
used to make their own salads and vegetable pizzas. Residents of the Maplewood
Nursing home were in attendance and
enjoyed the food made
from the harvest and sang a song for the children about gardening.
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| Enjoying the fruits of their labor! |
How many other library gardens were there this summer?
