by Barb Copeland

This year at IPS #43 we had four specific gardens, and four specific groups of children to work in their assigned garden. Our summer garden program for the children ran from June 21st to August 9th.

Every Monday, beginning June 21st, the youngest children, ages 5-7, came to the garden in two groups. Each group had an assigned garden. Every Wednesday, the older children came to the garden in three groups and were assigned theme gardens.

Shaped like a giant butterfly, our butterfly garden held several different herbs and flowers, including geraniums, mums, daisies, dusty miller and marigolds. There were special activities in the garden: we made stepping stones, transplanted hardy mum starts into four-inch pots and tasted herbs including green and purple basil, oregano, thyme and mint.

Our flowers grew, bloomed and were deadheaded so that they would bloom again. One of the favorite plants was the peppermint; the children loved touching, smelling and tasting it. They had requested strawberries to be in their garden. We tried to establish a small strawberry patch twice and were not successful. Perhaps next year!

Our pizza garden was a round garden containing plants and herbs that are on a pizza. We had pie shaped plantings of oregano, basil, purple basil, parsley, fennel, tomato, and green pepper plants. Around our pizza garden we planted garlic and light yellow marigolds (to represent the cheese). We also had chives planted in the very middle of the pizza. The young people discovered that if you ate chives, your spit would turn green! We were thrilled when the children found two Monarch Butterfly caterpillars in our pizza garden.

Everyone tasted Italian herbed butter, ate nacho chips with salsa, and ate some Greek dip with crackers. We were surprised when the children asked for a recipe, then come back the next week to say they had made it! We cut, tied, and dried our "pizza" herbs in preparation for our last day celebration garden pizza made by the children. They were delicious!

In our nacho garden the corn was planted in a large "X" that separated the hot peppers, tomatoes, parsley, and garlic. Unfortunately our onions did not survive the heat. We added succulent plants: prickly pear cactus, aloe vera, yucca, and hens and chickens, which also struggled in the heat.

Speaking of heat, it was a very hot summer. The favorite activity was watering the plants and each other. Our goal was that the young people learn how to care for a garden: watering and weeding, caring for and learning the names of the plants, showing, tasting how these herbs are used in the kitchen, caring for our garden tools, and taking pride in their work.

The garden was a favorite of all of the children; they enjoyed coming, working and did not want to leave at the end of their hour. Thanks to all who worked on this project and a big thanks to one of our neighbors, who allowed us to use his water supply.

It was a great summer in IPS #43's Garden. Look for our sign when you pass the garden.