Garden Project- At the Farm with the Kids DAY 2

So, this week jumps off the second week of Tuskegee University's Garden Project. For those of you who have not yet read my post for Day 1 of the Garden Project, know this- each week Tuskegee University social work interns meet with local children and participate in gardening activities. I'm here to tell you about my experiences this week.

This week we had a slightly different group of children- some had come last week and some had not. There were about 10 kids this week compared to last week’s 7. Although there weren’t many, I believe we had a good time.

Remember- we’re here to garden! Our first task of the day was to empty potting soil packs into a group of raised gardening beds. These are four pieces of wood nailed together that make a big empty square. If you pour soil and seeds in it, not too many weeks later you’ll have a little garden! That, in essence, is what we did today.

My fellow interns and I arrived in the morning and awaited the arrival of the children. Not too many minutes later, a first batch of children showed up. I walked up to them, greeted them, and told them what the agenda for the day was. Soon after I finished telling the children what we were to do, the second batch of children showed up. I distributed this pile of beautiful gardening gloves to the children.

As we did the week before, the children decided with whom they would work. A young girl chose me. She had a little brother as well who automatically goes where she goes. She’s about 9 while he is around 4 or 6. So we got the two big potting soil bags, poured them in there, and broke down the dirt inside. This was the part that everybody loved! It was a bit exciting- getting in there, getting my feet wet and my nails dirty! My little partner (the young girl with whom I was working) talked about how soft the “dirt” was. I can attest to the fact- it’s true!

So we beat and leveled out the soil in the raised beds as much as we were able. Next, we placed white sticks in the soil and made rows for planting seeds. You can guess what we did next: we planted seeds! My internship (actually called the Junior Practicum) teacher came around and passed out sun flower seeds so that we all could plant. My little partner was very excited- she almost took over!

So we planted the seeds, covered them up, and we will see them begin to grow in no time!

This Garden Project is a work in progress. Here are some brainstorms that I drew of possible things to do outside of the gardening about quizzes: