Young Green Thumbs Celebrate Bountiful Garden Harvest
Kaylen Fitchett, 7, picks tomatoes at New Roots Youth Garden on Randolph Avenue and Fig Street. (Wave photo)
By KAREN JOLLY DAVIS
Cape Charles Wave
August 12, 2012
The New Roots Youth Garden produced 194 pounds of vegetables this summer — and 18 young gardeners. At their Green Thumb Picnic on Saturday, they celebrated both the bounty of their harvest and — for the adults — the success of a public/private partnership that made the program possible.
“The Cape Charles Rotary donated about $6,000 and over 300 man-hours,” said Rotary president Bill Payne. “Eyre Baldwin donated workers to put up the fence. We couldn’t have done it without him.”
The Town provided land for the gardens at the corner of Randolph and Fig, as well as the services of Jen Lewis, Cape Charles Recreation Coordinator.
Project leader Tammy Holloway said the summer program lasted eight weeks, with a different “garden guru” teaching each week. The kids, aged 6 to 12 years old, learned about the soil, insects and parts of the plant. They learned what grows on the Shore, and what products are made from local agricultural crops like cotton and soybeans. They even learned how the Shore’s harvest impacts the state, Holloway said.
Fifteen adult volunteers shepherded the young gardeners and accompanied them on field trips, including to the Mason Beach Fruit Farm in Pungoteague to see the blueberries. [Read more…]
