Growing Vegetables

Students at the Erie Heights YMCA Library have been working on becoming expert gardeners this year through learning about nutrition, vegetables, fruits, the growth process, seasons and weather, square-foot gardening, planting and garden maintenance, germination, pollination, cooking, and harvesting. Students learned about many of these aspects of gardening throughout the fall and winter months and decided to start seedlings for their garden in late winter. The children chose to start corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers and carrots from seed and watched as the plants grew large enough to place into the ground. In the spring, the students began to work with a group of Master Gardeners to plant the Erie Heights Garden. Using the square-foot gardening method, the students planted four raised bed gardens with vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Throughout the summer months students have been maintaining their garden by weeding, staking tall plants, building structures for climbing plants, pruning, and watering. Each week the students learn something new about plants, gardening, food, and nutrition and they eagerly await the fall months as harvest time quickly approaches.