News from Junior Gardening

The Junior Gardening committee celebrated Arbor Day  with the 4th and 5th grade classes at Wharton Elementary school on Friday April 27th, 2007. Sandy Kulp, Susan Brimo-Cox, Shirley Flosnik, Marian Jarina and Celeste Yaras attended. Special thanks to Shirley Flosnik and Marian Jarina who had attended Convention and still took the time to be at the school. We started the program with a proclamation officially marking the celebration.

Elements of the program included: 

• Discussion of the National tree, the Oak, Pennsylvania's state tree, the Hemlock, and Nebraska's state tree, the Cottonwood.
• Quote from Frank Loyd Wright "The best friend on earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically we have one of the greatest resources of the earth"
• Explanation of why we chose the Malus X Centurion Flowering Crabapple to plant on the school grounds
• Marian covered information on choosing the proper tree for your site and care of the tree.
• Learning "The tree in the wood", a round song - Mr Fearer (principal) played the piano and did a great job getting the entire group involved.
• Susan and Sandy read the Poem Dialogue of a Man and a Tree. (Susan was a great tree). Sandy read 2 other poems and really engaged the children with her pre-reading introductions.
• A contest is underway to name the tree. The children are submitting names and the winning name along with the botanical name will be put on a marker and placed by the tree.

The group then went outside to the planting location and heard more about how to prepare the hole for proper planting from Mr Miller (head of landscaping, Rich Farm Market).

The celebration of Arbor day by the 4th and 5th graders was covered by The Herald Standard. Thanks to the entire entire committee for all the hard work  that made this a special program

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Wanted

The Junior Gardening committee is planning for the planting of the 6 raised beds in front of Wharton Elementary School. We have chosen the themes for the gardens and now are looking for ways to get the plant material. We want to use perennials are much as possible to reduce the maintenance of the beds.

The themes are:

• Animal garden
  All plants used  must have animal names such as toad lily, tiger lily, chicks and hens, cat's whiskers etc. You get the picture!
• The five senses
  Plant material should appeal to sight, smell, touch, taste or hearing. One bed for each sense.

While you are potting up material for the annual plant sale, consider our Junior gardening beds and if you have anything that would fit our themes. Some plant material may repeat among the beds such as lamb's ear, which can be in the animal garden as well as the touch garden. Suggestions for material to use in any bed are welcome too. Please contact Celeste on 724-329-5548