Due to the government shutdown, this website is not being updated.

Youth Center kids get their hands dirty at Garden Club

  • Published
  • By Lee Ross
  • Nucleus editor
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Jean Sucher of the Youth Center is giving young folks at Kirtland a good foundation in gardening through the center's Garden Club.

Sucher, an avid gardener, helps the elementary school-age children at the center grow vegetables and herbs in several beds at the center. She teaches the kids to check the garden for moisture and look for signs that bugs or rabbits are getting into the crops, she said.

"These are the kinds of things we teach the kids to do," she said. "They look at the leaves and check the soil."

To deal with pests, Sucher said they will spray the plants with non-toxic bug repellents, like lemon juice, that will be safe for the kids to be around.

For the children at the Youth Center, it's a little adventure to go out to the garden on Fridays. Adam Burianek, one of the kids in the Garden Club, said he likes looking for signs that something got into the garden.

"We get to pretend to be detectives looking for rabbits and bugs," he said. "I learned about rabbits and that the plants need a certain amount of water."

He said he is most excited about the watermelon, and that he and his sister and mother once ate a 20-pound watermelon together. Spitting out the seeds is part of the fun, he said.

"Sometimes I pretend I'm in a jet shooting bullets," he said.

The idea that rabbits might enter the garden, as well as the prospect of eating watermelons and grapes, seemed to have captured the children's attention more than anything else. Garden club member Alyssa Hudlin was also interested in the pumpkins because she likes to eat pumpkin pie, she said.

Although it seems like it's all fun and games, the kids are putting in work and learning a great deal, Sucher said. They are making journals where they observe what happens when the plants have more or less sun and they share their interest and what they've learned about gardening with their families, she said. They also help with the planting and watering.

"They are really enthusiastic, and that energy is great, but they are also learning quite a bit about the plants," she said.