Weed and feed: Students learn gardening lessons well
A group of home-schooled students is learning that if you work hard, you'll see the fruits of your labor.
Or vegetables.
The students, who come from all over the Northwest suburbs, are volunteering with their parents at the vegetable garden at the Indian Trails Library in Wheeling.
And whatever vegetables they don't take home with them are dropped off at Knupper's Nursery in Palatine for people with low incomes. The students are participating in the Daily Herald Giving Garden program, which asks gardeners to take extra produce to food pantries.
"If you have an abundance of something, you should share it with others who don't have enough," said Lori Leucht, the library's assistant programming coordinator who organized the gardening project. "And that's a good lesson to learn."
Through a partnership with the Wheeling Garden Club, the library started the program in May as a way to teach kids about gardening and helping the community. Leucht invited this group of students to participate because she home schools her children, too, and figured this would be a great learning opportunity and a chance for the kids to get to know each other.
"They have a responsibility to come to weed and to take care of what they started," Leucht said. "They're watching things start from a tiny seed and blossom into this huge plant and things you can eat."
Joyce Stemp, a member of the Wheeling Garden Club, helped the group decide which vegetables to plant. The library's maintenance staff waters the plants, but the rest of the job is left to Stemp and the students. They come in about once a week to weed and harvest the zucchini, squash, summer squash, green peppers, cherry and regular tomatoes, carrots, beets, green beans, onions, cabbage, eggplant and various herbs.
"A lot of kids (didn't) know that beets grow in the ground and that eggplants look like this," Stemp said, "and with the prices of food and gasoline, people that use the food pantries certainly would appreciate having the fresh produce."
Amy Burnham of Prospect Heights tends to the garden with her home-schooled children every week. She said she uses tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce, adds onions and carrots to her chicken soup and fries eggplant and zucchini as side dishes.
"I like to teach (my children) diligence and to work hard, and there's always a benefit to that," Burnham said.
The students in the group range from about 4 years old to sixth grade, Leucht said.
"The boys like to get dirty and dig," she said. "The girls like to see the things grow, week by week."
Stemp said the group has donated about 25 pounds of vegetables so far. They'll be done harvesting soon, but both she and Leucht hope to continue the program next summer.
"It's fun because being home-schooled you don't get to see other kids every day," said Netanya Sigler, 12, of Wheeling. "And you aren't just making (the garden) for yourself or whoever's working on it; you're giving it away to other people."