Arts & Entertainment
Kids Dig Gardening at Library
Junior master gardeners and parents help children warm up to gardening with cool-weather pansies.
“Did you know plants breathe?” Karen Lenahan asked a table full of children Thursday night in the meeting room.
Rachel Elkes did. “Through their leaves!” she said before even getting called on.
Rachel was one of five children ages 5-11 who learned to plant pansies at the library’s program Thursday.
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Instructors Karen Lenehan, Gayl Meier, and Alice Lang, both junior Master Gardeners from University of Maryland Extension, led the class. It was a repeat performance for them, after leading a successful in April.
Lenehan began the evening teaching the children the six basic parts of a plant, followed by an activity led by Lang to test their newfound knowledge.
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Things got messy near the end of the evening.
The young gardeners decorated plastic containers with foam stickers of snakes and flowers. Then they moved to the back of the room where they scooped handfuls of dirt and planted rooted pansies in the containers.
The event drew a combination of returning families and first-comers.
“We come to events at the library a lot,” said Lisa Sheen, who brought her son Yakov. “They’re good because the kids get to move around a lot, but they’re still also learning.”
Igor Vaiman, who brought his daughter Yana, said “My wife saw a sign for the program. This is the first time we’ve come to one of these, but we plan to come to more in the future.”
The library and instructors anticipated a greater attendance. “We accounted for 25 students,” said assistant manager Amanda Myers, “but the rain must have turned some people away.”
Regardless, organizers considered the evening a success.
“In April, the room was full before we even began,” said Lenehan. “But tonight it was nice getting more one-on-one with the kids, something you can’t do with a big group.”
The library plans another Kids' Gardening event in the spring, said Myers. Lenehan, Meier, and Lang say they will return to help the children plant tomatoes.
The three also intend to eventually hold the event at other libraries in the Baltimore County Public Library system, Lenehan said. “We just want to get young people excited about gardening.”