“Pat ’em down,” called the master gardener to the 15 youngsters seated crosslegged in the dirt.
Larry Ringle, who volunteered to help the Boys & Girls Club of Goshen plant a garden adjacent to the Goshen facility, gave instructions recently to the club members.
“The soils are pretty good here,” Ringle said, and he compared it to his gardens at his Bristol home.
The children clutched spacers provided to keep the seeds from being planted too closely, and a garden hose served as a guide for the rows of plantings.
Among the vegetable seeds planted were those for green beans, radishes, squash, pumpkin and sunflower, while some flower seeds and tomato and pepper plants were also placed in the ground.
Linda Bailey, education director at the Boys & Girls Club, said the gardening project is one component of the club’s summer program and involved “lots of collaboration.”
She said members of Elkhart County Works Together, a local grass-roots initiative, had contacted her about the project. The garden plot was initially tilled by volunteers from Elkhart County Works Together and work release inmates.
Master gardener Ringle, with his wife Nancy, selected this garden project from a list provided by the Elkhart County Extension Service. Both Ringles are now retired.
Ringle tilled the site again before planting and lent his expertise to the work. He has both big and small gardens at his home in Bristol, where he grows items including asparagas, tomatoes, potatoes, beets and summer squash. He doesn’t grow corn because his home is near a woods, and the corn would attract raccoons.
Ringle said he still has some problems with “varmints gone ape,” especially now that the family’s cat died. He said the cat was an indoor animal “but had a ferocious appetite for moles, voles, chipmunks and rabbits.”
He expects the Boys & Girls Club garden to lose some produce to animals — both wild and human — but said thieves may leave the cherry tomatoes if the larger tomatoes are taken.
“It’s good for the kids to see where their vegetables come from — not just the grocery store,” Ringle said.
Bailey agreed, noting, “They can see things grow from start to finish.”
Life
Kids dig into gardening
- Life
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The ‘evolution’ of homeschooling
“Benefit number 9,267 of homeschooling.” That’s one of my favorite lines. I use it — any four-digit number is fine — when I hear something about public schooling I find objectionable, sad, mildly amusing, downright ridiculous or about which I’m simply glad to not have to bother.
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COLUMN: It’s a new year for all you gardeners
Believe it or not it’s countdown time until spring— maybe I’m stretching it a bit but planting time at all the greenhouses is about to begin. Cuttings will be arriving in just over a month and that means activity.
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Electoral homefront leaves mom the clear winner
It was the morning after the Iowa caucus. An eager nation had waited into the night, breathless, for an unnamed citizen in a pickup truck to arrive with the last of the votes.
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When babies bite while nursing and other thoughts
It’s too soon for toilet training — in my house, that is. My toddling, teething baby starts his second year next month (meaning he turns 1).
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Longtime church secretary retires
GOSHEN — For 15 years visitors to the office of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Goshen were greeted warmly with a big smile by former church secretary Veronica Gouker. And visitors or callers would soon find out what a wealth of information was stored within Gouker as she swiftly and efficiently handled requests.
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Grapes are a passion in southwest Michigan
Lake Michigan has an impact on the rolling hills of southwest Michigan for grape growers. All the way from the Indiana/Michigan state line, north to the Kalamazoo River, and west to the city of Kalamazoo, where the bulk of the growing is done, moist lake breezes prevent the extremes of heat and cold in the spring and summer months.
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What keeps you going during the lull of winter?
I’m never quite sure about January. First, there’s the cold, chilling to the bone. When I’m out walking the dog, a sharp western wind numbs my brain as well as my fingers.
Then there’s the realization that winter is still here for a couple of months. After the magic of the holidays, each day turns into every day. -
ICE ESCAPADES IN ELKHART
Winter was slow in coming to the Elkhart County area this year, but now it’s arrived and with it the traditional winter activities are finally available, such as snow-shoeing, sledding and ice skating.
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Questionable surgery leaves some mothers wounded
Amanda Gobble is angry. She’s working through it and putting her passion to good use for the benefit of others, but her frustration remains an unpleasant companion. This busy Elkhart mom is angry because her four babies were born via cesarean section, and she’s just not convinced they needed to be.
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Thankful for heritage of plain living on the prairie
I’d forgotten its beauty. Forgot how the dying sun streaks orange across the horizon just there where sky touches earth. Forgot how the twilight shades up into a velvety midnight blue before the darkness falls, curtain like, and the light goes out.
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