THE GOSHEN NEWS
“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.”
