"Sowing the Seeds of Harmony through Nature"
About this committee:
This committee offers services and knowledge to a youth group within the community.
Its goal is to promote interest in ecology, horticulture, and design while stimulating a lifetime involvement with nature. Currently, members are teaming with Daisy/Brownie Troop #6142.
Parkland Garden Club partnered with Upper Macungie Township Recreation Supervisor Emily Crosby-Piszczek to offer a gardening activity to help children who are attending the summer camp learn about seeds, soil, and earthworms. PGC's Helen Papathanasiou, Gail Micca, Karly Lazo and Vivki Sorg developed the gardening workshop which was offered to children aged 6 through 12 on June 18th, 19th and 25th, 2024 at Jaindl, Veterans and Fogelsville elementary schools.
The campers were divided into groups by age and began the activity by listening and answering questions posed by Barbara Campbell. Barbara read a book called “The Saved Seed” written by Brenda Moore, the current president of National Garden Clubs, Inc. The book illustrates how seeds saved from carving a pumpkin at Halloween can be planted to grow a vine with new pumpkins for the next year.
Gail Micca brought a tray of tiny basil plants that she started from seeds and prepared small pots of a rich soil mixture. She instructed the children to carefully separate one seedling to plant in their pots. The campers then had their choice of a bean, pumpkin or squash seed to plant in another pot.
Karly Lazo brought earthworm castings to add to the soil. Karly talked about the importance of earthworms for healthy plants and brought a tray of worms that the children were excited to see and touch.
It was a successful and enjoyable program. In addition to Helen, Gail, Barbara and Karly, thanks go out to Carol, Mary, Megan, Maria, Ardith, Millie and Brenda who assisted with the activity.
The scouts in Troop #6142, under the leadership of PGC's Youth Garden Club Chair Deb Barhight, participated in the local Walnutport Canal Festival helping the community raise funds to help conservation efforts for the canal park. The troops made and sold various types of trail mix with our troop providing the S'mores flavor. It was a hit and we sold out!
The group has also been out in the community participating in the 110th Slatington Halloween parade featuring a fairy tale theme this year. They walked the four miles along with the "Old Woman in the Shoe" float.
The girls then spent some time outside at night during a meeting...using their night-time senses to note perceptions of Fall and then wrote some poetry to capture the impressions. The next activity was painting pumpkins to decorate their homes, with a culminating activity of learning to use pumpkins to make pumpkin roll.
This activity was followed by a 3 mile nature hike up the trail at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center one beautiful Fall afternoon. The girls collected a few items along the way and discovered art in nature. Finally they made ornaments with those items and hung them on the Girl Scout tree at the community holiday tree walk.
