Community gardening is one component of the summer day camp program at the Ben Arnold Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands. The Rosewood Community Garden located on the site serves as the practice plot for this year's crop of youngsters, ages 5- 9.

Cassandra Fralix, volunteer at the Rosewood Community Garden, has coordinated the weekly youth garden workshops with a support team of garden volunteers for the past three summers. Boys and girls learn the basics of gardening while extending their personal growth.

In making seed balls to grow marigolds, children track plants from germination to flowering. While nurturing flowers, children are encouraged to support the efforts of their peers. Fralix likes to introduce marigolds and sunflowers because both sprout and grow quickly enabling children to see the results of their efforts promptly.

Last spring, Rosewood Community Garden volunteers planted a cornucopia of vegetables for which children will care, harvest, and taste. The chard, corn, beans, eggplant, peppers, squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes will be in various stages of development and are grown with a variety of growing systems such as raised beds and vertical structures.

The Rosewood Community Garden is on property of the Ben Arnold Boys and Girls Club. An array of perennial herbs has been interspersed with the vegetables — chocolate mint, thyme, rosemary, and parsley — to season the atmosphere and help control pests. A mini- orchard of blueberries, figs, and strawberries provides fresh food snacks.

Over the camp experience, children under the supervision of garden volunteers will assume a variety of roles: planter, cultivator, builder, repairer, grower, mulcher, composter, irrigator, harvester, scout, taster, and problemsolver…

As participants engage in these tasks, they are learning the ongoing responsibilities in a garden. Troy Thames, Ben Arnold unit director, believes that responsibility leads to a sense of ownership and pride in the garden.

Rosewood volunteers cite additional benefits of community gardening for young people:

Sara Williams, volunteer, turns compost at the garden in preparation for teaching children the art and science of composting. • Provide outdoor physical activity • Connect children to the source of food • Encourage the eating of fresh homegrown produce • Inspire children to use gardening skills at home • Reveal power of community action and teamwork to solve problems • Encourage nurturing one another

Cassandra Fralix, Rosewood Community Garden volunteer, begins her fourth summer as coordinator of the youth gardening workshop at the Ben Arnold Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands.