WedgeShare Grant Gives Minneapolis Kids a Chance to Get Their Hands in the Dirt!

By Elise Nienow, Coordinator, JD River's Children's Garden

"That's my plant. I planted that one!" exclaim children who participate in our programs, as they delight in how much their plants have grown. It's amazing to hear the pride they take in their garden plots, to see so many smiles, and to see so many small hands caked with dirt.

The 2005 WedgeShare grant allows the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to provide free programming for over 200 Minneapolis youth each week at the JD River's Children's Garden in Theodore Wirth Park. Children come from local Minneapolis schools, summer programs and youth organizations. If a group commits to coming out once a week for the season, they are given their own 10'x10' garden plot to plant, tend and harvest. We grow an abundance of tomato varieties alongside lettuce, cabbage, kale, broccoli, artichokes, squash, corn, green beans, sweet peas, water melon, cantaloupe, jalapeno, banana and bell peppers. Our raised beds brim with herbs, flowers and root vegetables such as carrots, radishes and potatoes.

Our programs include garden- and environmental-themed activities. So far this summer, we've painted colorful signs for the gardens, built scarecrows to keep birds and animals away, tasted a variety of herbs and edible flowers, and learned to care for garden plots. We've caught insects in a native wildflower field, explored critters at Bassett's Creek, created nature art projects and fished in Wirth Lake. The children feel the excitement of catching a net full of grasshoppers, cradling blue and green damselflies, touching the slippery skin of a leopard frog and the flowing muscles of garter snakes. In the next few weeks we will be visiting the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and the Quaking Bog. Also on the agenda are field trips to local organic farms to see firsthand where our food comes from.

Thank you, Wedge members, for helping to make this happen! Without your support, the JD Rivers Children's Garden would not be able to provide urban youth with the chance to get their hands in the dirt -- without you, over 1000 children would not know the deep satisfaction of growing the food we all eat.

For more information or to volunteer at the JD River's Children's Garden, contact Elie Nienow at (612) 490-5098 or email enienow@minnneapolisparks.org.