Youthful Vigor Handles the Rigor

by Albert Brian Vick  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator

Despite the heat, we’re on a roll in the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Community Kitchen Garden. The current crop of zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes.

A YVP participant from the Faison School deftly handles the cucumber seed while preparing to plant.

We had a small section of usable space not yet planted, so with the help of the Tyler family and the Lewis Ginter Youth Volunteer Program (YVP) we removed the weeds, tilled the soil and planted cucumbers. We expect to begin harvesting cucumbers by September 12, which should give us at least 4 weeks of yield.

A Faison School student helps by watering in the cucumber seed.

Tremendous kudos to the youth volunteers, a small but incredibly energetic and productive group of high-schoolers and college interns who have labored in the garden every Tuesday and Thursday during the summer, under the tutelage of Erin Wright, Children’s Garden Educator.