Whitley County 4-H Cloverbud's met in February and learned about the importance of vegetables and how to plant them. We gathered all program areas and offered our services and information to the county along with hands-on activities for Earth Day. This year it was held at the Green Space in downtown Williamsburg for the Earth Day Celebration 2022. The Cloverbud's successfully planted all the vegetables that we gave away during the Earth Day Celebration. The Cloverbud's planted all the ingredients for a salsa garden and we distributed the information on how to continue their own gardens at home with the pants that individuals received on Earth Day.  

We had over 250 participants attend the event in downtown Williamsburg. Those who received plants were interested in starting a garden, raised bed or porch gardens. Pictured below, photo #1 (taken April 19, 2022), are a variety of plants that were about the same size that were received on Earth Day. Photo #2 was taken July 2, 2022 of cherry tomatoes that have began flowering and producing tomatoes! These individuals aren't able to tend to a whole garden. Repurposing old coffee canisters is a great and easy way to grow tomatoes from your back porch! They also grow peppers and squash in the same kind of method as the cherry tomatoes. 

Gardening among youth isn't as popular as it used to be but the interest in plants in young people is growing. There are always opportunities to garden no matter how big or small the space is. The pictures below are a great example of how porch gardening is easy to manage if you they are not able to tend full gardens. 

Photo #1

Photo #2

Beginners Guide to Vegetable Gardening - http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/HO/HO118/HO118.pdf

Building a Simple Raised Bed Garden - https://henderson.ca.uky.edu/file/building-simple-raised-bed-garden

Salsa Garden (Partner with KSU) - https://enewsletters.k-state.edu/postrockdistrictfcs/2020/08/27/lets-make-salsa/