To assist parents with bored children at home with nothing to do besides play video games all day, the Perry County Extension Service ANR Agent started a neighborhood gardening club.

This involved getting children in one neighborhood interested in growing their own garden. First, with some parent’s assistance, they had to clear off an overgrown area to make a site for a garden. This involved two days of hard work but the children seemed to enjoy it especially when they saw what a nice garden area they had made.

      The Extension Service provided each child with the UK Extension Publication ID-128 Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky and ask them to study it. The Extension Service also provided the seeds and transplants for the garden and oversaw the planting from a distance.

Instruction was also given on soil testing. When the results came in, instruction was given on how to interrupt the test results and how to calculate fertilizer and lime needs.

     The children seem to be enjoying spending time with the garden and are looking forward to the harvest.

     Hopefully they will continue to spend time outside with the garden doing chores like weeding, watering, fertilizing and planting fall crops.