How does your garden grow?

How does your gar­den grow? is one of the lines in a famil­iar nurs­ery rhyme. It’s also the title of the intro­duc­tory Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Exten­sion 4-H project book­let on flower gar­den­ing. Flow­ers brighten the land­scape of many homes in our com­mu­nity. Why not let your child or grand­child learn how to care for plants, while help­ing beau­tify your sur­round­ings? In addi­tion, your young­ster can join a 4-H Club, meet new friends, go on field trips, and have the oppor­tu­nity to exhibit his or her project at the Delaware County Fair.

As an adult, there are sev­eral things you can do to increase the odds of suc­cess for the aspir­ing gar­dener. The adult can help the child find a sunny spot for the gar­den that is near a water sup­ply and help pre­pare the soil. You can also help by keep­ing a sched­ule to remind and encour­age them to water, weed, and feed the plants through­out the sum­mer months. Par­ents should assist young chil­dren with the appli­ca­tion of any nec­es­sary pesticides.

Start small. Flower gar­den­ing can be as small as sin­gle house­plant or con­tainer. Space con­straints shouldn’t be a hin­drance. You can live in an apart­ment or con­do­minium and grow flow­ers to exhibit at the fair. One fun way to get started is to go to the Delaware Area Rose Society’s Roses for Youth pro­gram, sched­uled for Sat­ur­day, May 11 at Miller’s Coun­try Gar­dens in Delaware. Two ses­sions will be held, 10 a.m. And 1 p.m. Chil­dren who par­tic­i­pate are given a minia­ture rose bush that Rose Soci­ety mem­bers will help them pot and show them how to take care of it. Erin Barr is a 4-H mem­ber who has attended the free work­shops. Two years ago she won a tro­phy at the fair with her minia­ture rose bush. If your child is inter­ested in attend­ing the work­shop, please con­tact David Jack­son at jackrose_5@yahoo.com or 740–369-8262.

Fol­low­ing their ini­tial year in flower gar­den­ing, youth are encour­aged to expand their knowl­edge base. This year, Amy Barr, the Delaware County 4-H & Youth Devel­op­ment Pro­gram Assis­tant, has devel­oped an inter­me­di­ate project for flower gar­den­ing that allows kids with a few years of basic expe­ri­ence to focus more on land­scape design and grow­ing peren­ni­als and bulbs.

Erin Barr is a seventh-grader who has exhib­ited flow­ers at the fair for three years. For novices, she sug­gests grow­ing zin­nias and celosia (cockscomb) from seed. She also rec­om­mends pur­chas­ing trans­plants of gera­ni­ums for a col­or­ful cen­ter­piece in containers.

In many ways, flow­ers are eas­ier to grow than veg­eta­bles. They fit more eas­ily into the tra­di­tional land­scape. They require less room than many veg­eta­bles. Hang­ing bas­kets and con­tainer gar­dens require min­i­mal weed­ing. How­ever, as with veg­eta­bles, you still need to pro­tect the plants from wildlife and give them basic care: weed­ing, feed­ing, and water­ing. Among the many skills that Erin has learned in gar­den­ing with 4-H are how and when to fer­til­ize plants, how to put together a flo­ral arrange­ment, and how to trans­plant plants and dead­head flowers.

Many, but not all, of the cat­e­gories of flower exhibits at the fair use plants that the youth have grown them­selves. These cat­e­gories include a sin­gle spec­i­men of an indi­vid­ual flower, such as a zin­nia or marigold, or an arrange­ment of flow­ers grown by the exhibitor. Con­tainer gar­den­ing exhibits can range from a house­plant to a hang­ing bas­ket, or a planter. Three types of con­tainer exhibits that are new to the fair in 2013 are a pot­ted gera­nium, a pot­ted herb, and a fairy garden.

The Delaware County Fair takes place in Sep­tem­ber. There is always the chance that flow­ers may not be in per­fect form on the day of the judg­ing. So, exhibitors have the option of enter­ing a flower arrange­ment using pur­chased flow­ers. A land­scape design cat­e­gory has also been added for computer-assisted and hand-drawn designs.

How Does Your Gar­den Grow? and Inter­me­di­ate Flower Gar­den­ing are just two of the many projects youth can choose with 4-H once they reach third grade. Amy rec­om­mends that you call the Exten­sion office at 740–833-2030 to find out more about local 4-H clubs near you. There are about 75 4-H clubs in Delaware County involv­ing more than 1,000 youth. Each club has an advi­sor assigned to it, and clin­ics and field trips are offered through the club to help mem­bers learn about their projects. Erin’s club has gone on sev­eral flower gardening-related field trips, includ­ing a behind the scenes tour of a whole­sale nurs­ery and a tour of a pri­vate prize-winning dahlia gar­den. As a learn­ing expe­ri­ence, Erin also has rented a space and sold flow­ers at the Delaware Farmer’s Market.

In the past few years, only about 10 youth have exhib­ited in the Junior Flower Dis­play cat­e­gories at the Delaware County Fair. This com­pares to 100 Junior Veg­etable Dis­play exhibitors.

There’s room for you at the Delaware County Fair in what­ever cat­e­gory you choose to par­tic­i­pate. Enjoy the out­doors this sum­mer, grow some flow­ers and veg­eta­bles, have fun, and learn a few things while you’re at it. We’ll look for you at the fair.

Nancy F. Traub is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Halley Miller on Mar 1 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.