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Worms and chickens and broccoli, oh my!

Garden in regional park holds many lessons for children

“Garden” and “logic” are two words that people might not naturally associate.

But for young people who spend time at the JD Rivers Children’s Garden in Theodore Wirth Regional Park, logical thinking skills are an important part of what they learn.

Garden Coordinator Soozin Hirschmugl describes a typical occurrence: a group of children discover a toad in the garden. Many of the children want to hold it, and some ask if they can take it home as a pet. Rather than give them a short answer, Hirschmugl poses a series of questions that help the children think through why that might or might not work for the toad.

Another big lesson, of course, is watching seeds grow into plants and then become tasty, fresh food. Many children in cities grow up with no idea where their food comes from, Hirschmugl said.

“This is a place where kids can see a large variety of things growing, and taste and sample things fresh from the ground,” she said.

Bugs, worms, chickens and more

The one-acre garden, located along Glenwood Parkway in Minneapolis, hosts a dozen groups of children who spend a few hours once a week – for either four or eight weeks – planting, weeding, harvesting and learning. They come from schools and nonprofit organizations that have summer programs for kids.

In addition to learning about growing food and flowers, children learn about insects – the beneficial and the harmful ones – pollination, worms, composting, water quality and more. And the garden has five resident chickens – distinctive breeds that most of us aren’t familiar with – who live in a coop but spend part of their days scratching about for bugs in the garden’s fenced-in orchard.

On rainy days, the staff and children gather at the Wirth Park Pavilion for indoor activities. Once the tomatoes and peppers are ready for harvest, it will be time to make salsa. Cucumbers will be processed into bread-and-butter pickles.

“We have a structure, with eight weeks of lessons, but we’re also very flexible to respond to what needs to happen in the moment,” Hirschmugl said. Like stopping to examine toads or round up a chicken.

Grain Exchange anniversary inspire garden’s creation

The garden’s origins date back to the 100th anniversary of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange in 1981, according to MaryLynn Pulscher, Environmental Education Coordinator for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. That year, the Grain Exchange planted a few acres of wheat and sunflowers in Wirth Park as a teaching tool. Read more about the first garden.

Volunteers, teen workers provide critical help

Guiding the children and maintaining the garden provides plenty of work for two full-time seasonal garden staff, a half-dozen regular volunteers, and summer crews of teen workers from the Park Board and Project for Pride in Living. Even before planting, volunteers from a home-school garden club, Green Central Elementary School, AmeriCorps and eQuality: Pathways to Potential (a group of young adults with developmental disabilities) helped till the garden and dig what are called deep beds to help increase yields.

“The most rewarding part of this work is being part of a really healthy process,” said garden worker Koby Jeschkeit-Hagen. “I feel like I’m growing, too.” She called the job “fully sensorial” – listening, seeing, touching and tasting are all in a day’s work. “I’m able to be fully present… I feel tired but full at the end of the day.”