‘Budding gardeners’ plant seeds at Home and Garden Show

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Grace Dickson (right)
plants a seed in a flower pot made from old Sentinel-Tribune newspapers during the Home and Garden show
at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green Sunday morning. (Photo: Shane Hughes/Sentinel-Tribune)

Many gardeners enjoyed thinking about the upcoming planting season as they perused the various booths on
Sunday on the floor at the Stroh Center. Two of the vendors gave visitors small flowers to be planted at
home.
However, upstairs on the mezzanine dozens of younger and future gardeners were treated with the ability
to plant their own seeds making the 2014 Home & Garden Show a memorable one.
The Wood County Master Gardener volunteers, through the OSU Extension office, staged the event which
featured three bins of soil which the "budding" gardeners filled small pots created with
Sentinel-Tribune newspapers.
Eight-year-old Madison Bowers was excited to plant carrot seeds as it is her favorite vegetable. The
rural Pemberville resident who attends Elmwood Elementary said she has helped with gardening chores at
home. "I’m going to plant this at home," Madison said. "You plant things and at the end
you get to see what it is. Sometimes it’s a surprise."
Her brother, Tyson, age 3, also took home his own seed pot.
Another 8-year-old, Elizabeth Tussing, who attends St. Louis Catholic School in Custar, chose to plant a
flower seed. She said she really likes flowers.
"You lay down the seeds and water it. Then pick them when they are ready," Elizabeth said.
To this reporter’s surprise she said her favorite part was the planting.
The volunteers indicated many of the children were surprised to learn the nasturtium is a flower whose
leaves and petals are edible (They remain edible provided no chemicals are appled). It was one of the
seeds available to the youth.
The newspaper pot will hold the seeds and allow them to grow until its time to plant them outdoors. Once
planted the newspaper decomposes.
Lisa Cook, program assistant at OSU Extension, said the project is great for the kids as it is something
that is hands-on and small enough for them to hold.
"It’s a way to get them excited about gardening," Cook said. "It’s a real tangible
thing."
For the adult gardeners, there were nurseries and greenhouses with booths, and also landscape and lawn
care companies on hand.
The master gardeners had a second information booth on the main floor providing pamphlets and other
details on soil testing, Asian longhorn beetle and other pests, to name a few.

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