Fun for Kids - Growing Up Green

Calling all young sprouts! There’s good, muddy fun planned for kids in the 8th annual New Jersey Flower and Garden Show’s “Growing Up Green” program.

Education specialists from Home Depot and the New Jersey Audubon Society lead free activities aimed at giving youngsters hands-on experience with gardening basics.

Margareta Warlick, associate at the Bridgewater Home Depot, plans engaging lessons in plant propagation, seed development, kitchen composting and flower anatomy.

Kids will make mini-greenhouses from empty water bottles to propagate philodendron cuttings or plant tiny seeds. Flowers kids make from recycled plastic bags serve as the starting point for an explanation about how plants are pollinated. Donating free materials to the program are: Burpee Seeds; the Scott Corporation; Kurt Weiss Greenhouses of Newark and the Schultz Corp.

Drop-in sessions are scheduled daily during the show from 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 18, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 19 and 20, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 21.

Ms. Warlick also hosts a separate class for adults in making stepping stones from hypertufa, a light-weight concrete mix (time TBA). She is the Do-It-Herself Women’s Clinic leader at the Bridgewater Home Depot and an instructor for the art museum at Ground for Sculpture, a public garden in Trenton.

Kelly Wenzel, an environmental educator for New Jersey Audubon, invites kids to get their hands dirty making seed balls. Kids take home balls of clay into which they have rolled wildflower seeds. When the weather breaks, the seed balls can be planted outside to create a little wildflower garden. Kelly's program is scheduled for Saturday, February 20 from 12pm to 2pm.

The Audubon group also plans to teach grown-ups something new. Teacher/naturalist Michael Pollock gives a talk on creating backyard habitats at 11 a.m. Feb. 19 in the “Gardeners Go to School” seminar series. He covers the use of native plants to attract songbirds, butterflies and other wildlife for close-up viewing in the backyard.