2001 Annual Highlights - Agriculture at North Dakota State University

Digging in the Dirt

Seven-year-old Brandy says "digging in the dirt" is the best thing about the Youth Garden Project in New Town. "It's just fun," she says. Jared, an energetic 13-year-old, agrees, but was frustrated with this year's infestation of potato bugs. "We had to pluck them and spray them," he says.

Since 1998, up to 18 youth ages 6 to 14 have worked in the garden and attended garden-related sessions focusing on topics such as insects, nutrition and photography. Polly Cummins-Chase, Extension 4-H youth agent for the Fort Berthold Reservation, coordinates the project.

The program was launched with a grant of garden tools, seeds, seedlings and educational material from the National Gardening Association, one of 300 awarded from more than 1,600 applications. Since then, the garden has grown to a 150-foot by 150-foot plot on loan from Fort Berthold Community College, which also shares expertise and equipment.

Because the land is leased from the Army Corps of Engineers and is a stone's throw from the Missouri River, no pesticides are allowed. As a result the gardeners must rely on traditional and not-so-traditional methods of pest control. The students used an Internet recipe for an organic potato bug spray. "It didn't work," notes Jared of the kitchen-cupboard-based concoction. "It did allow us to integrate the computer and the Internet into our lessons," Cummins-Chase says.

The region's Native American tribes, the Mandan and Hidatsa, are agriculture-based societies and have strong gardening traditions. "But that knowledge and those traditions were beginning to disappear," Cummins-Chase notes.

Thanks to the program, that's changing. "A number of the kids have gone home and convinced parents, grandparents and other relatives to put in a garden," Cummins-Chase says.

Dawn Hall has three children in the program, Trent, 10, Billy, 9 and Jess, 7. The family has planted its own garden. "I wanted my kids to know where food comes from and how to grow it themselves," she says. "The kids have learned so much from this program."

Tribal elders have gotten involved, teaching lessons on Native American plants, methods and traditions. Early harvests became part of a harvest banquet served in thanks to elders, parents and others who helped. Students learned about planning, food preparation and etiquette. This fall, a produce sale with cooked corn on the cob and baked potatoes taught marketing, food safety and money management. Next spring students will start plants in a new greenhouse.

The program taps the expertise of all the staff at the Fort Berthold Extension office: agriculture agent Paul Gjermundson, food and nutrition agent Anita Rohde, Delores Sand with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Lila Wells of the Family Nutrition Program (FNP). The garden project provided a special opportunity for Sand and Wells to share lessons. EFNEP and FNP are federal programs administered through Extension to teach low-income families about nutrition and how to stretch their food dollars.

The project's local focus is typical of 4-H. "Extension reaches kids with a variety of programming," says Karen Zotz, assistant director for NDSU Extension Service programs in nutrition, youth and family science. "But the key element is life skills."

The youth in the garden project cultivate those skills—decision making, interpersonal skills, public speaking, teamwork, self-confidence, problem solving and responsibility—constantly by working together, deciding what to plant and how to harvest, organizing meetings and produce sales, and making presentations.

"We integrate those life skills into all of 4-H Youth Development programs—special programs like the garden project, traditional 4-H club activities and after-school programming," Zotz says. "It's what sets 4-H apart from other youth programs and it's something that employers tell us they are very interested in."

That's fine with Brandy, as long as she can still play in the dirt.

For more information: Polly Cummins-Chase, 701-627-3445, pchase@ndsuext.nodak.edu

Youth garden project participant