People/Plant Connection

The People/Plant Connection's mission is to bring the joy of gardening to people of all ages and abilities. To accomplish our mission, we are building an educational garden at the Angelo West Branch Library.

The new garden has five themed gardens including succulent garden, rock garden, hummingbird garden, herb garden and butterfly garden. Visitors will be able to see what plants they can grow at home that are drought tolerant and offer food and shelter to wildlife. There are also four raised beds accessible to people in wheelchairs and walkers. We have two, 2,500 gallon rain water harvesting tanks collecting water from our outdoor classroom so we won't be using municipal water for our garden. The Youth Gardening classes continue with a Spring, Summer & Fall Sessions. Our goal with our garden is to teach children how to garden, grow their own food and how to take care of the environment and wildlife habitats. We want to give children a connection to nature through gardening that will follow them into adulthood so they will make good decisions for the environment and wildlife. We have two classes. Sprouts is for 4-6 year olds and Junior Master Gardeners for 3rd-5th graders. Our programs consist of programs about birds, hummingbirds, insects, vegetables, herbs and flowers for pollinators. Along with the lesson, both groups plant vegetables, herbs and flowers in the lower beds.

Testimonials

It's a proven fact when children are involved with growing fresh vegetables, they are more likely to try them.

As the children visit the garden with their parents, they check on their plants. It was hard when we lost most of the fall vegetables in the first freeze. But the spinach lasted so they would check on it when they were there. They are all able to pick the vegetables they have planted.

This year we had a program about worm farming and each child made a small worm farm to take home. The teacher was explaining what the baby worms look like so they would recognize them. One little girl said, "You mean they can get pregnant?" Another little boy said as he clapped his hands, "We're going to have a family!". They were very excited to take the worms home and care for them.