Twelve young gardeners who were participants in the Pizza Garden celebrated with pizza and more the week before school started. The gardeners are part of a program for students grades three through six sponsored by University of Minnesota Extension-Murray County 4-H Youth Development and Master Gardeners. The kids met every Tuesday morning throughout the summer. A planting session was held before school let out. One more is scheduled to harvest and cleanup the garden which is located at the Slayton Community Gardens.
Besides tomatoes, onions and peppers for pizza, the gardeners also grew peas, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, eggplant and herbs. A favorite was a variety of green beans which are actually purple. They also enjoyed volunteer sunflowers and marigolds. Besides learning more about gardening, trying new vegetables is part of the goal of the program. Master Gardeners Marilyn Moger, Jan Scherbart, Matt Meier, Colleen Gengler and Betty Kassel worked with the gardeners this summer.
