Master Gardeners Share Gardening Tips, Ways To Retain New Knowledge For Youth

CROW WING COUNTY - Crow Wing County's Northland Arboretum nursery is filled with a rainbow of vegetables - red cabbage, red okra, brown-skinned onions. Teenagers and young adults learn where food comes from and how delicious fresh produce can be.

But that is not the only reason for this wonderful generosity. They are developing a garden under the direction of head gardener Sally Jacobsen. And Jacobsen not only eats vegetables, but also uses them to produce dyes for the textile industry.

"It's a good creative outlet," he said. "It's more 'I want to try this and see if it works' than 'I think I'll make a masterpiece or I'll do this.'

Jacobsen became interested in weaving over three decades ago when she took a course at a weavers' guild. He takes a back seat when his children show up. Then, a few years ago, she began to combine weaving with another passion, gardening, by experimenting with making dyes from plants. Wild grapes from her garden served as the basis for the purple fibers that she was able to weave into her designs. Black walnut shells give a rich brown color.

"That's a lot of testing," he said. "I tried dandelion but didn't like the result so I threw it away."

Jacobsen became a volunteer gardener at the University of Minnesota in 2020, following in the footsteps of siblings Bill Turcotte and Jackie Burke. After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted last summer, she was finally able to lead the kindergarten program at the Arboretum. More than a dozen children participate each week during the growing season, digging up garden plots, planting seeds, weeding and picking vegetables.

"It teaches kids the basics of gardening, and gardens make really good food," she said. Kid favorites — kale and broccoli, believe it or not — were loaded with lemon pickles, bok choy, purple peas, melon mousse, and more. Some of them became the basis for art projects and dinner parties. Jacobsen showed his gardeners how to use natural fibers like wool and cotton to capture the colors of summer.

As well as using plants from her own garden to dye yarn, she took the children on a hike to the arboretum to harvest phlox, goldenrod, coneflowers and other brightly colored flowers for experimentation. . He also introduced her to flower rubbing - placing brightly colored flowers between two pieces of muslin and then tapping with a hammer to transfer the colors to the fabric.

Candice Zimmerman, executive director of the Northland Arboretum, is full of praise for the value of Jacobsen and the many other volunteer master gardeners who help decorate the arboretum and share their love of plants with others. "It's a wonderful collaboration," he said. "They are our allies. They really make this place beautiful.”

Growing up with a father who protected the soil and a mother who gardened and preserved, Jane Burton has always valued her connection to sunlight, soil and plants. Having taught young children for decades as an elementary school teacher, she knows that children learn in different ways. Today, while she works as a volunteer senior gardener in the in-patient kindergarten program with second and third graders, she gives everyone a book made out of notebook paper with crayons and invites them to reflect on the experience.

"Some kids are very reluctant to express themselves in writing but are much better at expressing themselves through drawing," Burton said. One student writes words quickly, another draws bright yellow sunlight on a tree, and a third solves the bean growing puzzle with a diagram that looks like a toy piece reaching for the sky.

"We're doing what scientists do: observing, writing, making notes, worrying, and speculating about what's going to happen next," Burton said.

Burton and his team at Olmsted County Volunteer Master Gardeners mentor students in the afternoon and summer child care programs at Sunset Terrace Elementary School in Rochester. When they leave the program, they take their journal with them and are encouraged to continue gardening and to keep a journal of their experiences.

"When you see it and write it down, it really emphasizes understanding," Burton said. "It really protects against any new concept you want to learn."

This article is reproduced with permission from the University of Minnesota.

Alison Sandway, Extension News Manager, can be reached at ajsandve@umn.edu, 612-626-4077 (office) or 651-492-0811 (cell). Contact the Communications Department at extnews@umn.edu .