In concurrence with Earth Day on April 22, Magnolia’s fourth-grade Junior Girl Scouts Troop No. 41157 kicked off its Gardener and Native Plants badges. The troop visited a local garden, learned about native plants and experimented with planting seeds.
The Carleton Park Garden Club, who is sponsoring the troop’s Native Plants Badge, worked with the Girl Scouts to use their senses of sight, touch and smell to identify native trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns and ground covers. They also learned the importance of native plants for certain healing properties, as well as how they use less water and are better suited for our gardens.
The Girl Scouts planted individual peat pots with native wildflower seeds and took them home to water and observe for two weeks. These pots were then planted near the red flower sculptures at the Gateway to Magnolia Park on Wednesday, May 6, near the practice fields at West Smith Street and 33rd Avenue West).
The Girl Scouts and representatives of the Carleton Park Garden Club are working together on a beautification project in the park by clearing debris, digging up invasive weeds and planting their peat pots of native wildflowers.