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understanding of where food comes 
from and why freshly harvested veg­
etables taste different from the ones 
that have spent days traveling to a 
grocery store shelf.
A radish can be spicy. A to­
mato picked at the right time 
can help a child understand 
summer. Soil is not just dirt. 
A hose is both a tool and, oc­
casionally, a source of enter­
tainment.
The program is practi­
cal in the best way. It teaches 
children how to plant, tend, 
harvest and share. It lets them 
see that food takes time and that not 
every seed does what you hoped. 
It also shows them that their effort 
can matter to someone beyond their 
own family.
In a town full of busy weekends 
and overscheduled calendars, the Ma­
plewood Youth Gardening Program 
offers something refreshingly simple: 
a place to show up, get dirty, learn 
something and leave a little more 
connected than when you arrived. To 
join the program, email Hannemann 
at youthgarden@maplewoodgarden
club.org.  
Adrianna Donat is a Maplewood-
based writer and real estate agent with 
Pollock Properties Group, helping 
people find neighborhoods, homes and, 
when we get lucky, enough sunlight for 
tomato plants.
“Life lessons and skills learned are way 
more than gardening.”
Another longtime participant said 
the program “sparked my curiosity 
for nature at such a young age” and 
offered a “messy and fun space” for 
weekly adventure. But, the partici­
pant added, it also fills “a critical void 
of fresh food in local food pantries,” 
making it part of the community’s 
promise to care for one another.
The Maplewood Garden Club 
makes much of this possible. Its an­
nual plant sale, the club’s biggest and 
only fundraiser, supports the Youth 
Gardening Program by helping pay 
for seeds, growing supplies, planting 
activities and educational tools for 
the MapleFood garden. Proceeds also 
support town beautification projects, 
sustainability efforts such as the rain 
garden at Hilton Library, commu­
nity service programs, horticultural 
therapy, the herb garden at Durand-
Hedden and monthly educational 
workshops at The Woodland.
Participants often leave the gar­
den with more than dirty sneakers. 
They take home seeds, seedlings, 
vegetables and instructions for build­
ing raised beds with low-cost mate­
rials. They also take home a better 
Yiba Ng and her son Nate Campbell harvest 
beets, a green zebra tomato and swiss chard.
Monika Hannemann fills watering cans 
so children can water their plants. 
Photo by Julia Maloof Verderosa.
Sakina Azma, age 4, waters the 
freshly planted seedlings. Photo by Julia 
Maloof Verderosa.
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