You say potato, the students say solanum tuberosum.
That’s the Latin term for a standard spud and it’s just one of 20 scientific plant names the students in the Horticulture & Environmental Leadership program were quizzed on at the end of their 5-week camp.
The program, offered by the Delaware Center for Horticulture, took 13 adolescents from low-income families out of their comfort zones and onto a Montchanin farm where they learned about all things agricultural.
The intensive summer camp, now in its eighth year, taught the students some basic knowledge where the produce they see on grocery store shelves originated, said Jacque Williamson, DCH parks projects coordinator.
Hands-on lessons covered everything from how to grow vegetables from cuttings to the finer points of beekeeping, she said.
A competitive program, the 13 students were selected from a pool of 47 applicants and all had to have an interest in science and the grades to prove it, she said.
The students shared time between a Montchanin farm and the Delaware Center for Horticulture and also took field trips to Longwood Gardens and Winterthur. For the students, learning how to grow vegetables was an eye-opening experience, she said, but Williamson is hoping they can apply the skills beyond the camp.
“When they grow something on their own, it’s healthier for them and it’s cheaper for them,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be intimidating.”
The lessons took on an even broader scope than backyard gardening, Williamson said, when the students learned about watersheds, sustainable energy and the importance of protecting the environment.
For Wilmington resident Eriana Goodridge, 13, learning about nature – while being surrounded by nature – was a bit of a shock at first.
“I didn’t know we were going to have to work with all these bugs,” said the rising eighth-grader at Thomas Edison Charter School.
But through the summer program she learned that bugs are an important part of the ecosystem, she said, and she no longer stomps on them indiscriminately.
The sheer number of plants a person can grow in a backyard garden was surprising to Juan Ruiz, 13, of Wilmington.
Ruiz, a rising eighth-grader at A.I. duPont Middle School, said the most valuable lesson he will take home is how to cultivate plants without harming the rest of the garden.
“Take your time and use the right equipment,” he said.
