What is the Kids Can Grow Program?

The Kids Can Grow! program is a youth gardening program of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and 4H program in York County. The goal of the program is for children to enjoy the learning experience of producing their own vegetables, herbs, and flowers and then applying what they have learned in their own 3' x 5' raised-bed garden plots. Growing food is fun and teaches the children important lessons about nutrition and sustainability.  Kids Can Grow! provides a positive introduction to the potentially lifelong, healthy hobby of gardening and teaches food safety and good nutrition habits. Kids Can Grow! inspires children to create gardens as places of enrichment and delight for all who are young at heart and promotes an understanding of plants and the important roles they play in our daily lives.

The Kids Can Grow! program enrolls 30 children, between the ages of 7 to 12, and engages eight Master Gardener Volunteers and a few Extension staff members.  Each child is matched with a Master Gardener Volunteer as a "garden mentor" to advise and support their efforts. The 4H gardening program consists of five monthly classes offering a comprehensive hands-on approach covering topics from building raised beds to seeding and transplanting to displaying produce at the county fair. During the 5-month program, classes consist of 2-hour sessions that offer a short lesson followed by hands-on work in the team’s demonstration gardens. The children then take home their new knowledge and apply it to their home gardens.

Each year craft projects are worked on, and many of these become 4-H displays in the county fair (quite a few earning blue ribbons!).  The final session of the program is a celebration.  Each child is encouraged to bring in one or more ingredients harvested from their own beds and together they make veggie pizzas. It’s a time to swap success stories, receive a tee shirt with the Kids Can Grow! logo, and be recognized for successfully participating in the program.

All produce raised by the children at the Extension office site is donated to the Plant-A-Row for the Hungry Project (an average of 25 pounds per year). It makes a real difference in lives of children when they are able to connect the food they have grown with helping those in need.

The Kids Can Grow! is offered each year April through August.  All materials—including lumber, soil, compost, manure, seeds and transplants—are either donated or offset by the $20 enrollment fee.

A detailed schedule will be published in early spring.

For further information call York County Cooperative Extension at (207) 324-2814 or 1-800-287-1535 (Maine only).

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