News Release
contact:
For Immediate Release
telephone: 732-398-5262
Students Invited to YESS Summer Program at the EARTH Center
Middlesex County students graduating 7th through 11th grades who are interested in gardening and community service, are invited to attend a summer day program at the County’s Extension office called “YESS (Youth Enhanced Service to Society) at the EARTH Center”. The program will be held July 19 to 23 from 9 am to Noon at the EARTH Center in Davidson’s Mill Pond Park, South Brunswick. After the initial training week, weekly work meetings will occur from July 26nd through August 31st.
The program focuses on environmental stewardship and will provide participants with a background in vegetable gardening practices, environmental concerns, and the importance of community service. Once trained, students will be excited to start gardens at home or within their communities. Experience gained by students may keep them interested in future community service.
The week of 3 hour sessions will include
- Basic vegetable gardening skills and knowledge
- Basic pest identification and control
- Environmentally friendly gardening methods
- Reducing one’s environmental impact
- Community service considerations
Youth are then involved in weekly sessions throughout the summer (July 26 through August 31), and expected to help maintain a ‘Garden for the Hungry.’ Time spent in the garden can be used for community service hours. All produce will be donated to a local soup kitchen.
The cost of the program is $55 per person (and includes a t-shirt). The registration deadline July 12th., but interested participants should register soon as spaces are filling up. For more information on the YESS program or to register, contact the Middlesex County Extension office at 732-398-5262. To learn more about Middlesex County’s Extension Service visit www.co.middlesex.nj.us/extensionservices
4-H is a department of Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Middlesex County and offers educational programs to all youth, grades K through 13 on an age appropriate basis, without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
##################
Homeowners Can Experience Rain Garden at the EARTH Center
Homeowners in Central
Jersey who are interested attracting birds & butterflies and preserving
clean water, can get a first hand look at how to do, it by visiting
the newly installed rain garden at Middlesex County's EARTH Center.
The rain garden
display was planted at the EARTH Center to show homeowners how a simple
to install feature in their landscape, can help replenish diminishing
groundwater supplies and combat non-point source pollution. Non-point
source pollution occurs when water from precipitation runs quickly across
impervious surfaces and picks up chemical pollution along the way, eventually
finding its way into our lakes and streams. This creates a serious problem
for our eco-systems.
A rain garden is
simply a shallow landscaped depression, tailored to receive a calculated
amount of runoff from the house's gutters, sump pump and/or driveway.
Once the physical layout of the basin is achieved, the garden is filled
with plants that can withstand or thrive in wet conditions.
Benefits of rain
gardens include the reduction of lawn areas (which often attract the
use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides); the removal of nutrients
from runoff that would contaminate above ground water sources: and the
beautification of the local landscape.
The EARTH center's
rain garden was a joint effort between the Middlesex Co. Extension Ag
Dept (with Bill Hlubik as the County Ag Agent) and Rutgers University's
Professor Chris Obrupta. The chief function of a rain garden", says
Dr. Chris Obropta, "is to minimize water runoff into stormdrains - runoff
that courses throughout the watershed and causes decreased sediment,
flooding and damage to shorelines. "The cumulative effect of rain gardens
throughout the state could be enormous," he says. "In New Jersey, we
average approximately 44 total inches of rain per year. Build 40 of
these gardens in your neighborhood - with each treating 1,000 square
feet of driveway or roof top runoff - and you'll have treated and recharged
one million gallons of water per year."
The EARTH Center,
home to Middlesex County's office of Rutgers Cooperative Research &
Extension is located in Davidson's Mill Pond Park, 42 Riva Ave in South
Brunswick. Also recently planted are the already existing vegetable
display garden and herb garden.
For more information
contact the Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension's of Middlesex
County's Ag office at 732 398 5262.
Rutgers Cooperative
Research & Extension educational programs are offered to all without
regard to race, religion, color, age, national origin, gender, sexual
orientation, or disability.
##################
EARTH
Center Tours Available
Middlesex County's
EARTH Center invites you to learn about local agriculture and the environment.
Now your school group, Scout Troop or Senior's club, can take a guided
tour at the Middlesex County EARTH Center to learn about these topics
and more. These educational guided tours take place at Davidson's Mill
Pond Park in South Brunswick and are available by request for a nominal
fee. Tour content can be tailored to suit your group's interests and
needs.
The EARTH Center
demonstration areas include a 1000 square foot vegetable garden, a 13-bed
herb garden and a water conserving rain garden just to name a few. These
demonstrations are used to spark conversation about local agriculture,
basics of horticulture, Integrated Pest Management, earth-friendly gardening
techniques and many topics that are the focus of the Extension Agriculture
and Natural Resource Management Department. Visitors can also find out
more about the 4-H Youth Development program in Middlesex County while
visiting the EARTH Center.
If you are not familiar
with your local Extension office, it is part of a nationwide network
that brings the research of the state land-grant universities to local
people. Rutgers Cooperative Extension offices throughout New Jersey
are cooperatively funded by; the County Board of Chosen Freeholders,
Rutgers University- New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Even if you can't
visit the EARTH Center this season, you can still get great vegetable
gardening tips plus information on the infamous Asian Longhorn Beetle
at the Middlesex County Extension website, just visit co.middlesex.nj.us/extensionservices
and click on Educational Video. For more information call 732 398 5262.
Rutgers Cooperative
Extension educational programs are offered to all without regard to
race, religion, color, age, national origin, gender, sexual orientation,
or disability.
