Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Another year for the Master Gardener/4-H Fourth Grade Garden Project has come to a close. This year, 2013, has been our 16th year of the program and we have all learned, once again, that gardening is an experiment; and once again, we had great success and a lot of fun working with the students on that experiment.

What a wonderful bunch the fourth graders are. All the families of this year’s class can be very proud of how hard their kids worked and how much they learned. The Master Gardener teachers provided lessons in basic botany, composting and recycling, "good bugs and bad bugs," and just how important plants are to us and to the world. We also worked with the students on a hands-on activity of planting seeds, raising seedlings under lights, and then planting the baby plants out in the little flower garden behind the school. With approximately 100 children in the fourth grade this year, we now have given this experience to nearly 1,600 children o...