4-H Delivers

Humboldt County 4-H Gardening Project

The Issue:

The 4-H Healthy Living Initiative includes healthy eating habits, physical fitness, the capacity to manage emotions, and the ability to develop and maintain positive relationships. The University of California 4-H Youth Development Program is focusing on increasing healthy living opportunities and strengthening the presence of healthy living themes throughout existing programs, activities, and curriculum. Healthy living can be incorporated into all project areas. There is a great variety of healthy living projects ranging from learning CPR to growing a garden. 4-H members in Humboldt County participated in several gardening projects that benefited both the members and the community.

What has 4-H Done?:

Four projects in Humboldt County benefited from funding from the California Landscape Contractors Association.

The 4-H TRAIL therapeutic horse project serves physically and mentally challenged clients every weekend with riding opportunities that benefit their health. A garden was put in at their project site to grow vegetables and provide healthy food for the weekly Saturday potlucks that support the volunteers and clients of the project. Their four-footed friends, the horses, also benefit from the abundance of the garden and enjoy the treats. The garden was recently expanded to accommodate six new blueberry bushes and a new fence was installed to keep deer and other animals out of the garden.

The 4-H gardening project in Eureka partnered with the community garden to use a raised bed to grow food for the local Food Bank. The 4-H members were also placed in charge of the composting for the entire garden. This garden project focused on meeting the needs of others in the community and how the youth could use their knowledge and skills to meet those needs.

In Hydesville, the 4-H garden project planted a large pumpkin patch. This project served as an important teaching tool having to plan a crop from start to finish and utilize the products of the harvest. The pumpkin patch was very successful and yielded over 500 pumpkins. These pumpkins were all used for a variety of purposes. Some were made into pumpkin pies and donated to the County 4-H fundraiser. Others served as decorations at Awards Night and the local Cooperative Extension office. 100 pumpkins were donated to Cuddeback Elementary School to serve as take home gifts from the school carnival. Some of the pumpkins were sold and the funds will be used to replant the field with a variety of potatoes.  Youth learned how to plan a garden space, sow, plant, weed, harvest, and clean up the field and prepare for the next crop.

The 4-H Rio Dell Community Garden project was started to add fresh vegetables to the food pantry for low income families and seniors because the pantry was only offered canned goods and dried beans at the time. Four raised beds were used at the Rio Dell Community Garden and the 4-H members were responsible for watering, weeding, and harvesting. The harvested produce was taken to the Scotia Food Bank. In the first year of this project over 260 pounds of produce was donated.

The Impact:

All of the Humboldt gardening projects increased the 4-H program’s visibility in the community. These projects allowed for 4-H members to partner with other community resources for the benefit of other community members. The most rewarding was the gratitude of those who received the products of the gardens. One woman told the 4-H members that she hadn’t been able to afford fresh produce in over a year. Other impacts of the projects included other youth at the community gardens joining 4-H and becoming members of the gardening group and members learning how to incorporate healthy living into their other projects.