At times a garden in spring does not look like anything is growing at all. Look carefully! Can you see the tiny green shoots coming up? Many of the plants have been dormant all winter. Sunshine, longer days and rain help the plants to bud. Even when the rest of the garden is brown and not very pretty, the evergreen trees and bushes are green. That’s because they don’t shed all their needles at the same time. Perhaps you can find an insect in a garden helping to pollinate the flowers. “Pollinate” means to carry pollen from one flower to another to fertilize that flower.

The Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden is at Michigan State University in East Lansing. The people who made this garden say it is a place “where plants, children, and imaginations grow.” The garden has special places for children to play and learn.

Within the big Children’s Garden are 56 different smaller gardens. Each has a theme. One example is the Milk, Meat and Wood Garden. The plants in this garden provide food for cows, chickens, beef cattle, buffalo, pigs and sheep. Go ahead—climb on the sheep sculpture! These animals eat plants with interesting names such as Sweet Clover, Orchard Grass, Red Clover, Kentucky Bluegrass and Birdsfoot Trefoil.

Another theme garden is the Small World Garden. In late spring and summer this garden will bloom with flowers from all over the world. This garden reminds us that it’s a small world, and we need to take good care of it. Visit the Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden to see many wonderful things. The garden on the campus of Michigan State University is open every day from sunrise to sunset. For further information link to: www.4hgarden.msu.edu