THE GARDEN STORY

Retail Construction Services, Inc. is dedicated to giving back.

We give back not only to those in need within our community, but also the future generations of this wonderful community. What started out as a great idea has grown exponentially and became an amazing reality. Here at the RCS Giving Garden, school groups, master gardeners, corporate volunteers, and our own employees work together for the common good of teaching children the art of gardening and the importance of healthy eating. Click Here for Full Story.

LOCATION:
Retail Construction Services, Inc.
11343 39th Street N.
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

From HWY 36 - go south on Lake Elmo Ave, turn left onto 39th Street, garden is at corner of 39th and Laverne.
From HWY 5- going west from Stillwater take right onto Laverne (near Fury dealership) garden is on the right at corner of Laverne and 39th street.

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The RCS Giving Garden

The RCS Giving Garden

8/25/15

A Bugs’-Eye View!

A Time for Me tots in the Teaching Giving Garden one last time!
We welcomed back the little ones from the Time For Me Preschool along with their teachers, Elise and Katie, for their final visit to the garden for the 2015 season.  

 On their last visit, I promised them that the next time they joined me the corn would tower over their heads, and were we ever right!  Twisting off ripe ears of corn along with cucumbers, squash, beans, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant were some of the harvesting highlights of the day!  
BUGS, helpful and not-so-helpful, were our topic of the day!  We named helpful bugs to our garden such as honeybees, butterflies and lady beetles.  Then we looked at some damage the not-so-helpful bugs do to the plants in our garden by critters like squash bugs, aphids, cabbage worms and Japanese Beetles.  

 We identified holes and brown spots and chew marks in leaves and fruit.  It’s amazing what insects one notices when getting down to the level of a four year-old!  In addition to the bugs mentioned above, wasps, bumblebees, slugs, grasshoppers and ants caught our eyes’ attention!  We can’t forget to mention the darling amphibian green tree frog friends we found along the way as well.  
To remember the day with  take home decor for their own their own garden spaces, the kids decorated stones to resemble beneficial insects.  Check out their cute creations!  They also left with a THANK YOU vase of Teddy Bear Sunflowers to place in their school.  I reminded them that their hands planted these seeds early in the season for all to enjoy.  I believe a little red lady beetle tagged along for the walk, too!
Tiny hands can do great things!  You helped Victoria and I harvest 193 pounds of produce!  See you next season and thanks for your help!

-contributed by Kathy Luoma, Master Gardener