Welcome to the Garden!
The William “Bill” Whitfield Smith Community Learning Garden at the Wayne County Public Library is a joyful, peaceful place for children and adults to learn about our environment and how they can impact it.
Home to a variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, our garden can be enjoyed in multiple ways. We invite everyone to check it out!
In the Good Chives Summer Learning Garden Program, this past summer, the children learned the importance of taking care of our soil, the 6 main parts of a plant, how worms benefit the soil, and how bees are essential pollinators, fertilizing various plants and trees.
What’s Growing in the Garden?
Click on each image to find recipes using these vegetables and herbs. From the American Heart Association, read why spinach packs a wallop
New this year – our sensory garden! With plants like eucalyptus, lavender, and lamb’s ear, children are encouraged to touch, smell, and connect with nature. From the people at KidsGardening.org, an activity kit on sensory gardening with kids is available for downloading. Also for all involved, check out the mental health benefits of spending time in nature.
We’ve devoted a section of our garden to help out our local pollinators. Several types of plants are growing: zinnias, salvia, cornflower, and more. Check out NC State Extension’s tips on how to create your own and why it’s beneficial to do so.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, ecoEXPLORE (Experiences Promoting Learning Outdoors for Research and Education) is an incentive-based citizen science program for children in grades K-8.
Developed by The North Carolina Arboretum, this innovative program combines science exploration with kid-friendly technology to foster a fun learning environment for children while encouraging them to explore the outdoors and participate in citizen science.
Ecoexplorers can earn extra points for photographing organisms at the Wayne County Public Library’s garden or area (or by visiting any of the hotspots or loanspots on this map). Points can be used to purchase items such as binoculars, bee houses, and even an iPod Touch!
How to Explore?
See it!
After signing up online, participants go outside in their own backyard or at designated ecoEXPLORE HotSpots to find wildlife species, including plants, reptiles, amphibians, insects and birds.
Snap it!
Participants can use their own device – or check out an iPod Touch at a participating LoanSpot location – and photograph their wildlife observation, noting the data, location, time, size and species observed.
Share it!
Participants then log into their ecoEXPLORE profile online and submit their “share” or observation. Arboretum staff will then review the data and submit all approved submissions to the iNaturalist Network, which is used by real scientists!