STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A Hemingway Elementary School student took his place among the veteran adult artists drawing their interpretations of gardens on the Sawtooth Botanical Garden tour on Saturday.

Kahrs Bemis drew a pen-and ink-illustration of the Watch Me Grow Garden next to Hemingway School as tour-goers milled around watching him at work.

“When my brother was in the hospital, my grandmother did a lot of art with me. And I’ve loved it ever since,” he said.

Youngsters involved in Ketchum Parks and Rec Summer Camp Programs gave enthusiastic tours of the Watch Me Grow Garden, a re-imagined White House Victory Garden or Children’s Education Garden. The garden was started in 2008 by Jen Smith, who was the Ketchum Parks & Recreation director then and is now the executive director of the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.

“A lot of people have commented how knowledgeable the kids are,” said Kristin Fletcher, educational director for the SBG as she watched the youngsters lead tour-goers around.

Anna Koonce and Hadley Vandenberg wasted no time in ushering one visitor through the gate of the garden path located by the bike path, pointing out the apricot trees above.

The kids, under the guidance of Master Gardener Poo Wright-Pulliam, pointed out a twig and branch trellis they made to support pea plants. They showed where they planted hops in a pilot project with Sawtooth Brewery.  And they pointed out a raspberry patch where they get fruit to flavor popsicles.

“There’s a bee house over there,” Koonce said, pointing to  an aviary full of pencil-sized tubes for bees to hide in. “Later in the day a bee goes through there.”

“It’s got some larva and it’s very cool,” added Vandenberg.

The youngsters pointed out the many ways they’ve repurposed things they’ve found in the dumpster.

They outfitted old desks with foam beach noodles, turning them into colorful chairs. They spray painted old patio tables they’d found with a rainbow of colors. And they created a water fountain with a large shell and old wooden barrel.

Koonce fingered a long strand of garlic but noted that it wasn’t ready to pick.

“When it’s ready to pick, it will straighten out,” she said. “This one isn’t ready to pick—it still looks like a pig’s tail.”

She fingered a wild looking bunch of chives that had yet to bloom.

“I don’t like them, but we grow them, anyway,” she said.

The two led a couple visitors through an arch heavy with grapes.

“This vine over us has grapes on it, but you can only make jelly with them because they’re too tart to eat,” Kooncee told Anne Maniewick .

Koonce gestured toward yellow-orange marigolds situated in some of the vegetable boxes.

“Those are little flowers that help keep bad bugs away.”

Vandenburg gave a visitor a taste of the garlic, rhubarb and some of the other fruits and vegetables they’ve been growing as part of the Ketchum’s Parks & Recreation Summer Camp.

Then the two took the visitor into a gazebo that has been converted into a garden shed and pointed to an elaborate blueprint for the garden.

“Where we have onions this year we will put tomatoes in next year because of the nutrients,” said Koonce.

“Switching out all the crops helps the plants grow better and healthier,” added Vandenberg.

And what’s the most important part of gardening?

“That would be watering,” said Koonce. “We plant, we weed and we water.”