Saugus Garden Club helps Saugus kids celebrate fall

SAUGUS – A group of children joined the Saugus Garden Club at the Library on Tuesday afternoon to paint pumpkins and learn about seeds, leaves and the changes that occur in autumn.After children?s librarian Bethany Klem read the group a book about vampires and witches to get into the Halloween spirit, the children gathered around a table full of pumpkins, gourds and dead flowers. Saugus Garden Club President Nancy Sayles explained to the group that next year?s flowers will grow from seeds left behind by the dead ones, and the children examined the flowers closely before blowing puffy white seeds into the air.Sayles also showed the children several gourds that she found in a compost pile in her yard. Like the flowers, she explained that the gourds grew from seeds that somehow got into the pile and transformed during the spring and summer.?A squirrel or a bird must have dropped the seeds into the pile,” explained Randy-Sue Abber, treasurer of the Saugus Garden Club. “That?s the mystery of gardening. You don?t always know where things come from.”The kids then painted faces, flowers, squiggles and polka dots on their pumpkins while they discussed the importance of the seeds inside with Abber and Sayles. They examined the stems – some short and straight, others long and crooked – and learned about pumpkin vines and how they grow.Lastly, the children acted as leaf detectives while they waited for their pumpkins to dry. They inspected leaves pressed in wax paper, and tried to identity the types of trees that they came from using a book about trees and some help from the Garden Club members.The Garden Club hosts a plant-related activity at the Library on the first Tuesday of each month to spark children?s interest in gardening and nature. Sayles said this is the second year that the Club has held these events, and it?s proven to be successful.?It?s one of our outreach programs because we?re trying to share our knowledge and do things that will interest the kids,” said Sayles. “They have been very enthusiastic about it, and we?re happy to have the parents come and help to get the kids to open their eyes and see what interesting things are in our own yards and neighborhoods.”