Anaya Graham, 15
BY ANAYA GRAHAM, 15 – Youth Farm Participant
ST. PETERSBURG — Over the summer, as part of the St. Pete Youth Farm program, Wednesdays were used to take care of our 19 raised beds. As the summer grew hotter and hotter, we finally decided to work exclusively indoors.
Other than preparing bags of snacks for the homeless in St. Petersburg as part of our positive messages to the community, I wasn’t sure if we’d still be able to work with plants. To my surprise, we hosted a young gardener named Deja-Denice Sherrod.
Sherrod recently graduated from East Carolina University. Although she went to school for sociology and African-American studies, she has been gardening for three years and currently works at Bloom Garden Shop.
It was exciting to find this young, relatable woman who looked like me come in and teach an intro to propagation workshop. She explained to us that the process of propagation is when you take a piece of the mother plant to grow another.
My fellow ambassadors and I thought the process of propagation was very easy to do and quickly learned. The plants that we received in mini pots were called pothos. They are very easy to take care of, but we have to be gentle with them because they are baby plants.
She said that her goal with us that day was to get us to make their own plants by propagating them. I enjoyed this project and learned there are many benefits to learning about propagation.
One benefit is creating multiple plants to improve my oxygen intake. Another benefit is to use them to create gifts or sell them for profit. It’s something that you can easily do at home. Sherrod emphasized the fact that you could expand your knowledge further by watching YouTube videos.
I liked the idea that one small plant could be turned into a whole garden. Even though we’re still dealing with COVID, you can do anything you put your mind to. This is a great skill to learn!
