LOBGVIEW — It was a cold, crisp Saturday as local juvenile offenders helped create a new public garden in Cowlitz County, in an effort to cultivate not only greenery, but perhaps their own young lives.
Three offenders, from ages 12 to 18, worked Dec. 16 on their required community service and were directed by Cowlitz County Master Gardener Tom Myklebust.
The collaboration is new; this was the third time this month juvenile offenders landscaped the outside of Cowlitz County’s Washington State University Extension Office in Kelso, he said, to help the young people learn new skills and create a new garden for the office.
Youth offenders typically work as a crew picking up garbage, said Geoff Nelson, work crew coordinator at Cowlitz County Youth Services. But, on Saturdays, he’s been planning activities to provide learning experiences instead of carrying out mundane chores.
Alice Slusher, director of the local WSU Extension Office’s plant and insect clinic, said the teamwork needed to create the garden may help the youth’s future.
“Taking part in a project that starts from the ground up, and seeing how their participation is shaping something beautiful may make a difference down the road for them,” she said.
Slusher said youth helped create the office’s new demonstration garden, specifically for drought-tolerant plants. She said she hopes the crew feel empowered by their completed work.
Plus, studies show gardening can help people’s physical and mental health. A study published earlier this year by the University of Colorado Boulder and funded by the American Cancer Society, shows those who started gardening got more physical activity and saw their levels of stress and anxiety decrease.
Cowlitz County sees hundreds of youth come into its detention center a year. A state report says about 200 young people were admitted into Cowlitz Juvenile Detention in 2020, down from 2019’s totals. Most juvenile offenders on the work crew have violated probation, said Nelson.
Nelson said the Dec. 16 group was smaller than usual; typically up to eight sign up, and six come to serve their community service.
That day, members were planting donated pieces like mountain hemlock, rainbow leucothoe, lemon cypress and evergreen huckleberry, as well as learning techniques like pruning and transplanting plants without injuring the root system.
Myklebust said the current cold, moist weather is perfect for digging up plants to transplant, as opposed to possibly shocking them in the summer.
As one of the work crew members made a hole for a future plant on Dec. 16, Myklebust sprinkled fertilizer from a small canister, and explained that the roots on the outer edge of the plant are what makes contact with the soil.
“They all seem to have a great time, and it’s really thrilling to see the light bulbs go off in these kid’s heads,” said Slusher.
