Lucky 4-H Clovers: Building Horticulture Awareness for Youth
Lucky 4-H Clovers: Building Horticulture Awareness for Youth
By Melissa Bright, Somerset County 4-H Agent Mb2173@njaes.rutgers.edu
Program Objectives
1. To expose youth to different types of sustainable growing practices.
2. To plant and grow four-leaf clovers while teaching basic horticulture skills.
3. To enhance youth participants’ emotional well-being through improving coping skills, confidence, care for others, and increased patience.
Introduction
Lucky 4-H Clovers is a project to gather information on the effects horticulture programming has on the emotional well-being of the youth population. Within the study teachers were asked to reflect on the youth they worked with and provide responses on emotional well-being questions to gather a better understanding of how horticulture programming benefits youth participants. The findings of this study suggest that horticulture programming has positive impacts on the emotional well-being of youth. The findings highlight that horticulture programming enhances youths’ emotional well-being by improving pride, self-worth, coping skills, confidence, care for others, and increased patience (Demers, Mitchell).
Based on this study, the 4-H Lucky Clover project was developed. In this project, youth participants in grades Kindergarten through fourth were able to practice a sustainable way to grow four-leaf clovers. This project was constructed with the hopes that growing clovers would have a positive emotional impact on the youth participants while learning the responsibility of growing and caring for a plant. In a local afterschool program, 45 youth were taught the importance of horticulture while participating in sustainable growing practices of clovers. This after-school program did not have access to a school garden so a new innovative way to grow plants was developed.
This project was completed over two months from mid-January to mid-March 2023 with the hopes the clovers would be fully grown for St. Patrick’s Day. This program was conducted after school in a one-hour session two times each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for eight weeks. Each day the participants were able to examine their seedlings and water their projects. Over two months youth participants read books that included topics on sustainable recycling and horticulture. They also searched for four-leaf clovers in the schoolyard and then gathered their supplies. Youth participants were taught the process of growing plants from seed, germination, and growth, to harvest. Youth participants were exposed to the water cycle, photosynthesis, and pollination. The 4-H Lucky Clover project aimed to enhance the participants’ emotional well-being through improving pride, self-worth, coping skills, confidence, care for others, and increased patience.
Materials Needed
· Clover seeds (5 per participant)
· Toilet paper tubes (2 per participant)
· Potting soil
· Water
· Grow light/ nutrients (if needed)
· Coffee Cans
Methods
Youth participants collected 45 toilet paper tubes, bought bags of potting soil, and purchased four-leaf clover seeds. A growing light and nutrients were donated.
Week one: youth participants collected the toilet paper rolls, bought the seeds and soil, planted the seeds, and watered daily (if needed). Youth participants also decorated their toilet paper tubes and named their seeds.
Week two: youth participants collected data as their clovers grew and learned about the seed and germination process. They also learned about the water cycle while engaging with books and a water cycle arts and crafts project. Book topics included, from seed to plant, planting guides for kids, water cycle books, soil health and an encyclopedia to identify different types of clovers.
Week three: youth participants explored the schoolyard for four-leaf clovers. They were able to collect six four-leaf clovers as a group and preserved them with wax paper for safekeeping. The participants were able to learn the life cycle of a four-leaf clover as it’s a mutation of a three-leaf clover. Participants learned that 4-leaf clovers are a mutation of the usually 3-leafed White Clover plant, Trifolium repens. Mutations occur due to a low-frequency recessive gene or environmental causes.
Week four: youth participants learned about the growth and harvest part of the clover life cycle while engaging in arts and crafts projects. In these arts and crafts projects, they made 4-H clover hats, 4-H clover wreaths, 4-H clover sun catchers and decorated their coffee cans.
Week five: youth participants transplanted their clovers into coffee cans as the toilet paper tube was disintegrating.
Week six: youth participants learned about photosynthesis, the importance of sunlight and growing lights. They made photosynthesis projects, the water cycle projects and presented them in groups. These projects were posters and each group drew the photosynthesis and water cycle and were asked to explain to the group what their understanding of these two cycles were.
Week 7: youth participants learned about pollination; a guest speaker from a local honeybee farm came to discuss how bees play an important part in our environment, and how to process honey. Each participant was able to take a small 3ox honey bear home.
Week 8: youth participants were able to decorate pots to transplant their clovers and take home to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Youth participants completed a post-survey and finished their research for their clover projects.
How to Construct the Project
1. Fill the toilet paper rolls with soil (about 1/4 cup, leaving just a few inches of space at the top of the roll).
2. Dampen the soil.
3. Place 5 clover seeds onto the soil (more or less but don’t overcrowd).
4. Have kids use their fingers to gently push the seeds into the soil, about an inch.
5. Place your toilet paper rolls in a window that receives indirect sunlight and water them as needed. (or use a grow light as needed).
6. Observe the clovers for a few days, ensuring that you keep the soil damp. Should take a week to see growth.
7. At two weeks your plants should have sprouted and after two months a full shamrock should be grown.
Evaluation Results
The Lucky 4-H Clovers program was conducted at a local afterschool program. This was an eight-week program from January 16th to March 16th, 2023. 45 youth participants from kindergarten through fourth grades participated in this program. Surveys that were utilized were approved by the Rutgers Institutional Review Board
· 100% indicated that they enjoyed learning about sustainable recycling and growing clovers.
· 90% said they would want to start another seed project.
· 77% said they learned something new about 4-H and are interested in joining.
· 70% of the youth said they felt more of a responsibility for plants and gained overall patience when verbally asked.
· Three youth members joined 4-H because of this program.
· One youth participant said, “I grew a plant that I didn’t know I could. I kind of thought I needed to have a garden but now I know I can grow stuff in a pot.”
· Based on the success of the program these same students conducted another seed project as they grew flowers for Mother's Day 2023.
· Overall the teachers reported that they thought the project enhanced the emotional well-being by improving pride, self-worth, coping skills, confidence, care for others, and increased patience.
Graph 1.
Average Length (cm) (n=45)
Replication of the Project
Each 4-H program across the nation is vastly different. Not everyone has access to horticulture programming, but the delivery of this program is simple and easy to replicate. This program can be replicated anywhere from urban, suburban, or rural. No matter what type of 4-H programming one has access to, this type of program allows youth to connect with sustainable horticulture.
Future Programming
Overall, future research to determine the extent and impact of the benefits suggested in this study would be beneficial. Future studies should aim to consider the impact of the design of the horticulture program, as well as provide a continued focus on the youth population. This study can provide a useful framework for determining populations of youth that need to be studied.
Based on the post-surveys and the success of the program thus far, another program is being planned and implemented for the Spring of 2025. A youth-as-partner approach is being implemented as this program is now being influenced by youth and for the youth.
Steps to Consider for Implementation
1. Research the need for the program.
2. Identify a local school to establish a partnership.
3. Talk with the youth participants to gain their level of understanding of horticulture.
4. Based on their understanding gather supplies (this can take an extra day to two if you need to order online).
5. Follow the Materials and Method sections listed above.
Resources
· The Horticulture Industry’s Age Problem Is Bigger than You Think - The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/the-horticulture-industrys-age-problem-is-bigger-than-you-think/2018/08/05/3c7d3618-734f-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
· Demers, Mitchell. (2013). Cultivating Well-being: Horticulture Programming’s Effect on Youth’s Emotional Well-being. Retrieved from Sophia, the St. Catherine University repository website: