Camp Peniel garden brings kids closer to God’s creation
A group of sunflowers tower above Camp Peniel's garden. The sunflowers draw beneficials insects and birds to the garden, which provides campers with a place to learn about gardening and horticulture. Plus, it's a place they can just get their hands dirty.
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
SMITHWICK — Many lessons await Camp Peniel youth when they walk through the gate to the camp’s garden, but there’s one thing leaders hope campers take away from the experience more than anything else.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for kids to see God’s creation and how he provides for us,” said Camp Peniel executive director Brian Anderson. The camp is a Christian residential and day camp, located east of Marble Falls on RR 1431.
The garden is a great place for campers to get their hands dirty and learn a bit about horticulture. Cherie Miller, a volunteer and Master Gardener who helped design and build the garden, enjoys sharing her passion for gardening with the youth. She even created an educational curriculum, so campers will walk out of the garden knowing a little bit more about the wonders of God’s creation.
“I think kids today are tactilely deprived,” Miller said. “They are very disconnected from a lot of the natural world. This garden is one of the ways I try to give them that connection and experience.”
Miller or a camp counselor ushers campers through the garden but not just on a simple tour. She encourages them to pull a cherry tomato and plop it in their mouths. As she takes them through the garden, Miller will stop the campers and point out a herb. A little placard by the herb states “taste, touch, smell.”
“I let them try the herb and see if they can figure out what it is,” Miller said. If they can’t, the name of the herb is written on the inside of the placard. It’s just a way to get the campers thinking about what they’re seeing, smelling and tasting.
“Everything in here can be eaten,” Miller said. “We don’t put anything on the plants that’s bad for the campers.”
Along with tours, campers can help tend the garden. Sometimes, this means picking vegetables; other times, it might mean weeding or even tending the compost.
“We even raise worms,” Miller said.
The camp uses earthworms for the garden itself and red wrigglers in the composting process. Miller smiled when she talked about the kids getting their hands in the dirt and working with the worms.
“I think most of the kids who come here probably have no experience in gardening,” she said. “But once they get their hands dirty and see what it’s all about, they enjoy it. Maybe this garden encourages them to go home and start their own garden.”
While the youth pick and sample vegetables and herbs as they go, the camp donates produce to local charities such as The Helping Center of Marble Falls, Burnet County Meals on Wheels and the First Baptist Church of Marble Falls’ food bank.
This year, Camp Peniel also received a Community Garden Initiative Grant through Transforming Texas and the Highland Lakes Health Partnership. The grant allowed Miller and the camp to install a much-needed irrigation system.
Another round of grants is available to Burnet County groups and organizations that either have a community garden established and want to make improvements or want to build a community garden. Go to highlandlakeshealthpartnership.org for an application and more information. The deadline is July 25.
“This has really been great for the camp and the kids,” Anderson said. “It’s a very unique program because of the curriculum Cherie has created. They are learning when they come out here and experiencing God’s creation. I think it opens them up to what God does every day for us.”
Miller agreed. She pointed out there’s just something about kids getting their hands dirty that goes beyond the current lesson.
“There’s a ‘wow’ factor that comes with it,” she said. “For me, I love to give them a chance to experience that ‘wow’ factor.”
Go to www.camppeniel.org for more about the camp and the facility.
daniel@thepicayune.com