July is almost over, and for me that will end my internship experience with the VCE of Alexandria city. The season brought new experiences in dealing with scores of summer camp kids, as well as honing my container garden skills and knowledge. The kids learned how to plant, water, and tend their container gardens, along with identifying new plants and of course getting their hands dirty!

The pizza garden idea was very admirable; however, the amount of kids and lack of a bountiful harvest proved otherwise. At home base in the Nannie Lee Center, I experimented in harvesting the loads of basil that grew with three different methods: The first was air drying several leaves at a time by hanging them from the stems inside a perforated paper bag. The microwave also proved successful in drying the herb; and the final method was simply freezing the leaves (which hasn’t been tested yet).

At the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless leadership academy, the kids have been slowly coming alive as we traveled to the Natural History Museum last week, and are making welcome baskets for the carpenter shelter this week. The B2i summer program will also finish up this next week, before joining the other members once school starts