My eight year old grandson stayed with us all of last week. It was a week of perpetual motion. Each morning started the same - breakfast and bike ride. After breakfast the bikes were loaded into the van for the short trip to EIU. I think we probably rode on every single sidewalk on campus. Of course there were favorite venues that had to be visited several times each morning. These included the clock tower, the "castle", and our secret path (the walk between Fine Art, Life Science, and the Greenhouse).

It seemed strange yet very familiar. My older brother and I use to ride many of these very walks when I was that same age. We would sneak away from our house 2 blocks away on 11^th St. - he on his 26" Western Flyer and me on my second-hand 24" Schwinn. What fun we had racing through the maze of walks, circling around buildings, and bouncing down sidewalk steps. Now, well over 50 years later, I was doing much the same. And I was just as thrilled riding the walks "super fast" with my grandson, "invisible lights" flashing and "silent sirens" blaring.

We did lots of other things during the week, too. We walked to the library, played at Morton Park; swam at the pool; visited Fox Ridge and Lincoln Log cabin; and saw a movie at the theater.

This kept us pretty busy but we still had time for work. Of course, what we grownups consider work is often still play to an eight year old. So we washed dishes (he rinsed everything, including himself and me). We picked up apples; fed and changed the water for the birds; watered the patio plants, picked tomatoes, snapped green beans, mowed the lawn, and hoed weeds.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Charleston Food Pantry with grandma to help her give out food. He transferred canned fruit from boxes to flats (20 flats worth); helped stock shelves; then help me fill boxes that were distributed to 21 families that day. He was elated.

Our grandson was disappointed when the week came to an end. But what will he remember of this week years from now? Well, I hope that he remembers the fun he had with grandpa and what fun it was working in the yard and garden. More importantly, though, I hope that he remembers the good feeling that he had helping others at the food pantry and will make helping others a part of his life too.

We all have opportunities for helping others. Here is a good one for Gardeners. It's called Plant a Row for the Hungry (PAR). It is a program launched in 1995 by the Garden Writers Association of America. It encourages gardeners to grow a little extra and donate the produce to local soup kitchens and food banks.

In 2000 University of Illinois Extension's Master Gardener program designated the program a statewide Master Gardener project and encouraged participation by all local units. The next year the Coles County Extension Master Gardeners established a PAR demonstration plot just east of the Master Gardeners Idea Garden at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center. That first year approximately 1000 lbs. of produce was donated to the Charleston and Mattoon food pantries.

The Plant a Row garden has since been moved to the northeast corner of the hospital. We now have 3 plots that have provided about a ton of produce each year for the last several years. This year we have already supplied the pantries with tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, and onions. Later we will add muskmelons, pumpkins, and potatoes to that list.

Coles County Extension and its Master Gardeners encourage you to come out and see our PAR garden. Like any gardener, we have our failures. This year we don't have any cauliflower. It was drowned out by the spring rains. We also lost about half of our potato crop, again probably due to cool, wet growing conditions and saturated soils early in the season.

The wet soils also let the weeds get a great start, but they have been mastered primarily using mechanical methods - some tilling, with lots of hand pulling and hoeing. To reduce weeds and retain moisture we also have used straw mulch around the potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and onions and black plastic around the hills of cucumbers In those portions of the garden that no longer have crops growing, the lawn mower has been useful for containing weeds and keeping them from going to seed. This is important because one foxtail plant can produce hundreds of seeds, one purslane plant - 50,000 seeds. Why add to next years weed seed bank already buried in the soil, if you can eliminate much of it this year.

PAR has been a successful program for the Coles County Extension Master Gardeners.

How about you? Can you help, too? If you are now experiencing an over abundance from your own garden, why not drop it off at your local food pantry. The Charleston Food Pantry accepts produce on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 1:30 to 4:00; the Mattoon Food Pantry on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 1:30 to 3:30.

Check out Our PAR garden this Saturday. Make this "garden day". At 9:30 stop by Hummel's Hill - 6089 Chicory Knoll in Charleston for the free garden walk sponsored by the Coles County Extension Master Gardeners. Then stop by the SBLHC to take in the Idea Garden and the PAR plots.

If you have any horticulture questions, call the U of I Extension office 345-7034. Volunteer

Master Gardeners are in the office on: Monday—2 to 4 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday—9-11 a.m.

This column is based on information and materials at the University of Illinois Extension office, located at 707 Windsor Road, Suite A., Charleston, 61920; phone 345-7034; or web site: www.extension.uiuc.edu/coles/