Free Thanksgiving-style community dinner Nov. 21 at Web.com Drums office, RSVP required by Nov. 20

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<p>HANOVER TOWNSHIP &#8211; Dundee Gardens, a greenhouse, nursery and gift shop, hosted a class Sunday that taught children how to utilize eggshells as plant pots.</p><p>Six-year-olds Cecilia Pons, Mo Doherty and Charlotte Zembruski, along with 7-year-old William Zembruski, recycled the organic waste by planting zinnia and bean seeds in the shells and fertilizing them with worm castings. The students dyed their pots before filling them.</p><p>&#8220;My favorite part was dyeing eggs,&#8221; Pons said.</p><p>&#8220;I made a tie-dye color,&#8221; Doherty added. &#8220;Yellow and purple make tie-dye.&#8221;</p><p>Sunday&#8217;s class was the latest in a series of programs at Dundee Gardens. The local business is looking to position itself as a community hub by offering a variety of events and experiences; class instructor Julie Fallon joined Dundee Gardens in June to help them reach that goal. Her background in childhood education and agriculture allows her to pinpoint relevant topics and teachable moments.</p><p>&#8220;This is a great opportunity to combine the two,&#8221; Fallon said. &#8220;We talk about everything from slimy, scaly creatures to healthy eating, growing sprouting root systems and photosynthesis. Today, we dyed some of the egg shells we used for planting, so we got right into how colors combine and the light spectrum.&#8221;</p><p>Each Sunday children&#8217;s class at Dundee Gardens is $20, which covers the 3-hour instructional time as well as any materials used. Along with the class curriculum, students will also interact with resident wildlife: a turtle, a Pacman frog and two rabbits named Oreo and Cottontail. Students who attend the Nov. 22 class will build a terrarium inside a pickle jar.</p><p>&#8220;Students will learn about the closed system that is a terrarium, the moisture cycle within that closed system and how the plants inside will grow and develop,&#8221; Fallon said. &#8220;Then they&#8217;ll look at (Dundee Garden&#8217;s) greenhouse as its own terrarium because, technically, this is a closed system. In addition, they&#8217;ll learn about the plants they&#8217;re planting.&#8221;</p><p>The terrarium class will be followed by &#8220;Scales, Fins and Slimy Skin,&#8221; which will focus on fish, reptiles and amphibians. Dundee Garden has attracted an average of nine children a week in the program&#8217;s beginning stages, but Fallon hopes to grow the classes to 20 kindergarten through eighth-grade students per session.</p><p>&#8220;Right now, I&#8217;ve mostly had children in the K through third-grade range, but when we do have older students, it&#8217;s a really cold one-room schoolhouse experience,&#8221; Fallon said. &#8220;They tend to learn from and teach each other.&#8221;</p><p>Potential students and their parents can visit dundeegardens.com/events to register on a class-by-class basis.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Julie Fallon teaches Charlotte Zembruski, 6, and Cecilia Pons, 6, about worm castings they will use in their eggshell pots. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Julie Fallon teaches Charlotte Zembruski, 6, and Cecilia Pons, 6, about worm castings they will use in their eggshell pots. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, plant zinnia and bean seeds in eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, plant zinnia and bean seeds in eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, learn about seeds before planting them in their eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, learn about seeds before planting them in their eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, learn about parts of an egg before planting seeds in their eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111715eggPots4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Charlotte Zembruski, 6, Cecilia Pons, 6, and Mo Doherty, 6, learn about parts of an egg before planting seeds in their eggshell pots under the guidance of Julie Fallon at Dundee Gardens. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Gene Axton</p><p>gaxton@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>FUN FOR EVERYONE</strong></p><p>Dundee Gardens&#8217; community initiative isn&#8217;t exclusive to K through eighth-grade students. The facility will host a cocktail class and book launch for &#8220;Owl&#8217;s Brew&#8221; Nov. 19, and its Dec. 10 Girl&#8217;s Night Out event will offer door prizes as well as promotional offers from Vera Bradley and Troll Beads. Interested parties can register or RSVP at dundeegardens.com/events.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Gene Axton at 570-991-6121 or on Twitter @TLArts</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Students at Hanover Township’s Dundee Gardens create plant pots from eggshells