Have your kids – or your neighbors or friend’s kids or grandkids — ever made a pizza garden?  NO? They eat pizza, right?  Plug them into the joy of growing their own pizza ingredients at the University of Maryland’s Master Gardeners’, Free  3rd Annual Garden Affair on Saturday May 22, at the Centreville Library & Historic Wrights Chance from 10AM-2PM.

What exactly is a pizza garden?  Simple: it’s a garden shaped like a pizza (because it’s made inside a kiddy pool), and divided into ‘slices,’ which hold tomato plants, pepper plants, onions, basil, oregano – all the garden-fresh toppings for pizza.

In addition, the “Bee Man” will be there with his glass-faced hives that let kids see the fascinating life inside a bee colony. At 11AM Master Composter, John Ittu, will conduct a demonstration on the various methods of composting. A demonstration of Vermicomposting – perfect for boys, especially, boxes of wiggling squiggly worms.  Vermicomposting, which produces rich nutrients for house and garden plants alike, is an easy way to compost vegetative kitchen waste.   At 12pm Master Gardener, Pat Bowell, will conduct a Scavenger Hunt. At 1PM there will be an interactive reading of “Who Polluted the Bay?” the story of what human activity has done to bring the Chesapeake Bay to its current failing-grade state. During the story kids will add soil, trash, oil and more to simulate some of the things responsible for the Bay’s current condition. There will also be face painting, a craft table, a plant table, and a talk on container gardening. Members of the Kennard Elementary Ecology Club will be there ready to discuss the native-plant swale they planted by the school.

For more information contact Rachel Melvin, Queen Anne’s County Master Gardener Coordinator at 410-758-0166 or rmelvin1@umd.edu.