homestead

The last working farm in the city of Santa Clara, Homesteaders Ranch preserves part of our agricultural past. It is a collaborative effort between 4H and the Master Gardeners with a Santa Clara County Master Gardener as coordinator.

To teach children and teenagers horticultural practices, the Homesteaders 4H members learn from the Junior Master Gardener Level 2 Curriculum. School tours, lead by the teenagers, help the children to reconnect and understand their food supply. Besides the tours, the 4-H youth have two special projects to cut back the use of pesticides: the Homesteaders Frog and Toad Pond and growing Monarchs in the public school classrooms. This demonstrates how easily any pesticides can kill amphibians and butterfly larvae. Encouraging the protection of beneficial insects including bees, native butterflies and beneficial animals, such as bats, birds and toads, is an important part of these projects. With the end goal of hosting a Beneficial Bug Day, we hope to show the importance and beauty of beneficial insects to the community to demonstrate the significance of less pesticide use.

Homesteaders project uses the Junior Master Gardener curriculum, level 2, developed by the Texas Master Gardener for use by Junior High students and teens. The curriculum covers such modules as propagation, hydroponics, garden art, topiary, soils, water cycle, composting, insect identification, flowers, vegetable and fruit gardening.