A garden tour might not seem like a great activity for a group of 7-,8-, and 9-year-old boys - especially when one of the tour's highlights was a koi pond surrounded by wobbly rocks.  But kids surprise you, and on Friday, August 6, a group from the Wareham Boys and Girls Club eagerly delved into the natural world on a field trip to three backyard gardens on Great Neck.

"It was a wonderful trip," said Boys and Girls Club of Wareham Unit Director Barbara Sullivan, who admitted she was a little skeptical at first about whether the children would really want to learn about such things as say, rose cultivars or the latest in mulch..."I didn't tell them where we were going," she said.

Yes, some perennials may have been trampled.  And the frogs in Peter LaBouliere's koi pond were less than thrilled with the attention they received.  But despite the children's affinity for running, frog-stalking, and standing on precarious rocks, they learned a lot on their nature walk.

They learned to mimic an osprey's call warning of intruders near the nest.  They can tell you the signal to stop feeding koi in the fall (when the water temperature reaches 50 degrees Fahrenheit), and they'll show you the difference between scallop shells and clam shells.  And they were quite good at carding wool, should that ever be a requirement for the SATs.

"There was something special at each location," said Christine Decas who, along with Carolyn McMorrow organized the tour and invited the children into their respective gardens.  "I had as much fun as the kids, probably more!"

And Sullivan was impressed as well. "I thought we'd be on the tour for an hour," Sullivan said, four hours after the tour began.  "You never know with kids."