The Cleburne County Master Gardeners implemented a Junior Master Gardener
Program at West Side Elementary School in Greers Ferry this past school
year. Before beginning the program the Junior Master Gardener curriculum
was matched with the benchmarks required to be taught in the Science
curriculum. The Master Gardeners taught hands on lessons to the fifth
grade students about gardening that the students truly enjoyed. The
lessons included what a plant needs to survive, good soil, photosynthesis,
the web of life, benefits of plants, the scientific method teaching a
lesson on seed germination, designing a planting bed, and making stepping
stones. The final projects included building three plant beds. One was
for beautification to instill school pride, a butterfly garden for the
kindergarten through third grade Science curriculum, and a native
plant/herb garden that the students were required to write reports for
Pioneer Day.
In order to continue the program we knew that we would need funding for
the future. Linda Lynch, the chairperson applied for grants hoping to
qualify for some money for the school. We just learned that West Side is
in the final eight with the Reader’s Digest Good Food Garden Grant. The
school is up against other states such as New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Washington D.C., Illinois, and two entries from Colorado. At
stake for the school is a $10,000.00 garden grant. In order to win the
Grand Prize West Side needs to receive the most votes. There are also five
other garden awards to be awarded to the projects receiving the top votes.
The website with the voting goes live on June 10th – June 18th. The
website is rd.com/goodfoodgardens. People can vote as many times as they
can and each vote helps West Side get closer to winning. We need everyone
to support our efforts this year so that this program can continue to grow
and the kids will benefit from the instruction. Please help us achieve
this goal.
