One of the community projects for the Master Gardeners is out at Ward Hall. If you tour the grounds, you will see a shade garden, formal garden, a memory garden and an herb garden. The Scott County Master Gardener volunteers have taken on the project of the herb garden and they have focused on the herbs that have been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes as well as focusing on herbs that have been used both then and now. Over the last several years the project has evolved. In the beginning the focus was on a kitchen garden with a variety of both vegetables and herbs. As many of you who live in the country find out, the deer love your vegetables but don’t like the smell and/or texture of the herbs. As a result, we focused on herbs, identifying both common and unique varieties. You will find the typical herbs that you think of: oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, and mint. These were used for multiple purposes to flavor and sometimes preserve food as well as treat illnesses. At the same time, you will see some that you didn’t realize had either culinary or medicinal purposes. flowers that can be dried and today are used for arrangements and wreathes.
On June 8th we held a Garden Party out at Ward Hall. Our goal was to educate the visitors about the gardens and the plants that were found there. We created brochures that provided info about the plants found in the gardens. Several people created a Tree Walk that not only told about the kind of trees, it also shared about the historical value of those trees. MG were available in the gardens for questions. Master gardeners organized seeds to giveaway that could be found in the garden as well as information on how to grow them. Children were given the chance to create an art project around the gardening theme. We decided to involve some community partners with the idea that it would bring in more visitors. We wanted it to be a family affair. As a result, Parks & Rec set up vintage games for kids, Georgetown Gentlemen scheduled a vintage baseball game, Tourism helped with PR, the American Legion donated money for food and we were able to have tea/lemonade and small cookies and the Scott County library provided the ideas for the garden art projects. The event was a success with 400-500 visitors.
Some photos are available HERE
