Purchase
Area Master Gardener Association
(PAMGA)
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(PAMGA) |
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Partnership with Easter Seals Adult Volunteers Since 2004, Adult Volunteers from the Easter Seals Center in Paducah have been a fixture at the Demo & Trial Garden in the summer. The Volunteers tend a vegetable patch and weed flower beds. This year they also planted gourd seeds which they will harvest in the fall. While weekly visits to the garden concluded with a picnic on the garden grounds on July 11, the group will occasionally return to the garden to harvest corn, tomatoes, pumpkins and perhaps even a second crop of strawberries. Below are a few snapshots from the picnic.
At left, Brannon and Teresa, a
supervisor at the Center, harvest green beans. The
Volunteers from the Center also created a table entry (below) for the design competition at the 2006 McCracken County Fair Flower Show. PAMGA has organized the standard flower show since 2000. Judges awarded the Easter Seals entry, depicting the song "Uppa Lazy River," an "Honorable Mention."
Historical Underpinning of Easter Seals/PAMGA Partnership In 2004, PAMGA partnered with Easter Seals to introduce several Adult Volunteers to the joys of gardening. They came with a strong desire to plant tomatoes, but they left with much more. Each Tuesday from June until September, four to five Master Gardeners met with about a dozen Easter Seals Adult Volunteers at the Demonstration & Trial Garden. The first two weeks were spent familiarizing the Adult Volunteers with the garden and getting to know one another. Then, we got down to business. After tilling the soil, we planted tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, squash and pepper plants, interspersing the plot with occasional marigolds for pest control. We also sowed Indian corn, peas and beans from seed. Like most gardeners, as soon as the plants and seeds were in the ground, the Adult Volunteers (and, okay, the Master Gardeners too) were ready to eat! While nature took its course and things began to grow, SLOWLY,
we kept ourselves busy weeding and caring for other parts of the garden.
When the trees and brambles arrived for our new orchard and vineyard, the Easter
Seals Adult Volunteers were there to help with installation. When the
summer heat became too intense, we retreated to a shady area and potted vinca
which the Volunteers took home. Each week, we checked the progress of all our crops to witness how things grow. Each week we eagerly anticipated the first day of harvest. I can still hear Brannon ask, "Can we eat yet?" Finally, the long-awaited day arrived and we picked our first bright red tomato. That was the first tomato of many as the Adult Volunteers took home a bounty of fruit and vegetables each week. Another Master Gardener had planted several potatoes for an experiment in a nearby plot and we kept a close eye on them too. One day our desire to see what was growing under all that lush foliage and pretty white blossoms became just too much to bear and we unearthed nearly 5 pounds of small new potatoes. We left some of the potatoes in the earth and replanted the foliage but Eileen still knew someone had disturbed her potato patch. They sure tasted good. Another day the Adult Volunteers picked a bumper crop of green tomatoes and returned to the Easter Seals Center to feast on Fried Green Tomatoes. PAMGA's partnership with Easter Seals allowed the Adult Volunteers to see fruit and vegetable production from seed to table. Along the way they learned to use garden implements, including a rototiller; they learned how and when to water plants; they even planted salad greens in an accessible table as part of a lesson in inclusive gardening, but we didn't water the table consistently and sadly, the seeds never matured; they learned the types of produce that grow well in our climate and the length of time it takes for a tomato to ripen and for a squash blossom to become a squash; they learned to distinguish weeds from desirable plants; and ultimately they enjoyed working with the soil. The Adult Volunteers will now take this knowledge and use it to create a vegetable garden at the Easter Seals Center. The Adult Volunteers were not the only students in this experiment. Master Gardeners learned too. The Adult Volunteers were shy initially and did not want to get their hands dirty. As Master Gardeners it was challenging to find ways to engage the Adult Volunteers and get them involved in the gardening process. It was also a challenge to come up with new and exciting things for them to do each week. Gardens grow at their own pace and some weeks there just wasn't much change in the garden. But other weeks, like the harvesting of the potatoes, the garden was very active and resounded with laughter and joy over what had been accomplished and anticipation for what next Tuesday would bring.
Everyone has a talent. By the end of summer, each Adult Volunteer had developed a new one, whether it was running a rototiller, weeding by hand or hoe, or harvesting tomatoes and squash. Just in time for the September 18, 2004 Open House, each of the Adult Volunteers became a Garden Friend and received a T-shirt and name badge. They may have come to the garden to learn how to grow tomatoes but they left with much more, as did the Master Gardeners who participated in this project. |
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Purchase Area Master Gardener Association, 2705 Olivet Church Road, Paducah, Ky 42001 270/554-9520 FAX 270/554-8283 www.pamga.org |
mess
of beans was taken to the Center and prepared for all the garden program
participants. A small patch of white pumpkins is producing intriguing
results and is being carefully watched with much anticipation. Easter
Seals Volunteers sowed the seed after tilling and preparing the soil.
Here's part of the harvest of
cherry
tomatoes. The Volunteers found the tiny tomatoes sweet and juicy.
The red, orange and yellow tomatoes disappeared quickly at the picnic.
Below right, Volunteers Calvin and Stewart enjoying fried chicken and all the
fixins' under the tent at the garden.
Calvin
was a newcomer to the garden in 2006. Stewart has been with the program
since 2004 and takes great pride in running the rototiller and mower.
Below is one of the many varieties of gourds
being grown as a living hedge to disguise the
county impound lot which borders the Demo Garden. When harvested, some of
the gourds will be used as decorations. Others will be fashioned into
birdhouses and ladles. 
The
picnic was organized by Master Gardeners Phyllis & Jim Petcoff (in gray and red
shirts at right edge of photo). Jim Petcoff has overseen the Easter
Seals/Master Gardener partnership for PAMGA since 2005. 
at
the Demo Garden. The McCracken County Extension Office and PAMGA members
will be helping the Center erect a greenhouse at their new facility. The
greenhouse was donated to the Center by an area citizen. 
