When Mary McGee first became a master gardener in 2013, she had no idea that the volunteer group helped maintain an arboretum within a popular public park just a block from her house. So when she became involved with the Rady Park Arboretum, a project she co-chairs with fellow master gardener Winnie Buursink, one of […]
Kevin Parris often reminds his students in the horticulture program at Spartanburg (SC) Community College how lucky they are to study within a short drive of five arboreta. “I tell them every year, you can’t go to a university in this country that has access to the grounds that we do within a stone’s throw and […]
Every Wednesday, Master Gardener volunteers from the Richmond (Virginia) area come to the Goochland Campus of Reynolds Community College. They tend to an herb garden on campus that is a joint project between the Goochland-Powhatan Master Gardeners and the students enrolled in Reynolds’ horticulture program. It was installed in 2015, and serves as both a […]
Arboreta are a highlight of many college campuses. They provide a place for horticultural students to flex their muscles and for the campus to showcase plant collections and the types of vegetation that thrive in a school’s region. But why should this opportunity to connect people with new knowledge about plants end at the arboretum […]
How many cities have a full-time artist on staff? Talk to Chris Seale and you’ll quickly learn that that’s how he sees his job as horticulturalist for the city of Waxahachie, Texas. Seale was hired two years ago to lead beautification efforts in this city of roughly 32,000 just south of the Dallas suburbs. “I love that […]
The Gardens at Kansas State University play a dual role in their community. Located on campus with no entry fees or gates to separate them from the public, they welcome visitors from the local community and beyond. Since the gardens were started in 1875, they have provided a living laboratory for horticulture students to practice plant identification, […]
It was a school field trip during his childhood in Southern California that introduced Brad Grimm to the majesty of the monarch butterfly. When his class took the half-hour trip to Natural Bridges State Beach, Grimm took in a view he wouldn’t soon forget. Natural Bridges, located in Santa Cruz, Calif., has become known to […]
Growing a vibrant arts community bears many similarities to the work of a gardener. Creativity must be tended like a seedling, nurtured and given an environment to thrive. This is the work that Mary Ouimette-Kinney and Larry Kinney have been doing for decades in their community in Buffalo, N.Y. It’s the mission that led them […]
As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, born and raised in Oklahoma, Tony Harris grew up absorbing Cherokee traditions from his family. Many of those traditions, like the traditional medicinal remedies his mother used, are tied to plants. When Harris, now a resident of Marietta, Ga., retired, he and his wife, Carra, became certified Master […]
For veterans receiving treatment at the McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., an 8-acre area of land on the center’s busy campus has been transformed into a growing arboretum. Here, patients, caregivers and members of the community can take a peaceful stroll, or even participate in a yoga class or other therapeutic activity to […]