Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Centre County are volunteering at schools in the Centre Region, by helping with planting in school gardens, and by providing workshops and presentations for teachers and students.
Penn State Master Gardeners helped students at Park Forest Middle School plant a pollinator garden as part of their school beautification project. The pollinator garden is a "satellite" garden of the nearby Snetsinger Butterfly Garden at Tudek Park.
Mount Nittany Middle School
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Centre County have helped teachers and students with the design and planting of the Mount Nittany Middle School Memory Garden. This garden is located in the school's open courtyard. It is a large grass area with three flower beds. It has benches and tables as well as three composters where school lunch and garden waste are composted for the garden. This courtyard is used for assemblies, games, instruction and relaxing. Last year the school planted spring vegetables and they are exploring the addition of a small pond.
Easterly Parkway Elementary School
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners were involved with the planning and development of the new Easterly Parkway Elementary School Monarch Habitat. Master Gardeners who volunteer at Tudek Park Memorial Butterfly Habitat collected seeds from Tudek Park's butterfly garden and grew monarch host plants for the new "satellite" garden at the school. We also went into the classrooms to teach the children about the monarch life cycle, and then helped the children plant the monarch host plants and other pollinator-friendly annuals in the butterfly garden.
Park Forest Middle School
Student at Park Forest Middle School created a pollinator garden as part of their school beautification project. Master Gardeners went into the school to teach the children about the importance of pollinators and they learned how we can all contribute to their survival by planting gardens for their benefit. The children cleared an area of invasive weeds and shrubs in back of their school, and planted native perennial plants that are attractive to pollinators in their place. The garden is the newest "satellite" garden of the nearby Snetsinger Butterfly Garden at Tudek Park, as many of the native pollinator plants were donated from this garden. The garden will also serve as a teaching tool to the students when studying native plants and trees in their lessons and they look forward to finding beneficial insects and pollinators in their new garden.
Radio Park Elementary School
Radio Park Elementary School has its own organic school garden devoted to the teaching of horticulture, science, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for the teachers and students of the school. The garden consists of a fenced area for vegetables and herbs, bordered by a perennial beds of pollinator and native plants. There are also compost bins so that the students can compost their lunch leftovers and use the compost to enrich the garden soil.
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Centre County have worked with teachers, students, and parents of the school to help select seeds and supplies, ad help the children plant seeds and transplant plants. We've also given class tours of the garden, given talks to the children about composting.
