questions, we’ re here to help. The Master Gardeners are part of the county Extension Service— and so we are that‘ extension’ of the Extension Service that helps people here in our local area.”
Gettin’ Dirty & Talkin’ Dirty at the Library— On Tuesdays at the Athens-Limestone Public Library, the Master Gardeners host“ Gettin’ Dirty at the Library,” an admission-free, hour-long educational workshop that always highlights a local topic of horticultural interest. Together with“ Talkin’ Dirty at the Library”— an accompanying podcast hosted by Master Gardener Emily Clem— the program has earned top award honors from Master Gardeners statewide, and even went on to place second at the nationwide awards level.
Scholarships for high school students—“ For the first time last year, we were able to offer college scholarships for the high schools in Limestone County,” says Fiacco.“ The scholarships are for high school seniors who plan to to do any type of horticultural or agriculture-related studies. We’ re in our second year of that program now, and it’ s available to student at all of the county schools, plus the city schools.”
Master Gardener program scholarships—“ This is a first for us, but this year we are doing a scholarship for the Master Gardener intern class that ' s going to start in the fall,” says Fiacco.“ We realize that there are some people who want to be involved in the Master Gardeners who may face a financial hindrance, so we ' re starting a scholarship to see what kind of response we might get. If it goes well, we ' ll
keep offering those for both the spring and the fall.
Documenting local biodiversity— This year, the Master Gardeners partnered with the iNaturalist online platform to conduct Athens’ first-ever City Nature Challenge BioBlitz, a week-long April campaign that engaged the public to contribute ground-level information about the plants, animals, and fungi in their area as part of a data-driven effort to expand scientific knowledge about Athens’ living environment.
“ it’ s to learn what kind of biodiversity we have, and it’ s never been done here,” explains Fiacco.“ It’ s really meant to engage as many people of all ages who want to take part. It gets people outside; they take pictures; upload information— and then, about a month after it ' s done, we ' ll be able to share those results with the public.”
From tending ornamental planters at the local post office to hosting two major plant sales annually( one in April; the other in September), there’ s always a Master Gardenerhosted program, event, or workshop happening soon on the local calendar. And believe or not, items like the ones above only scratch the surface of all the local activity that keeps the Limestone County Master Gardeners busy well beyond each year’ s growing season.
Whether you’ re interested in becoming a Master Gardener yourself or simply want to tap into the group’ s wealth of certified knowledge, you can learn all about the Limestone County Master Gardeners by visiting www. mastergardeners-limestonecountyalabama. org, and by following the organization on Facebook. LL
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