What is Junior Master Gardener (JMG)?


JMG is a program that will help our children grow and learn through “hands-on” learning experiences and activities. The JMG program provides a positive learning experience for youth to develop leadership, responsibility and community pride through organized gardening activities. The JMG program combines a unique gardening based curriculum and web based instruction, community service, character education and service-based learning, into a fun and exciting certification program for youth. This program is designed to incorporate science, math, language arts, geography and other subject area disciplines into the “hands-on” gardening based activities. JMG curriculum is correlated to academic standards and has research supporting how the program improves academic success, nutrition, self-esteem, and leadership development.

Some activities/projects that we will do this year are:

v Planning and planting in the vegetable, flower, and herb gardens
v Starting plants from seeds in our new grow lab
v Container gardening
v Participating in the TAMU Earth KindTM Rose Brigade
v Analyzing soil
v Field trips
v Nature crafts
v Observing and learning about insects
v Community Service projects (like donating the vegetables we grow to the local Food Give Away program)
v and more, Much More!

Learn more about JMG and enjoy some really fun on-line activities at www.jmgkids.us/

After just a couple of weeks, the new creations have grown full heads of "hair"!

Tilling Tigers
of
A. C. Williams Elementary School
Commerce, TX

Tilling Tigers is the name of the newest JMG group of Hunt County, Texas. It is comprised of 25 fifth graders who meet every Wednesday after school and are working toward becoming Certified Junior Master Gardeners by the end of this school year. The group was formed last year under the leadership of Hunt Co. Master Gardener Sondra Feduccia. They began applying the JMG curriculum in an existing butterfly garden at the school. This garden was created in 2003 in memory of Aimee Williams, a 4th grade student who died from a brain tumor. They removed weeds, diseased plants, and cut back some of the overgrowth. They planted propagations of irises, daylilies, lamb’s ear and other perennials that were donated to the program. With the onset of spring 2005 the group designed a garden in the shape of a mosaic sunrise which will be completed over 3 years. To help with the cost of building the gardens the children had a fundraiser in which they designed and planted a plant chair and raffled it off. Proceeds from that fundraiser were $275.00. Local businesses and friends of the Tilling Tigers donated the remaining cost and supplies of building and planting the gardens. Phase I of their new gardens was built and planted in March 2005. This phase is in the shape of a semi-circle in which there are four raised beds; two vegetable gardens that are 4’ x 12’ and two herb gardens that are 4’ x 8’. Over the next two years the remaining phases, which will be five triangular gardens to represent the rays of the sun, will be built and planted. The group made a schedule to care for the garden during the summer. They watered, weeded, and picked the garden, sharing its produce with family, friends, and the community. They did such a remarkable job that the vegetables planted in the spring are still producing in October. (A remarkable feat considering the severe drought we are experiencing in this area!)

The Tilling Tigers also reached out to kids in Nicaragua and Honduras by making note cards with leaf prints and pictures of themselves and sending seeds with fellow Hunt Co. Master Gardener Pat Abramson. They were very excited to receive note cards and pictures back from these children and to hear their stories.

Shortly after resuming meetings this fall the kids saw the devastation brought about by Hurricane Katrina. In their desire to help the victims of this disaster they voted to raise funds by selling raffle tickets for another plant chair which they designed and planted. Each ticket was $1.00. This fundraiser continued with the local fall festival – The Bois d’Arc Bash where they had a booth to sell more raffle tickets and also plant people heads for $1.00. Those buying the plant people heads were able to decorate them at the booth and then take home to grow “hair”. Total proceeds were $335.00, which was donated to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund.

Each month the group votes on a different community service project. For October 2005 the group will tend and plant fall annuals in the flower box garden located at the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum in Commerce, TX.

Each year the Tilling Tigers make notecards with pictures and greetings accompanied with seed packets to be delivered to orphans in third world countries.

This is how the area appeared before the Tilling Tigers worked their magic. Oh, how they have worked!

The Tilling Tigers built Phase I of the JMG gardens in the spring of 2005. Everyone worked hard to mulch the walkways between the gardens to deter the growth of unsightly weeds.

Before leaving for summer break the Tilling Tigers of '04-'05 show off the fruits of their labor.

The Tilling Tigers of '05-'06 added 5 triangular shaped beds to complete the mosaic pattern of a rising sun.

Throughout the summer the Tilling Tigers take turns caring for the gardens - weeding, watering, and harvesting.

The '08-'09 Tilling Tigers will prepare these beds for the final time before moving to the new school. Their goal this year will be to leave an area that is beautiful and easily managed while planning a new palette at the new shool for future JMG programs to paint with plants.