At the request of the seventh-grade science teacher, the 2015 VZ County Master Gardener trainees installed a pollinator garden at the Canton Jr. High School as their class project. The teacher’s goal was to use the garden to teach her students about the life cycle of insects, their migratory habits and why they are beneficial to our world.

With those motives in mind, the MG trainees developed a plan for a plot in front of the school and began to remove the tenacious ground cover of Asian jasmine. The area was tilled, crushed granite pathways were laid, and the students helped the MG’s to install the new garden with plants that would attract butterflies and insects of all kinds, a lot of them coming from members’ gardens.

The Master Gardeners have taken care of the pollinator garden ever since, but recently gifted it back to the school administration where it will continue to be used to teach students the importance of pollinators and why they must be nurtured and protected. When it was gifted back to the school early this summer, it had developed into a beautiful garden consisting mostly of perennials that won’t require a lot of maintenance.

Thanks to many of the VZ Master Gardeners who have watered, replanted, mulched and taken care of this project for many years. Many challenges were met and hundreds of hours spent by those of us who worked this garden and we are sad to see it go, but we are proud of what we accomplished.