AVILLA — Saline County Master Gardeners have been hard at work for the past several weeks getting ready for their annual plant sale. A group was found recently working with plants in one of the hoop houses at the Avilla-Zion Community Garden.
Bruce Schrader, past president of the Saline County Master Gardeners, is a member of Zion Lutheran Church, which started the community garden in 2012. Through Schrader’s help, the local Master Gardeners maintain a relationship with the church, allowing them to use the hoop house to maintain plants prior to the plant sale. The Master Gardeners also help maintain the landscape beds at the community garden.
“We basically have three greenhouses/hoop houses set up in the county where we work with the plants before the sale,” Schrader said. “We have this one here, one at the Benton home of Sherry Faulkner and one at my house in Salem.
“Each Master Gardener is asked to provide 50 plants for the sale, and some choose to raise their plants here,” Schrader said, noting that members of the community are welcome to sign up for one of the 127 garden plots, 50 of which have already been assigned to local families for this year.
The 2019 Saline County Master Gardeners Plant Sale is set for 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Saline County Fairgrounds, 406 Fairfield Road in Benton.
“We’ll still be at the fairgrounds, but we have a new location there,” said Phil McConnell of Bryant, plant-sale chairman.
“We’ll be at the west end of the rodeo arena … not in the dirt where rodeos are held,” he said. “There is a large concrete area next to the concession stand in the arena, and that’s where we will be set up. Last year, we were in the armory at the fairgrounds, and that was a little small for us. We’re hoping this will give us more space.
“Another new thing for us this year is the addition of three educational booths. These booths will feature information on butterflies, herbs and native plants. Hopefully, we will have plants for sale that are related to these topics.”
McConnell said plants at the annual sale will be priced “50 cents and up.”
“They will be priced reasonably, for sure,” he said. “We will have mostly the flowering types of plants … annuals and perennials. We will also have blackberries, herbs, vegetables — especially tomatoes. … Everyone wants tomatoes. We will have house plants, shrubs, trees and more.”
Proceeds from the sale will fund scholarships and Master Gardener projects.
“We have a variety of beautification projects — the corners in historic downtown Benton, the Saline County Courthouse, the Benton and Bryant chambers of commerce, the Bryant Library, the Saline County Airport … about 20 projects in all,” McConnell said.
“We have educational projects, too,” he said. “We have Monday Night at the Library at the Saline County Library in Benton. We have guest speakers. … Most of the programs are plant-oriented. Those are free and open to the public.”
Sandra Porter of Bryant is president of the Saline County Master Gardeners.
“We have approximately 70 in our group,” Porter said, noting that she has been a member of the Master Gardeners for one year.
“Most of them will be at the plant sale. This is a great team to work with,” she said, referring to the Master Gardeners working at the community garden. “I’ve learned so much. … I never knew what propagate meant, and now I’m propagating everywhere. I worked out here last year to get my 50 plants for the sale, but this year, most of the plants I am donating for the sale have come from my yard.”
Janet Nicholas of Avilla was among the newest Master Gardeners working at the Avilla-Zion Community Garden. She said she learned about the local Master Gardeners when she was driving by the community garden about a year ago with her grandson and stopped to see what was happening.
“People were outside working in their gardens. My grandson said, ‘Let’s go see if we can get us a garden,’” Nicholas said, laughing.
“And I thought that would be a great way for a kid to learn all about gardening. They provide everything — the dirt, the plants, the water. All you do is take care of it,” she said.
“It was shortly afterward that I joined the Master Gardeners and took their training. Now this has become my heart. This garden is open to anyone in the community,” Nicholas said.
“Since I became a Master Gardener, I have met others, like this sweetie sitting here beside me, helping label all these plants,” Nicholas said, referring to Dianna McCullough of Bryant, who has been a member of the Master Gardeners for three years. “We all have a common bond — a love for gardening.”
For more information on the Saline County Master Gardeners program, call the Saline County Extension Service office at (501) 303-5672.