The Franklin County Master Gardeners are involved in many gardening and landscaping projects, as well as promoting educational projects to Dudley Elementary School in Wirtz, VA and Sontag Elementary School in Rocky Mount, VA.
DUDLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHING GARDEN
The Teaching Garden has been an ongoing project at Dudley Elementary School for over ten years. The Extension Master Gardeners see the students in the first grade classes for one hour every other week throughout the school year.
Our lessons meet and often exceed the requirements for the Virginia Standards of Learning for first grade science. Our lessons include basic plant anatomy, soil, the water cycle, photosynthesis, plant growth, pollination, and plant reproduction. Students learn where their food comes from by planting, harvesting, and eating produce grown in two raised beds that were constructed on the school grounds by the Master Gardeners. Varied teaching methods and hands on learning opportunities are integrated into the lessons in order to engage the students and enhance their learning.
In the summer of 2017 prior to the start of the 2017/2018 school year, Extension Master Gardeners turned a neglected flower bed into a pollinator garden. This garden has become a valuable teaching tool that is used throughout the school year.
4-H SCHOOL GARDEN AT SONTAG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The overall mission of our gardening program is to teach youth about the environment and their natural world in order to foster the development of positive lifelong environmental attitudes and values. The entire school garden is a part of the 4-H program at Sontag Elementary. This garden is located inside a courtyard at Sontag Elementary School. The size of the courtyard is 600 sq. ft., and it has hardscaping and landscaping features around the perimeter including stepping stones, native plants, a shade tree, a sunflower patch, hand painted rocks, a water source, a small tool shed, a bird bath, a bird feeder and composting bin. The center of the courtyard features a grassy area with picnic tables and three 4×8 raised-bed gardens used for growing cool weather vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Currently, students have the opportunity to participate in hands-on educational activities that teach them real world skills. All students visit the garden at least once per month as part of science class to learn about the plant life cycle including seed germination, growth rates of plants, water needs and plant maintenance, soil health, and the importance of pollinators. Teachers also provide ad hoc opportunities for students to visit the garden for further scientific study. Each grade has a project in the garden that is tied to specific learning objectives that expose students to increasingly complex content and roles. Projects in 2023-2024 include planting and harvesting cool weather crops (4th grade) and establishing a rain garden with native plants (5th grade).
THE GIVING GARDEN
The Giving Garden is the major component of the Tackling Hunger and Nutrition project begun in June, 2009 by the Rotary Club of Smith Mountain Lake to address the hunger and nutrition needs of persons in need living in areas around the lake. Originally designed to provide fresh organic produce to the local food pantry at Lake Christian Ministries, the garden is now a collaborative partnership with the Rotary Club of Smith Mountain Lake, Booker T. Washington National Monument and Franklin County Master Gardeners.
The Giving Garden serves as an educational site for Master Gardeners and interested community residents on principles and practices of organic square foot gardening designed to maximize the amount of produce grown in forty-four raised beds of various sizes- the equivalent of 1/16th of an acre in size with over 2500 pounds of fruits and vegetables being sent to the food pantry in each of the last three years.
The Giving Garden is also used as an educational site for children from various schools, summer camps, scout troops, as well as the Good Neighbors program, and has included participation from Franklin County High School Horticulture students in past years. In addition, it serves as a model and resource for other developing Giving Garden projects within the community.
In 2024, the Giving Garden had 47 volunteers that provided 1,293.75 volunteer hours working in the garden. They produced 3,400.5 pounds of fresh organic produce, which was given to the local food pantry at Lake Christian Ministries.
We’re raising funds for soil and seed so we can grow ore fresh food for our community. If you would like to help, today is the perfect day to give.
Support our Seed Money Challenge today. Thank you!
In March 2026, Master Gardeners reconstructed the plant beds. Wood chips were applied to the pathways generously provided by Mike at Landscape Solutions. Master Gardeners also enjoyed making soil blocks and planting seeds for tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, and nasturtiums
BOOKER T WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT HEIRLOOM GARDEN
The Heirloom Garden at Booker T Washington has been a project of the Franklin County Master Gardeners for over ten years. The garden is on the grounds of the former Burroughs plantation(currently the Booker T. Washington National Monument) where Booker lived as a slave and was emancipated. A team of Master Gardeners help maintain the garden using historically correct methods, plant and harvest heirloom vegetables that would have been grown and eaten during the civil war, and help with education regarding the slave diet and why certain vegetables were grown. This garden is also a Giving Garden as most of the produce is donated to local food pantries.
March 12, 2024
We had a great crew of ten hardy volunteers out there digging broom corn roots, prepping the alfalfa bed for potatoes, harvesting overwintered turnips, weeding, rebuilding paths and beds.
BUFFER LANDSCAPING
The Buffer Landscaping project is a partner of the Smith Mountain Lake Association, Appalachian Electric Power, Virginia Master Gardeners and Virginia Master Naturalists. Its mission is to work proactively on behalf of the entire Smith Mountain Lake Community to encourage the mitigation of excessive run-off of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, snow melting chemicals, and other hazards to our water and wildlife habitats through the use of riparian buffer zones. The BLAST (Buffer Landscape Advisory Service Team) committee is an effort to promote its mission to “slow the flow, filter the flow” and provide adequate buffer landscaping to ensure the SML water quality.
Our committee promotes and educates on the need to plant more native vegetation around high-risk run-off and erosion areas to reduce the amount of toxins in our lake. We do this through: on-site meetings with homeowners to evaluate problem areas; maintaining a website with lists of appropriate plants and information about building and maintaining riparian buffer zones, rain gardens and other tools to protect the lake; providing outreach and education through presentations to community groups.
THE POLLINATOR GARDENS AT THE SKELTON 4H CENTER, WIRTZ, VA
This project focuses on the two pollinator gardens that are supported by the FCMGA at the 4H center. One garden is at the Welcome Center and the other by the Discovery Center. Both gardens are used for educational purposes when youth are at camp from June to July every summer. And of course, many pollinators enjoy the gardens.
THE RIPARIAN BUFFER DEMO GARDEN AT THE SKELTON 4H CENTER, WIRTZ, VA
The Riparian Buffer Demonstration Garden, designed in 2005 by Leslie Santapaul, was installed at the Skelton 4H Center by the Franklin County Master Gardeners to provide inspiration for Smith Mountain Lake homeowners to utilize buffer strategies which would reduce runoff into the lake. Trees and shrubs including Lacebark Elm, Magnolia, Serviceberry, Redbud, Viburnum, Black Gum, and Fringe trees were installed in 2006, followed by native perennials and wildflowers such as amsonia, asters, coneflowers, and monarda. Consisting of five beds, the highlights of the garden are the River Birches, the Grey Owl Junipers, and the native grasses. The Buffer Garden was the focus of a Virginia Master Gardener conference on Waterwise Landscaping in 2011 held at the Skelton Center. In 2015, the garden also played a role in the Waterwise event held at the 4H Center and hosted by the Buffer Landscape Committee. Attendees toured the garden and lists of the native plants contained in the garden were distributed.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOUSE GARDEN
Franklin County Master Gardeners provide landscaping design, material, installation, information, and training on the maintenance of landscaping installed at houses built by the Habit for Humanity organization in Franklin County. Not only does this effort enhance the beauty of the property, it also helps with water runoff and related drainage issues. Support to this project is provided by Willow Tree Nursery and Hilltop Mulch.
