We are gardeners and are a unique group of people who love all kinds and types of plants and relish digging in the dirt.  We became Master Gardeners to improve our knowledge and do better in our own gardens. 

Part of being a certified Master Gardener is the requirement to volunteer each year – somewhere within our county – in some way – and give a few hours of our time.  For many, the enjoyment of being a Master Gardener is learning from each other and sharing what we’ve learned and know with the other folks.

At our recent garden tour, with our members serving as docents in the participating gardens, we had the opportunity to share our gardening knowledge with those visitors.  Our volunteer docents, wearing aprons and badges to identify themselves, masked and practicing social distancing due to the pandemic, relayed unique information about each of the seven tour gardens.  Collectively, they answered hundreds of questions to identify plants, explained the importance of natives, talked about rain barrel value, landscaping and hardscaping and discussed sun vs. shade.  We salute these folks.

This volunteer docent is really enjoying her assignment

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THANK  YOU FOR COMING!!!!!!!!  

GCMGA presented Down the Garden Path on Saturday June 13, 9AM – 4PM.  

We donned our masks and practiced social distancing that day.  Although we were delayed by restrictions from the pandemic with the tour moving from May to June, folks were ready to be outside and enjoy nature’s beauty.  We showcased seven diverse gardens:

• A Certified Native and Wildlife Habitat employing only native plants
• A formal English style garden with winding paths and water features
• A landscape featuring sustainable practices, statues and a koi pond
• A Charleston style garden utilizing classic Southern plants
• Two inviting pocket-size garden retreats

Many gardens were located in shade and on slopes providing ideas on how to beautify a challenging landscape.  Ideas for types of plants – shrubs, trees, natives, perennials and annuals – were gained by our visitors.  Many questions and comments from our visitors and lots of answers from our hosts and docents.  All of our gardens were along the Highway 78 Corridor from Lilburn to Lawrenceville to Grayson.  We invite you to look at just a few pictures of the gardens on the tour.

Varlamoff Garden: Potted Wonder welcomes all to the hosts' sustainable garden haven

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This event provided families with a fun-filled night at Vines Park, Saturday, October 26^th.  GCMGA members who work Vines Park weekly (known as the Viners) dreamed up this event and built props to create a haunted walk through Phantom Village in the Asian Garden area of the park. 

Families played games, watched for Godzilla and the T. Rex, snacked and enjoyed the Bouncy House while waiting for their guided tour to begin.  Folks helped investigate a murder in Phantom Village.  They walked past the Sheriff’s Office and Jail, Poker Zombies, and the Operating Room.  Then past Zombie barbies, over the Snapping Turtle Bridge, by the Witches Cauldron and cornstalks to enter through tunnel with creepy hands coming from the walls to enter Phantom Village.  They passed the fortune teller, the table with Zombie heads and were frightened in the cemetery.  On they walked past the Giant crow, the zombie Mom and baby to view the Gruesome Garden.  The Ptomaine Café offered Halloween snacks of worms, maggot pudding and brains.  Visitors were watchful for the Swamp Monster and the Zombie party at the Hotel of No Return where the two murder suspects argued about who did it! 

The Viners teamed up with Extension, Parks and Recreation, Drama Club members from Archer and Grayson High Schools, Master Gardeners and other volunteers, all who added their enthusiasm and expertise to the Trail.  Proceeds will go to benefit Vines Park.  Please see a few pictures below or watch the YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9NVIsf-Ivk.

Tour Guide Bill Smith

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The brainstorm idea from the regular Gwinnett County Master Gardener Association members who work weekly at the Vines grew into a Halloween adventure.  They planned and executed Odie’s murder story with a walk and talk through the Asian Gardens that had multiple sets of spooky stuff – from the graveyard to Ptomaine Kitchen to skeletons in boats and much, much more.  On October 27^th, many GCMGA members with enthusiastic teen volunteers and family members worked with Gwinnett County Parks and Rec folks to provide Terror on the Trail at Vines Park in Loganville.  

To quote Kim Shealy of Parks and Rec: “There are many highlights of the event that need to be shared-like-one tour had the opportunity to see a volunteer go for a swim in the lake, another tour had a volunteer walk off with the grave digger, another one had a lawyer/detective in the group that gathered and pocketed the clues to solve the murder and then was made the murderer, Barbies kept moving from place to place to scare the crowd, blood donor had a member of the crowd offer to donate as they were universal donors, the prisoner in the jail was terrific as he pleaded to get out and one group voted no to let him out, Sheriff would not share her donuts but was caught red handed, Hollis was missing a finger but the crowd kept focusing on the red and black shirt, I think Odie actually at one point was asleep, Chewy almost got to eat a child as a parent volunteered him, Tizzy would not bargain a  child in the crowd for the sickle, Godzilla’s battery died and I searched in the woods for him but he was gone, Madame Margarita went with the flow when I lost my script, she just kept going, the leaf blanket girl got each group every time, members of the crowd start drinking from the cooler and no fish were caught on the bridge, the wedding scene volunteers mixed with the kids and the bloody tent to mosey through the ground and beat on the spiders lair, Chef Tarantula had to do a scene by herself as my flashlight exploded and I couldn’t read my lines, the brain was awesome and gross at the same time, WAY TOO MANY THINGS TO SHARE BUT WHAT A TERRIFIC JOB.”

There’s a repeat planned for 2019….  Enjoy just a few of the pictures from that night.