Together, gardeners weed it and reap

Master gardeners tend a county plot of perfection.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published June 25, 2007

Trainee Freda Lowke does some pruning in the demonstration garden over her lunch break at the The Pasco County Extension Service at the Dade City fairgrounds.
	[Times photo: ZACH BOYDEN-HOLMES]

DADE CITY - The white plumbago, Carolina yellow jasmine and Indian Hawthorn are barely visible from State Road 52. But turn into the Pasco County Fairgrounds and meander back toward the heady scent of rosemary and sweet Florida earth and you'll stumble upon a garden of, well, near perfection.

The Pasco County Cooperative Extension Demonstration Gardens spread across about 6, 000-square feet of former parking lot. They are planted with a cornucopia of plants that not only thrive in Florida - but flourish with little water in a severe drought.

"This garden asks for no water - just what God gives us, " explains BJ Jarvis, the enthusiastic Pasco County Extension Director. She's a horticulturist with an MBA who keeps a microscope and colorful plant identification charts in her nearby office for impromptu teaching sessions.

As an example, she points to a hand-painted rain barrel that recently collected 55 gallons of water from a tenth an inch of rainfall that poured off the roof.

"This is a very low maintenance garden, " Jarvis explained one hot afternoon last week as she walked along the garden's gently winding paths. "There's not a lot of turf and we have rain barrels to catch the water. It's the kind of garden we all want: one we can enjoy, but don't have to work in all the time."

All totaled, eight gardens make up the demonstration garden that is open every day, year-round, and is free.

The garden is lovingly maintained by dozens of volunteers who are both Pasco County master gardeners and master gardeners in training.

"We are so fortunate to have so many volunteers with so many wonderful talents, " says Jarvis of the dozens of local gardeners who are experts in everything from ginger to bamboo to bonsai to the particulars of propagation.

Many toil regularly in the demonstration garden - whose motto is "the right plant in the right place" - hoping to show Floridians what can be grown with ease in a sometimes hostile climate.

They also do it for reasons that have as much to do with spending time with fellow gardeners as with the plants they're tending.

"People who are drawn to gardening are people I want to spend time with, " says Roy Hutto, a Pasco County master gardener since 2004 who volunteers in the garden. Hutto often brings new classes of master gardeners to his nearby home in Dade City for a tour of his Southern cottage garden.

"Gardeners are warm and open, " he explains, "they don't mind sweating and getting dirt under their nails."

The demonstration garden provides him with an outlet for his need to garden, as well as a laboratory for trying new things that might help other gardeners: "I'm running out of space at home, " he says, laughing.

The garden was started eight years ago by the last extension service director, the late Dr. Vivian Harris, with the help of two longtime Pasco County master gardeners, Milton Larsen and Margaret Thompson.

"Where the garden is now used to be a limestone parking lot, there was absolutely nothing there, " Hutto recalls.

"Vivian was an entomologist, but she also loved plants. She and the others wanted to start a garden where they could demonstrate plants that could be drought tolerant."

Plants are grouped according to which need water and which are essentially drought tolerant. The garden does use a low-output irrigation system in some areas that's directed at the roots of the plants.

Harris' old size 8 gardening boots are filled with cement and forever immortalized in the garden next to a flourishing shrimp plant and a well-used earth composter.

All around, even on a dry day in June, the garden's plants offered a feast for the eye and soul: Simpson stopper, Joseph's coat, African bush daisies, cracker and old-fashioned roses and crepe myrtle. It offers many lessons, even to the novice gardener, including ways to avoid using a lot of grass (opt for seashore Paspalum grass, as well as small ground covers, plants with both colorful flowers and foliage, and mulches).

A corner swatch of the garden is devoted to growing culinary herbs including rosemary, parsley, tarragon and oregano.

Hutto and other volunteers frequently drop by to work, study or discuss, a favorite pastime at the Pasco County Extension offices, just a few steps from the gardens. Sometimes local gardeners stop in to get an answer to a Florida growing question that has left them stumped.

Case in point: A large homegrown tomato on Jarvis' desk was brought in by a couple who had a problem with the way their tomatoes ripen. A volunteer master gardener discussed the issue with them and helped them solve the problem,

"Basically they were getting half tomatoes, " explains Jarvis, who hopes the public will stop by more to browse the garden for ideas.

Says Hutto: "We've tried to collectively produce a garden so we can share plants, knowledge and our love of gardening. It's a group effort and it's fun too."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

Fast Facts 

More information

For more information on becoming a master gardener call (352) 521-4288 or go to http://pasco.ifas.ufl.edu

The demonstration garden is located at 36702 SR 52 at the Pasco County Fairgrounds in Dade City.

[Last modified June 24, 2007, 21:22:48]