Founded and led by ABAC student Solar Tanton, the Tiftarea Junior Gardeners Club meets at the Tift County Public Library once a month to teach local children about gardening, plants, and insects.
Meetings are run by Tanton and the club sponsor Marilynne “Marmar” Marshall. Marshall is a member of the Magnolia Garden Club, and both Tanton and Marshall are members of the Georgia Native Plant Society.
Reviving a Local Activity
Originally, the Junior Gardeners club started in 2010 and served as the junior portion of the Trillium Garden club sponsored by Betty “Moppy” Hargrove.
“I joined it at eight years old and fell in love with gardening and floral design,” Tanton said. “Moppy was my floral mentor and assisted me in many floral design competitions.”
Back then, the Junior Gardeners would dig up and replant daffodils at the garden center and replant pansies at the First Baptist Church when needed. Afterward, they always had homemade tea, sandwiches, and fruit punch made by Hargrove.
Around 2016 Hargrove’s health began to decline, and the Trillium chapter disbanded. Sadly, she passed away in 2021.
During this time many other members of the South Georgia Garden Club chapters—Trillium, Camellia, and Magnolia—also passed away, leaving Magnolia as the only active chapter.
“When I turned 18, I knew that I wanted to give what Moppy started to a new generation of children. At 19 I met Marmar, a member of both the Magnolia Garden Club and the Native Plant Society. She graciously offered to sponsor me and the Tift-area Junior Gardener’s Club. With her help I started a new Junior Gardeners’ chapter,” Tanton said.
Traditionally, the garden clubs met at the house of whomever was hosting. In order to expand accessibility and community reach, Tanton and Marshall arranged a deal with the branch manager of the Tift County Public Library, Karen Thompson, to hold meetings there once a month.
Growing with Tift County
“Per our mission statement, ‘The mission of the Tift-area Jr. Gardeners’ Club is to establish an appreciation for gardening through education and fun for the youth of Tift County. We hope to grow and preserve the love of gardening for future generations through fostering an understanding of nature by providing a series of fun educational activities,’” said Tanton.
“However, as we continued, we realized just how inaccessible gardening can be to some families. Therefore, an additional goal of ours has been to meet children where they are and provide free materials such as pots, soil, seeds, plants, and tools to help kids love gardening, regardless of if they have a big backyard or an apartment balcony.”
The Junior Gardeners’ club is also a great opportunity for adults to get involved with the local community and learn to work with children.
“I think that the greatest benefit to participating in a children’s program is to enrich the community and to be a part of a child’s life in a way that they can look back on fondly,” Tanton said.
The club is primarily sponsored by and is a part of the Magnolia Garden Club. It is also sponsored by the Coastal Plains chapter of the Native Plant Society, Kiwanis Club, and the Tift County Public Library. Also, ABAC professor Dr. Pamela Kemerait donates left over plants and cuttings from the Plant Science class to the club.
A Wide Variety of Activities
The club maintains a fully native pollinator garden on the side of the Tift County Public Library that is registered both with the University System of Georgia Connect to Protect and the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail.
The garden supports eight native butterfly species and is frequented by bees, wasps, lizards, and hummingbirds.
The club is also in the process of establishing a seed library at the Tift County Library which will provide free seeds to library visitors.
In colder months, there’s still plenty to do. When there are no plants outside to work with, the club does activities such as building solitary bee and wasp shelters, making cards with seed packets, making floral arrangements, and more.
When and Where?
The Tiftarea Junior Gardeners meet every third Saturday of the month from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Tift County Public Library.
Junior Gardeners is open to children of all ages. Children older than seven can be dropped off, but younger children must be accompanied by an adult. Generally, kids aged 7-11 attend, but kids as old as 17 have also attended.
“I hope to be to these children what Moppy was to me,” said Tanton. “I hope one day these kids will grow up to love gardening and share it with their children or maybe even start a junior gardeners club of their own. I am also really excited for Moppy’s great grandchildren to be old enough to come in a few years.”