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Kane County Idea Garden Team earns state honor

The Kane County Master Gardeners earned a State Outstanding Master Gardener Teamwork Award during the 2016 Illinois Master Gardener Conference Aug. 19 in Champaign.

The State Outstanding State Awards honors the best of University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners each year, and the Teamwork Award recognizes Master Gardeners who have worked as a group to better the community.

The Kane County group won for their educational, practical demonstrations at the Idea Garden in St. Charles.

"The Idea Garden features unique combinations of flowers, native plants, herbs and vegetables in several creative designs that are easy to replicate at home," said Sarah Fellerer, Master Gardener program coordinator. "Conceived in 2011 as a training ground project, the garden had a bumpy, weed strewn start. With team members' hard work and dedication, it has blossomed into a community showcase."

The team effectively turned a less-than-desirable plot at the St. Charles Horticultural Research Farm into demonstration garden for various growing techniques and ideas, from a suburban interpretation of an African keyhole garden to vertical growing pallets to a children's garden.

"The group of Master Gardeners put creativity and knowledge to work each season and draw scores of visitors to seasonal open houses," Fellerer said. "Even when flooding threatened the gardens in 2014 and 2015, each time, the team cleaned up, rebuilt, wiped off leaves and the projects thrived for the remaining season."

In 2016, the group moved the popular demonstration garden to higher ground at the same location.

At open house events each year, Master Gardeners are on hand to give tours and answer gardening questions. The public also can visit during the team's Tuesday morning workdays.

Signs are created for each of the gardens explaining the theme and giving basic planting information, and all plants are identified with large easy to read stakes.

"The Idea Garden is a wonderful community resource for education and inspiration," said Fellerer. "It also fosters teamwork and friendships among the Master Gardeners. It is not unusual to see eight or 10 of them playing in the dirt on a Tuesday morning. They share plants, work and ideas. It has been a wonderful way for new Master Gardeners to get involved and get valuable hands-on experience that they can carry with them to other community projects."

The Kane County Master Gardener Idea Garden team members include: Paula Altekruse, Holly Barbosa, Leah Beck, Mike Farmer, Lorna Marquis, Paula Mytych, Sherri Nelson, and Dan Nolan, all of St. Charles; Susan Brauhn and Ann Carlsen, both of Batavia; Pat Engel and Sue Styer, both of Geneva; Susanne Everson and Susan Swing, both of Elgin; Margaret-Ann Haas of Algonquin; and Merrill Poloian of Sugar Grove.

For more information on the Master Gardener program in Kane County, visit web.extension.illinois.edu/dkk.

University of Illinois Extension provides educational programs and research-based information to help Illinois residents improve their quality of life, develop skills and solve problems.

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