Fairgrounds benefit from work of master gardeners
Becky Karluk divides daylillies for her flower garden.
Becky Karluk dividing perennials and planting echinacea at her garden plot
One of the flower beds at the fairgrounds.
The entrance to the fair office was made beautiful with this flower garden planted by Shirley Johnson.
Shirley Johnson plants one of her flower beds at the Washington County fairgrounds.
When one thinks of the Washington County Fair, beautiful flower gardens might not immediately come to mind.
But over the past decade, flower beds at the fairgrounds, all tended to by volunteers, have delighted visitors and enhanced the grounds.
Planted at entrance gates and around many of the buildings, the gardens sport perennials such as daylilies, hollyhocks, lupines, columbine and asters, or annuals like petunias, dahlias and dianthus.
Area 4-H clubs and the Martha Washington Garden Club care for a few flower beds while gardeners with the Washington County Master Gardener Program, through Penn State Cooperative Extension, have taken it upon themselves to be responsible for 15 of them.
Shirley Johnson has been volunteering at the fairgrounds since the master gardeners were asked for assistance nearly a dozen years ago. Today, Johnson has six gardens she cares for at the fairgrounds, which takes her there for up to four hours a day.
“It’s a lot of work in the spring, but I love doing this,” Johnson said.
On this particular day, she was adding red salvia, coleus and begonias in front of white hydrangea bushes on the side of a building near the fair office. The flowering shrubs and annuals help draw attention away from the structure’s rusty siding.
Nearby, Becky Karluk and her mother, Juanita, were preparing their flower bed and dividing perennials such as daylilies and ecinacea. Last year was the first year Karluk had a flower garden at the fairgrounds, and it featured huge sunflowers. Karluk saved the seeds to plant again this year.
Karluk noted that she was late planting her flowers this year, but the garden had to wait until she planted her vegetables at home. A counselor at Waynesburg Central High School, she was delayed until school was out for the summer.
Master gardeners are busy people.
In addition to Johnson and Karluk, four other women – Peggy Craig, Colleen Richards, Janet Rhoades and Alma Stanek – keep the fairgrounds looking special throughout the summer and into the fall. Johnson said each tries to have a theme or color scheme at their flower beds, and because there is so much activity on the grounds, they make an effort to keep the beds nice until October.
They share plants and seeds with one another, water each other’s gardens when one goes on vacation and occasionally take time to meet for breakfast before tending to their flower beds.
A large number of flowers were donated to the gardeners in mid-June from Iannetti’s, the Hot House, Bedners and Wagner’s garden centers.
Although many of the plants arrive root-bound, they thrive once they are in the ground and are fertilized with the local horse manure. Without those donations, the gardens would not be as extensive or as nice, said the women.
“Our fairgrounds have never looked this nice,” said Nadine Gardner, secretary of the fair board. “I know the fair board has appreciated everything they have done.”
Gardner noted that not only do the gardeners keep the flower beds viable throughout the summer and fall, but they return after the first frost to remove the dead foliage.
“They really work. I know it’s enjoyable to them, but some of them really work hard,” she said.
Laura Delach, the master gardener coordinator for Washington County, said the program began in Pennsylvania in 1986 and in the county a few years after that.
Becoming a master gardener requires an initial 40 hours of training and 50 hours of volunteer activities, with eight hours of education and 20 hours of volunteer time in subsequent years.
Today, there are about 45 active master gardeners in Washington County, with a number who are inactive due to demands on their time.
The program also oversees the Children’s Garden near the fairgrounds and a Demonstration Garden at 216 Taylor Drive, Canonsburg, where gardening questions can be answered from 6:30 to 8 p.m. every Monday.