Diane Robbins, left, executive director of the Bartholomew County Historical Society, was photographed with Emily Baker, President of the South Central Indiana Master Gardener Association, on the newly certified Monarch Waystation in the native plant garden of the Henry F. Breeding Farm, Edinburgh in September 2020. Plants in the background include orange marigolds, purple New England asters, and milkweed.
They are students of nature, learn as they go and share what they learn.
Almost 30 people from Bartholomäus and three neighboring counties have found something in common in the appreciation of Indiana’s soil and the flowers and plants growing in it.
You are a master gardener and a participant in a program launched nationwide in 1978 by the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service.
The South Central Indiana Master Gardener Association (SCIMGA) is open to residents of Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Jackson, and Jennings counties. They are among 40 counties across the state with active master gardening programs with a total of 2,700 members.
Founded five years ago, the local association strives to promote the art, science and the pleasure of home gardening. Members do this through:
• Expand one’s knowledge of new and research-based gardening practices through informative monthly meetings and programs, special activities and workshops.
• Promote the exchange of experiences, ideas and friendly relationships between members.
• Providing information to the community through presentations.
They do it by getting their hands dirty.
Local members often invest 20 or more hours a week during the growing season. They mostly spend their time planting and tending to the gardens at Henry F. Breeding Farm in Edinburgh, a 150-year-old property operated by the Bartholomew County Historical Society.
Shortly after the founding of the local master gardener association, a partnership began with the district’s historical society to set up and maintain gardens on the agricultural property for educational purposes.
It started with a perennial garden in 2017 near the brick house from the 1870s. Herb and demonstration gardens were then added so the public could see and learn about plants from Indiana’s rural past.
Emily Baker grew up on a farm in Salem, Ohio, where “everyone had a garden.”
During her college days, Baker grew vegetables and flowers – including those that were used for her own wedding 48 years ago.
68-year-old Baker, who has retired for two years after a 37-year teaching career with Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., the last 24 years with Parkside Elementary, has more time to spend on leisure activities like gardening.
Baker became a master gardener in 2018 and saw her involvement as an opportunity to articulate what she could learn about gardening, including managing the soil.
The flower garden she maintains behind her central Columbus home near Donner Park reflects Baker’s deep interest in vegetables and herbs.
She also volunteers in the gardens of the Henry F. Breeding Farm and the Columbus Youth Foundation.
Master gardener Emily Baker maintains a back garden near Donner Park in Columbus that was photographed in early July. Plants in the ground include monarda, yellow rudbeckia, clematis paniculata, tall papyrus grass, and a brownii yew shrub. Plants in the pond are water iris, pickle herb and water hyacinth.
Whether it’s choosing the right plants for the type of soil they’re growing in, providing just enough water, or the right amount of sunlight or shade, gardeners face a variety of challenges.
An added challenge for Baker was keeping the neighborhood rabbits from enjoying all of the fruits of their labor, which added control through fencing and later a stone wall added by husband Bill.
Co-gardener Chuck Burkart found his own challenges.
When Burkart and his wife Mary Ellen moved from their home in Illinois to the north side of Columbus four years ago, their property in Princeton Park under the surface caused garden surprises.
With a soil consistency of 85 percent sand, which requires a lot of water and nutrients, Burkart’s soil was a stark contrast to the “black gold” prevalent in Illinois farm fields.
However, after Burkart got a better understanding of the soil on his new property, he began choosing plants that would grow better on dry, sandy soil – like the Indiana-native prickly pear that he planted next to his newly built home.
Burkart had developed an interest in gardening early on when he visited his grandfather’s farm in Allegan, Michigan, where red raspberries made fond memories.
After 42 years in the pressure-sensitive label industry, Burkart – now 72 and five years retired – is in the middle of the garden. A master gardener since 2018, Burkart focuses on real indigenous plants from Indiana and the vital role they play as pollinators.
“We have destroyed 99 percent of the native prairies and meadows since the 1830s,” said Burkart, describing the effects of the development of farmland, buildings and roads.
Many pollinator plants, which produced a significant portion of the food supply of vegetables, nuts and fruits, were lost in the process, Burkart said.
A real native plant attracts beetles, birds and animals – the cycle of life – for example when monarch butterflies flock to milkweed plants.
“Ninety percent of our flowers need to be pollinated,” said Burkart, who had just completed a year-long tenure as a SCIMGA board member. So he’s taking time to restore native pollinator plants in Indiana, in south-central Indiana.
For example, Burkart plants natural wildflowers in many of the 12 parks in Bartholomew County Park and the Recreation System. He also volunteers at Brown County State Park, the breeding farm, and maintains the wildflower garden for the Princeton Park Homeowners Association.
Chris Grunden, 69, is also all-in in the garden.
Grunden, who has lived in Columbus for 30 years, has a garden in her house on the west side where she grows vegetables and perennials. But it’s also where invasive species are suffocating some of the native Indiana plants, which sparked their interest in the Master Gardener program.
Grunden is one of the newest members of SCIMGA, joining in February as an intern as a master gardener – the status of a person working to meet all the requirements to become a certified master gardener. Seven years after retiring as a licensed practical nurse, Grunden took part in the fall 2020 14-week gardener master’s education program led by Cora Carter, Purdue Extension Bartholomew County Agriculture and Resource Advisor.
In addition to working in her own garden, Grunden often spends time at Veritas Homestead, the small Ogilville farm run by her son and daughter-in-law, Dan and Amber Grunden, the chef and pastry chef at Harrison Lakes Country Club. The farm provides organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs for the country club’s menu.
“I’ve just been out there all afternoon, sitting in the dirt and pulling carrots. It’s definitely my happy place, ”said Chris Grunden. “There’s nothing quite like taking out a large bowl and picking your dinner.”
She is also part of a group, the Cooperative Invasive Special Management Area, that is developing a plan to eradicate invasive species in Blackwell Park, a pollinator park in the north of the city.
For Baker, Burkart and Grunden it was part of their personal philosophy to become a master gardener in order to learn for life.
