4-H Fairgrounds Even More Beautiful with Garden Additions

I’ve had a passion for gardening my entire life. When I am not wearing my 4-H hat you can usually find me dirty and happy in my gardens at home or at the butterfly gardens 4-H maintains at Crest Haven Nursing Home. That’s why it gives me such pleasure to see the number of gardens on our beautiful 4-H Fairgrounds growing with every season.
The Irma McVey Memorial Herb Garden is located near the Lockwood 4-H Youth Center. It has a very special beginning, according to Jerry McManus, President of the Rutgers Master Gardeners Association of Cape May County. Irma McVey was a Master Gardener and famous in Cape May County for her incredible herbs and heirloom tomatoes. Known as the “Herb Lady of Cape May,” Irma supplied herbs to many local fine dining restaurants. Just three days before her death, Jerry paid Irma a visit. “She put something in my hand,” he recalls, “and said ‘build me a garden.’”
Jerry and fellow Master Gardeners Brenda Church and Barbara Douglass did just that, building a delightful garden dedicated to Irma’s memory. Irma’s garden is filled with fragrant herbs and flowers, walking paths and a bench for sitting to take in the beauty. Beyond being a beautiful addition to the Fairgrounds, the garden is now used as an outdoor classroom, with the Master Gardener Association frequently holding educational seminars and activities there.
During the fair, Irma’s garden will be a busy place. It is part of the Children’s Discovery Area, a space dedicated to the fair’s youngest visitors. Master Gardeners will staff a booth there to answer questions and offer touch, taste and smell tours to fair visitors. Brenda Church will host Ocean Academy’s summer classes there on Thursday morning. She enjoys her time teaching children about herbs. “One day at last year’s fair, a child came back later with his younger sister to show her which herbs tasted the best,” she recalls. “That makes all the hard work worth it,” she adds.
Additionally, Rutgers Master Gardeners will hold a series of free Mini-Talks at the garden during the fair with a different topic each day. All talks will take place from 1:30-2pm and again from 4-4:30pm and are open to the public.
• Thursday, July 21: “Making Herb Butter” with Brenda Church. Brenda will be discussing using different herbs from the garden to make tasty compound butters.
• Friday, July 22: “Do Butterflies Bite? Butterfly Q & A” with Barbara Douglass. Barbara will offer lots of interesting and funny facts on butterflies.
• Saturday, July 23: “Terrariums” with Elaine Heil. Elaine will demonstrate the how-tos of assembling terrariums for the home.
The Master Gardener Association plans to hold a formal dedication of Irma’s Garden in September for her friends and family.
In 2015, Ron Day, 4-H Foundation President and Chair of the 4-H Fair, suggested that 4-H clubs be asked to adopt garden spots around the Fairgrounds. Clubs responded enthusiastically, and the 4-H Club Garden Program was born. Fourteen clubs stepped up to the challenge, including the Barnyard Buddies, Cloverbuds, the Garden Greenhouse Club, Growing Sprouts Cloverbuds, Hy-Riders, Milky Ways, Pitchforks & Buckets, Scales & Tails Herpetology Club, Shore Blazers, Star Hollow Riders, Teen Ambassadors, Tightlines and Wranglers. In addition, Dave and 4-H alumna Cindy Seitz, who’s granddaughters are members of the Hy-Riders Club, adopted a garden themselves right at the entrance to the Fairgrounds. The results were fantastic, with each club coming up with their own theme. There was even a contest judged by Master Gardeners, with the winning club earning a water ice party. The winners were the Pitchforks & Buckets 4-H Club, with their vegetable garden theme of “Jersey Fresh.”
Ron Day is ecstatic with the results. “Our 4-H clubs really took my idea and ran with it. The Fairgrounds looked great with those garden improvements. I am excited to see what our clubs will come up with this year.”
This past fall, Nancy Hart, leader of the Garden Greenhouse 4-H Club at the Cape May County Special Services School District, was looking for a site for a garden to spread awareness of the plight of the Monarch Butterfly, a beautiful creature who’s numbers are decreasing due to loss of habitat. She and co-leader Mary Tozer applied for a 4-H Mission Mandate Mini Grant from the Cape May County 4-H Program Advisory Council. Their club was one of six to receive a grant this year. The club was awarded $250 to assist in creating a butterfly/pollinator garden on the 4-H Fairgrounds.
The club’s Monarch Butterfly Garden is in a perfect spot on the Fairgrounds, in a grassy area near the horse show arenas. It is located against a building to protect butterflies and other pollinators from the wind. The students in the club made a “puddler,” a decorative sand holder that allows the butterflies to obtain required minerals, for the garden and are also growing common milkweed and butterfly weed to plant there, along with other native plant species that attract Monarchs and other pollinators. Additionally, Hart painted a Monarch mural on the wall which enhances the beauty of the garden.
After learning of the club’s project, a family matched the grant money in honor of their late daughter, Michelle Mohan, who loved the Monarch Butterfly. With both contributions, the club was able to create a lovely garden plus purchase 300 seed packs of milkweed, a Monarch host plant that will be given to children during the fair. The distribution of the seed packets is being called, “Monarchs for Michelle.”
The new Monarch Butterfly Garden is such a beautiful addition to the grounds and carries an important educational message as well. We are grateful to all of the volunteers who have invested so much time and hard work into enhancing our lovely tree-filled Fairgrounds with flower and herb gardens.
What’s next in the garden line up? The possibilities are endless! If you have an idea for a garden addition to our 4-H Fairgrounds, please let us know. Until then, enjoy our lovely gardens.