In California I was a Master Gardener and was very involved with the organization.

Now that we are in Riverside County, I will no longer be working with the San Diego Master Gardeners.  I am hoping that once we are settled, I can continue my work with the Riverside MG organization.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved in some great committees with MGSDC and below you can read about some of my work.  I also made many videos  for MGSDC that you can link to below.

One of these committees is called,Growing Opportunities and the group I worked with did work at a juvenile detention center for girls.  The Master Gardeners put in a beautiful garden at the facility where the girls could learn about horticulture and benefit from the therapeutic properties of gardening.  My role was that of art teacher.  I taught plein air painting in the garden.  I helped the girls to learn about our individual ways of seeing the world through painting. The girls usually took to this activity very well and created some beautiful work.  Their paintings were turned into greeting cards that were then sold to raise money the program. It is work I will always carry with me. The Images below are some of the girls beautiful paintings.

This awesome committee was developed by two amazing MGs, Debbie and Diane. The work is with seniors who suffer with Dementia and or Alzheimers.  I'd sometimes play music while my MG partners worked with the folks, but I also worked directly with the seniors.  We'd start folks off with a sensory activity. n We would bring in cuttings from our gardens that were aromatic or had interesting textures and this got everyone engaged.  Then there was a fun planting activity.  The seniors loved it and got to keep whatever they planted to take back to thier rooms.   The joy that these activities brought to these individuals was precious.