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LOOK HOW
HIGH THEY GREW!
Add together bright kids, generous Master Gardeners and
excited museum staff, and what have you got?
The Nature Club!
The Funk Heritage Center sponsors the
Nature Club once a week after school during the school year. This
spring, 28 students who attend the R. M. Moore Elementary School
attended. The group planned and planted a butterfly garden. Two of the
Nature Club participants show how high the sunflowers grew. This program
is available at no cost to the children. Cherokee Master Gardener
volunteers assist Center staff with various environmental education
activities.
This horticulture and environmental education
program
is the result of collaborations between the Cherokee Master Gardener
volunteers, museum and college staff, and the
public school. Weekly activities promote the conservation of natural
resources, advance the study of horticulture, further awareness of
native plants and beneficial insects, and share gardening history with
children – elaborate words for helping children to learn to love nature!
Landscape Project
 Nature
Club students planted native plants to landscape a portion of the
facility. This project
taught the children basic plant and soil science, composting, soil
preparation and maintaining a garden. These experiences will further the
children’s interest in agriculture and gardening. They also
learned their
time and talents can enrich their community and its schools.
Three Sisters Garden
A $500 grant from the Georgia Master
Gardens funded this project in 2005. The students planted Three Sisters
Garden on the grounds of the museum. Corn, beans and squash were planted
in mounds the same way Native American’s planted their gardens.
Sunflowers and gourds were also planted. The children cared for their
plants, measured them weekly. In July, they and their parents enjoyed a
harvest celebration.
Sunflowers brightened the project and
the seeds were saved to feed wild birds. The garden area provided an
additional venue for hundreds of school children and adults who visited
the Funk Heritage Center. Native American visitors praised the project.
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