Hanover Master Gardeners Awarded Green Grant

The Hanover Master Gardener Association is awarded a $750 Green Grant in the Community Beautification Category as part of our 13th Annual Green Grants Program.

Every year, government, non-profit, civic, and service organizations in Virginia are invited to apply for grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 that will help address an environmental concern in their community. Grants must focus on one of the following priorities: Litter Prevention, Recycling, Cigarette Litter Prevention, or Community Beautification.

Hanover Master Gardener Association is a corps of volunteer educators trained to teach best practices in home gardening and sustainable landscape management in the community. Their newly constructed Horticultural Learning Center, located on Rt. 54 in Ashland, will be a space for public education, demonstrating research-based gardening practices that can be incorporated into the home setting.  It includes raised beds created with different materials.  They contain perennials, vegetables, and native plants.

Funds provided by this grant award will be used to purchase and install a drip irrigation system for watering at the Horticultural Learning Center.  Rainwater will be harvested from the gutters of the adjoining Taylor Complex building. This will demonstrate water-wise gardening, with ideas and information that homeowners can use in their own backyards.

Future plans include an open-air classroom that will offer seating and shelter where people will attend lectures, workshops and demonstrations with a view of the surrounding gardens. Garden produce will be donated to a local food pantry. The Horticultural Learning Center will be created and cared for by Hanover Master Gardeners.

Since 2011, the Green Grants Program has provided $282,000 for 385 programs and projects throughout the state.  Funding is made possible through generous support from  Altria, as well as additional sponsorships from WestRock and Village Bank.