Master Gardeners Recognize Lincoln Garden

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Lincoln’s community garden was named the 2016 Washington County Master Garden Project of the Year, as shown by Jim Sposato, left, and Lincoln Mayor Rob Hulse was named 2016 Friend of Washington County Master Gardeners. Sposato, a retired teacher and coach for Lincoln Consolidated School District, oversees the community garden.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Lincoln’s community garden was named the 2016 Washington County Master Garden Project of the Year, as shown by Jim Sposato, left, and Lincoln Mayor Rob Hulse was named 2016 Friend of Washington County Master Gardeners. Sposato, a retired teacher and coach for Lincoln Consolidated School District, oversees the community garden.

LINCOLN -- Lincoln Community Garden is an award-winning project among master gardeners in Washington County.

The garden received the 2016 Washington County Master Gardener Project of the Year award and Lincoln Mayor Rob Hulse was named 2016 Friend of Washington County Master Gardeners.

Lincoln’s community garden provided the following in 2016:

676 yellow squash

709 zucchini

4,586 hot peppers

675 bell peppers/sweet banana peppers

6,421 tomatoes

575 cucumbers

109 onions

26 gal. okra

5 gal. black-eye peas

8.5 gal. green beans

Both Lincoln recipients now will be in the running for Arkansas Master Gardener Project of the Year and Friend of Arkansas Master Gardener awards. These awards will be announced in May.

Jim Sposato, who coordinates and oversees Lincoln's community garden, knew ahead of time about the mayor's award but did not know Lincoln would receive the countywide recognition.

"I was totally amazed," Sposato said during a recent interview. "I was speechless, if you can believe that. There are so many worthy projects in Washington County for us to get the project of the year."

Lincoln's community garden is in its third year and has been successful from the beginning.

For both 2015 and 2016, the garden has provided fresh, homegrown vegetables to more than 1,000 families through GRACE Place and Lincoln Senior Center. Produce given away to families and individuals included tomatoes, okra, green beans, cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini squash.

Joyce Mendenhall, former president of Washington County Master Gardeners, said Lincoln's garden was chosen for the county award for several reasons.

"The garden didn't have a lot of master gardeners helping with it but it had a lot of community organizations that jumped in and helped," Mendenhall said.

Community partners included Lincoln's Ministerial Alliance, Lincoln FFA Club and EAST Lab students, church groups and Community Service of Washington County.

The garden also was used as an educational tool for several school groups and classes. Students learned gardening basics, learned about native culture, raised plants in greenhouses and took soil samples.

Another attribute was the amount of vegetables produced by the garden and how it helped people in the community, she added.

"The success is shown in the number of volunteers, crops produced and families served. Without this garden, many citizens would not have been able to have fresh produce to eat," Mendenhall wrote in nominating the garden for the state award.

Hulse was selected as Friend of Master Gardeners, Mendenhall said, because of his involvement from the beginning. Hulse initiated the project with Sposato. He was instrumental in providing 4 acres of city land for the garden and having water installed to the site.

Hulse, who works for Tyson Foods, approached Tyson about making a sizable donation to the project and on his own, has spent countless hours planting, picking and weeding at the garden.

"He got us the land and put in the water for us," Sposato said about Hulse. "He's done a lot of work, will be up there at 6:30 in the morning and again in the evenings."

Sposato, a master gardener and a retired coach and teacher with Lincoln Consolidated School District, said his goal as coordinator is to pass on his gardening knowledge to others, students in particular.

"If you have knowledge on how to do something, why keep it to yourself? I guess that's the coach and teacher in me," he said.

For 2017, Sposato has a few new ideas. He wants to add white potatoes and pumpkins to the garden patch and hopes to involve more community groups. A constant need is more volunteers, especially during the summer months.

For more information, go to the Lincoln Community Garden Facebook page.

General News on 02/08/2017