1st Place: Green Range
Green Range 4-H Club has had the honor and privilege of helping to beautify the Madison County Fairgrounds through our flower bed display for the past ten years. This seemed like such logical project for our members because of our club's emphasis on community service and education. We are located beside the Junior Fairboard Office. Our club appoints a committee of members each year to plant, weed, prune, and decorate according to the fair's theme. The committee meets in the fall to clean up and trim shrubs for winter. The committee meets in the spring to clean and clear the flower bed of weeds and debris. This is also a time we prune and trim back plants, assess if plants died through the winter, and the selection of new plants. Consideration is given to planting zone, height of the plant, and amount of sunlight necessary for optimal growth. Almost all of our plants are perennials.
Half of our flower bed is dedicated to our Knock Out® Rose Bushes. Since our club also emphasizes education, advisors spend a great deal of time teaching members about where to prune the bush to promote growth. Also, at this time, we discuss and demonstrate the usage of insecticides, weed killers, and fertilizer's effect on plants. Lastly, members are educated on how deep to dig a hole for a new plant, the importance of adding water, and recovering the hole and plant with soil so that the crown of the plant is covered. Advisors encourage members to perform this work. When all planting and weeding is completed, members apply mulch to the flower bed and advisors explain that mulch helps to moderate soil temperature, retain moisture, suppress weed growth, provides nutrients as it breaks down, and improves the appearance of the bed. One problem that is becoming chronic with our flowerbed is that our Knockout Roses are being ravaged by insects even though we apply a fungicide and overgrowth of wild onions. Another complication is that when the fair hires a landscaping company to spray for weeds, the drift is affecting our flower and bushes. We are baffled about how to remedy this problem.
When members are not working in the bed, we meet after our regular meeting to plan, discuss, and construct decorations to correlate with the fair's theme. Since this year's theme is, "Let it Show at the Madison County Fair," members decided to go with a theme associated with a winter wonderland and the movie "Frozen". This was a challenging theme as it was difficult how to incorporate winter, the movie Frozen, and fair animals since we are livestock club. The members were creative. They decided they would draw the Frozen characters of Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Hans, Olaf, and Sven. Committee members decided to use the characters' bodies and impose an animal face on the bodies. This was marrying the winter/Frozen them and giving it a country fair twist.The main color scheme is white, silver, aqua blue, and lavender.
Through the years, we have added/subtracted perennials due to plant death or inappropriate growth in our arrangement. This year our flower bed contains Veronica/Speedwell, Pink Dianthus, Gailardia, and Knock Out®Rose Bushes. All plants were selected based on their ability to be in full sun, disease and drought resistance, duration of blooming season, size, and eye appeal. In addition to our perennials, we added planters called Bejeweled, as they contain purple Verbena, yellow Calibrachoa, and magenta Petunias. We also planted Marigolds as a border flower for their ease of care and ability to repel pests. This adds color and dimension.
Our last touch on the flower bed is that we add mini flower signs naming all our flowers and information about them. Again, we feel it is as important to educate the public as well as our members. Our goal is to perform community service and provide education. Our flower bed promotes both of these through this beautification project. We hope the public and community enjoys our hard work!