Junior Master Gardeners at PCAG is fun, excitement, and learning all rolled into ninety minutes every two weeks. The group meets on Tuesday afternoons, and the variety of activities swings from singing “Junk Food Blues” to making homemade peanut butter to pruning shrubbery.

Junior Master Gardeners is a 4-H program. Twenty eight universities nationally implement the program at the state level. Texas A&M University serves as the headquarters for the National JMG Program Office. The JMG mission is to grow good kids by igniting a passion for learning, success and service through a unique gardening education. The PCAG program is done in coordination with the Clemson University Extension Service and the local Master Gardeners.

The curriculum includes group and individual activities. The learning concepts include plant parts, classification, environment, landscape design, fruits and nuts, vegetables, soils, insect management and career options.

The PCAG Junior Master Gardeners have made bird houses from gourds, Christmas trees and feeders  for birds, planted vegetable containers, made garden folks (also known as scarecrows) roasted peanuts, and studied how plants fit into a landscape. They recently planted a topiary that will be on display this summer in the SC Festival of Flowers. They have made plant pens, pomander balls, and grow cards.

The children seem to enjoy the program, and the program enriches the children’s appreciation of plants, gardening and the beauty of God’s creation.