New Mexico State University’s Sandoval County Extension Master Gardeners New Beginnings Garden project won a 2023 David Gibby Search for Excellence Award at the International Master Gardener Conference in June.
The International Master Gardener Conference is held every two years to celebrate Extension Master Gardeners around the world. Attendees can participate in interactive workshops, experience presentations from experts and learn new ideas to bring to their own gardens and communities.
“It was very inspiring and the interaction between other master gardeners was most important,” said Sandra Liakus, co-chair of the New Beginnings Garden project. “I came back with a real high after attending the conference.”
The New Beginnings Garden project was established in 2011, but the garden’s location moved in 2015 behind a rectory building of a local Catholic church, where the priest and parishioners provided their use of land and water for the garden.
This project works with adult clients who participate in a psychological and social rehabilitation program but is also available to the community. It serves to help clients develop social skills, gain experience with teamwork and leadership skills, learn about healthy diets, learn how to select, and plant crops and tend to and harvest a garden.
“New Beginnings Garden is what we call a therapy garden or a special needs garden, but we still encourage public gardeners to garden with us,” Liakus said.
At the conference, the New Beginnings Garden project, which is located in Bernalillo, placed second for the David Gibby Search for Excellence Award in the special needs audiences category. To be nominated, there is an application submission that must meet the requirements of describing the development of the garden’s history and what is done on a regular basis. Awards are then distributed based on components of the application.
“It is such an interesting project to work with adult folks with developmental disabilities or psychiatric diagnoses, and to see them evolve over time,” said Sheila Conneen, co-chair of the New Beginnings Garden project. “We can see the evolution of these people becoming gardeners. I think the application really mirrored the development of this garden over the last 12 years and really shows the engagement of the clients in the process.”
The Extension Master Gardener program was initiated by Extension agents and one of them was David Gibby, who trained volunteers to expand horticulture education. The David Gibby Search for Excellence Awards were created to recognize the outstanding volunteer work of Extension Master Gardeners internationally.
“As master gardeners, we are always trying to educate local residents in state-of-the-art gardening and trying to improve our communities,” Liakus said. “We care about our residents in the community and reaching out to those that have special needs. It has been very rewarding.”
To learn more about NMSU’s Sandoval Extension Master Gardeners or the New Beginnings Garden project, visit https://sandovalmastergardeners.org/about-semg/.
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CUTLINE: Community members prepare the planter box for crops at the New Mexico State University’s Sandoval County Extension Master Gardeners New Beginnings Garden. (Courtesy photo)