By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

FRANKFORT, Ky. — With the onset of garden season, perhaps none are more visible than the series of Governor’s Gardens planted around the state. In its third year, the initiative was designed to get more Kentuckians involved in raising more fresh produce for themselves or for community agencies, while being more in tune with the environment and the benefits of fresh, healthy food.

First Lady Jane Beshear created and has spearheaded the project while state FFA officers and members have offered their services in planting and tending the gardens. The newest garden got a kickoff, fittingly, a couple of days before Earth Day (April 22) at the Governor’s Mansion with FFA officers, including state officers and Beshear, to set out the first plants.

“As more and more families are working together to implement environmentally friendly practices in their homes, gardening is one more step to promote sustainability while reducing our carbon footprint,” said Beshear. “Gardening is a fun, healthy activity that allows families to work together to put food on the table while improving their diets and saving money.”

While getting the general public’s attention for the value of gardening is paramount, Kentucky students are learning hands-on lessons in gardening, as well as community service.

“We teach production ag and we teach some really high-science ag such as biotechnology, but when these students can get in there and get their hands dirty and do it themselves, they are so proud of it,” said  Tracy Probst, an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor from Anderson County.

Accompanying her officers to the garden ceremony, Probst added that getting to go to the Governor’s Mansion, meet the First Lady and participate in the activity was an opportunity many would not otherwise have. She also said the community service aspect of such an initiative is invaluable to these young people, also pointing out a project her students participated in at last year’s National FFA Convention and the impact it had on them.

“A lot of our kids had never seen a need on the local level until we were in Indianapolis. They were actually boxing food for senior citizens, which is a government program, but for them, they saw the homeless people and it dawned on them that these people aren’t just in Indianapolis; we have people like this (at home), and it is such a shame for them to live that way,” she said. “They wanted to help to try and get those people back on their feet.”
The produce that will come from the Mansion garden and another garden project planted at nearby Berry Mansion will be donated to the Access Soup Kitchen in downtown Frankfort.

Joenelle Futrell, Kentucky FFA state vice president, attended the event and delivered remarks. She became involved in the Governor’s Garden project last year by way of the State Fair garden, helping Beshear harvest some of the crops.

“We had a great time, but little did I know it would become what it is now,” she said. “You can do so much as an individual to help get something started on the grassroots level. With the new health initiatives and ‘going green,’ this is very much just the frontrunner of things to come in that aspect.
“Everyone wants agriculture to strive and grow but without the individual being agriculturally literate, there is no way for that to continue. So, by more and more programs like this sprouting up, I feel like we can all know the process from the field to the fridge and understand it that much better so we can all be educated consumers.”

As a former state and national FFA president, Governor’s Garden Project Coordinator Steve Meredith said besides the community aspects learned, FFA members enhance their educational experience, as well.

“The students get FFA because of its association with the classroom. You don’t get one without the other and they are intertwined in such a way, I call it a co-curricular student organization,” he said. “It’s the most valuable educational experience I had, including all the way through college. My FFA experience is critical in running the Governor’s Garden program.”

Meredith added that by participating in projects like this one, students are getting practical experience that can be used in an agricultural or any other career. “You can’t go and buy this experience anywhere and you can’t get this experience in any program I know of,” he said. “I have, on a daily basis, parents calling me wanting to know how to get their son or daughter into FFA.”