A 20th year celebration event will take place on Saturday, September 10 from 9:30-12:30 at the Newport News Extension Master Gardeners’ Learning Garden in Riverview Farm Park. Activities for visitors and tours of the gardens will be held. Once each hour a live oak tree will be planted in the Native Tree Grove, commemorating the anniversary.
Created in September of 2002, in partnership with the Newport News Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, the organization broke ground for a garden dedicated to future generations of children. Over the years, the garden has grown from simple plantings to 10 themed learning gardens including: Touch & Smell, Pollinator, Rock, Evergreen, two Native Grasses, Border, Shade, Butterfly and Native Tree gardens. In addition to more gardens covering more acreage, the garden has grown to include interactive signage, garden sculpture, artistic seating, and QR codes linking visitors to garden diagrams and plant identifications.
The Extension Master Gardeners conduct regular maintenance at the garden twice a month during the growing seasons and lead children’s programming and information Help Desks on the second Saturdays during warm seasons.
