Retired science teacher, Patricia Sharpton, uses her experience to inspire young palates to appreciate locally grown produce. Her efforts earned her Master Gardener of the Year for 2023.

Retired science teacher, Patricia Sharpton, uses her experience to inspire young palates to appreciate locally grown produce. Her efforts earned her Master Gardener of the Year for 2023.

The Times asked Sharpton to share why the organization is an important part of her life … and the community.

What led you to become a master gardener?

Well, I think I’ve always liked gardening, but I didn’t get to do very much of it until I retired. My interests are in science. I was a science teacher in Georgia and then later became a high school administrator. And in 2013, I retired and moved over here. I always wanted to take the master gardener class. They have it in Georgia. But, it requires some additional time that the constraints of my job just wouldn’t allow it.

Master gardeners, we do a lot of volunteering. You have to get in 50 volunteer hours and I knew I couldn’t do that, plus, most of the time, the classes are offered during the day and I couldn’t do that either. So, when I retired and came over here, and I saw the master gardener class, I immediately went to the extension office and filled out the forms and I was in the class of 2014.

Why should someone try to become a master gardener?

If you have any, any interest in gardening, or even if you don’t, but you want to know what’s this all about? Getting involved that way, through the classes, it really targets different areas of gardening that’s specific to Alabama. Also, you meet lots of different people from different backgrounds. The collective knowledge of all the people that are in the master gardener group is just amazing. I’ve learned a lot having that relationship with extension and Auburn that’s very, very positive.

Also, if you have any interest in paying it forward to your community, this is a way to do it. I’m involved with the outdoor classrooms at the elementary schools. I do the one over at West Elementary … Sonya Boyd and I pair up over there.

I also do another program that we sponsor called Power of Produce. From May to September, on Saturdays, we are one of four organizations that have a demonstration booth at the Festhalle Farmers Market in downtown Cullman. That’s to get kids to sample some produce. We give them something called POP bucks that kids can use to buy produce from participating farmers that are there. It gives them the opportunity to sample locally grown, fresh food that will, hopefully, get their interest.

You’d be surprised how many of the kids remind their parents, or their grandparents, “Hey, it’s Saturday, let’s go to POP.”

We also try to have some presence at the county fair. We do the registration of the crops that are being brought in for contests and we’ve done a booth. The last couple of years we’ve had kind of a contest that we open up to the elementary schools and usually it’s a drawing. There might be a some kind of slogan or theme, and we let the kids take off and then we judge it and they get a monetary prize, but we also put up their work so people can see it.

So, it’s just different things like that to be involved in the community. Master gardeners do some things over here at the North Alabama Agriplex like the rain garden. Master gardeners are responsible for maintaining that … they planted the plants that are in there … so, you know we’re just kind of all over the place.

What is your favorite tool?

I actually have three, but the Deluxe Stand Up Weed Puller is the official one. I just love this because if you stick it in the ground … then you press down on it with your foot and pull it back up, it brings the weeds so you don’t have to bend down to get them. I use another weeding tool that has this tip so you can stick it in the ground and pull it up by the root. You could get that like at Lowe’s or a Home Depot shop. And then of course, my hand pruner which I use quite a lot.

What’s your favorite to cultivate?

Well, I like to try a mixture of both plants and flowers. My whole backyard is more like a nature preserve. I like to find things that are native to the area. I like to propagate some of the things, I like to move around. I try to be very budget conscious. So, in the master gardeners we often will say “hey, I’ve got all this extra if anybody wants, some day lilies, anybody wants some of this? Well I’ll try some of those in my yard. And of course we have two plant sales. So yeah, it’s wonderful to go and say Oh, I have thought about trying that in my yard.

I still try to attempt to grow vegetables. But, I don’t know if I don’t get enough light in certain places … I have three raised beds, but I don’t seem to be as successful as some of the other master gardeners are at growing them, so I like to grow a lot of herbs because they do well. I do tomatoes and some peppers. But, that’s the extent of what I do with veggies mainly because I really think it’s because I don’t have sun long enough in the day.

What’s your favorite plant and flower?

I love ferns and I have all sorts of different ones in my yard. I’ll go to a state conference and vendors may have something that looks interesting. I’ll get one of those and try it.

Now, I’m kind of into different kinds of hostas. Those are shade loving. I love the the daisies and the Black Eyed Susans because they do really well. The day lilies, I’ve got kind of a collection of those. Of course they don’t last too long but they are so pretty and just, you know kind of neat and of course I have one really nice gardenia bush out in the front and I love the smell of that.