Master Gardener Volunteers serve as organizers, mentors and gardening experts at the AHA Children's Museum, an 11 acre site near the River Valley Mall in Lancaster, OH, for the raised-bed gardens and the Butterfly/Pollinator Garden.

MGV raised bed gardens at AHA

Master Gardeners spent time filling the 12 raised-garden beds as well as planting and caring for the demonstration gardens in 2019.  A butterfly/pollinator garden was also incorporated into the   demonstration gardens, too.

  Lettuce raised bed at AHA! Children's Museum AHA raised vegetable garden, stacked tomato plants   

MGV teaching children and parents at AHA! Children's Museum  youth and MGV picking seeds for the AHA garden  

The MGVs assisted with teaching both young visitors and their parents visiting the museum and surrounding garden area.  This was a new project beginning in 2018 and throughout the gardening season 2019.  Due to Covid 19 restrictions in 2020, activities were kept to a minimum.  Ten Master Gardeners contributed over 270 hours of volunteer service time to this effort since the inception of the project.

youth and MGV planting salad garden Photo of tomato plant at AHA! Children's museum  

In 2020, this Fairfield County MGV Project was awarded Project of the Year by the Ohio State Master Gardeners.

 2020 OSU Extension Outstanding MGV Project Medium Category award to Fairfield County's AHA! Children's Museum