{"id":190,"date":"2017-02-23T21:27:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T21:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/?page_id=190"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:29:59","slug":"big-country-master-gardeners-association","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/about-us\/big-country-master-gardeners-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are We And What We Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Welcome to gardening BIG COUNTRY STYLE!<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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If you are new to gardening in our area, you might be surprised by the challenges unique to our area.\u00a0 There is no need to worry!\u00a0 Many of us started right where you are, in need of the tools to help us be successful in our gardening efforts.\u00a0 This website is intended to help you have a healthy and productive garden while conserving our valuable natural resources.<\/span><\/p>

We hope all types of gardeners, both inexperienced and experienced gardeners, will find this website to be a handy reference.\u00a0 Come on in and sit a spell, then go on out to the garden and get your hands dirty.\u00a0 We think you\u2019ll be glad you did!<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Big Country Master Gardener Association was established in 1996, that’s right this is our THIRTIETH YEAR!  Since then Master Gardeners and Interns have made an impact in many ways in the Big Country.  I want to share what we did in 2025 so you can see the impact of our contributions last year.<\/p>\n

Here are the places we were active in 2025:<\/p>\n

Education<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal of Master Gardeners is to educate the public as well as members of our association, and we accomplished that in many ways during 2025.  We hope you were able to join us at:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Saturday Seminars held at the Taylor County Extension Office.  We offered these programs on the last Saturday of the month from February through August, and we covered a variety of timely topics.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Library Programs held the first Tuesday of the month at the South Branch of the Library in the Mall of Abilene and repeated the second Friday of the month at the Main Library in downtown Abilene.  These presentations provided timely information each month.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Women\u2019s Fair held during the Farm, Ranch and Wildlife Expo in February.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Booth at the Farm, Ranch and Wildlife Expo in February.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Presentations for local and area groups.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Children\u2019s event during the Swenson House Haunted Abilene event.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Programs for children during the Kids, Kows and More event.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Activities at the Wings on the Wind event at Abilene State Park.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Presentations at schools.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Information provided at local and area Health Fairs and events.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Conducted an Intern Training Class to educate new trainees to become part of the Master Gardener program.  There are 22 Interns who are participating in the 2026 training.<\/p>\n

Projects<\/span><\/p>\n

The Big Country Master Gardeners worked on the following projects:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pollinator gardens at Swenson House.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Pollinator garden at Hope Garden at First Central Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Demonstration Gardens at the Taylor County Extension Office.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Beds at the Modern Living Mall on the Expo grounds.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Expo planters on the Expo grounds.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Demonstration Gardens on Maple Street.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Beds at the Abilene Zoo.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Various projects in the BCMGA greenhouses.<\/p>\n

\u2022 WASP Museum gardens in Sweetwater.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sweetwater Community Garden in Sweetwater.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Several projects at schools and churches.<\/p>\n

BCMGA can provide these educational opportunities as well as provide financial support for projects with funds raised during the Spring and Fall Plant Sales.  We have plants that survive \u2013 and thrive \u2013 in the Big Country area during the sales, and we are also available to answer questions and help customers with plants delivered from online sales as well as during the in-person sales. <\/p>\n

We accomplished these things because of:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Support from the Extension Office \u2013 Steve, Dawnyel, Pam, Amy, Kim, Lora, and Maggie.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Big Country Master Gardener Association Executive Committee \u2013 President: Stephanie, Vice President: Kathy, Secretary: Pleas, Treasurer: Jackie, and Past President: Dawn.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Committees that handled projects, advanced training, special events, programs, presentations, etc., etc., etc.  This list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

\u2022 And Master Gardeners and Interns who volunteered 10,475 hours from January through December last year.  None of the education programs, projects, or events could have been accomplished without the many hours worked by these dedicated individuals. The value of a volunteer hour in 2025 was $35.79, so BCMGA\u2019s volunteer time last year was valued at $364,425.25!<\/p>\n

Every year Texas Master Gardeners recognize outstanding Master Gardener Associations throughout the state, and the Big Country Master Gardener Association received several awards in May for the volunteer services we provided in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Awards we received for 2025 are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 3rd  <\/span>Place – Written\/Recorded Education for the Extension Office Demo Bed ID<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 3rd <\/span>Place \u2013 Workshop Presentation for a series of Basic Propagation Training.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Honorable Mention – Outstanding Individual (Master Gardener) Stephanie McKee.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I want to applaud the work of BCMGA and recognize the Master Gardeners and Interns who volunteered so many hours to ensure that projects were worked, programs were presented, and public inquiries were answered.  We have continued to be busy volunteering this year through education programs, projects, and events, and we have reported 10,475 volunteer hours for 2025, with 3,946 public contacts. We hope you join us for events and programs so watch our website and Facebook page forinformation on our activities each month.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions, call the Taylor County Extension Office at 325-672-6048 or email us at bcmgardeners@yahoo.com<\/a>.  We hope you visit bcmgtx.org for information on all Big Country Master Gardener events, like us on BCMGA Facebook, and check out training presentations on BCMGA YouTube.  We are here to help you.<\/p>\n

Happy Gardening!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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2026 Officers:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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    Stephanie McKee, President<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
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    Kathy Turner, Vice President<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
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    Jackie Sledge, Treasurer<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
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    Pleas McKee, Secretary<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
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    Dawn Graham, Immediate Past President<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Welcome to gardening BIG COUNTRY STYLE! If you are new to gardening in our area, you might be surprised by the challenges unique to our area.\u00a0 There is no need to worry!\u00a0 Many of us started right where you are, in need of the tools to help us be successful in our gardening efforts.\u00a0 This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3861,"parent":188,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"class_list":["post-190","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14440,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/190\/revisions\/14440"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girdnergraphics.com\/bcmg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}