Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd and this year marks the 51st anniversary of the annual celebration. This year’s Earth Day theme is Restore Our Earth™, which focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking.
Marshall County Conservation District’s annual Earth Day event was held at the Sustainability Education Center located where the stables were on the grounds of the Kentucky Dam State Resort Park. A variety of trees and herbs were available free to the public along with coloring books and lawn games for the kids.
“Each year along with the Earth Day event, the Marshall County Conservation District annually hands out trees to every second grade student in the Marshall County School District”, said Vicki Boatright with the Conservation District.
Another addition to this year’s event, the talents of Fate and Melanie of Murray provided music in the afternoon.
This is the one year anniversary of the Sustainability Education Center, a project that began in April 2020, a vision of director Terry Tillson who is also the landscape gardener for the state park.
The center is a perfect example of this year’s Earth Day theme with sustainable gardens, everything recycled and re-purposed from what was available on the park grounds or donated by individuals.
Multiple raised beds of vegetable and perennial gardens are scaled to replicate home gardens which provide educational resources for the community. Composting areas are also available with examples of different types of composting.
“The first Saturday of each month I have a plant clinic, so whatever topical thing is going on with gardening or questions about personal gardens, I try to help with that”, Tillson said.
Tillson said along with the vegetable gardens they grew last year, they will be adding a chef’s herb garden as well as more perennials that will be used in landscaping around the Convention Center lawns.
A favorite among the kids is the Fairy Garden. Children can pick out items to add to the garden and those items stay there. Tillson said, “It’s a fun thing…a kind of “I spy with my little eye” activity they really enjoy.”
Tillson conducts a trail tour the second Saturday of each month, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and in the middle of the day are activities at the Sustainability Education Center.
Miniature green houses line the center, growing gourds with future plans for a gourd tunnel that visitors can meander through.
Tillson said plans are in place for a “Tonka Town” area where kids can play with toy trucks, a patio seating area, trails for educational purposes and outdoor classroom spaces.
