Opportunities from the garden

When I look back at the last 20 years of my life, I have to look at all of the blessings that have come to me directly because of the gardens. I've helped with Boy Scout University for the last 10 years, every other year. I've been on Oklahoma Gardening three times. People from the KAABG (a Kansas group of gardeners) came to visit our campus a few years ago. The people I've met through gardening are the real blessings. My PhD friends at OSU are awesome and they I became a master gardener in 1999 and get to teach other master gardeners the things I have learned. What fun is that!!!!!!!!The pres of the hort/landscape dept loves me.According to him I have the most comprhensive reports on the woody ornamentals we have been given by OSU. I've been invited to be guest speaker at several OHIC and OBGA events. These are the gravy of my job. I love sharing my love of gardening with anyone who will listen.

Then there is the Ray See Park project. Talk about a lobor of love. Ray See was a WW I veteran who was very instrumental in getting WPA projects to Tonkawa.  There were several and the ones I know of are: The Tonkawa Public Library, the National Guard Armory, the Tonkawa Municiple Swimming Pool and Bath House, and the 5th street drainage project. Ray See Park has had a couple of names throught the history of Tonkawa. It was touted as the park on the banks fo the Salt Fork River in some old newspapers from the 1920's. It was the park I played in when I was growing up. It has a shelter house and a bathroom facility. About 5 years ago, I noticed the park was looking neglected. I asked the city fathers if I could take over the care and general maintenance of the grounds. That set the ball rolling toward improving the park. About $18,000. was raised to buy trees and new equipment. I asked a local business man if he could use his track-hoe to clean out the ditch which was full of trash, debris and scrub trees. He worked for three days cleaning that ditchout and it is beautiful. You can see the bath house from the highway for the first time in over 30 years. This bit of community service has given me way more than I could ever return.