Sumter County Master Gardeners are hard at work in the county, giving their 50 hours of volunteer time. Last week, they spent Friday with plant nursery owner Laurel Schiller.

The project was the result of a $3,600 grant from the Florida Wildflower Council, according to County Extension agent Susan Kelly.

The money for the grants comes from wildflower license plates.

Kelly said she was looking for a nursery that offered native wildflowers and native plants, adding they were hard to find.

When she found Schiller’s nursery, they even offered a consultation.

“That’s it.

“It all connected very well,” she said.

Another benefit of the project is that master gardeners will have the opportunity to gather seeds and seedlings.

Kelly said they’ll be able to grow them, plant them or sell them.

The project allowed them to purchase 600 plants and they received Schiller’s advice and landscape design in the bargain.

Circle C Farms and Landscaping even donated workers. They provided four of their staff members for four hours, Kelly said.

It was a “really nice donation,” she said.

The extension office applied for the grant last fall. The project will offer residents information about how to incorporate wildflowers into their garden.

Everything in the garden will be native.

That same morning they were planted, the wildflowers were already proving to be a “great habitat for wasps, bees and butterflies and birds,” she said.

They continue to work on the garden. The first project was the water cistern project, funded by a grant from the Witlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority. That was a $40,000 project that created two water cisterns.

Kelly said there was a lot of site work done, that’s not clearly visible n things like irrigation and drainage.

They also had the planters in the front of the building constructed from that first grant.

The garden is a water conservation garden, “using plants that are used to this environment and don’t have to struggle to fit into Florida.”

The Sumter County Master Gardeners meet at 9 a.m. on the third Thursday of every month. The 13-week class costs $95.

“They give 50 hours-a-year in volunteer service. But I think they get a lot in return,” Kelly said.

The next class is slated to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 11, and is limited to 25 people.

Call the office for the application at 793-2728.

The extension office is responsible for a variety of programs and services, from 4-H and home living to recipes and agricultural services.

For more information about those services, link to them through the Sumter County Times website at www.sumtercountytimes.com. Look on the left side of the webpage under local guides and click Extension Office.