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The Polk County Women’s Committee and Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee will be assisting the teachers and students at Tryon Elementary in constructing a Sensory Garden. Mandy Wolfe, a teacher at Tryon Elementary School, first envisioned this project.  

“The Sensory Garden will make up a section of Centennial Park on the Tryon Elementary campus,” says Wolfe. “It will be available for staff and students to visit during the school day and for the community to visit during non-school hours, and it will include planters filled with a collection of plants that are appealing to one or more of the five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. Visitors will be able to ‘scratch and sniff’ a variety of plants. In addition, classes at the school will ‘adopt’ a planter to be responsible for and take care of throughout the school year.” 

Those associated with the project hope that it will continually grow in the community, and eventually help provide food for those in need, as well as a beautiful archway garden for all of Polk County to enjoy. 

The Polk County Women’s Committee and Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee will be assisting the teachers and students at Tryon Elementary in building the beds and in the planting process. The Farm Bureau Agtivate Grant gifts $800 to help get the project started, and organizers look forward to following the progression and succession of the project.  

Farm Bureau Liaison Courtney Smith applied for the Agtivate Grant in support of the Sensory Garden Project.  The new Agtivate Grant Program is funded by North Carolina Farm Bureau to help build strong grassroots leadership and advocacy efforts at the local county level.