Edited from Submitted Materials
The Penn State Extension Master Gardeners in Susquehanna County started a monthly photo contest in October and have announced Meghan Leonard of Montrose as their first winner.
“Although there were several super photos, we had to only pick one,” Master Gardener coordinator Kimberly Brace explained in a press release.
Meghan’s photo is titled ‘A sleepy bee enjoying the last bloom before the first frost.’ The photo is a combination of two of Meghan’s biggest hobbies: gardening and photography. Most weekends she can be found with a camera in front of her face, trying her best to capture special moments both big and small.
When asked about her connection to gardening she explained, like many other things about the year 2020, springtime didn’t go exactly as planned for she and her family. Meghan and her husband are both teachers, so adjusting suddenly to online learning in the early spring this year due to COVID was a challenge.
They are also parents to four children, so they faced challenges as a family. They decided to work on a family project together. For Mother’s Day, they worked to build a fenced-in, raised-bed garden. Because they got a late start on building the garden and planting seeds, her cosmos bloomed well into the Fall, for which the bees were very thankful. Meghan says she wanted to capture the busy bees who literally ate, slept, and breathed her flourishing blooms.
Meghan and her mother share a love for gardening, and she’s been helping her in the garden, and learning from her, all her life. Gardening is something that she, her husband and children love to do together, and as a family they make sure to plant both flower and vegetable gardens every year.
Meghan says she gets as much satisfaction from preparing meals with vegetables and herbs grown in their garden as she does from filling flower vases around the house with their cut flowers.
Area photographers can look for the Penn State Master Gardener of Susquehanna County’s November Photo Contest rules, with the theme of ‘Plants in our House,’ on the Facebook page Penn State Ext Master Gardeners of Susquehanna County, PA.
“Join the fun, and remember that you may contact the Master Gardeners to help you with any gardening questions you may have,” Brace stated.
Interested readers may send requests for information to susquehannamg@psu.edu, call 570-666-9003 or message the extension via the Facebook page.