Marietta Daisies Garden Club

Katryn Taylor
Aug 12
2 min read

Back to School: A Wildflower Welcome at Marietta Middle School

What better way to welcome everyone back to school than with an abundance of flowers, sunshine, and a little gardening fun?

The return to the Marietta Middle School Sensory Garden was a wildflower indulgence!

After a summer of tending the garden, the Marietta Daisies were delighted to rediscover an overgrown sensory path bursting with cascading yellow Black-eyed Susans and bright orange Cosmos. The garden was full of life and flowers!

With a suggestion from our Master Gardener partnership, we gathered 20 vases from our own home collections to create beautiful arrangements for the students to share with members of the school staff.

The sun was shining and the sky was blue over the Marietta Middle School outside learning and student participation with the Marietta Daisies!

They helped pull and cut flowers, tidy the garden beds, remove weeds, and swept the sidewalks. Before long, we had a wonderful mound of freshly gathered blooms ready to be divided amongst the vases.

A little blue ribbon added the finishing touch, transforming the simple garden flowers into cheerful bouquets. The finished arrangements were given to teachers, the principal, and the front office reception staff as a special Back to School welcome.

The Pollinators Had Their Say, Too!

While we enjoyed sharing the garden’s abundance, we were mindful of our pollinators. Most of the flowers in the garden were intentionally left in place for the Great Southeast Pollinator Census at the end of August. https://gsepc.org/

The flowers that were gathered for the students' bouquets were just a small sampling of what the garden had to offer.

And even after being cut, the flowers continued to give!

As the students worked at their preparation tables, butterflies seemed unwilling to miss out on the feast.

They fluttered around and visited the colorful bouquets, continuing to reap the rewards of the garden, even from the flowers now arranged in vases.

It was a delightful reminder that a pollinator garden can bring joy and purpose in unexpected ways.

The morning was a huge success, not only because of the beautiful bouquets, but because of the joy of working together in the garden.

The teachers expressed their appreciation for the Marietta Daisies’ dedication to maintaining the school garden throughout the summer. Their hard work helped ensure that the students and staff returned to a welcoming, cared-for outdoor learning space.

It was wonderful to be back outside in the Marietta Middle School Sensory Garden, working alongside the students and enjoying the sunshine, blue skies, flowers, and friendships that make this project so special.

A garden can teach many things, but sometimes the best lessons are simply found in growing, giving and working together.

A big thank you to the Daisies in attendance this morning.

We are so happy to be back!