Master Gardeners of North Alabama are offering grants to promote projects in horticulture.

“The Jane R. Parks Memorial Grant has been formed to award money to support ongoing educational projects in horticulture in Madison County, Alabama,” Madison resident and master gardener Rose Berry said. Master gardeners were asked to write and oversee the grant.

Parks was an educator, master gardener and community volunteer.

“Awards will be granted in amounts of $100 and up to $1,000,” Berry said. Because the grant money can benefit any site in Madison County, “Madison will definitely be in the running.”

“This is the first year for the grant. We will continue to grow each year,” Berry said.

The target audience for the grant is any group that already has an ongoing gardening project that will benefit the community as a whole. Examples of undertakings are a garden at a school for students to participate in and learn, community gardens and library gardens.

The qualification criteria for applying for this grant are available at mginfo.org, the website for the Master Gardeners of North Alabama.

Interested groups and individuals can download, fill out and submit the project grant proposal to grantcommittee@mginfo.org. Only online applications will be accepted.

Deadline for grant proposals is Oct. 15. Recipients will be notified by email on Nov. 1. Master Gardeners of North Alabama will award grant monies at their Christmas social on Dec. 13.

Dorothy Thomas and Diane Campen of Madison serve as secretary and treasurer, respectively, for the Master Gardeners of North Alabama. Janet Boothe is president. “There are so many master gardeners here in Madison that volunteer in many projects,” Berry said.

The Master Gardeners of North Alabama organization supports several service projects that help restore and beautify areas in communities and partner with organizations to nurture and teach sound horticultural practices to residents.

For more information, call Berry at 256-461-8107 or Boothe at 256-776-0639, or send email to roseb@knology.net or j.boothe@bellsouth.net or visit mginfo.org.