NEWBERRY COUNTY — The past few months, the Newberry County Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) has been active with the Mobile Education Lab. We give lessons on Pollinators and alternative Gardening techniques. A big component is Soil Health. You must have healthy soil to grow anything. How do you know if your soil is healthy? A soil sample. Clemson Ext. offers a service to test your soil. A large landowner or farmer can have specific tests done for each of their crops, but any homeowner with a small garden for vegetables, flowers or lawn can have testing completed too. The district offers a soil sampling service for farmers – $13 for affiliate members or $15 for non-members. We will come to your land, take samples and send the analysis to you.
Last weekend we hosted Buzzard’s Roost lake access as a site for Lake Greenwood annual Cleanup. Keep Greenwood County Beautiful and Keep Lauren’s County Beautiful co-hosted. There were access sites across the lake for individuals or groups to get litter cleanup supplies. Over 200 Volunteers worked for two hours and picked up 5,140 lbs. of litter from roadways, parks and waterways. Swag and a free lunch was provided at Break on the Lake for participants. A Contest for Best Before & After, Best Selfie and Most Unusual item gave participants a chance to win prizes valued at $50- $100.
Our next cleanup event is Earth Day, April 22 in Prosperity, 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Keep Newberry County Beautiful will be at the Town Office, 305 N Main St. to give out supplies. You clean up a street, neighborhood or around town then report the totals back to Crista. Litter pickup events prevent disease in our soil and water ways. Cleaner streets make for less crime. Sign up online at Eventbrite: https://prosperityearthday.eventbrite.com
We received grant funding from Palmetto Pride, the state leader in South Carolina for Litter Prevention to hire litter crews to help maintain county roadways across Newberry. Crews will work a couple of days a month. If you know of a location that needs a little TLC, please contact Crista at 803-597-3160.
Lastly, we’ve been in schools educating our youth about litter. Through grant funding we can provide books for students in elementary school grades K-4. We talk about the effects of litter, then host reading time. If children learn early, then maybe we won’t have as much litter to pick up on the side of the roads? That’s a win-win.
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