The Earthsong Garden

If you’ve ever taken a tour at Project Chimps, you may remember the Earthsong Garden, since it’s the starting point of the tour. It’s a fun demonstration garden where guests can learn about horticulture, which is the science of gardening.

The Earthsong Garden has this educational value thanks to Project Chimps’ partnership with the North Georgia Master Gardeners, an organization whose purpose is to promote good horticulture practices in cooperation with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Office of Fannin County – non-profit – service organization for education.

Now that it’s the Earthsong Garden’s first active growing season, the garden is starting to make a real impact for the sanctuary. But every garden has a story, and the Earthsong Garden’s began long before its first harvest.

The Earthsong Garden’s Lore

The Earthsong Garden first came to be in the fall of 2025, outside the sanctuary’s perimeter fence across from the kitchen. It was funded by Micheal Jackson’s Legacy which you can read more about in our previous blog about the Earthsong Garden. It was originally developed in response to an expected need to clean land where the outdoor classroom was situated.

“What began as an effort to recreate an outdoor learning space evolved into a broader vision for a demonstration garden that could benefit the community and the needs of Project Chimps for functional outdoor space to use as a classroom and a starting point to lead tours,” says Project Chimps’ Volunteer Coordinator and member of the North Georgia Master Gardeners Christy Jellets.

Now the Earthsong Garden is much more than just a garden or just a classroom, because of the efforts of the Project Chimps’ volunteers and the North Georgia Master Gardeners!

The Earthsong Garden’s Masters

Much of the garden’s success is due to Christy, who serves as a liaison between Project Chimps and the North Georgia Master Gardeners.

“As a Master Gardener, my primary role is to serve as a volunteer of the County Extension Office by providing research-based horticultural education to the community,” Christy explains. “This includes answering gardening questions, offering science-based recommendations, and supporting outreach efforts that promote sustainable and environmentally responsible practices.”

Christy is also Membership Chair for the Georgia Master Gardener Association, who has given a $500 grant to fund the Master Gardener 2026 Trainee Project.

The Master Gardener 2026 Trainee Project will give the recent graduates of the 10-week classroom training program an opportunity to gain hands-on experience that will expand the garden with a few new beds highlighting native and pollinator plants to Project Chimps, helping expand the Earthsong Garden for visitors.

As part of the project, Christy and other members of the North Georgia Master Gardeners are mentoring first year Master Gardener trainees in the Earthsong Garden. These trainees are helping to develop new beds while learning garden designs and layouts, researching plants, managing the project budget, and installing these beds in the Earthsong Garden. Master Gardeners are able to gain service hours helping maintain the garden, as well.

“In addition to supporting trainees, I help ensure the project aligns with Extension goals, serves as an educational demonstration space, and provides meaningful learning opportunities for both volunteers and the community,” says Christy.

The Earthsong Garden’s Wisdom

The Earthsong Garden is a place where volunteers, trainees, and visitors can gather and learn. It’s also where the Master Gardener trainees and the public can see a variety of gardening techniques.

“I love educating people in a low-key environment,” Christy says. “I love to teach and love to garden. It’s the perfect combination. There’s satisfaction sharing knowledge, that you’re able to pass on skills to other people so they can be successful in gardening.”

The Earthsong Garden is an interactive place with passionate volunteers like Christy as teachers. If you are interested in gardening even a little, you should come to the Earthsong Garden for the fun learning environment and cool gardening techniques!

The Earthsong Garden’s Blessing

This is Earthsong Garden’s first active growing season, and it is already producing vegetables that the chimps can eat! Right now, it’s growing yellow squash, with tomatoes and cucumbers still ripening on the vine. Chimp diets are one of the things visitors can learn about at the Earthsong Garden.

Although the chimps eat all of these vegetables, the garden doesn’t produce enough to feed all the chimps at the sanctuary, which is why donations are so important. It costs roughly $9 a day to feed one chimp, and with over 100 living at Project Chimps, that adds up to a lot! However, the garden helps with that, too.

“Because tours and groups begin in the garden, it creates a natural opportunity to encourage guests to donate fresh vegetables from their home gardens,” Christy explains.

The Earthsong Garden’s Apiary

As part of the Master Gardener Trainee Project, the trainees will design and create a native and pollinator focused beds adjacent to the edible garden area. This will provide another educational part of the garden, focused on the importance of pollinators, plant selections, and habitat support.

Christy says, “This space will serve as both a learning tool and a demonstration area for visitors to better understand how they can incorporate pollinator-friendly practices into their own landscapes.”

This exciting new addition to the garden not only provides hands-on opportunities to learn about pollination and sustainable gardening but also helps increase awareness of the chimpanzees and the sanctuary’s mission. Looking ahead, Earthsong Garden volunteers plan to offer educational workshops on blueberry and grapevine care, tool maintenance, and other beginner-friendly gardening topics, creating even more opportunities for the community to connect, learn, and grow.

The Earthsong Garden’s Mission

As is with everything at the sanctuary, it’s all about supporting the chimps. The more the volunteers engage with the guests, the more likely guests are to support the sanctuary and donate. It’s because their efforts in managing the garden make it a better place for guests to be interested and get involved in.

If you are interested in learning more about gardening or chimpanzees, we highly recommend you visit the Earthsong Garden or even volunteer at the sanctuary. The best way to learn is to teach, right? If you would like to support the chimps another way, consider making a donation or take a look at our ways-to-give page, where you can donate in a variety of options. Anything you can give goes a long way!