When people learn I am a Master Gardener Volunteer they usually don’t hear the adjective Volunteer. They focus instead on the words Master Gardener and immediately assume that I am a terrific gardener and that I am an expert on all areas of gardening. Let me assure you nothing could be further from the truth. As a young child, I planted several dozen watermelon seeds in the back yard late in the summer. After they germinated and sprouted my grandmother mowed them down. When I tearfully protested she matter-of-factly informed me that they would never have produced anything.
Later, when in grade school, I planted a peach seed that sprouted and eventually grew into a tree that produced peaches, which we ate. When we moved I would occasionally check back on that tree by driving down the alley to make sure it was doing OK. One year it was gone, cut down. I have been experimenting with plants ever since.
I like gardening and know a little something about it. I have gardened for years and some years I have even been successful at it. But I am not a master at gardening. I am a Master Gardener Volunteer. Let me explain.
I first became a Master Gardener Volunteer in that state up north and transferred to Ohio when I moved back to Circleville in 2007. I wanted to learn more about gardening and meet people who shared my interest. The Master Gardener Volunteer Program in Ohio has been in existence since the late 1970s. There are now more than 3,000 active Master Gardeners in over 71 counties.
The program provides intensive training in horticulture to interested Ohio residents who then volunteer their time assisting with educational programs and activities through their local Ohio State University Extension county office. You are not required to have gardening skills or knowledge: a passion for learning about gardening and sharing this knowledge with others is a must!
The training consists of 50 hours of learning covering: Botany, Soils and Fertilizer, Plant Pathology, Plant Propagation, Houseplants, Lawns, Herbaceous Ornamentals, Woody Ornamentals, Vegetables, and Herbs and Fruit. Once the class work is completed you receive a take-home exam. The first year after completing the exam you are required to complete 50 hours of volunteer activities. Working with County Extension personnel, Master Gardener Volunteers provide educational services to the community such as: answering gardening questions from the public; conducting plant clinics; gardening activities with children, senior citizens, or disabled persons; beautifying the community; developing community or demonstration gardens; and other horticultural activities. Once you have completed this intern period you are required to re-certify each year by completing 10 hours of volunteer activities, 6 hours of advanced training, and paying a $20 fee.
So the next time you encounter a Master Gardener Volunteer you’ll know they have attended extensive training in gardening; have been volunteering their time to educate the community about gardening; and that they continue to learn about gardening. They will also be passionate about gardening and eager to share what they know. They will share research-based educational information, not their opinion or old tales about what works or doesn’t work in the garden. They may even be a great gardener, which means they experiment every year with growing plants.
If, like me, you enjoy gardening, would like to learn more, enjoy meeting people who share your interest, want to give something back to your community, and just simply want to enjoy yourself, look into becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer.
Pickaway County’s Master Gardener Volunteer Program will offer a training program beginning the third week of March. The cost for the training and a sizeable training manual is $110. Contact me for more information at 740/497-4397 or phang@columbus.rr.com
Things to do in the garden this month:
• Study all those seed catalogs. Need some more catalogs? Go to gardeningplaces.com. Fantasize what your garden will look like.
• Plan your gardens and plantings. One of my favorite guides for this is The Ohio Gardening Guide by Jerry Minnich.
• Establish a new bed by placing black plastic or several layers of newspaper down over the area you’ve chosen for the new bed. Weight it down so the wind doesn’t disturb it. By late spring the vegetation under it should be dead.
• Believe it or not, it is not too early to begin preparing for bluebirds. They nest as early as March. So... clean out your boxes, or build one and put it up to attract these beautiful birds to your back yard.
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