Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990 TAG: 9004100177
SECTION: GUIDE TO BETTER HOMES PAGE: GTBH10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
And as gardeners their hands are getting dirty, too.
The Master Gardeners program consists of volunteers trained by the Cooperative Extension Service at Virginia Tech to provide an effective network of gardening programs and activities to enhance their communities.
And these folks aren't just growing daisies in their backyard. Community and volunteer work are part of what make this program so successful and worthwhile.
"Seventy-percent of American households deal with gardening in some respect," said Diane Relf, state extension specialist in consumer horticulture at Virginia Tech. She said that the involvement is with growing indoor plants, vegetable gardens or fruits.
"The extension services couldn't answer all the questions so the Master Gardener program was formed," said Relf, also a horticulture professor at Tech.
Local Master Gardener programs link with the state extension offices, which are part of the National Land-Grant College System, to create a national structure.
The program started in this area about 10 years ago at Virginia Tech. The gardeners promote, inform and work with communities, political leaders and commercial firms to present programs in all aspects of horticulture: turf, landscape, vegetables, grounds management, flowers, urban forestry, house plants, insects, disease, fruit crops and herbs.
At the extension office, students are signed on for 50 hours of training. After completing the two-month course, the students in turn agree to provide 50 hours of volunteer work. They either work in the horticulture extension office, whose duty it is to get plant growing information out to the public, or in other approved jobs.
For example, Relf said volunteers maintain the historic Smithville Plantation, work on campus gardens, conduct research, give information to children about plants at their schools and work with 4-H groups.
"And probably the most useful thing the volunteers do for the extension specialists is man the telephones," said David McKissack, Master Gardener coordinator. "We are usually drowning under questions so it really helps us. And it also helps the volunteers gain practical experience by answering the many questions we receive."
During March, course graduates, many of who are members of the Montgomery County Master Gardeners that want to stay involved with the program, set up a booth at the Blacksburg Recreation Center. There they took soil samples and offered free advice.
There is also a computer program at Virginia Tech that can teach people how to organize a garden. By contacting an extension specialist, information on the number of family members, acreage, and favorite foods can be typed into the computer and it will spit out information on how the garden should be laid out and what can go in it.
Those in the current course, which ends this month, will focus on horticulture and gardening in a number of areas.
"We help with 4-H gardening projects and summer fairs," explained Sara Hester, an extension agent. "We have a lot of other plans, too, in youth development."
Hester and a few others are the first group of volunteers from Pulaski currently enrolled in Master Gardener classes at Tech. They and their 40 other classmates will get involved in such projects as community landscape and beautification; managing farmers' markets; identifying plant cultural problems; and encouraging safe use of garden equipment and pesticides.
The classes meet twice weekly for three hours. A different specialist, who also volunteers the lectures, teaches each week.
"We corral the Tech professors so it's an incredible asset to be based at this university," said McKissack. "Elsewhere in the state where the program is held, professors and community experts are used."
Master Gardeners gain expertise themselves and can also teach a course. McKissack said the students learn a full semester course in three hours. For instance, an instructor who is knowledgeable on soils, will lightly touch on every aspect of soils within that three-hour class.
The course includes an extensive handbook, covering everything from basic botany to urban plant problems. The chapters are in-depth studies of various plants, how they grow and develop and what affects them. There is information on plant nutrition, plant pathology, environmental factors that affect plants and plant multiplication.
Master Gardener Emily Collins of Blacksburg said she learned a lot about pruning and seed reproduction. And she said she learned to change her bad habits.
"I would let things slide with my plants; I wouldn't clean up; I was just too casual," Collins said. "It wasn't a matter of being lazy, it was just not knowing exactly how things were done."
"I love making things beautiful that otherwise wouldn't be that way if we weren't doing it," Collins said.
Other Master Gardeners have started gardens at prisons, vineyards, halfway houses and drug rehab centers. And McKissack said others have gotten involved in a wide variety of community issues.
"Recently, water quality has been a big issue in this area," McKissack said. "Master Gardeners have been out in the community discussing how growers should use an optimum amount of chemicals since they affect the water. These are very important issues, too."
A national symposium on the Role of Horticulture in Human Well-Being and Social Development will be held in Arlington Apr. 19-21. Co-sponsored by Tech's horticulture department, the American Society for Horticultural Science, the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, and the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the objectives will be to collect current data, identify priorities and develop a network of researchers. And speakers will discuss the importance of plants in our everyday lives.
"Master Gardeners have such a variety of people," said McKissack. "All of these people don't have a lot in common, but they all have the desire to get back to nature."
For information on registering for Master Gardeners' classes, joining the Montgomery County Master Gardeners or on attending the national symposium, call Diane Relf or David McKissack at 703/231-6254.
by CNB