Master Gardeners Association seeks new recruits

We are tak­ing appli­ca­tions for our 2013 Mas­ter Gar­dener School, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tues­days between Feb. 5 and March 26 at the Exten­sion Office, 149 N. San­dusky St., Delaware.

You don’t have to be a pro­fes­sional and know a lot about gar­den­ing. If you just love gar­den­ing, then come join the Mas­ter Gar­den­ers Asso­ci­a­tion in Delaware County. You will meet oth­ers from all walks of life with the same inter­ests as you.

What makes this pro­gram unique is the intense train­ing offered to the vol­un­teers, and the expec­ta­tion that they will use their acquired knowl­edge to ben­e­fit all of Delaware County, not just themselves.

Once cer­ti­fied, each Mas­ter Gar­dener Vol­un­teer has an oppor­tu­nity to become part of the Delaware County Mas­ter Gar­dener Asso­ci­a­tion and to con­tinue serv­ing the com­mu­nity. Our Mas­ter Gar­den­ers helped the exten­sion office share research based infor­ma­tion with the pub­lic through our Mas­ter Gar­dener Helpline and our weekly “Dig In With The Mas­ter Gar­den­ers” col­umn for The Delaware Gazette.

Mas­ter Gar­dener vol­un­teers donated more than 5,200 hours to Delaware County this year via OSU Extension-sponsored research projects and activ­i­ties. Some of the projects that our Mas­ter Gar­den­ers are involved in include Habi­tat for Humanity’s Brush with Kind­ness gar­den project, five com­mu­nity gar­dens, OSU Exten­sion and Com­mis­sion­ers gar­dens, the com­mu­nity gar­den edu­ca­tional series and the iTree Program.

Mas­ter Gar­den­ers impact our com­mu­nity with research-based gar­den­ing sem­i­nars and work­shops tar­get­ing safe use and proper tim­ing in har­vest­ing veg­eta­bles and fruits, and safe can­ning and freez­ing prac­tices in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the OSU Exten­sion FCS specialist.

Mas­ter Gar­dener interns must com­plete 50 hours of vol­un­teer time between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 in 2013. In exchange for the train­ing pro­gram, par­tic­i­pants have the oppor­tu­nity to vol­un­teer for some of the fol­low­ing services:

• Answer­ing Helpline ques­tions on the phone

• Diag­nos­ing plant prob­lems in the office

• Staffing infor­ma­tion booths at parks, nurs­ery and fairs

• Con­duct­ing demonstrations

• Teach­ing gar­den­ing classes

• Help­ing to train future Mas­ter Gardeners

• Numer­ous other projects as deter­mined by the Mas­ter Gar­dener Association.

To stay cer­ti­fied as a Delaware County Mas­ter Gar­dener, you must ful­fill yearly edu­ca­tional pro­grams for 12 hours a year and 20 hours of vol­un­teer opportunities.

Call the OSU Exten­sion office at 740–833-2030 and ask for an appli­ca­tion to join this grow­ing, fun group of Mas­ter Gar­den­ers in Delaware County.

Rob Leeds is an OSU Exten­sion Edu­ca­tor in Delaware County.

Posted by Rob Leeds on Nov 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.