Master Gardener Day Honors Volunteers

Master Gardener Day in Georgia is March 15th. What is a Master Gardener? Master Gardeners are very well-trained volunteers that serve their community in a variety of ways. They are an invaluable asset to the County Extension Service, providing assistance to the County Agent and home gardeners throughout the county. Trained by experts with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Georgia Master Gardeners help answer gardening questions year-round and assist with a variety of garden-related projects. To honor their service to the state of Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue declared March 15th as Master Gardener Day. Master Gardeners participate in gardening projects which range from teaching children about gardening or planting flowers downtown to actually visiting home gardens to offer suggestions on pest management, and all kinds of tasks in between. Georgia Master Gardeners are very busy, because last year 2,644 Master Gardeners donated 192,854 hours of their time to help Agents and gardeners in their counties. If you're looking for a chance to help your community and would appreciate receiving valuable gardening training and experience, you should look into the Master Gardener Program. I owe alot to the Master Gardener Training I've received. We've learned all kinds of things about Xeriscaping, water conservation, plant conservation, gardening with native plants, and really more than I can name here. The Master Gardener Program has something for everyone. Whether you like to teach and speak, perform office tasks, or just get down on your hands and knees and dig in the dirt, you'll find a worthwhile volunteer program that you can really enjoy. For more information, visit the Georgia Master Gardener website at http://georgiamastergardener.com/.