If you love gardening and love learning more, there is a great opportunity just around the corner!
Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 is your last chance to get into the 2011 Polk County Master Gardeners' training class. Applications must be submitted by 6:00 pm and a final orientation will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
According to a 2009 USDA study, there are nearly 95,000 Master Gardeners nationwide providing over 5 million hours of horticultural service to their communities valued at more than $100 million. Participants in the Polk County Class will complete training in a broad array of topics including houseplants, flowers, turfgrass, vegetables, woody landscape plants, plant propagation, botany, fruits, soils, wildlife management, pesticide safety/ integrated pest management, plant pathology and entomology.
Class members pay small fee to cover the cost of training materials and agree to provide 40 hours of "payback" service to the community. In Polk County, many may have seen the fruits of this service at the State Fair Ag Building Discovery Garden, or the information booth at the Downtown Farmers' Market. Other projects include a Spring plant sale at the Des Moines Botanical Center, display garden in Urbandale, enabling garden in Altoona, Gardeners Showhouse and other work at the Des Moines at the Botanical Center and the annual garden tour.
To get an application, contact Mary Farlow by email by clicking on the link or phone 515-957-5761. The see more about what Polk County Master Gardeners are up to, visit their web site at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/polk/info/mastergardener/mg.htm or visit the Iowa State University Extension Master Gardener site at http://www.mastergardener.iastate.edu/.
You'll meet a ton of folks who share your interest and also be sharing your love of gardening with the community.
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