Area garden enthusiasts and garden club members can receive intensive horticulture training in exchange for volunteer hours through University of Illinois Extension’s Master Gardener program. This program is looking for individuals who not only love gardening and landscaping but who also enjoy sharing their gardening expertise with others.
Participants get more than 60 hours of in-depth instruction on such topics as soils; botany; insect and disease management; flowers, trees, shrubs and other ornamentals; fruit and vegetable production; turf grass; basic landscaping and a range of other topics.
An internship of 60 hours of volunteer, horticulture-related, service to our local neighbors and communities for U of I Extension completes the training requirements. Volunteer hours may involve such projects as design and operation of local demonstration gardens, school gardens, answering requests for lawn and garden information at the local Extension office, or working with children or the elderly at Extension sponsored events.
The Master Gardener training will be held at the White Co Extension Office in Carmi, IL on Tuesdays, January 26th through April 5th, and classes will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Those interested in participating in this program may apply anytime from now until December 1, 2015. Applications may be downloaded from our website or picked up at any of the local Extension offices. The registration fee for this program is $225, which includes a copy of the Illinois Master Gardener manual and attendance to the training classes. Scholarships for reimbursement of a portion of the program fee will be available to the first ten participants upon successful completion of the course.
For more details, contact Bronwyn Aly in the White County Extension Office at 618-382-2662. You may also visit our website at https://web.extension.illinois.edu/ghhpsw/ .
If you need disability accommodations to participate in this program, please indicate when registering.
