Garden Column for the Salisbury Post

Darrell Blackwelder

June 6, 2002

     After 14 weeks of study, eighteen students passed their
final exam and are now Rowan County Master Gardener Volunteers.
Beginning in January students, received forty­five hours of
lectures, seminars and actual work experience as part of their
horticultural education to become volunteers for Cooperative
Extension.
          As part of their payment for the 2002 Master Gardener
course, Master Gardeners are actually volunteers for Cooperative
Extension.  These volunteers provide educational information to
Rowan County citizens through demonstrations, garden columns,
educational displays, working with youth groups, talks and other
educational activities. The information delivered by Master
Gardener Volunteers is educational, non biased, research based
information from N.C. State University, North Carolina A & T
State University and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Service.
 The Master Gardener Class of  will also be joining other
Master Gardeners in various educational programs throughout the
community.  The Hall House Herb and Cottage Garden, West End
Horticultural Demonstration Garden, Waterworks Sensory Garden,
and the turf trials and rose garden at the Extension Office are
just a few of the educational projects Master Gardeners will be
conducting this summer.
     Below is the  graduating class of 2002 that will be joining
the sixty five member Rowan County Master Gardener Association.
The Master Gardener Volunteer Class of 2002 is: Preston Askew,
Patricia Branning, Ruth Brumit, Bill Carnagelo, Susan Cloniger,
Shirley Fetheroff, Connie Hoffner, Steve Hooper, Amy Leonard,
Thomas Monroe, Bobby Parker, Hilda Prange, Jo Ann Rogers, Sonja
Skelton, Janet Sutton, Keith Trawick and Rebekah Walls.

Master Gardener Volunteers and Cooperative Extension are
sponsoring a Urban Garden Field Day, Saturday, June 16th,
beginning at 9:00 a.m., at the West End Community Park and
Horticultural Gardens on Brenner Avenue near the railroad tracks.
Educational demonstrations featuring a bog garden, trelised
garden, drip irrigation, composting demonstration, small fruit
demonstration plots, raised bed gardening, an enabling garden
will be displayed. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer
questions concerning gardens and small fruit crops.