Master gardeners may have answers

So you've bought some blueberry plants, but now what do you do with them? You're confused about how to grow them, and you don't have a clue whether the yard gets enough light. Does moonshine count? You mumbled to yourself all the way home from the plant nursery, "acid soil, water well." The nursery manager gave you exact planting instructions, so you feel sheepish about calling back for a rerun.

Or you missed the recent call-in show about tomatoes on WPSX-TV but still want to grow your own pasta sauce makings.

Maybe you've decided this is the year to grow your own gourmet salad fixings like Martha Stewart, and you want to find out what vegetable varieties grow well in central Pennsylvania, and how to prepare soil and set out plants.

Or, never mind that shoppers are snapping up dandelion leaves in Giant's produce section,
you've decided to declare war on those pesky plants. Where can you find out how to get rid of such weeds without using toxic chemicals?

If these and other horticultural questions are bugging you this spring, join the throngs of other folks who also want accurate, scientifically based gardening information. Often you can get good answers at the garden center or nursery where you buy seeds and plants.

When it's not that simple, consider calling the Penn State Cooperative Extension office in Bellefonte, at 355-4897, and ask to speak with a master gardener about your specific gardening questions.

A master gardener will be informed about your request and will call you back as soon as possible, usually within a day or so, to give you sincere attention and quality information. Master gardeners aren't magicians, but they can usually answer your questions from the vast amount of information available through the Cooperative Extension Service. A benefit of contacting a master gardener is that you get to talk with knowledgeable gardeners and receive information from people who are not interested in selling a product to you.

Master gardeners complete about 30 hours of training offered by cooperative extension personnel and Penn State faculty. The training is about plant science, plant propagation, soil science, plant pathology, entomology, communication skills and integrated pest management About a third of the training focuses on specific gardening topics such as pruning techniques, composting, house plants, vegetable culture, herbs, tree and small fruit culture, lawns, and landscape design.

After completing the training, master gardeners are required to give 50 hours of unpaid horticultural-related volunteer work. Annually, they must update their knowledge through eight hours of additional seminars and complete 20 hours of volunteer service as a master gardener. Penn State master gardeners:

• Answer gardening questions
• Assist county extension office staff
• Conduct garden tours
• Conduct school gardening programs
• Coordinate master gardener programs
• Create and maintain demonstration gardens
• Design and maintain community and school landscape
• Develop visual aids for presenting extension programs
• Diagnose plant specimens
• Garden with the elderly and handicapped
• Make home gardening visits
• Plan and complete community beautification projects
• Present lectures or demonstrations to groups interested in horticulture
• Volunteer as 4-H leaders
• Work at county fairs and plant clinics
• Work in trial gardens at research stations
• Work on special events

The Centre County Master Gardener Program was started about three years ago. The program offers a means for enthusiastic gardeners to obtain up-to-date gardening training and in return give a valuable volunteer service to their home communities. Master gardeners benefit Cooperative Extension because they free extension agents to pursue other work and enable extension to reach a greater number of gardeners at a low cost. Master gardeners, while working for Penn State Cooperative Extension, are insured under extension's liability insurance for extension personnel and volunteers.

Here's how you can work with a master gardener. They gotta get in those volunteer hours. And you gotta figure out how to take tare of those blueberries. Sounds like a deal.

Ursula Sherrin is a member of the Fox Hill Gardens Nursery and Landscaping staff Her special interests are landscaping with native plants, and gardening to attract birds. She has lived in State College for 10 years.

You can arrange to speak with a master gardener by contacting the Penn State Cooperative Extension Office of Centre County at 355-4897.