Master gardener training will be held at the Orange County Extension Center, 306 Revere Road, Hillsborough. The 15-week program will be held on Wednesdays from Sept. 14 through January 2011, with sessions running from 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Master gardener is a title given to individuals who receive 40 hours of in-depth horticultural training from county extension agents and in return agree to give 40 hours of volunteer service helping their local county extension program.
Training will include topics such as basic plant botany and physiology, entomology, plant pathology, vegetable gardening, fruit culture, annuals and perennials, woody ornamentals, turf management, interior plants, pest control, basic landscaping and identification and usage of common landscape plants.
In Orange County, master gardeners help by answering telephone calls in the extension office, troubleshooting plant problems brought into the office, staffing plant clinics at farmers’ markets and working with youth in 4-H.
Applications for a limited number of openings are being accepted at the county extension office until Aug. 1. For further information about the master gardener program, contact Carl Matyac at 245-2062 or send an email to carl_matyac@ncsu.edu