Marianne Riofrio
Volunteers have always played an important role in delivering programs and services to Ohio residents through Ohio State University Extension. OSU Extension Master Gardeners are becoming widely recognized as a premier group of volunteers serving their counties.
Master Gardeners are trained to be volunteer educators in the area of consumer horticulture. The activities they carry out in their counties are broad-ranging. Many answer gardening calls, one-on-one, that come into the county Extension offices. These questions range from inquiries about the culture of specific plants to calls seeking help in determining the cause of a plant problem, identifying household pests such as termites and carpenter ants, and much more. Master Gardeners also educate the gardening public through classes, workshops, demonstration and trial gardens, and exhibits at Home and Garden shows, county fairs, and garden centers. School children, senior citizens, and even some of Ohio's prison population have benefitted from educational projects carried out by Master Gardeners.
In 1997, more than 500 Master Gardeners were trained in Ohio, serving 45 Ohio counties and three Kentucky counties. Seven Ohio counties were new to the Master Gardener program in 1997, joining the ranks of counties that have been training and utilizing these volunteers for up to 10 years, with Cuyahoga County holding the title of the longest continuously running Master Gardener program in the state.
Exciting developments in the Master Gardener program in 1997 included the new Master Gardener Web Page and the computerized call-logging program, both developed by Dr. Tim Rhodus and his program assistants in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. When visiting the web site at www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/mg/mg.html, you can find mission and vision statements as well as an interactive map of Ohio counties with information on individual county Master Gardener programs. There are also links to other internet resources of interest to gardeners and green industry professionals.
The Master Gardener call-logging program was developed to help counties and to track gardening calls that come into the office. A Master Gardener can simultaneously take a call, log the call on the computer, and find a fact sheet on Ohioline to assist in answering the caller's questions. In addition, data can be collected from the logs to help identify areas where additional resources need to be developed. For example, a list of frequently asked questions for which there are no fact sheets (with answers!) can be generated, followed by new fact sheet development.
In September, the annual state Master Gardener Conference attracted 250 volunteers for a day of learning and camaraderie at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Garden in Columbus. Local, state, regional, and international conferences provide the Master Gardeners with continuing education opportunties that serve the two-fold purpose of keeping these volunteers on the cutting edge and keeping them in the program.
Across the nation, Extension Master Gardener volunteers are attracting a lot of attention. The October-December issue of HortTechnology, a publication of the American Society for Horticultural Science, has, as its cover feature, "Celebrating 25 Years of Master Gardening." Several articles highlight the achievements of Master Gardener programs across the United States. The December 1997 issue of National Gardening magazine also features an article written by a Michigan Master Gardener and includes a list of state contacts for the program.
Ohio State University Extension's Master Gardener Program keeps getting bigger! At least another seven county Extension offices will join the ranks in 1998. Most of the newest counties to become involved have rarely directly served the gardening public before. With the many Extension resources in this area, all it takes is the peoplepower to deliver those resources to our customers. The Master Gardeners have a proven record of delivering the goods, satisfaction guaranteed.