Gardening Tips Column in the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald

Most of you probably know that I write a weekly column for the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald on gardening. I try to use this column to educate gardeners on how to deal with common (and sometimes uncommon) pest and disease problems, remind them when and how to prune, fertilize, transplant, etc. and provide other useful horticultural information in a timely fashion. The column runs in the Daily Herald every Tuesday. The columns are not published on the Daily Herald website but they are posted on the Halifax County Cooperative Extension website, so you can find old columns there. Go to http://halifax.ces.ncsu.edu and scroll down to the bottom of the page. The columns are posted in the news section at the bottom of the page. The two most recent news stories will be posted on the main page and you can see other stories from that month by clicking "More News". After clicking on More News you can look back at new stories posted each month since November 2005. There are other articles there in addition to the Gardening Tips columns. Some of the oldest columns can also be found by going to http://halifax.ces.ncsu.edu/content/GardeningTips.

Master Gardener Class to be held in February

Halifax County Cooperative Extension will be offering the Master Gardener program beginning February 20, 2008. Classes will run every Wednesday from 1 to 4 for a total of 13 weeks. Cost of the class is $65.

Participants will receive 40 hours of training in horticulture, soil science, entomology, plant pathology, lawn care and other areas. Training will include instruction, field trips, hands on experience with pruning, plant propagation, and field experience in diagnosing disease and insect problems.

After completing the training, Master Gardener graduates are required to payback the extension service by providing at least 40 hours of volunteer service. Graduates can volunteer for a wide variety of projects including caring for the memorial garden at the Halifax County Agricultural Center, the Place to Play garden program at Clara Hearne Early Childhood Center in Roanoke Rapids, participating in educational programs in county schools, or helping with Extension programs and events such as Harvest Days. I will work with all volunteers to find volunteer projects that are appropriate for the interests and skills of the volunteer as well as the overall goals of the Halifax County Extension Horticulture Program.

Through Master Gardeners you will gain a large amount of horticultural knowledge, meet many fun and friendly gardeners, and make a positive impact on the community. If you are interested in the Master Gardener program, email me or call me at 583-5161 for more information and an application.

You can also dowload an application here

Welcome

Welcome Gardeners of Halifax County and beyond. I will use this blog as a place to share some relevant and timely gardening information as well as some some new ideas.

I thought a good way to start would be to share a video I found while watching old clips from Sesame Street on the computer with my son. This is called "The man who hated frogs", and is a great lesson on ecology and integrated pest management. You man want to think about the man who hated frogs when you are dealing with a possible insect problem and try to consider whether the actions you take in an attempt to solve one problem might lead to another.