Master Gardeners Use Their Green Thumbs to Enrich Communities
Published: Friday, April 9, 2021
Some years ago, when Pam Koch and Sue Farris wanted to know how to grow a certain plant, needed advice on why something in their garden wasn't thriving or couldn't identify a flower or leaf, they had to rely on other people for information.
Fast forward to today and the two retired registered nurses are those "other people" with the answers.
And, if they are stumped by that mysterious growth straight out of "The Little Shop of Horrors" overtaking your rhododendrons, they can almost certainly line up someone who isn't.
Koch and Farris could always grow woodland plants, flowers and vegetables, but they took their green thumbs to another level by becoming master gardeners through Whitley County Extension.
It's a distinction that didn't come easily and it's not something to be scoffed at by the uninformed.
The training, coordinated by the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service in all 92 Indiana counties, takes 14-16 weeks to complete at a cost $150 in 2021. The volunteers taking the course meet for a three-hour class once a week. Upon passing a final exam, they become Master Gardener Interns and are required to complete 35 volunteer service hours before being certified.
"There's multiple topics and all kinds of gardening," said Koch, who also works as an assistant curator for the Whitley County Historical Museum in Columbia City.
To maintain their accreditation, master gardeners must take six hours of educational training and perform 12 hours of volunteer service on an annual basis.
Koch, who lives with her husband, Dick, on a wooded lot near Columbia City, enrolled about 16 years ago out of a desire get more in touch with her surroundings.
"We were working on our backyard, which had become a certified wildlife habitat, but we really wanted to know more about plants and design, and so forth," she said. "So, we both took it."
It wasn't long before the community service aspect of being a master gardener took hold and the Kochs were sharing their expertise well beyond their own property lines.
Columbia City's multiple parks were in need of beautification and landscaping, and the Kochs soon joined a committee.
"And so, we started putting in gardens in the parks and in various locations in Morsches Park," Koch said.
Farris, who is also a master naturalist, in 2010 saw the master gardening course as another opportunity to satisfy her passion for continuing education while being around like-minded friends.
"My parents were both farmers, in Ossian, south of Fort Wayne, and my mom was originally from Nebraska," Farris said. "So, I spent much of my childhood on farms, but as soon as I became a master gardener, they started asking me questions.
"It was amazing."
According to John Woodmansee, the Whitley County agriculture and natural resources Extension educator, Washington State University Extension started the national Master Gardener Program in 1972. Indiana joined the movement in '78, and Whitley County in '97.
"The program began in response to the tremendous demand for home horticulture information," Woodmansee said via email. "Extension master gardener volunteers help to provide that research-based knowledge to the community. Specifically, the program aims to provide information and technical assistance about gardening and home horticulture through trained and certified volunteers.
"It is a significant and rewarding part of the work I do in Whitley County. It's a privilege to work with such a great group of people so passionate about gardening, and who provide so many beautiful educational demonstration gardens in many of our public spaces."
Last year, despite COVID-19 restrictions, Whitley County Master Gardeners performed 1,916 hours of volunteerism, down from 2,433 in 2019 but valued at $47,613 (based on $24.85 per hour).
The Whitley County Master Gardeners Program boasts about 70 active members, including Koch and Farris.
"Because you're with people who like to garden, if you don't know the answer there's someone there who does," Farris said. "So, it's a real easy way to connect with somebody who knows a lot more than you do. We had one guy who had probably 300 different hostas, all labeled, in his yard. You want to know about hostas? Who are you going to ask?"
An overabundance of shade prevents Koch from growing sun-loving plants on her property, so she devotes her attention to a natural woodland garden featuring a 300-year-old oak and is filled with trillium, Virginia bluebells, hostas, jack-in-the-pulpit, woodburn poppies, bleeding hearts, Siberian iris and other native species.
Farris grew an expansive, 1,200-square-foot vegetable garden at her former home on Crooked Lake, but has since moved to another house on the Noble County side of the lake and is waiting to see what comes up this growing season before digging.
Signing up to become a master gardener "was about personal learning, and then we got involved with the shelter," Koch said.
At the request of the Whitley County Animal Shelter, another committee was formed in 2010 to see what could be done with an unsightly, 125-by-25-foot piece of adjoining land that was so disgusting, even the dogs avoided it. The area was a former landfill used by the city and county to dump broken concrete, bricks, asphalt and other refuse.
The property fronts S. Line Street, but is considerably lower than the road bed and slopes down toward the Blue River. During wet weather, water from the road and shelter parking lot cascaded unimpeded through the lot and created a muddy mess.
The solution was the Whitley County Animal Shelter Rain Garden that since 2013 has been preventing runoff from flowing unchecked through the property. A series of three mounds guards the property from the road and diverts water into an engineered dry river bed.
More than 300 day lilies and other deep-rooted plants populate the center growing area which is surrounded by a gravel-covered walking path.
What was once an environmentally challenged eye-sore is now a source of community pride. Koch has since moved on to other projects, like the master-gardener-approved mini rain gardens at the museum, but the maintenance Farris does at the Shelter Rain Garden counts toward her service hours.
"The rain garden is designed to hold the water for two to three days," Koch said. "Some of plants have root systems that go 14 to 16 feet deep, and they're native plants."
"The big thing now is native plants," added Farris. "They filter the water just like wetlands do."
Spoken like a true master gardener.
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