Editor’s note: This story is included in the Daily Reporter’s Spring Home and Garden special section on Tuesday, April 20.
HANCOCK COUNTY — There’s a group of gardeners in Hancock County who are masters in their class.
You could call them the Green Thumb Society.
Instead, they’re known as the Hancock County Extension Master Gardeners.
Lais McCartney, agriculture and natural resources educator for the Purdue Extension office in Hancock County, oversees the group that enjoys perfecting their craft and sharing their talents with others.
The local Purdue Master Gardeners club currently has about 42 members, who meet monthly to learn new things and volunteer hours of their time sharing their love of gardening with the community. They take turns fielding garden and horticultural questions from the public on the club’s website.
In late March, a group took part in a “weed wrangle” at Thornwood Nature Preserve in Greenfield, where they learned to identify and eradicate the invasive garlic mustard plant that has been wreaking havoc on native plants in Indiana.
Learning all about invasive species of plants is the club’s main focus this year.
“We’re trying to decrease the number of invasive species we have that are taking over our forests and drowning out the native plants that our birds and wildlife like,” said Master Gardener club president Darlene Trusty.
Ongoing education is a big part of the program.
“There are other garden clubs, but the difference with this one is you have to continue to educate yourself and continue to do volunteer work,” Trusty said. “Plus it’s run in connection with Purdue University, so you know you’re getting the correct information.”
Trusty got her start as a master gardener in Hamilton County, where the club has nearly 300 members, but she enjoys the more intimate group of 42 members in Hancock County. The members share a love of gardening and a passion for giving back to the community.
To become a master gardener, individuals must complete a 12-week, 40-hour Purdue University course in the art, science and technology of growing plants.
They’re then required to complete 30 hours of volunteer work over the next two years.
Ongoing education and volunteer hours are required to maintain membership or move up to the next level.
“Each year each member needs to get 12 hours of volunteer hours and six hours of educational training. It keeps you on your toes, so you don’t get by the wayside and forget about good practices,” Trusty said.
“Once you’ve had your education and you start earning your volunteer hours, there are different levels of certification you can reach based on the number of education and volunteer hours you have,” she said.
Levels include Master Gardener, Advanced Gardener, then up to bronze, silver and gold levels of certification. Gold-level members have accumulated 100 hours of education and 1,000 hours of volunteering.
“That’s something that the different volunteers strive for. It’s kind of a fun part of recognizing those who spend time educating and helping others,” Trusty said.
The local Master Gardeners come together once a month for their standard meeting, where various speakers educate them on a variety of topics.
Volunteers log their education and volunteer hours online.
While many current members are retirees, Trusty said a number of younger members are gradually joining the mix.
Some volunteers work on weeding and beautifying along the Pennsy Trail, while some help out in other areas like Thornwood Nature Preserve in Greenfield and Jacob Shramm Nature Preserve in New Palestine.
Others serve as an extension of the Purdue Extension office, answering the public’s questions on a variety of horticultural issues. Some volunteer at the Garden Learning Center outside the extension office, where the public can visit to learn first-hand about gardening and have specific questions answered.
The center is open for free, seven days a week, and includes a variety of pollinators, ornamentals and wildflowers, as well as a demonstration vegetable garden, which grows vegetables for the local soup kitchen.
McCartney said it’s a huge help to have Master Gardeners help field questions and phone calls from the public, which can keep her busy all day.
“With the green of the spring, people have questions about their lawns, their soil tests, their fruit trees and starting their gardens. Just yesterday I helped seven people and still need to call others back today,” she said last week.
The Master Gardener program began on the west coast in 1972, said McCartney, and made its way to Purdue in 1978. The local club has been in existence for about 20 years.
“Master Gardeners’ motto is to help others grow,” she said.
One newly formed committee is helping a physician’s office at the hospital to create a private vegetable garden for their practice and their patients,” said McCartney, who is proud of all the work Master Gardeners do to educate the community.
Teresa Bowlby and her husband, Steve, who completed their Master Gardeners training together, enjoy fielding questions from the public at the Purdue Extension demonstration garden. They get plenty of experience tending their own garden and greenhouse at their rural Greenfield farm.
“I’ve always enjoyed the opportunities here in Hancock County, and after I retired I wanted to give back,” said Bowlby, who serves as secretary for the local Master Gardeners club.
She and her husband give presentations to local schoolchildren about growing plants as part of the Junior Master Gardeners education program.
“We’re working to get more related to horticulture into schools and home schools. That’s our eventual goal,” said Bowlby, who joined Master Gardeners about three years ago.
She and her husband have helped with landscaping projects all over the county, including the Downtown Day of Planting in Greenfield and a project at the Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House in Shirley.
The couple can often be found tending to the raised beds and greenhouse outside their home, where they’re raising vegetables and sunflowers to sell at the Master Gardeners’ upcoming spring plant sale.
Bowlby is especially fond of pollinator plants — which attract pollinators like butterflies, bees and birds — and has three pollinator patches at her house. “The butterflies, they’ve lost their home with all the construction going on, so getting the word out to people encouraging them to plant patches of pollinators will help provide them with food and also give them a place to live,” she said.
The avid gardener especially loves to plant things that can end up on the dinner table.
“You get real satisfaction from growing something and actually eating it,” said Bowlby, who grows a lot of tomatoes as well as peppers, green beans, kale, spinach and sugar snap peas.
“Yesterday we had spaghetti, and the sauce was made with the tomatoes we grow here. It gives you a real sense of satisfaction to eat what you grow,” she said.
For more information about the Hancock County Master Gardener Association, or for questions related to gardening, email [email protected] or visit hancockmga.com.
