Earn as You Learn Workshop

Each January, the Master Gardeners of Davidson County welcome a new group of interns.  A series of classes are offered once a week through the middle of April on topics ranging from soil to composting to wise water use and everything else a gardener may need to know to succeed.  These interns have opportunities to earn additional educational hours and volunteer hours that will satisfy the requirements for certification.  

Sounds simple enough but the truth is, the number of hours needed, 8 educational hours and 40 volunteer hours, actually can be a bit intimidating to the new interns.  The result has been that very few of the 50 or so students in the classes actually follow through and achieve certification.  To help remedy the situation and get as many of the interns certified as possible, we started a new program this year.  

The Earn as You Learn Workshop is a series of work days held in the different projects maintained by the Master Gardeners of Davidson County.  To kick off the program, the first two workshops were held out in the Demonstration Garden at Ellington Agricultural Center.  The interns earned some of the required volunteer hours as they worked along side certified members in the garden.  

A large group of burning bush shrubs were pruned back in the main garden.  Not only did that get the unruly beasts under control, it provides a better view of the garden.

 The rose bushes that surround the gazebo were given a good hard pruning as well.  

 Finally, we can see the brick outline of the butterfly garden!  Talk about beasts, the two butterfly bushes were at least 12 feet tall last year and they grew so wide that it was impossible to walk through the garden.

 The grasses in our ornamental grass garden were also cut back to nice neat little mounds.

 The fun continued this past weekend with our second workshop weekend.  Here the crew is refilling a bed and raising the plants.  The soil had compacted completely over time and the plants were lacking needed air and nutrients.  By first removing the plants and then replenishing the soil with compost and leaf mold, the plants were replanted in a bed filled with soil that was not only full of needed nutrients, it was also aerated and no longer compacted.

The finished bed contains catmint and asiatic lilies with plenty of room to grow!

 Over in the Rain Garden, Tyann and Michael are dividing the ornamental grasses on the berm.  They had grown so much that they were choking each other out.  The plants were divided and a few were planted in the berm with the rest being potted for sale at our Urban Gardening Festival in May.

 Of course, it isn't a good day in the garden if Bella doesn't get out to enjoy the day with us.

 Over the winter, our new compost structure was built.  Now that spring has arrived, we are ready to put it to use!  The crew is busy lining the cells with paper and cardboard to kill the bermuda grass.

 The compost from the old structure must be screened because of the bermuda grass that grew into it-what a nuisance!  However, we cannot let it in or we will never get it out!!!

Our first pile of compost!  This is the first cell where we will add to the pile until we have enough.  After we stop adding to it, it will be shifted to the second cell to age and it will be turned regularly.  Finally, it will go to the third cell to finish aging before it can be used in the garden.