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Guilford County Master Gardeners are eagerly welcoming applications for their 2010 class, which will meet one morning a week for 12 weeks starting in January.

Folks sometimes hesitate to apply to the Master Gardener program, thinking they couldn't possibly have enough expertise to be considered a "master" in the field.

However, the only things you need to have mastered are enthusiasm for gardening, eagerness to learn more and willingness to share your gardening knowledge and excitement.

Master Gardeners are volunteers. During 50 classroom training hours, interns learn about plant biology, water and soil science, plant diseases, insects and weeds, landscaping, lawn care, and vegetable and fruit production, all with an underlying emphasis on sustainability and protecting our environment.

This initial classroom training provides the foundation for answering home gardening questions using extensive resources available through the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.

After completing the classroom training, interns must volunteer 50 hours before being certified.

At that point, we hope they're just beginning a long association with the program, especially because only active participants can continue to call themselves Master Gardeners.

Our volunteer activities include:

• Staffing information booths at public events
• Answering gardening questions at the office during our call-in hours
• Working in our Community Garden and Legacy Demonstration Garden at the Agriculture Center
• Developing and teaching seminars on gardening topics.

Opportunities also are available in areas such gardening with children.

After the intern year, Master Gardeners volunteer 30 hours and agree to participate in at least 10 hours of ongoing training to maintain their certification.

In North Carolina, Master Gardeners in 71 counties provide assistance and education in their communities.

In High Point, Dixie Ross and Barbara McAdams have been instrumental in helping establish community gardens like the one at Fairview Community Center in High Point.

Volunteers teach classes, hold workshops and give lectures about sustainability, water issues, food production and general gardening practices.

Our Speakers Bureau has presented 42 programs so far this year to neighborhood associations, civic clubs and other groups. Master Gardener Jan Laws recently presented "Attracting and Using Beneficial Insects in the Garden" to the Greensboro Rose Society.

Youth education is another area of emphasis, and Diane Paschal and Patsy Lupton and their committee have been instrumental in presenting programming such as the Wee Gardeners for rising kindergarteners in our Legacy Demonstration Garden.

Of course, if you're not aware of the Legacy Demonstration Garden, you're missing out. This is a public garden at the Extension Office that has been designed, developed and maintained by Master Gardener Volunteers.

Since the Master Gardener Volunteer program was established in Guilford County in the late 1980s, we've trained about 500 gardeners. We have 160 active members and hope to increase that number to 200 next year.

The Master Gardener Program is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about gardening in the Piedmont, to develop lifelong friendships with people who share your interests and to get the personal satisfaction that comes from knowing you have helped those in your community.

If you like gardening and have the time to commit to the program (free time on Wednesdays is particularly important), you will find the Master Gardener Program rewarding.

Who else but a fellow gardener can sympathize with your struggles with groundhogs, the fungal diseases that beset your crepe myrtles and the nematodes in your soil?

Contact Karen Neill, an agricultural extension agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, at 375-5876 or karen_neill@ncsu.edu