Master Gardeners started in Indiana in 1978, and Lake County was one of four counties in the state that year to offer the program. Volunteer training sessions were conducted every other year in even numbered years through 1996. From 1997 to the present, classes have been conducted every year. Applications are received from over a hundred residents per year. Maximum class size is 45. Sessions are now conducted from August thru November.
Lake County presently has almost 500 Master Gardeners who volunteer nearly 7,000 hours per year presenting programs to school groups, service clubs, garden clubs, Home & Garden shows, retirement centers, county parks, Habitat for Humanity, junior master gardeners, county fair, Master Gardner general meetings, as well as, working the phone lines at the Extension Office, working the State Fair Booth, and working with the numerous Master Gardener Association committees.
A team of 4 Master Gardeners attended the Northeast Regional Master Gardener Conference in October, 2000, in West Virginia and made two presentations entitled “Growing a New Century of Volunteers Through Partnerships.”
Lake County Master Gardeners Enter Christmas Tree Competition at Visitors Center
The tree is in place at the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau of Tourism Welcome Center, in Hammond. The theme for the tree this year is “Helping Others Grow” and is decorated using garden tools and other garden related items. Master Gardener volunteers brought an array of creative items from old hoses to garden boots to peat pots…a whole gamut of nifty things. The tree is covered in birdhouses, garden gloves and ornaments made from dried flowers and seed pods. It is topped with a decorated garden hat and surrounded by beautiful arrangements in bushel baskets and old watering cans.
The display ends the day after Christmas. Forty other Christmas trees decorated by Lake County organizations are on display–Lake County Master Gardeners received 1st place in 2002 and 2nd place in 2000. Time will soon tell how they place in 2003!