Three Extension Master Gardener Volunteers from Beaufort County attended the National Garden Club sponsored Landscape Design School held Aug. 13-14. The school was offered at the beautiful JC Raulston Arboretum on the North Carolina State University campus in Raleigh. Jean Hammond, Doretta Waite and Kim Watson advanced their Master Gardener skills with a survey of landscape architecture and design in America.

Topics included historic preservation, landscape design process, plant selection, structures in the landscape, community landscape management and design of the small garden. Presenters included Jack Douglas, president and founder of Douglas Associates, a professional landscape design and architecture firm in Richmond, Virginia, and former professor at the University of Richmond, Georgetown and the University of Virginia; Gordon Chappell, former garden director at Colonial Williamsburg and fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architecture; Amy Strunk, PhD and owner-operator of Amy Strunk Designs in Chapel Hill; Marshall Warren, horticulture extension agent in Johnston County and former owner of Landscape Creations offering residential design and installation in the Raleigh area; and Leslie Herndon, vice president of Greenscape Operations, a Triangle-based team of landscape architects, designers and horticulturalists specializing in commercial property. The course is one in a series of four. Successful completion of all four, including examinations, culminates in a certificate in landscape design from the National Garden Club.

Extension Master Gardener Volunteers undergo classroom and practical training to become certified, but the learning never stops. Once certified, EMGV’s assist the community through educational activities that bring research based, unbiased information to the public. EMGV’s also diagnose issues with plant disease and insects to help the residents of Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell, and Washington counties through Gene Fox.

If you would like to learn more about horticulture, there will be a five-part series in October called “What You Need To Know So You Can Grow.” This series will be open to the public and topics covered will include Soils, Vegetables, Fruit, Turf and Ornamental plants. Participants attending every class in the series will earn the Blacklands’ Friends of Horticulture “Certified Homegrown” certification. For more information on this series or the EMGV program in Beaufort County, contact Gene Fox, agriculture-consumer horticulture agent with N.C. Cooperative Extension, at 252-946-0111.

Submitted by Kim Watson, a Certified Master Gardener Volunteer, Beaufort County.