Inside Cumberland County’s Cooperative Extension Office on East Mountain Drive is a small, well-decorated office reminiscent of an elementary school classroom. Replete with an abundance of plant- and garden-themed posters lining the walls, there’s also a decorated cork board and plenty of tri-fold displays.
And lots and lots of green.
Except it’s no classroom. It's the headquarters of Cumberland’s own volunteer green thumbs — better known as Master Gardeners.
The Extension Office’s Master Gardener program was begun in 1979 at N.C. State. Eighty-three counties across the state, including Cumberland, have Master Gardener programs. There are more than 3,500 volunteers working in the program statewide, focused on bringing what it describes as science-based horticultural knowledge to anyone in North Carolina who seeks it. The program’s mission is simple: an outreach service empowering those interest in growing things “to cultivate healthy plants, landscapes, ecosystems, and communities.”
One of those Cumberland County Master Gardeners is the somewhat-appropriately named Janice Gardner, a retired elementary school teacher and librarian from Robeson County. She joined the program in 2020 and now serves as the president of the Master Gardener association for Cumberland County.
“Our whole idea is to do outreach in the community to help other people with their gardens,” Gardner said.
Plant enthusiasts looking to become Master Gardeners must first participate in a 40-hour training program on all things gardening — with topics ranging from pest management and composting to managing soils and plant nutrients and identifying native plants. The cost for the entire 16-week course is $150.
Once candidates pass a test on what they’ve learned, the masters-to-be are eligible to begin year-long internships at a county extension office. Those internship periods require an additional 40 hours of volunteering, including working in the extension’s demonstration garden, offering advice to local gardeners and helping at extension and community events.
Once that’s done, the interns are officially certified as Master Gardeners. From there, they have the opportunity to continue to assist others in their gardening endeavors — as long as they maintain 20 volunteer and 10 continuing education hours each year.
One of the primary ways for volunteers and interns to get their hours is by working the county’s hotline. Through Cumberland’s Cooperative Extension, anyone in the county can call in for advice about their struggling plants, find out how to properly prune a tree, learn what to plant in the right seasons, and even get lawn care advice.
Master Gardener Walter Greene joined the program in 2022 after retiring from his career as an orthopedic surgeon. He said the office gets a dozen or more calls for advice each day.
“Most of the calls that come in are, ‘What's wrong with my grass?’” Gardner said.
Gardner — who completed her own volunteer hours at Cape Fear Botanical Garden, working mostly in its vegetable garden — said she likes to work the hotline.
“We're learning about these problems that we might face sometime in our own garden,” she said.
Master Gardeners either answer incoming calls or respond to voicemail messages with any knowledge they have. They may even come out to callers’ locations to offer soil testing, if that’s needed to determine a specific gardening problem.
For those soil tests, Master Gardeners take samples of soil from a yard or garden and dispatch them to a lab at N.C. State. After two to three weeks, the Master Gardeners get results back that provide the exact makeup and pH, or the level of acidity, of the soil. Gardeners review the results with the caller and give recommendations on which fertilizers they should use for their desired results — soil-fixers such as potassium, nitrogen or phosphorus, or the use of other mineral additives, like lime.
It’s valuable knowledge for amateur growers. For example: blueberry bushes prefer acidic soil — a pH level of around 4.5 to 5.5. The typical pH of soils in N.C. is around 5.8 to 6.2, according to the state extension office. Grasses like bermuda or centipede, which are common in lawns, thrive at various pH levels as well, Greene said.
But gardens and lawns need the occasional healing touch, and Greene says she likes being able to give advice that suits specific needs.
“You can Google something and you can get some stuff that would really maybe damage your garden,” she said.
Beyond offering advice, Master Gardeners in Fayetteville also do outreach programs once a month at the downtown farmers market and work with community gardens around the city, including the Fayetteville Community Garden and the Friendship Community Gardens.
“All we're trying to do is provide information,” Greene said. “It's an under-recognized possibility.”
Master Gardeners also host an annual plant sale and fair, which features plants the gardeners grew themselves. Gardner said the group is already preparing and growing plants for the sale — one of the highlights of the year — which is set for April 20.
For more information on the Master Gardener program and how to get involved or get advice, visit online. To contact the hotline, call 910-321-6882.
Contact Char Morrison at cmorrison@cityviewnc.com.
