With the continued growth in population in Spencer County, the number of horticulture questions continues to increase.  Over the past few years, there has been some interest in starting a Master Gardener program to help educate our local residents in proper horticulture techniques.  In January 2023, the Spencer County Master Gardener program started.

               Master Gardener is a volunteer driven educational outreach of the Cooperative Extension Service.  Participants complete approximately 40 hours of class/hands on instruction and then they volunteer those hours back to the community through various projects.  After advertising the program for several months, the agriculture agent hosted a total of 8 class members (7 female, 1 male) through 14 different sessions, which included Botany, Soils, Vegetable Gardening, Woody Plants, and Water Quality, among other topics.  The sessions were taught by either the agriculture agents, specialists, or other county extension agents.  At the conclusion of the educational sessions, all participants took and passed a final exam.

               Since the conclusion of the program, volunteers have helped around our community in a variety of ways, such as maintaining planters in downtown Taylorsville, project days at the library, volunteering at the Farmers Market to hand out materials and answer questions, speaking at different meetings, working with students in our elementary schools, volunteering at field days, and helping to maintain garden areas around the Extension Office.  Currently, they have volunteered 159 hours, which translates into a total of $3,948 savings for our community.  They are discussing activities for this fall and next year.