If you’re looking to make your thumb a little greener this growing season, the Central Missouri Master Gardeners and the News Tribune are here to to help.
Starting in next Sunday’s newspaper, members of the Central Missouri Master Gardeners will be fielding home horticulture questions from News Tribune readers and hotline callers including topics such as landscaping, lawns, vegetables, flowers and fruits. Their answers will be published in the “Ask a Master Gardener†column on the Home & Garden page, inside the Style section every Sunday.
Local Master Gardeners will continue answering reader questions throughout the growing season, until the end of August.
To submit a gardening-related question of your own, send an email to [email protected] for gardening advice from a local Master Gardener in a following week’s Sunday News Tribune.
The Central Missouri Master Gardeners are a volunteer group of 191 members, 122 of whom are Cole County residents, who maintain 11 beautification sites in Cole County, which are nonprofits or public entities. Master Gardeners must complete a basic training program of at least 30 hours of horticultural training, as well as 30 hours of volunteer service. The Missouri Master Gardener program is supported by the University of Missouri Extension.
The Central Missouri Master Gardeners also maintain a hotline each year throughout the growing season at the University of Missouri’s Cole County Extension Center. A Master Gardener is on hand to answer insect, lawn or garden questions at the center from 12:30-4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays through Aug. 28 by calling 634-2824 ext. 303. Questions from hotline callers may also be featured in the “Ask a Master Gardener†column.