Have you ever thought about becoming a Master Gardener volunteer? If so, now is the time to apply to enter the program. Lake County will be holding training in early 2008 and the applications will be available starting September 4, 2007.

Master Gardeners are volunteers who receive in-depth horticulture training from University of Illinois Extension. Once they have been trained and pass the final exam, they become volunteers for Extension. There are several volunteer activities, including answering gardening questions for the public, working with residents of nursing homes and giving gardening presentations to interested groups.

In 2008, the training will be held on Fridays from January 11 through April 4 (no class on March 21, Good Friday). Each class runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The applications will be available starting September 4^th and need to be returned to me by October 9. We generally receive more applications than there are openings in the class. To get to know each applicant better, informal interviews will be set by with those people who return the completed application.

If you would like to receive an application, or have some questions about the program, please call me at (847) 223-8627 or email me at yiesla@uiuc.edu. I hope to hear from some of you soon.