M.C. Halbrook often finds her hands full, juggling research papers of compiled data, which is used to address environmental concerns in the Golden Isles. This is a part of her role as the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent for Glynn and McIntosh Counties.
If she had it her way, though, her hands would more often be digging into dirt trails, rather than paper ones.
In 2022, Halbrook realized she actually could have it her way.
That was the year she launched the UGA Master Gardener’s Program at the UGA Extension Office campus, located in the Ballard Complex off Old Jesup Highway.
In the first year of the program, Halbrook served at the helm of a cohort of horticulture gurus, joined by three fellow certified Master Gardeners who had recently relocated to the coast from their previous outposts in the Atlanta area.
With this first step taken to building gardening groupies, Halbrook then needed to find a space where a Master Gardener training program could plant roots.
Her space search ended by simply looking outside her office window. This is where she saw beyond the footprint of what once had been there: a former playground, which looked more like a recreational retirement home than a space to nourish a garden.
As Halbrook saw the area’s potential, she could envision sprays of green grass and soil. She saw a space that could, and soon would, be used for growing vegetables, housing rows of raised bed gardens, and fostering native florals.
“The former playground garden display at the Old Ballard School had 10 raised beds, (which were) long neglected and falling apart in a fenced area,” Halbrook says. “That first summer it was the goal … to get a few of the beds cleared out, reworked, new soil added, and plants producing.”
With this vision of outdoor space renovations, Halbrook was not alone. And the Master Gardeners saw an unused playground garden that could become an open area for a vibrant vista. The new coastal transplants quickly stepped up to join Halbrook in recruiting to-be green thumbs for Master Gardening training sessions.
One of the first individuals to join Halbrook’s Master Gardener mission was Linda Hlozansky, or as Halbrook has come to know her, a “veteran volunteer.” In 2018, after she uprooted and moved to the coast, Hlozansky saw a newspaper invitation that Halbrook had taken out, regarding a new gardening program to be established in the area. Interested in learning more, Hlozansky went and gave Halbrook her contact information. From there, the gardening connection was made.
Already, Hlozansky was familiar with the philosophies and general concepts of being a Master Gardener. But she wanted to know more, both for herself as well as for the purposes of potentially growing a new batch of Master Gardeners in the Golden Isles. In doing so, Hlozansky found she wasn’t merely asking Halbrook how to inform more to-be Master Gardeners.
Though Hlozansky and Halbrook had tossed around the term “Master Gardener” in their own social circles, they learned that the term wasn’t exactly familiar to the general public.
So, when asked what it means to be a “Master Gardener,” Halbrook is ready to answer.
It means being trained by extension office employees, such as herself, to serve as a part of the Georgia Master Gardener Extension Volunteer (MGEV) Program. This extension consumer horticulture program connects UGA Extension members, plant enthusiasts, and communities from across the state, with a shared curriculum centered on the care of plants for aesthetic value, recreation, and home food production. Through the program, areas are set up for the public to see and learn from methods the Master Gardeners use, like propagation and composting, Halbrook said.
Master Gardeners go on to teach community members how to use plants and specific gardening methods to improve their environment, personal health, and quality of life.
As well, the garden grounds go on to serve the greater good of their respective communities. In Coastal Georgia, that means harvested produce, such as blueberries and legumes from a bean teepee, are donated to the Sparrow’s Nest food pantry.
Like kudzu ready to grow, Halbrook and Hlozansky are now planning to add more Master Gardening training options, in an effort to create more planting proteges, which opens the door for a broader community outreach. They also hope the current gardening grounds will soon see a perennial garden and a shade edition too.
Even more, plans are also being plotted for a native garden, to serve as an outdoor classroom, where demonstration is the keyword.
Current Master Gardeners likewise hold a series of regular events pertaining to the program and its gardens. This includes the monthly Meet Me in the Garden discussion, garden tours, work days in the gardens for the Friends of Master Gardeners, and First Friday information sessions in downtown Brunswick, among other outreach opportunities.
“Extension is here to serve our whole community,” Halbrook says. “Training new volunteers opens the door for more service to our counties.”
• For more information about Master Gardening training courses and other programs offered by the Glynn County Cooperative Extension, visit their Facebook page, or email mchalbrook@uga.edu to be added to the monthly Ag newsletter.
FIND THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.goldenislesmagazine.com/columns/coastal_queue/growing-master-gardeners-for-the-greater-good/article_733e5bed-462d-4014-ab74-195d4ccb4c45.html
Photos by Michael Hall and Ryan Whitlow