By Emily Gossett
Silver City High School Intern for the Beat
On Wednesday, December 4, Eduardo Servin gave a seminar on a master gardening course that might be implemented in Silver City. Servin is the manager of the master gardener program at New Mexico State University. This seminar consisted of explaining what exactly a master gardener is and how the participants of the course could implement these skills into their community. The class encompasses everything from grasses to water irrigation. It will be an eight- to twelve-week course starting in the fall of 2020. Specialists of their field would come down to Silver City every week and host three- to five-hour classes. The classes will be held through the Grant County extension office and will cost a little over one hundred dollars to attend.
Servin then went on to explain that there are multiple benefits to becoming a master gardener, including being able to attend a conference every two years.
Audience members seemed to be enthralled by this seminar. “This seminar went really well. I’m really excited about the reinstating of this program in our county” said Linda Gilmore, an audience member.
After the education part of the class is over, participants are able to use these skills throughout the community by volunteering in various ways, such as implementing school gardens and helping to maintain the community garden. The master gardener program is run out of all Aggie schools across the country. With New Mexico’s Aggie school being NMSU, the program will be brought to Grant County through them. The master gardener program is not a one-size-fits-all curriculum.
“Every community is different” according to Servin. Each county has required classes, but also additional classes allow for a more customized approach to gardening. The specialists try to gear their classes towards the climate of the county and even provide a survey at the end to find out what they can improve upon. “Grant County has had a master gardener program in the past. We are here to resuscitate the program.”