Friday, February 12, 2010 Gardening in a virtual world
This guest blog post is by Amara Rozgus, editor,Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine. She’s a pro at digging in the dirt and digging up the dirt for her latest article.
When I meet other University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners, I joke that I’ve never touched dirt. I’m a “virtual” gardener.
After getting past the blank stares and multiple questions, my fellow gardeners finally understand that I took all my certification classes online, and never spent time in a classroom or a hands-on garden setting, like most trainees do. I never got to play in the dirt (or “soil,” in Master Gardener lingo) like they did.
That was back in 2003, when I completed my online training and passed my final certification exam. My course was a 16-week online class with weekly quizzes, plus an extremely long final exam. My background in chemistry and biology were put to the test, and I learned about new topics — like garden pests and trees. My jokes have gotten better, and my gardening skills have certainly improved. But as both an editor and gardener, I still live in a virtual world.
Each garden plot at the Norwood Park Historical Society is tended by a different person or group; most of these gardeners are from Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood. Photo: Amara Rozgus
Master Gardeners are trained to work in their county (I’m a member of the Chicago division of Cook County), and serve local residents. The program requires each certified gardener to contribute at least 30 volunteer hours, plus 10 hours of continuing education per year.
About a third of my time is spent in a community garden at a local historical society; the remaining time is spent in a virtual garden, answering questions that come in via e-mail and through a nation-wide extension Web site.
These questions come in year-round, and answers are often published in several places, including national newspapers. You wouldn’t believe some of the amusing questions that we receive — I’ll save that for another post.
Being a Master Gardener has helped me in my current job as an editor at Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine. For example, I understand the importance of water management in buildings and in the garden. I’ve honed my research skills both in my editing job and in answering online gardening questions. Plus, being part of a team is key to any position, whether it’s gardening in the dirt, or working on a story to dig up the dirt.
Sorry — maybe I need to continue working on my jokes.
You can connect with Amara on Linkedin or follow her on Twitter at @AmaraRozgus.
guest posts in Miscellaneous 
Reader Comments (1)
Very interesting post!