Welcome from the

Walker County Master Gardeners!

Walker County Master Gardeners are volunteers for the Texas AgriLIFE Extension Service.

Our charter:

• supports Extension educational outreach programs through volunteer work
• follows and teaches the research-based information and recommendations of Texas AgriLIFE Extension Service
• are members of their local communities
• have attended 50 hours of instruction
• have committed a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer service to Walker County’s Texas AgriLIFE Extension Service program

WCMG members are committed to education and outreach on a wide variety of horticultural subjects with particular emphasis placed on the LEAF-PRO (Landscape Environmental Awareness Facility – Protection/Reduction/Outreach) project.

Walker County LEAF-PRO supports Texas AgriLIFE Extension’s state-wide Earth Kind Environmental Stewardship program.

Greenhouse and Demo Gardens

The initial training class of the Walker County Master Gardeners was held in the spring of 2001 with 14 Master Gardener interns beginning the charter class. To date, over 150 individuals have initiated participation in the Master Gardener training classes.

Funding

The funding from two solid waste grants awarded by the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments in conjunction with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (one in 2004 and the other in 2006), have enabled the group to transform a prairie wasteland into an Outdoor Learning Center, housing:

1. A 3,000 square foot Greenhouse
2. Recycling Center
3. Butterfly Garden
4. Herb Garden
5. Star Garden
6. Rain Garden
7. Handicapped-accessible raised beds
8. Lily Gardens
9. Two Rose Gardens (one is an Earth Kind Rose Test Garden in cooperation with Texas A&M)
10. Composting Demonstration area.

• ADA-compliant walkways allows you to wander throughout the garden areas and were constructed by volunteer Master Gardeners using TREX® decking material (composed of plastic shopping bags and reclaimed wood scraps).
• The storage building was built using the excess material from metal barns and large buildings.
• Benches throughout the garden green spaces use materials made from plastic milk jugs.
• The Super Sorter Recycling Center allows us to recycle plastic bottles, cans and newspapers and helps to promote recycling in the garden.
• Interpretative signage throughout the gardens describes the various areas.
• Our LEAF-PRO project (Landscape Environmental Awareness Facility – Protection/Reduction/Outreach)  is an educational outreach effort designed to demonstrate and promote educated, ecologically responsible decision making through home landscape practices.

Classes

We offer classes to area youth and organizations in the area as well as quarterly horticulture workshops, many of which are conducted in the Greenhouse, Demo Gardens and covered Outdoor Educational Facility.

Our Speakers’ Bureau is kept busy addressing civic groups on various topics.