In an effort to continually educate Master Gardeners in a state with many rural communities, Iowa State University Extension and the Iowa Master Gardener program are trying something new this year. A three part Summer Webinar Series: Gardening Green 2010 highlights a few current sustainable gardening topics: green roofs, organic gardening, and rain gardens. We hope this monthly series will reinforce basic horticultural principles in these popular contexts.
Webcasting is no longer novel to the Master Gardener volunteers across Iowa – the core Master Gardener training uses webcasting to deliver training to county Extension Offices. But inviting the public to the county extension office for a two hour live webinar with Master Gardeners is new. Since approximately 20% of the audience members from the first webinar were not currently Master Gardeners, this series is also turning into a recruitment opportunity for the Master Gardener program. Nearly half of them expressed an interest in becoming a Master Gardener in the future.
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Succulents on the roof of a birdhouse intrigued Master Gardeners
The first webinar was on green roofs, which literally means a vegetated roof surface. A five minute introductory video, Green roofs 101, covered the fundamentals and history of green roofs. Based on comments after the session, one of the highlights for viewers was the pictorial illustration of how a small household pergola was renovated to become a green roof. The program ended with a small birdhouse green roof project, shown in the image provided. Many audience members across Iowa said nearly the same thing about the first webinar, “This was far more interesting than what I expected.”
