GGMG Volunteer Oportunities and Guidelines for Students and Alumni
Volunteer Hours
40 hours of community service is part of the requirement for becoming a master gardener. Mike Jaskwich is pictured answering the phone at the extension center. There are many and varied ways to serve the community while completing the coummunity service requirment. Once graduated, the master gardener becomes part of the ongoing group of volunteers making a difference. The status of our group is enhanced by the number of volunteer hours that students, as well as master gardeners, contribute. As we continue to learn, we also continue to provide time and skills to our community.
Children’s Garden
Work dates: Children’s Garden work dates occur the second Wednesday and the fourth Saturday of each month at 9:00 a.m. (note new time), weather permitting. If the weather is questionable, please contact Deborah.
To get involved, contact Deborah Schneider at 246-5508 or gardenbugs@charter.net
The garden is located on Broad Street near Centre Stage.
As with the other mentioned gardens, service in this Roper Mountain herb
garden can count toward anyone’s 40 volunteer hours. The garden
also is open every fourth Saturday, but you must be at the front gate
at 9:00 a.m. SHARP when it is unlocked. Work ends at noon. If you
need even more flexibility, call ahead to see if someone will be
working on the grounds when you are available. Call Helen Ellis at
288-7026 if you would like
to work at a different time.
Greater Greenville Master Gardener Plant Sale (April or May of each year)
MG plants are the key to a successful day. Income from the plant sale comprises a significant portion of the GGMG budget. There will be four
convenient drop-off sites available a few days beforehand where you
may place the plants you have been dividing and propagating. These
locations will be announced later.
Please label all plants, including botanical and common names (we are
master gardeners, after all), with indelible markers. Include a brief
description as well. Trees, shrubs, perennials, herbs, hanging
baskets and dish gardens are welcomed. No ground covers will be
accepted.
Many volunteers are needed to pull off a project of this magnitude.
Please contact one of our subcommittee chairs to volunteer your time
and talents:
As always, wagons, carts and wheelbarrows will be needed the day of
the sale.
Note: Master gardeners may NOT purchase plants before the sale this
year, though they are welcome to buy them
Don't forget! Students can count the time spent potting your plants as part of their volunteer hours. (Note: only 5 hours can be counted towards potting plants for the sale. After the sale, no hours can be counted towards next year’s sale, until next year. These hours are in addition to working the sale).
Plant Labeling for sale:
Please label each plant clearly. Even the most basic
information is a revelation to some of our shoppers.
Include on the label the name (common is fine), annual or
perennial, shade or sun and whether it is a shrub, vine, house plant, tree or
ground cover. Other relevant information such as color and bloom time are good. If you can’t resist telling more, all the better!
> Master Gardener Booth – Rutherford Rd. Farmer's Market
May and September (exact date TBA)
Volunteer Guidelines:
All Volunteer hours must be obtained while volunteering at one of the above sites or any other sanctioned GGMG site or event. It is possible that more opportunities will arise as the year proceeds.
Any event that is sponsored by the GGMG or the Greenville County Extension Office is approved as a site or event that you can participate in or at to obtain volunteer hours.
Be sure not to wait until November/December to try and find places to pick up hours. That is a very slow period for all of our projects as well as for the office phones.
Meetings do not count as volunteer time. Your driving time does count, so if it takes you 30 minutes to a site and back, please add 30 minutes to your time at the site.
Volunteer hours are not required after you complete your first year. However, we are making an investment in you by providing you information and training. Our goal is to encourage all students to continue as an association member after their student year and to continue volunteering in the Greenville community. Please note that if you are a member of an organization and provide gardening assistance to them as a member of that organization, those hours do not count and should not be submitted. For example, I serve on committees at my church that deal with the landscaping and property maintenance. Because I would serve on those committees because I am a church member, I am therefore not serving as a MG.
We are volunteers and are not paid for our services. This can be tricky because you will find organizations who will want to pay you for giving a talk or providing advice. It is acceptable for an organization to donate money in your honor to the GGMG (i.e. an honorarium check made out to GGMG). Tangible gifts, like a plant or a trinket of some sort, is yours to keep. Items, such as a gift certificate, that have monetary value can be donated to one of our projects or kept by you, whichever you prefer. These guidelines for accepting payment for your services are simply in place to clearly indicate to the public that Master Gardeners are volunteers.
If you work in the horticultural industry, you should not present yourself as a MG at work or when wearing work related clothing. The simplest way to state this is "do not mix work and volunteering". You should not post signage in your workplace or in any company publications that indicate that you are a MG. Note that MGs are not trained to be licensed by any horticultural industry. In addition, you are only allowed to make recommendations to HOME GARDENERS ONLY. If you discover that you are talking with a farmer or nurserymen, refer them to the Extension office and tell them to ask for a County Ext. agent.
If you do not complete your 40 hours this year (2006), you can apply for an extension given reasonable circumstances exist. This will be reviewed and approved by our class committee.
Volunteer Hours
Butterfly Garden - Roper Mountain Science Center
Children’s Garden
Roper Mountain Science Center - Heritage Garden
Project Host Soup Kitchen Garden – on Academy St. in Downtown G’ville