Master Gardener Winter School

I recently traveled to Lebanon Tennessee with Karla Kean to teach a "Landscape Design" class to master gardeners from all across the state at the annual Master Gardener Winter Training. This post is about the training and the gardeners involved.

The Wilson County Extension office is located on the fairgrounds in Lebanon. This is also where all the training took place. The fairgrounds are attractive and interesting. They actually have a little town, complete with a schoolhouse, barber shop, stables, store and main street. Our particular class was taught in the schoolhouse.

Karla and I had 20 plus students in the landscape design session we taught. The students came from as far away as Roan Mountain and the Tri-Cities area in eastern Tennessee, to as close as Davidson and Cheatam counties right here in Middle Tennessee, and as far west as Jackson Tennessee. A wide range of all types of gardeners. Boy was I in heaven! Getting to be around gardeners!

Our class covered topics such as: landscape principles and elements, site assessment and analysis, the landscape plan on paper, symbols, and plants for Tennessee landscapes. In the afternoon, students were then broken down into five groups. Each group had to design a landscape by implementing the lessons they had learned in class that morning.

Groups chose garden designs as varied as a sensory garden, to an entryway garden, to a foundation bed, to a handicapped garden to a complete barber shop landscape design. Once the site was measured and evaluated, put on paper, plants chosen, and all agreed upon, groups were responsible for presenting their plans to the class.

The weather was absolutely awesome on Saturday and it was a great day to be outside designing landscapes. Lots of new friends were made, landscape designs completed and all passed with flying colors!

Beth Babbitt, Tennessee Master Gardener Program Coordinator is looking to make the winter training and annual event. So all of you master gardeners who may have missed out on this go around-you will have a second chance next year.

The first two pictures are of groups presenting their plan, the third picture is of Karla and I (Thank you Anna for taking it!), the fourth picture shows a group working outside, and the last picture shows some can do enthusiasm of a group working on their plan inside the schoolhouse.

in the garden....