The Seedling Class

Thursday morning, I checked the weather and decided the rain wasn't going to let up any time soon. I could probably adult enough and drive the 20 miles to New Boston to my first Master Gardener class. My other option was online, but there had been a request for all of us Seedlings to show up for the initial class in person. Given it was 34 degrees and it's just water, right? I could make the drive. Though, I was dreading my choices: Interstate 30 with crazy tractor trailers and one lane for three miles or the one lane country road (my usual route to New Boston) with a culvert on the side. I opted for the country road, figuring there were less bridges that could freeze. 

My choice really wasn't about going to the in-person meeting in New Boston. My choice came down to this: I needed to go grocery shopping. The place where the Master Gardener program was being held was right next to a Wal-Mart and I knew darn well if I didn't go today, my recluse self wouldn't go out to Wal-Mart (or any grocery store) that was less than a mile away. 

I needed to arrive by 9 a.m., but by 7:30, I was still fiddling around, wondering what was causing my  hesitancy. I'd miss the lunch bunch? I hate driving in general? I have enough social anxiety to live as a recluse for the remainder of my life and this was a new thing with people? All of the above?

The meeting was what one could expect for a small-town county extension office's first Master Gardener program since 2019. Those who were running it on the local level were unfamiliar with Zoom (turns out the classes are Zoom no matter where I was in the state) and the Bowie County crowd was more interested in making us Seedlings feel comfortable, offering us the best pastries Walmart had to offer and saying Howdy than getting down to business, so we missed the first 15 minutes of Texas A&M's Zoom Master Gardener class. 

The class was an interesting one and gave an overview of Texas plants and watering practices. Given how big the state is, obviously the watering practices in North East Texas--where it hasn't stopped raining in the past two weeks--aren't the same as the watering practices in El Paso. I couldn't help comparing water usage here to what I'm used to in the desert. This will take some getting used to.    

In order to earn my National Master Gardener designation, this year I'm required to put in 50 hours of education and 50 hours of community volunteer time. This was once a huge deal in Bowie County, then with COVID, all bets were off and the program fizzled in the past few years. There were ten of us in the class, which I'm told, once we graduate, will triple the amount of Master Gardeners in Bowie County. So, it doesn't sound like the volunteer time will be that difficult. At any rate, it looks like this Master Gardener program could bloom into something promising.