A Master Gardener's Journal

by Tracey Carson, Delaware County Master Gardener

Taking every step possible to save our planet is no longer a popular trend, or a hip movement to be a part of--it’s a necessity. Educating ourselves on what we can do and varying levels of involvement from every person on the planet is crucial to sustaining a healthy global environment.

Education is the key word behind the reversal of our environmental duress. When education is teamed with action, urgency and dedication, the power to change the fate of a dismal destiny lies directly within our reach. Through programs that focus on finding a balance between environmental conservation and agricultural output, the founders of Earth University in Guácimo, Limon, Costa Rica, are equipping the youth of the world with the knowledge and skills necessary to about-face the present course of our natural world.

Earth University is a private, international non-profit university. With a student body made up of young people from twenty-five different countries, their curriculum is “dedicated to education in the agricultural sciences and natural resources.” Students attend classes six days a week, forty-five weeks a year for four years, earning an Agricultural Science licenciatura degree (between a BS and a MS), then graduating as Agronomists.

Eco-consciousness by way of formal education is also spreading like wildfire right here in the United States...

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA houses several buildings with green roofs. Originally begun as a class project, these roofs were created by students.

The daily use of bicycles at UCLA has ballooned by 50%. One of the Berkley campuses’
cafeterias has a certified, completely organic kitchen.

Berea College of Berea, Kentucky prides itself with a five-acre “Ecovillage”, which is
complete with rainwater collection structures, wind-powered generators and solar energy panels.

The 13-acre organic farm of Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA boasts a state of the art compost facility. This school is powered by 100% un-polluted energy.

The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine renders bachelors and masters degrees in solely one major--Human Ecology. They also are the first college or university in the country to go carbon neutral by decreasing and offsetting their entire output of greenhouse gas discharge.

As a home gardener in the tri-state area, enrolling in a major academy or traveling to Costa Rica for hands-on Agronomy schooling are not your only options. Just contact your local County Extension Office to utilize the varying levels of expertise available from your county’s Master Gardeners.

Area Master Gardeners have been trained by time-honored, accredited learning institutions such as Penn State, Rutgers, and the University of Delaware through their respective Colleges of Agriculture. If there is a charge for any of their horticultural education-based programs, the fee is always minimal---whereas, arming yourself with the knowledge to do your part on the environmental battlefield is priceless!

Note from Marion: Our own Penn State University is a leader in sustainability and environmental stewardship. PSU ranks fifth in the world in total number of citations in the area of global warming and in the total number of citations per paper. The only university that ranks higher than Penn State is Stanford, demonstrating Penn State's considerable influence on the field of research related to global warming. In global warming research by scientists over the past decade, PSU’s Dr. Eric Post, associate professor of biology, ranks ninth.

To find out what Penn State University is doing for the environment, go to Center for Green Roof Technology and Center for Sustainability at Penn State.

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

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