CINDY MCKINLEYSmith County Master Gardeners

I recently retired and decided to pursue something that has always interested me — becoming a Master Gardener. After I started the class, if the subject came up about what was I doing with my time since retiring, well I responded listing several things, but the question that always came back to me from my friends was, “What do you Gardeners to do with it? Why Master Gardener? Are you going to start a business?” So to clarify the “why MG,” I basically replied with some of the following reasons:

1. That I have always enjoyed a pretty yard. Even when I was young, I sometimes switched housecleaning chores with my brothers’ yard duties because I wanted to be outside.

2. Curiosity — I wanted to know why or what is happening with yard, flowers, trees, etc. For example, I always thought something was wrong with my live oak trees but found out that they do drop their old leaves when the tree puts on new leaves. The Master Gardener program has taught me so many things that I have always wondered about relating to my yard, trees, shrubs, flowers and garden.

3. Community service. I enjoy giving back to the community I live in. Right now we are required to put in so many hours at the Tyler Rose Garden in either the IDEA Garden or Heritage Garden. There are other upcoming events that we will be involved in such as the yearly bulb sale in October, the annual garden tour, “Our Secret Garden” exhibit in the Agriworld building at the East Texas State Fair. You are required to complete so many service hours but they are flexible in that you can choose when and how many hours you want to put in on most projects.

4. Learning so much about preservation of our wildlife and how I can better protect our environment. Good alternatives are offered for treating pests locally instead of en masse so that you are not killing the good bugs along with the bad.

5. And last but certainly not least, I have enjoyed meeting new people. They are a great group of ladies and gentlemen who are informative, friendly and thoughtful. Such a fun organization and so happy that I have become involved. So if you want to learn new things and enjoy sharing your knowledge with friends, I suggest taking the class to become a Master Gardener of Smith County.

Everyone deserves to be happy and enjoy life. Participating in the Smith County Master Gardener program makes me happy. One saying that I have always loved is, “One is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.” Author unknown.