Pender Gardener

Garden more successfully

Pender County Cooperative Extension: Helping You Grow!

Spring is almost here, bringing with it gardening season! As you start working in your yard or garden this spring, you may find you have questions or problems and Pender County Cooperative Extension can help you find answers and solutions! As part of North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Pender County Cooperative Extension provides Pender residents easy access to the resources and expertise of NC State University and NC A&T State University. Through educational programs, publications, and events, Cooperative Extension agents deliver unbiased, research-based information to Pender County citizens in many areas including horticulture. Our programs are designed to enrich the lives, land, and economies of all North Carolinians. Take advantage of the many resources Extension has available to help you garden and landscape successfully!

Answers to Your Questions

Want to know what is wrong with your plant, how to grow fruits and vegetables, what to do about weeds in your yard, or which are the best trees, shrubs, and perennials for your landscape? Your local Cooperative Extension Office can help! Extension horticulture agents and Extension Master Gardener Volunteers provide answers and solutions for your lawn, landscape, and garden problems. Have your questions answered by Pender County Master Gardener Volunteers by visiting their ‘Ask a Master Gardener’ clinics, held the second Wednesday of each month (April through October) at the Poplar Grove Farmer’s Market in Hampstead, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as the third Monday of each month (April through October) at the Pender County Public Library in Hampstead, 9 a.m. to noon.

In addition, Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions throughout the Poplar Grove Herb and Garden Fair, coming up March 27 and 28 at Poplar Grove Plantation in Hampstead, as well as during their annual Spring Plant Sale, which will be held this year April 16 and 17 at the Pender County Extension Office in Burgaw. Or you can contact Pender County’s Horticulture Agent, Charlotte Glen, by calling 259-1235, visiting the Pender County Extension Office at 801 S. Walker St. in Burgaw (Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), or by posting your questions online using our “Ask an Expert” widget, available at http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu.

Gardening Information for Pender County Conditions

Both in print and online, Pender County Cooperative Extension provides local gardening information and advice specifically for Pender County conditions. To access online gardening information, visit the Pender County Cooperative Extension website at http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu and click on the “Lawn & Garden” link. Or sign up to receive weekly emails about timely gardening topics and upcoming events by emailing charlotte_glen@ncsu.edu and requesting to be added to the Pender Gardener email list. Call or visit the Pender County Extension Office (910-259-1235), or visit our website, to find out more about the many gardening publications we have available and keep a look out for weekly gardening articles in your local paper.

Become a Master Gardener Volunteer!

Master Gardener Volunteers are local residents who love to garden and want to share their knowledge with others by volunteering with their local Cooperative Extension home gardening education program. All Master Gardeners have go through an extensive training course and can help provide answers for your gardening questions. In Pender County, Master Gardener training is held each year. This year’s training will begin in August. Call 259-1235 or email charlotte_glen@ncsu.edu if you would like to find out how to become a Master Gardener Volunteer in Pender County.

Pender County Teaching Gardens

Want to see great plants for your landscape growing under local conditions? Visit one of the Pender County Teaching Gardens, developed and maintained by Pender County Master Gardener Volunteers. Two Teaching Gardens are currently under development in Burgaw and Hampstead. The Teaching Garden at the Pender County Public Library in Hampstead displays drought tolerant plants that thrive in sandy soils, while the gardens at the Extension Office in Burgaw showcase a wide variety of plants for heavier soils. These gardens are always growing so visit often to see how things change!

Soil Testing Supplies

The only accurate way to know which nutrients you need to add to your soil is to submit a sample for testing to the NC Department of Agriculture’s Soil Testing Lab in Raleigh. This is a free service for NC residents. Boxes, forms and instructions for doing this are available from all Cooperative Extension offices. In additions, you can drop your samples off at any Extension office to be shipped free to Raleigh. Soil testing results and recommendations will be available online, usually three to four weeks after your samples are submitted. Extension agents can help you interpret these results and understand what fertilizers your yard needs.

To learn more about North Carolina Cooperative Extension, visit Pender County Cooperative Extension at 801 S. Walker St. in Burgaw or go to http://ces.ncsu.edu.

Charlotte Glen is a Horticulture Agent with Pender County Cooperative Extension of NC State University, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at Charlotte_Glen@ncsu.edu