Florida Gardening: Picture of the Day - Part 4, 1 by JaxFlaGardener

JaxFlaGardener wrote:
Yes, do check what your local county agent will accept as volunteer hours. They may have a list of approved activities like we have in my county. You can get a lot of hours by answering the phone at the Extension Office and taking questions from the public, but I know that our local agent will not accept hours we provide outside of events/activities coordinated through the Extension Office (for instance, I can't count my countless hours on DG which I spend providing far too much advice on topics I generally know nothing about LOL). Our local agent/coordinator for MG volunteer hours is very stringent in what is allowable - she doesn't want the MGs to do any "hands on" work of actually assisting with garden installations or maintenance, etc., even if they are public gardens (with a few exceptions, like doing grunt work at the Extension Office gardens) and doesn't really allow MGs to create their own initiatives for volunteer hours. When I was getting hundreds of distressed plants per week from the Lowe's cull pack deals, then rehabilitating the plants and providing them free to public schools, nursing homes, senior centers, etc., I wasn't allowed to count the hours spent in that activity.

I am comfortable doing public presentations as a result of my former career in acting, so I tend to get my required hours by speaking to local groups. Likewise, you will probably find your own niche in the system where you can amass the required volunteer hours in a task you enjoy.

Here's a photo of one of my Phalenopsis orchids that looks like it is trying to bloom itself to death. About 30 flowers at once! Oddly, it suffered a little bit of low temperatures this winter because it was hanging right at the top of the greenhouse translucent plastic panels and the cold settled down through the roof and blasted a few buds on this orchid. The brush with a near death experience, though, seems to have inspired it to go crazy with flowering.

Jeremy