James City County/Williamsburg
Master Gardeners
Extension MG Helpdesk
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Home>JCC/W MG Projects>Extension MG Help Desk
Looking for answers to your gardening questions?
Call the James City County/Williamsburg Extension Master Gardener Helpdesk at
757-564-2175
Or click on the web link Helpdesk to e-mail your questions!
Master Gardeners staff the Helpdesk from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Monday-Friday April-October.
Laura Hill, a James City/Williamsburg Master Gardener intern, is on the telephone with a caller who has a question about gardening or related matters.
Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Helpdesk is occupied Monday-Friday, 9am - 1pm . The Master Gardeners-in-training will research any questions regarding gardening or related matters, and respond to the caller in a timely manner. In addition, walk-ins are welcome with questions or specimens of plants or insects to be identified.
As the gardening season closes, other calls are taken by a committee of Master Gardeners throughout the winter, and responses can be expected in a few days. This free service is available to all James City County residents. The York County office of Virginia Cooperative Extension offers a similar service.
Photograph provided by JCC/W Master Gardeners
The Extension MG Help Desk is a service offered at the James City County Extension office to answer home horticultural questions and is provided to the community by the James City/Williamsburg Master Gardeners. Citizens can call, e-mail, or come to the extension office with questions or problems they have encountered in their home gardening. An active master gardener or intern will perform the necessary research for these questions and relate the information to the questioner. All information asked and answered is recapped on daily logs which are kept for several years.
Research sources include a horticultural library, Virginia Tech publications, previous log records and the World Wide Web. Horticultural samples of plants, insects etc. may be sent to Virginia Tech for further problem identification.
All calls, including those from residents of other counties or cities, are answered and in a timely fashion. Whenever possible the Help Desk representative will also send pertinent printed materials to the callers. Questions from commercial growers, however, are referred to the appropriate Extension Agent in the caller's county.
Each new Master Gardener training class schedule includes a day devoted to training students how to question a questioner, practice looking up research materials, etc. In addition, a Help Desk Reference Book of the training materials and samples of Virginia Tech forms is kept in the Master Gardener room at the extension office.
The Help Desk Coordinator provides student training and prepares the staffing schedule.
The Help Desk is staffed three to five mornings a week from April through October, primarily by interns. An active Master Gardener fills the role of mentor for each intern's first day as Extension MG Help Desk Representative. When necessary during the other months of the year the Coordinator or other active Master Gardeners answer questions forwarded to them by e-mail from the staff at the extension office.