Georgia - 2012 Master Gardener Training Class, Starts Jan. 24th

For those who love gardening whether a novice or an experienced plant lover, the Master Gardener training class begins January 24th. Classes will be held at the Lake Mayer Community Center and the Bamboo Farm. The class meets from nine to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and concludes May 24th. The course is open to Chatham and surrounding county residents.

The Master Gardener class is sponsored by the University of Georgia Extension Office and covers a wide range of topics such as soils, turf, fertilizers, organic farming, xerospace methods, herbs, vegetable gardening, plant propagation, native plants and habitats, irrigation, mulching, pruning and features guest speakers from throughout the State. The course includes field trips and hands on experiences.

Cost: $145.00 – Covers all books and materials
Registration information can be found for all area residents below:
For more information about registration, contact Dave Linville, Chatham County Cooperative Extension Horticulture Agent at 912 652 7981 or dlinville@uga.ed
Bryan County Extension - http://www.bryanextension.org/ or call (912) 653-2231
Liberty County Extension - 912-876-2133
Effingham County Extension - 912-754-8040
UGA Extension (main site) http://extension.uga.edu/

Graduates may become a member of the Coastal Master Gardeners Association who provide volunteer hours for projects such as Habitat for Humanity landscaping, caring for old camellias at Bonaventure Cemetery, working for the Botanical Garden on Eisenhower Drive, teaching at the “Roots and Shoots” program for area school children at Bamboo Farms, and other gardening venues benefitting the community. The Association meets throughout the year with informative gardening presentations and to socialize and swap plants with other gardeners.

UGA discovery changes how scientists think about plant cell wall formation

Implications for biofuels

Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia researchers have discovered that two proteins come together in an unexpected way to make a carbohydrate, a chain of sugar molecules, in plant cell walls. This fundamental discovery changes the way scientists think about how plant cell walls are made and opens a new door to converting plants to biofuels and other carbon-based products.

In 2006, the UGA research team, led by Debra Mohnen, a faculty member in the UGA Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, discovered GAUT1, the first protein shown to synthesize pectin, a major component of the plant cell wall. Now Mohnen's team has shown that GAUT1 and a genetically similar protein called GAUT7, which does not appear to have pectin-synthesizing activity by itself, form a critical part of a pectin-synthesizing protein complex.

Moreover, the two-protein complex may serve as a "core" complex that associates with additional pectin-synthesizing proteins to form still larger carbohydrate-synthesizing complexes in the plant cells.

The findings signify a "critical step in changing our view of how the plant cell wall is made," said principal investigator Mohnen, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The study was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Open house scheduled at UGA's 'secret' trial garden

By Lee Shearer
lee.shearer@onlineathens.com

Nestled between the garbage bins of Snelling Dining Hall and a loading dock at the University of Georgia's Pharmacy Building, one of the university's hidden treasures is in rainbow bloom this week.

Although the UGA Trial Garden is free and open to the public year-round, thousands of people walk by every day without seeing the garden, hidden from casual view behind opaque fences, the pharmacy building and a handful of greenhouses.

But the garden will be on brilliant display at an open house from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday - with tours led by the man credited with starting the trial garden in 1982, UGA horticulture professor Allan Armitage.

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