I am excited to announce the upcoming 2027 Master Gardener Class!! By participating, you can help empower North Carolinians to cultivate healthy plants, landscapes, ecosystems, and communities through volunteer service that delivers research-based information, educational programming, and community outreach.

This class will be 14 weeks long and will start on January 19th. The class will be held every Tuesday from 1 to 4 PM at the Burke County Extension Office. For attendance, you cannot miss 3 or more classes. This will help keep the class running smoothly and everyone on the same topic each week.

The cost for the class is $70. This is a reduced price as the Burke County Master Gardener Volunteer Association bought the books for the class. This fee will pay for class fees, supplies, and field trips.

There will be 21 chapters that we will go through during the 14 weeks. Some topics include: botany, lawns, native plants, fruits, vegetables, insects, diseases, and much more.

You can pick up an application at the Burke County Extension Office, located at 130 Ammons Drive in Morganton. Applications are due by December 4th before 5 PM. With the application, the Extension Master Gardener Code of Conduct is attached. I highly recommend reading this before submitting your application. The $70 does not need to be turned in with the application. After December 4th, I will contact you with a deadline to submit the fee.

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to give back to our community. The Extension Master Gardener Program is an active part of Extension and Burke County and we want to grow it even more.

If you have any questions you can call our office at (828) 764-9480 or send me an email at tanner_collier@ncsu.edu.