Plant Clinics
The Sandoval County Master Gardeners offer plant clinics at various locations in Sandoval County. They are held on Saturdays during the spring and early summer.
One set of plant clinics is held at Lowe's home Improvement Center at the corner of Loma Colorado and 40th Street in Rio Rancho. These plant clinics are held the 1st Saturday of the month from May through September. The hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Connie Walsh is the chair.
Lowe's Plant Clinic Protocol
1. In April, pick up a banner, sign-up sheets and hand-outs for the five clinics from the Sandoval County Extension Office. Select handouts to distribute to clients. You will usually need 10 copies of each handout for each plant clinic. You can get more copies from the Extension Office as you run out.
2. Call the volunteers who have signed up to help with plant clinics and recruit 2-3 volunteers to help at each session. Be sure that volunteers as well as clients sign in on the sign-up sheet.
3. If a client has a question or requests further information, get their name, address and telephone number so you can send them the requested information from the Extension Office or call them after further research has been done.
4. After each plant clinic, give the Extension Office Secretary the volunteer and client sign-up sheets.
5. During the first MG training class, present the Plant Clinic protocol to the new trainees and hand out copies of the protocol and sign-up sheet.
6. Explain that sign up for all volunteer activities will be on the last day of class.
The second set of plant clinics is held at various nurseries in Sandoval County. These plant clinics are normally held in April, May and June. The participating nurseries and the clinic dates will be available before the end of the training sessions. This chair is currently vacant.
Nursery Plant Clinic Protocol
1. Meet with Rudy in February to decide on participating nurseries and dates for the plant clinics.
2. Present protocol during training classes, and hand out copy of protocol. Sign up volunteers on last day of class.
3. Contact managers of participating nurseries to schedule clinics
4. Ten days before each clinic, distribute flyers to the participating nursery. The nursery will hand these flyers out to customers, helping to generate customer participation in the plant clinics.
5. The Friday before each plant clinic, pick up table, banners and reference materials from the Extension Office.
6. Call Master Gardeners who have signed up to help with plant clinics, and recruit volunteers to help at each clinic. Be sure that volunteers as well as clients sign in on the sign-up sheets.
7. Answer client questions using Master Gardener knowledge or using reference materials. If a client has a question that cannot be answered or requests further information, get their name, address and telephone number so that they can be contacted after further research has been done.
8. After each plant clinic, turn in volunteer and client sign-up sheets.
9. The Monday following each plant clinic, return the table, banner and materials to the Extension Office.
Call the Sandoval County Extension Office if you have questions, 867-2582