Trees, just because the instructor was so cool.

I am a plant propagation Specialist, so guess what! I love to make more plants! I just cant help myself!

Janie

I found the entire topic of soil structure to be fascinating.

Pesticides. I learned an unbelievable amount about organic and non-organic pesticides. I also let go of some of my organic dogma when I learned that some organic pesticides are actually more toxic to humans and the environment than some chemical ones are! We learned how to identify pests by the damage they do, and to use the least toxic, most effective remedy.
The instructor reassured me that I would NOT get Parkinson's disease from using rotenone, but I still don't use it!

I liked the class on Perennial Gardening, also the one about Native Plants.

Entomology and plant pathology.

Herbs! I love them. My favorite daily activity is putting my face right into my Basil and breathing it in. They're all great but herbs are fun. I also enjoyed the class on propagation. Believe it or not I took the MG program so I could figure out how to garden in this kitty litter they call soil! A transplant from Ohio, where soil doesn't run thru your fingers and there are no fire ants.

I was very interested in IPM, having always gardened organically, this seems like such a huge step for a university to take. I was very impressed. 8-) Poppy

I liked the entomology and plant pathology, too.
Least favorite (boring, uninteresting, etc) was Turf Grasses. The instructor must have been a sports nut, because he seemed to fous the lesson toward golf courses. It was interesting to learn how those beautiful "plaid" baseball diamonds are achieved, though.

AdaOrand, That's funny about the Turf Grasses but it was my least favorite class.
I like the bugs and disease classes because that's what people always want to know. "What's that bug?" and "what's killing my plant?" Also enjoyed weed identification! Aren't we nuts, lol! Billie

It's funny you mentioned that about the instructor doing mostly turf grass (Lawn maintenace class). My present boss use to be a gold course manager for 20 yrs and taught my mg class and he mostly talked about golf course grasss to. Bout put me and some others to sleep. My favorite was plant propagation. T

palm trees

I loved the landscape design portion although it was only touched upon briefly as was the part on perennials. Two of my favorite subjects!

Herbs, herbs and more herbs. I love gardening, but herbs are my favorite.

I loved the pathology lecture. Fungi are fascinating.

Perennial & Heirloom Southern plants taught by Bill Welch.

Wow, we didn't have a section on herbs, but I would have loved that. As it was, I found the speaker on household pests (the "bug lady") great! Not something I thought I would have been interested in. I also liked the part of class on composting.

We took a great tour of a state college campus that is a statewide arboretum. One day in class we played "Jeopardy" using plants, diseases, bugs etc. as categories and also "pretended" working at the extension office answering the phone with the instructor as the caller. The top student playing "Jeopardy" received a plant book. Made the day go a bit faster.

Well it is hard to pick a favorite class but I really got a lot out of the Soil and Fertilizer class, the teacher was entertaining and easy to learn from. I really dreaded going to the Lawn and Turf grass class but was pleasantly surprised. Again the instructor was good and sparked my interest. That's saying something because I don't even mow the darn thing! I'd rather plant, weed and harvest!
May I say that I'm happy to read other MG's views.

insects. I use only IPM now and have no bad bugs.

Field testing is an activity I like alot.

Penny

'Water Quality' was very interesting. But my favorite was 'Woody Ornamentals'. Turf was boring.

Cheryl
Midwest Michigan
http://www.geocities.com/hdprice_46041/

Well, the class is still running so it may be a little early to pick a favourite, but I can tell you I undeniably enjoyed and learned in the classes run by people who were the educated professionals in their areas.

The first three days were a near waste of time as MG "speakers" gave us their input on their areas of "expertise".

Perhaps if you know absolutely nothing about a subject a MG speaker is fabulous, but I found I knew as much - if not more - than the speaker, and I hardly consider myself an expert. Heck, I've learned far more from hanging around Gardenweb than those first talks. Plus I felt I could just as well have stuck with my local garden club without having to cough up money for the course.

The only hands-on activity we have had was plant propogation and that was really fun.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Hi, Coffeemom
In November we will be spending Winters in Port Saint Lucie. The closest extension office is in Fort Pierce. I sent for a lot of material since our MG classes did not cover tropicals. How did you find the MG classes there? I know the bugs and diseases are bigger and uglier down there.

I haven't done the M/G classes yet but am a current Ag/Hort student...my program is Greenhouse/Nursery.
My fav classes so far has been the soils, pest management and plant ID classes. The worst/hardest and current is Ag Math...especially now that we're into learning how to calculate fertilizer application, spread, swath, etc.!! I just hate math.

Vera

I enjoyed many of the class subjects. The soils class was interesting and I liked the field trips to the various areas on LI to view. It turns out I was a whiz at turf grasses and the orchids and houseplants classes did not hold my interest.I loved the diagnosing part of the classes re: diseases and insect pests.

I liked soils, pesticide use, and especially plant pathology. I'm a hopeless science nerd who eventually went on to get degrees in biology and chemistry.

I found that the instructor was more important than the subject matter. There were a couple of great instructors who were passionate and very knowledgeable about their subjects and made them interesting even if I wasn't interested. There were also some really boring ones that I nearly fell asleep listening to.