Last night was the 2nd week of our Master Gardener class. It was definitely more interesting than the first week, but still was hard to sit through 3 hours of lecture.  The topics of discussion were plant pathology  (the study of plant diseases) and entomology (the study of bugs).  The second presenter had a great sense of humor which kept the class more lively, but by 9:00, I was really struggling to stay focused on the material.

October 19 we will be going to the Iowa State campus for a day of classes.  I am looking forward to more hands on learning.

3 things I learned last night:

1. centipedes are not related to spiders are not related to millipedes are not related to insects.  they are all their own classes.

2. you should not use potting soil from year to year because it may develop some bacteria that could infect your plants.  you can heat the soil for a half hour in the oven to kill the bacteria.

3.  there are 2 groups of pathogens: abiotic and biotic.  biotic are living things such as bacteria, viruses, etc and abiotic are non living things that may destroy plants such as too much or too little moisture, wind, weather conditions, etc.

I do think this class is valuable.  I am looking forward to doing the community service to get more involved in the "green" part of our communities.