The magic hoe has a mind of its own. Being one of those old fashioned, two-sided grub hoes, it is perfect for trenching flower beds. If one blade can’t dislodge that stubborn stone from the soil, the other blade end is sure to do so. It has so many nails hammered into the handle’s end to keep the heavy forged metal from flying off that you can scarcely see the wood. This hoe won’t win any beauty contests, but is my prized cultivating tool for many a reason.

This garden hoe belonged to my mother. She was quite the gardener, growing Big Boy tomatoes nearly the size of dessert plates and blue mophead hydrangea flowers that took first place one season in the Jefferson County Fair. She passed away in autumn several years ago. Yet, every time I put this hoe into action today, she’s as much with me as when we walked through her garden in the cool of an evening.

Mom belonged to a Farm Women’s Club for as long as memory serves me. She and her club members were always educating themselves regarding home canning techniques or volunteering for worthy activities, often horticulture related. Stemming from her comes my strong connection to gardening.

She had a real gift for calling your attention to a crescent-shaped lima bean pod hanging heavy with fruit or describing how toads are worth their weight in gold — despite their warts — considering how many insects they eat. Her stories always had both a moral and a motive, likely to convince me to work longer at trimming that skyscraping lilac shrub or bushwhacking that yucca plant into submission at the end of the driveway. What better way to connect a kid to nature?

It is with Mom’s example in mind that I became interested in the Extension Master Gardener Program. Participants are trained volunteer educators. They work within their local communities to encourage and promote environmentally-sound horticulture practices. Participants from all walks of life find program activities that engage them in educating others about plant cultivation and in planning for their own garden landscapes.

Extension is open to all willing to dedicate the time. Volunteers are trained through horticultural classes and return volunteer community service hours coordinated through their local Extension office. The training was created to meet an enormous increase in requests from home gardeners for unbiased, research-based horticultural information. This increase was a result of the urban and transient nature of modern American life.

Gardening for others is a splendid way to share the gift of a green thumb and thank those that have left the indelible etching of nature on your spirit. For me, that was my Mom, who impressed on me the need to always put away my gardening tools, ensuring they last for years to come — just like her magic hoe.

Kristi Hendricks is a graduate of Shepherd College and West Virginia University and a Master Gardener with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at belowthejames@yahoo.com.