By Sarah Koehl (posted 6/11/01)

Keep your eyes and ears open! Two-hundred twenty-one gardeners-in-training were released, like a swarm of beneficial insects, on the state of Vermont this past month.

It all started last fall. I was reading Kitchen Gardener magazine, and came across an article mentioning so-and-so, who is a “Master Gardener in the state of Washington”. I had heard that phrase Master Gardener before, and began to wonder what exactly it meant. How do you become a Master Gardener? Who declares you a master? Do you have to have years of gardening life experience? Is it something I could do, with my apartment living, and limited gardening space?

A quick search on the Internet brought me to the Vermont Master Gardener Program. I inquired about the class, and ended up sending in my fees for the Basic Course, which started early in the year when snows were still blanketing the soil. Since February, I have been reading massive amounts of information on all sorts of subjects from soil science to pruning, and attending class for two and a half hours every Tuesday night. Our final session was May 15^th.

The Master Gardener program is an arm of the Cooperative Extension system. There are Extension offices all over the country, connecting local governments and people to land grant universities and the Department of Agriculture. Here in our state it is associated with the University of Vermont, while in New York it would be Cornell, and in other states, other universities.

The Extension system was designed through the Smith Lever Act in 1914 to provide the public with information from these research centers and assist with agriculture. As it became increasingly necessary to provide this service to numerous homeowners, rather than one or two farmers in a given area, the volunteer Master Gardener program was created to lighten the load on Extension agents. Begun in Seattle, Washington in the 1970s, the program now exists in all fifty states, plus the District of Columbia and four Canadian provinces. Seattle, still in the forefront, even has a Master Composting program.

In Vermont there are over 650 currently active Master Gardeners, and my class consisted of 221 new enthusiasts. The thirteen week course was presented simultaneously all over the state: I went to the Vermont Interactive Television site in Waterbury, sat at a table with live microphones on it, and watched the lecturer in Burlington, or Brattleboro, or wherever he or she was that day. The entomologist lectured from our site, so we were able to see him in person. We could use our microphones to ask questions, which would then be broadcast to the rest of the sites. The lecturers were experts from UVM and the state Department of Agriculture. They covered topics like botany, propagation, disease control, landscaping, turf management, composting, fruits, vegetables, perennials, and everything in between. We had quite a bit of reading to do each week, and almost every lecture started with the phrase “I usually cover this much information in a whole semester…” Needless to say, it was a jam-packed course.

Now that I’ve completed this Basic Course and passed my final, I will be required to put in forty hours of horticulture-related community service before January 2002 to fully claim the title Master Gardener. After that, to remain an active member, and be eligible to attend advanced courses, I must do twenty volunteer hours a year, and pay $10 in dues. Nancy Hulett, the state Program Coordinator, says she expects about seventy percent of this year’s students to remain active through next year. She is in the process ofrecording how many stay on longer than that, but doesn’t currently have figures. The program is working hard at developing regional chapters, to keep people connected after they finish the training. There is also an extensive web site (some of which is accessible to the general public). She believes communication is key in getting people involved.

One of the most important aspects of the Master Gardener program is the volunteer hours. In order to qualify towards the required number of hours, the time must meet the following criteria: time must be volunteered, with no payment for services; it must educate people about horticultural topics; and it has to promote the Master Gardeners. After those stipulations are met, the field is wide open.

Many people work with 4-H clubs, or do programs with schools or public libraries. Others have taken on specific community projects. For example, the Waterbury Rotary Club, which maintains Rust Parker Park in Waterbury, is recruiting Master Gardeners to help with the plantings and maintenance. This alone doesn’t qualify, so in order to meet the educational requirement, plants in the park will be identified and labeled, as is done in botanical gardens.

A Master Gardener can’t just come over and landscape your lawn, but if you have questions on landscaping—or vegetable gardening, or pest control, or houseplants—you can call the Helpline at 800-639-2230. The Helpline is staffed by Master Gardener volunteers, and supported by UVM Extension resources.

Contact Vermont Master Gardener at master.gardener@uvm.edu.
Contact webmaster sarah.kingsley@uvm.edu with questions or comments about this web site.

Vermont Master Gardener is an integral part of the University of Vermont Extension Home Horticulture Program

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. University of Vermont Extension, Burlington, Vermont.University of Vermont Extension and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating, offer education and employment to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, or marital or familial status.