27-08-2003, 05:12 PM
|
|
|
Any value in becoming a master gardener?
In article , wrote:
Hello,
I've been interested in joining a local master gardener program. The
only really bad side are the class hours....classes are on wednesdays
for 6 months in the winter from 10-noon. The only bad thing about
these hours are the location in the week...I would gladly take a 2 or
even 3 hour class after work hours for 6 months.
I was wondering if anyone has found being a master gardener to be a
boost in finding jobs in horticulture, or at least some sort of
respect in the agricultural fields (excuse the pun). Is there any
value to these positions, or are you simply 100 free hours of hired
help the first year, then 25 hours every year thereafter? I don't
mind the volunteer work either, but these classes seem to focus the
vast amount of time on flower gardens, not the herb, fruit and
vegetables which I enjoy so much in gardening. When I asked more
about utilitarian gardening (ie food), the trainer gave a blank stare,
as if noone had ever thought of focusing on these topics.
Thanks for any insight,
Dan
The blank stair you got in lieu of an answer is typical of Master
Gardeners. As you noted, even the hours you can participate sometimes
assume only retirees with nothing better to do are interested. If you can
find your way into the presence of ten master gardeners at once, at least
a couple of them will be pretty damned smart about stuff -- but definitely
not because they took that program, the main reward for which is social
rather than educative.
When I first bought this house & had lots & lots of very basic gardening
questions, I'd go to the saturday market where there'd be two or three
master gardeners sitting amidst the vegetable stands, & I might have
brought some bug, or a spotty leaf I was worried about, & I virtually
never got a reply that was of any use. A typical reply would be, "It's too
bad Jo'es not here today, I bet he'd know that!" By now, when I see master
gardeners who've been permitted to set up camp at some nursery or at the
market, I barely even wave hi from a distance. I think the only reason
nurseries let them set up at all is because it is a nice thing to do for
the sake of the master gardener community, who do at least buy plants from
time to time.
One thing I've found local Master Gardeners good for is their eagerness to
share starts of thigns from own gardens, usually common stuff that spreads
rapidly, but a few heirloom things not really available otherwise. They're
very generous in some regards.
The nursery workers 'round here never did the master gardener program,
many have no special training of any sort, a few of the workers really are
mentally ill & are rather like the retarded adults hired by restaurant
owners to shiny up the tables & do the dishes. So getting general nursery
work seems to be more who you get to know as a devoted gardener -- having
taken a Master Gardener course would neither add to nor subtract from
opportunities in retail . . . which, when you think of it, is scarsely
horticultural work at all, unless the retailer is simultaneously a grower.
I've been offered nursery work without wanting any, on the basis of being
able to answer simple questions at random, being a bit of a nursery-nurd,
& by having friends who manage nurseries who would rather hire someone
they know. I always turn these down, but it's kind of good to know that I,
no less than some pleasant but retarded adult, could in a financial crisis
probably at least score a job shuffling potted perennials, sticking
bareroot briars in sawdust, & keeping everything moist.
But once you get beyond the category of retail nursery laborer, what will
be required for serious horticultural work is having gotten the requisit
degrees through university courses, NOT attending spare-time social events
for little-old-ladies-in-tennis-shoes. By the time you're doing an
authentic internship at an experimental gardening station, you'll honestly
know your stuff. But expecting to get a good job as a horticulturalist
from an insta-course would be like expecting to get a job as a newspaper
journalist because you once signed up for a writing workshop on how to
keep a diary. Some things just have to be done for pleasure without higher
expectation, & master gardener program is one of those things.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
|