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Any value in becoming a master gardener?
"dstvns" wrote in message
... 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 This question about becoming a Master Gardener has been asked before and as usual is being stomped on by this group. First, the name Master Gardener is a misnomer. There isn't enough training involved to learn much about anything. Hobby Gardeners or Friends of Gardening would be far more accurate titles. Second, it will not prepare you for a job in horticulture although you would be a better candidate for a job in a horticulture center than a body hired off the street by management. At least you showed enough interest in plants to get some training, minimal as it is. Third, your question about vegetable gardening to a trainer raises another interesting question. How many people do you know who actually have a vegetable garden beyond a couple of tomatoes and a pepper plant or two? I regularly complain whenever I watch "Victory Garden" on PBS about the totally impractical/cutesy stuff they air. Most people now think of gardening as raising flowers, shrubs, grasses, and ornamental trees. (Heaven help this country if people ever had to return to a society where they had to raise their own food.) Fourth, contributing to your area through volunteer work is a plus or minus, depending upon your viewpoint. If you have the time and inclination to work in your local park or other public areas and enjoy getting dirty and sweaty occasionally, it can be a relaxing and rewarding experience. If you think you are taking away jobs from Joe Public, don't. Our local park has a native wildflower area, a 19th century herb/vegetable garden, and a beautiful planting of native, flowering shrubs done by local Master Gardeners. (Most of these are projects that would never have been completed or maintained without free labor.) Finally, becoming a Master Gardener does have a lot of personal pluses. It puts you in contact with people with a similar hobby/interest and that includes vegetable gardening. Many Master Gardener groups have enough people with diverse gardening interests that there is something for everyone. As much as there are sneers about common items that spread rapidly being swapped or given away by Master Gardeners, such items as winter jasmine, salvia leucantha, salvia guaranitica (blue and purple), several viburnum varieties, little leafed lilacs, double altheas, hydrangeas, thornless blackberries, etc. now are part of my yard because of these swaps. In turn I share tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, okra, and beans as well as started cuttings from a snowball bushes, pussy willow, kerria, honeycomb buddleia, crape myrtlettes, and beauty berry bush, and small redbuds that appear in my flower beds. If anything invasive arrives for swap, the swap table "police person" gives a warning to everyone. As an added bonus, we regularly pay guest speaker experts to give presentations at regular or special interest meetings. I find that the Master Gardener group is a plus for me. Most but not all Master Gardeners are great people, but there are some one avoids because they're obnoxious. The same can be said for this ng! I'm sure I'll get sneering, stomping remarks make about my analysis from certain individuals, but I enjoy the contacts in the MG group. John |
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