How do you get to be a master gardener? Do you take a course or what?

Wayne

Its not that hard.

Phone your local farm extension and ask.

Usually its a class, about once a week for 6 weeks or so, and 40 hrs of
community service.

Hope this helps


"wayne" wrote in message
oups.com...
How do you get to be a master gardener? Do you take a course or what?

Wayne

"Anna M. Miller" wrote

Its not that hard.



I don't know about that.
The schedules are impossible if you hold down a job.


--
Toni
South Florida USA
Zone 10b
http://ww.cearbhaill.com

In article , "Toni"
wrote:

"Anna M. Miller" wrote

Its not that hard.



I don't know about that.
The schedules are impossible if you hold down a job.

That's cuz the program is mainly for retired little old ladies & gents
who've outlived most of their previous friends & need some new ones.

The "public service" volunteer aspect of the system requires each little
old lady or gent who has achieved Master Gardener status to sit at a card
table at Saturday markets or in nurseries to answer questions. If the
question is "How do I join the Master Gardener program" they'll know. If
it's anything about gardening anything like that, they won't know.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson

"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "Toni"
wrote:

"Anna M. Miller" wrote

Its not that hard.



I don't know about that.
The schedules are impossible if you hold down a job.

That's cuz the program is mainly for retired little old ladies & gents
who've outlived most of their previous friends & need some new ones.


That might be true in general. The local extension agency has a program on
cable access TV where they visit the gardens of local master gardeners. The
people who they feature seem to be middle-age housewives, probably
empty-nesters. Most of the gardens are nothing special, by the way. They
aren't notable for either the selection of plants or the over-all design.

(paghat) wrote:

The "public service" volunteer aspect of the system requires each little
old lady or gent who has achieved Master Gardener status to sit at a card
table at Saturday markets or in nurseries to answer questions. If the
question is "How do I join the Master Gardener program" they'll know. If
it's anything about gardening anything like that, they won't know.

Each state runs their master gardener programs differently. I am not a
master gardener, but know many and even tutored several who were
studying for the master gardner status. In our area the master
gardeners have a number of gardens they maintain for educational
purposes and for the local Penn State campus. They participate in lots
of actual gardening projects for local parks and provide demonstrations
for school children. They go on interesting field trips and have a lot
of information to share with each other. They tend to be cliquish and
identify with each other. They do not sit at tables and answer
questions. They include a cross section of our community including
teachers, nursery and garden center workers, and other gardeners. In
our area there is no waiting list to take classes and we get a lot of
people taking the classes.
--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhody.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhodybooks.html
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA Zone 6

Stephen Henning expounded:

Each state runs their master gardener programs differently. I am not a
master gardener, but know many and even tutored several who were
studying for the master gardner status. In our area the master
gardeners have a number of gardens they maintain for educational
purposes and for the local Penn State campus. They participate in lots
of actual gardening projects for local parks and provide demonstrations
for school children. They go on interesting field trips and have a lot
of information to share with each other. They tend to be cliquish and
identify with each other. They do not sit at tables and answer
questions. They include a cross section of our community including
teachers, nursery and garden center workers, and other gardeners. In
our area there is no waiting list to take classes and we get a lot of
people taking the classes.

The Master Gardener program run by the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society is a serious program too, Stephen, but many people get their
jollies out of ridiculing Master Gardeners. Not around here, they're
known as knowledable advisors, but somewhere they must not be very
effective to have earned this bad reputation.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

I hate to break it to anyone here, but gardening is NOT rocket science.
Anyone who enjoys it can learn the basics in one summer of working in
his/her garden, and having access to one or two garden reference books -
like sunset garden guide, or reader's digest gardening guide, or rodale's
encyclopedia of organic gardening. By basics, I'm talking about when the
best time is to plant seeds of various flowers and crops, when is the best
time to set out tender plants, how to work the soil, how to plant a shrub or
tree and how to irrigate it, how to improve the soil if your basic soil is
crappy, how to compost. Many other aspects of gardening are opinion, and
opinion on them changes with the decade......things like, should insect
infestations all be treated, should fruit trees all be pruned yearly, do
flowers and perennials need to be deadheaded religiously, stuff like that.
Landscaping is another issue entirely - and there are schools of thought
about that that also change with the decade or the century.
Some aspects of garden maintenance are more difficult - correct pruning,
propagation by means other than seeds, grafting, plant disease recognition.
In my opinion, mastergardeners are a good resource for beginning gardeners
because they are nearly all experienced home gardeners. However, they have
little of value to convey to experienced gardeners who can do the research
themselves if they have a difficult gardening issue to work out. I think
pursuing a mastergardener title is a fine idea for a retiree who loves to
garden and has the free time to attend the classes, etc. I wouldn't
recommend it to anyone who has an active life with lots of responsibilities.

"Toni" wrote in message
...

"Anna M. Miller" wrote

Its not that hard.



I don't know about that.
The schedules are impossible if you hold down a job.


--
Toni
South Florida USA
Zone 10b

At the time I was working 12 hr swing shift...a little vacation and working
around my work schedule, the class was easy to fit in, as was the required
service, which was answering questions on the phone at the farm extension
service.

What did I get out of it? Knowledge that I was helping people, interesting
field trips to go to, meeting people with similar interests, plus gained a
little know-how by inter-acting with knowledgeable people....The title and
certificate were not the reason I went through the course.

You forgot to mention you pay them a lot of money and need to buy all your
own supplies too!!!

You need to fill out a waiver so you can't sue if you get hurt master
gardening too!!!

Be prepared to do many hours of grunt work for free too!!!

Its a lot of fun if you are a masochist!!!


"Anna M. Miller" wrote in message
...
Its not that hard.

Phone your local farm extension and ask.

Usually its a class, about once a week for 6 weeks or so, and 40 hrs of
community service.

Hope this helps


"wayne" wrote in message
oups.com...
How do you get to be a master gardener? Do you take a course or what?

Wayne

"Cereus-validus-..........." wrote in message
. ..
You forgot to mention you pay them a lot of money and need to buy all your
own supplies too!!!

You need to fill out a waiver so you can't sue if you get hurt master
gardening too!!!

Be prepared to do many hours of grunt work for free too!!!

Its a lot of fun if you are a masochist!!!

Gee, it didn't cost me a dime, and the service in return wasn't that much
(40 hrs answering the phone at the farm bureau) or that hard. Questions I
couldn't answer or weren't sure of I referred to one of the staff there.

People wouldn't do it if they didn't enjoy it.

People wouldn't do it if they didn't enjoy it.

They must be the same dim witted masochists that voted for George Dubya Bush
TWICE!!!



"Anna M. Miller" wrote in message
...


"Cereus-validus-..........." wrote in
message . ..
You forgot to mention you pay them a lot of money and need to buy all
your own supplies too!!!

You need to fill out a waiver so you can't sue if you get hurt master
gardening too!!!

Be prepared to do many hours of grunt work for free too!!!

Its a lot of fun if you are a masochist!!!

Gee, it didn't cost me a dime, and the service in return wasn't that much
(40 hrs answering the phone at the farm bureau) or that hard. Questions I
couldn't answer or weren't sure of I referred to one of the staff there.

People wouldn't do it if they didn't enjoy it.

there are two people who are master gardeners that have their own programs that i find to be both enlightening as well as entertaining. they are

http://www.hgtv.ca/garden/expert/landscape_main.asp
and
http://mastergardener2005.usask.ca/p...-keynotes.html

as with anything there is both good and bad in all walks of life. i do not pretend to know the master gardener program but i do know what i enjoy and these two men i find do know what they are talking about.
there are some people that are for the master gardener program and others that are against it but my opinion on the issue is if these people really enjoy what they are doing and have a love of gardening and they get to meet new people and have fun in doing so then i dont see a problem with them doing as they wish.
sockiescat.

Cereus-validus-........... People wouldn't do it if they didn't enjoy it.

They must be the same dim witted masochists that voted for George Dubya Bush
TWICE!!!



"Anna M. Miller" wrote in message
...


"Cereus-validus-..........." wrote in
message . ..
You forgot to mention you pay them a lot of money and need to buy all
your own supplies too!!!

You need to fill out a waiver so you can't sue if you get hurt master
gardening too!!!

Be prepared to do many hours of grunt work for free too!!!

Its a lot of fun if you are a masochist!!!

Gee, it didn't cost me a dime, and the service in return wasn't that much
(40 hrs answering the phone at the farm bureau) or that hard. Questions I
couldn't answer or weren't sure of I referred to one of the staff there.

People wouldn't do it if they didn't enjoy it.

When living in Hawaii, I once sold a so called "Master Gardener" some seeds
from my I.Canna plants. He wanted seeds from Real Hawaiian plants, which
canna are far from.

Now I live in the High Mojave Desert where there is no master gardeners.


--

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net
In Garden Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/ingarden
Blast Off Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/starlords




"wayne" wrote in message
oups.com...
How do you get to be a master gardener? Do you take a course or what?

Wayne

Contact your county extension office.
The master gardener program allows extension offices to increase their
reach using trained volunteers who barter a little volunteer time for
training and some cash for course materials.
You will have a blast, meet a lot of similarly minded people, learn 3x
as much as you expect, and gain access to all manner of hort resources.
It's not for everyone, but if it suits your temprement you can have a
great time.