Ask a Master Gardener: So, You Want to be a Master Gardener?
- Jennifer McDonald
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
By: Bob Howard, Mobile County Master Gardener, www.mobilecountymastergardeners.org
Several years ago, before the age of Covid, my wife and I would frequently volunteer to help with plant sales at the Mobile Botanical Gardens. It was interesting and not very hard. We heard about so and so who is a “Master Gardener.” Wait. What is that? The person running the volunteer program at that time was Marie Dyson, a dynamic leader with an amazing command of plant names. She was the Master Gardener.
We asked how one could become a Master Gardener. Marie told us to sign up at the County Extension office on Schillinger Road, and so we did. A new part of our lives was just beginning.
Being a Master Gardener is not just having the prettiest yard in the neighborhood, nor the most perfect lawn on the block, nor the biggest, juiciest tomatoes in the county. You might have all those things, but that is not the point of becoming a Master Gardener.
According to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, a Master Gardener is a trained educational volunteer who works with Extension to share the latest horticultural information with their communities. We do not just learn how to grow plants, but we share what we know with others so they can grow plants, too!
The idea for the Master Gardener program began at Washington State University in 1973. In Alabama, the program began in 1981 when Extension Agent Gary Murray in Huntsville encountered an energetic Cornell Extension Master Gardener named Mary Lou McNabb who had recently relocated from New Jersey to Alabama. Locally, the program was started in 1992 by James Miles when he was an Extension Agent in the Mobile office. There are Master Gardeners all over the nation.
How do you become a Master Gardener? Well, the course fee is $175 (which includes a background check). Early bird pricing is available before June 16 at $150. If you are accepted into the program, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) provides a 14-week program, including classroom lectures, hands-on training, and on-line content, covering subjects such as: Home Lawns, Trees and Shrubs, Annuals and Perennials, Plant Propagation, Vegetable Gardening, Soil Science, Pest Management, Alabama Smart Yards, and more.
The courses are taught by university professors, Extension specialists and agents, local specialists and certified Master Gardeners. In Mobile, this college-type education is provided one day a week over 14 weeks from August into November. There are on-line homework assignments, quizzes, tests, and student presentations. In addition to the academic component, participants are required to complete 50 volunteer service hours within a year including various prescribed workshops, community projects, and tasks like answering Helpline calls. The program is challenging, but the format is fun, and the friendships are a bonus.
Once you complete the coursework and fulfill the volunteer hours requirement, you become a certified Extension Master Gardener. You will not know everything that there is to know about gardening, but you will know where to go to find the answers. You will have numerous areas in which you can choose to specialize because there are too many fields to cover it all. You will have a wealth of opportunity to engage with others in a whole host of special projects, or you can do as little as pay your annual dues of $25, post 25 hours of service which includes attending local monthly meetings and completing just 10 hours of Continuing Education Units each year to continue as a Certified Extension Master Gardener.
I wager that you will choose to do more and be more as a Master Gardener. Many have found it a positive influence not only in their own back yard, but in their lives as well.
If interested, call 251-574-8445 soon to get your name on the waiting list for the next available Mobile County Master Gardener class.
Happy Gardening!
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