What's a Master Gardener?
By Shari Kaplan
Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County is a volunteer organization under the auspices of the University of California Cooperative Extension. It's one portion of a much larger program that has more than 60,000 Master Gardeners in 48 states and four Canadian provinces.
The group was born in Washington in 1972, when one Dr. David Gibby, a farm advisor, found that he and a colleague were unable to handle all the calls they received for help and advice. They formed a group of trained volunteers who not only answered the questions, but established a partnership with the community.
According to its mission statement, Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County exists for scientific and educational purposes to promote horticultural education and service to the community. It also provides education and friendship for its members. All suffer, to one degree or another, from the same affliction: a green thumb. Master Gardeners range in age from young adults to senior citizens and hail from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life.
"I've always had a passion for gardening, but I always thought I needed to have some formal training to be a Master Gardener. But you don't," says Saratogan Monica Miller. She's been a Master Gardener since 1999, although she is not involved in the Floriculture Program at Elmwood Correctional Facility in which many of her compeers participate.
To become a Master Gardener, applicants must attend four hours of classes per week over a four-month period; the classes are taught by University of California employees. And, yes, this includes homework assignments, tests and a final exam.
Students are also required to spend at least 50 hours staffing the Master Gardeners Hotline and 50 hours on various other projects. The hotline, which offers callers free answers to their gardening questions, operates from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Master Gardeners wear many other hats, as well, and that's not just to keep the sun off their faces! Along with the floriculture program at Elmwood Correctional Facility, they conduct field research projects, run plant clinics, participate in farmers' markets and county fairs, maintain demonstration gardens, give talks for community groups and garden clubs, lead Master Composter training programs and teach horticultural classes at local schools, ranging from elementary-level to college.
"You also meet all sorts of interesting people whom you'd never have met otherwise," Miller says.
Catherine Graff of Monte Sereno agrees. "I have to say that this is the most down-to-earth group of people I've ever worked with--and I'm not just saying that because we work in the garden!" she says.
For more information about becoming a Master Gardener, call 408.299.2638, or visit www.mastergardeners.org on the Internet.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
