Mastering the art and science of gardening

Program helps educate on horticultural matters

By Melissa Matchak

Since 1982, avid gardeners in Santa Clara County have had an outlet through which they can use their gardening talents. The Master Gardener Program, which began in Washington in 1972 and is now nationwide, was started with the purpose of providing training to already enthusiastic gardeners so they can educate communities about horticulture.

Nancy Garrison, who started the Santa Clara County program, and is the Urban Horticulture and Master Gardener Program coordinator, said there are over 60,000 Master Gardeners nationwide, and approximately 200 active Master Gardeners in Santa Clara County. The gardener programs in California are run through the University of California Cooperative Extension, and provide training courses to eligible applicants who are interested in volunteering in their community.

"I started the Santa Clara program with the purpose of extending the university's ability to teach horticulture in the community by recruiting avid gardeners, giving them 60 hours of home gardener training, and providing monthly continuing education," Garrison said.

In Santa Clara County, there is one training program every other year, which runs from January to May. During the training, the 55 accepted applicants take 16 classes, including topics such as botany, vegetable and fruit gardening, trees, lawns, insects and pest management. After graduating from the training course, Master Gardeners must complete 100 volunteer hours in the first year. In the second year, 25 hours of volunteer gardening and 20 hours of continuing education classes are required. Garrison said Master Gardeners must be recertified every year.

"We ask people to commit for at least two years," Garrison said. "Those who do really contribute to the community."

There are several criteria required to be accepted into the Master Gardener training program. Garrison said applicants must be passionate about gardening, have the time and desire to volunteer in the community, and must be hungry to learn more about gardening. Other important aspects include good communication and speaking skills, and good writing skills are also beneficial.

The Master Gardener program provides interested community members the opportunity to learn more about horticulture and how they can become better gardeners. In Sunnyvale, Garrison said the program is in the early stages of offering gardening classes once a month at the Sunnyvale Arboretum, generally offered from spring through fall. Also at the arboretum is a demonstration garden, which Garrison said is not complete yet, but is there to promote sustainable gardening, which teaches the types of things gardeners can do environmentally to maximize their garden's potential.

"We're promoting the use of certain herbs, such as African blue basil, in a garden to attract certain types of insects that are harmless to the garden, but will minimize the use of pesticides by eating or parasitizing the bugs that are harmful," Garrison said.

The Master Gardener program has a hotline that people can call with gardening questions. Plant clinics are also offered, to which people can bring their plant problems for a diagnosis. The gardener program also hosts a school gardening program in Santa Clara County, helping approximately 20 schools plan and organize a garden. Garrison said the Master Gardeners assess the proposed garden site, and work with the school to get the funding and materials they need.

"We don't actually get out our shovels and dig, but we help them get to that point," Garrison said.

Garrison said she's been interested in gardening since 1971, and graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in crop science. She also worked in low-income areas of Los Angeles, putting in gardens and teaching members of those communities how to maximize their gardens to grow a wider variety of crops. The program, which was offered through the University of California Cooperative Extension at UCLA, is called the Common Grounds Urban Gardening Program.

The Santa Clara Master Gardeners also have a horticultural therapy program at Elmwood Correctional Facility.

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For more information about the Santa Clara County Master Gardener Program, call 408.299.2635, or go to www.mastergardeners.org.

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