 What are Master Gardeners?
Master Gardeners are community volunteers who have been trained and certified by the University of Georgia's Cooperative Extension to provide horticultural information to the public. They do this by conducting workshops and clinics, writing newsletters, staffing booths at fairs and events, leading youth gardening programs, and assisting with the workload in local county extension offices.
In 1914, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act that created the Cooperative Extension Service in order deliver information from land-grant colleges and universities to all Americans, particularly those who lacked access to formal education. In response to increasing demands for horticultural information by a growing urban population, the Master Gardener Program was created in 1972 in Tacoma, Washington, through the efforts of county extension agents and Washington State University. Georgia's Master Gardener Program was first organized in 1979.
The mission of Master Gardeners is to assist the Cooperative Extension by providing unbiased and up-to-date horticultural information to the community through volunteer service in educational gardening projects and by using applied research and resources of the University of Georgia.
Master Gardener volunteers are trained by experts in many subjects:
- Botany
- Plant Physiology
- Soil and Plant Nutrition
- Basic Entomology and Pathology
- Vegetable Gardening
- Weed Identification and Management
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- Herbaceous, Woody Ornamentals and Trees
- Water-wise Landscape
- Structural and Household Pests
- Integrated Pest Management
- Youth and Gardening
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After training, volunteers must complete 50 hours of service within the first year. To remain active, Master Gardeners are required to contribute a minimum of 25 hours of community volunteer service each succeeding year.
For more information about the Master Gardener Program, contact your local county extension office or visit the Master Gardener website at www.caes.uga.edu/departments/hort/extension/mastergardener.
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