Master Gardeners

Becoming a local Master Gardener is the perfect way to combine your love for gardening or landscaping with your desire to help your neighbors and community. Contact me to find out more about our fun group and how you can join!

The Martin County Master Gardener Program

The Master Gardener Training Program is demanding and intensive. Formal classroom work constitutes more than half of the 60-hour training period. Subjects include basic botany, soils, fertilizers, vegetables, citrus, turf grasses, entomology, pest management, house plants ornamentals, diseases and related topics.

All information is based on the knowledge and research of the University of Florida.

Master Gardeners deal only with homeowner type questions. Extension Agents respond to all commercial/professional growers' and landscaping problems.

During the 60-hour training period, all Master Gardener trainees are required to satisfactorily pass a comprehensive examination on the materials covered. Only then can the trainees be certified and be awarded the title of Master Gardener.

Once certified, Master Gardeners must abide by a set of policies set out by the University of Florida and IFAS.

Top

Master Gardener Activities

As the Master Gardeners assist the Extension Service Agent and staff, they are in effect "extending the Extension Service." As such, they provide advice and recommendation which have been well documented as a result of experimentation and testing and are approved by the University of Florida.

There is something for almost every skill at every level. Many Master Gardeners far surpass the mandatory seventy-five service hours. Some exceed several hundred hours in a year, and some have given over one thousand hours of service over the years.

This is the Master Gardener Program in words - a very poor substitute for the real thing. Words cannot describe the sense of accomplishment one feels in helping build better gardeners. These are the kind of people who make America great, who bonded together through common interest in gardening, horticulture and the spirit of volunteerism, and will keep it great. The Master Gardener program is a wonderful opportunity to learn and help. We hope that you will become a part of this "growing" experience.

Top

Master Gardener Selection

Selection to become a candidate for the Florida Master Gardener Training Program is not predicated on prior training, education, knowledge or experience. Neither do age, sex, nor physical handicap dictate selection. Gardening experience and knowledge are always helpful but they are by no means a requirement for selection for the Master Gardener Training Program.

A SINCERE DESIRE TO HELP OTHERS, A DESIRE TO LEARN, AND A PERSONAL COMMITMENT TO VOLUNTEER SERIVCE ARE A THE MAJOR SELECTION CRITERIA INVOLVED.

Become A Master Gardener..

We will be accepting applications for the Spring 2010 Master Gardener training soon .

Top