What is a Master Gardener?

"Call your county extension office." How many times have you heard or read that advice? What's county extension office? And how can it help?

The cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, land grant universities, and local county governments. The cooperative extension service's role is teaching residents about university research in the fields of agriculture, youth, natural resources, food safety and nutrition, and what we used to call home economics.

When you call to ask a lawn or garden question, chances are you will talk to a trained volunteer called a Master Gardener.

Florida Master Gardeners are University of Florida-trained volunteer teachers. Master Gardeners educate and provide research-based information to Floridians about gardening-America's most popular pastime. Their information about planning and maintaining urban, suburban, and rural landscapes always emphasizes environmental stewardship.

History of the Master Gardener Program

Since 1979, cooperative extension agents in 47 Florida counties have maximized resources using a "learn and return" program developed in Washington: the Florida Master Gardener Program. By providing education-based instruction methods incorporated with the latest scientific research, the program capitalizes on the desire of Florida citizens to learn more about horticulture in exchange for a predetermined number of volunteer hours returned to the individual county.

The state does not require Florida counties to have the program. Rather, each individual county extension office determines the focus and structure of the program. The volunteers (or "MGs" as they call themselves) execute a variety of outreach tasks as determined by the program leader (usually the consumer horticultural agent). Duties include as answering horticultural questions over the phone, in person or through the media; participating in public service projects; giving educational programs; supporting youth activities, performing soil sample evaluations and assisting in field research. The ultimate end to all these activities is to extend the vision of the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - protecting and sustaining natural resources and environmental systems, enhancing the development of human resources, and improving the quality of human life through the development of knowledge in agricultural, human and natural resources and making that knowledge accessible.

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Program Success

The success of this program has been phenomenal. As the Florida Master Gardener Volunteer Program enters its twentieth year, a review of the programmatic efforts indicated the program has been adopted in 47 of the 67 Florida counties and the average length a program has been in existence is 9.7 years. There is an average of 57 trained volunteers per county. More than 82% of the counties train once per year with 55.4% of the counties carrying out multi county training. The Master Gardener Volunteer Program is evenly distributed around the state with 22% of the programs located in northeast, central west and south Florida. Nineteen percent of the programs are located in central east and 15% in northwest Florida.

During 1998, Florida Master Gardeners Volunteers assisted horticulture agents in developing and promoting noncommercial horticulture ultimately increasing environmental action and awareness in forty-eight counties. Statewide more than 3,245 volunteers contributed 156,000 hours to local county horticulture extension educational programs providing $1,092,000 worth of services to citizens of Florida. The success of the Master Gardener Program cannot be overstated. The ultimate end to all educational outreach efforts is to extend the vision of the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, all the while protecting and sustaining natural resources and environmental systems, enhancing the development of human resources, and improving the quality of human life through the development of knowledge in agricultural, human and natural resources and making that knowledge accessible. To this end, the Master Gardener Program continues to prove to be the "sparkling gem" of the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

Some projects of particular note have been awarded the Florida Master Gardener State Award of Excellence.

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