Please tell us more about what a Master Gardener is and does every state have them? How does one become a master gardener?

Easy, contact your county extension office and tell them you would like to do volunteer work.

Basically, you get training in horticulture for a nominal fee, and you follow this up by working for your local county extension agent on volunteer projects for 60 hours in your first year, and 12 hours in following years. You can claim it on your taxes at $18 an hour.

But before you volunteer, be aware that they do not consider beautification projects appropriate. They want people who will go, for example, into schools and educate the youth etc. Or do their filing for them.

The training and certification you received has no academic credit, you can't enter a university program with it although it is run under the auspices of the Texas A&M University System in this state. The title is honorary and you have to keep up with your volunteer hours or the title falls away. In short, the title doesn't really mean much, it's a nice way of them saying "thank you".

Oh yes, they also do a background check on you, just in case you are an axe murderer :-D Except they don't tell you this until you are in the class, so be prepared.

The program has attracted 3 million volunteers in the US, that's a lot of people working for the state, for free.

Enjoy.

The hours and study time vary state to state. You can also do other tings such as newsletters and sign making, plant clinics, giving gardening speaches etc.
Marilyn

I, too am a MG in Texas, in 2 different counties. The organizations are entirely different.

I took my classes in Victoria Co. in 1999. We have a new class just started there on Aug 12th. The class will run through Dec 12, I THINK- don't hold me to this date. The new class will do 50 hours of volunteer service in the year 2005 to be certified. Of that 50 hours, 8 must be 'telephone' hours, where you man the telephones for the Extension Agent in the office. We have a garden project ongoing, so some of the 50 hours will be spent in the garden, and the rest will be on approved projects done by the whole group, such as the annual garden tour.

Our requirments for re-certification are 12 hours volunteer service, 6 of which must be in the gardens, plus 6 hours of continuing education, for a total of 18 hours yearly.

As I said, I am a member in 2 counties. I live in Jackson county, and they started their MG's in 2002, and I certainly want to be involved where I live. Re-certification in Jackson co. is also 18 hours per year, but we have no garden project of our own at this time. Therefore, it is 12 hours voluntary service on approved projects, and 6 hours continued education. These 2 groups are as different as day and night.

And since I am a member of 2 separate groups, I do double volunteer hours. What I do for VCMGA is not counted as service for Jackson co. I have all my hours for VCMGA done for this year, but I still need 4 hours continuing education for JCMGA. That is only fair.

Both do consider beautification projects thoroughly appropriate. In Victoria, we do have a Jr. MG program, but not in Jackson co.

Jackson Co. MG's are working on a project to rework the landscape at the county courthouse, including building a gazebo, putting in a rose garden featuring antique roses, etc., etc. This will be our gardens for now, and we will donate the labor.

Both groups take on beautification projects in the community, but in a design and advisory capacity, and not (for the most part) involving installation. We are not a labor gang.

As for the background check, if you will read the mandate, it is voluntary unless you wish to work with children. We have sooooo many, including myself, who are done raising kids, and got into MG for the association with ADULTS. I do not want to work with children, and most of the MG's that I know feel the same way. The mandate states that you do not have to have the background check if you do not wish to do so. You will just not be allowed to work with kids. In Victoria co. the proposal to make this mandatory for all MG's was defeated by secret ballot.

I have never heard of taking $18.00 per hour- or any amount for that matter- off your taxes. We were always told that we could not use MG's as an advertising tool. In other words, you can't say "Hire me, I'm a MG." I believe that volunteer work is volunteer work, and I give it gladly. I would be interested to know in...

I would like to say one more thing.

The Master Gardener program (I know about Texas) was started to help the County Extension agents. It costs a lot of money to hire that extra person to answer the phones while the agent is out of the office. If an Intern doesn't feel that he/she can do the phone work, they can file or help in another capacity. We are very proud of the service we give to Extension through the Master Gardener program, and when you tally up the $$$ that it would cost without us, it is astounding. So if they get labor for free, that is just great! That means that dollar can go for some other program. We are very proud that what we do is so valuable!

Janie

I am a Master Gardener in Washington State the state that started the MG program back in 1972. I have been in the program in Washington for 6 years. We have 4 demo gardens and we garden at the local vetrans home as well as the Welcome center. We have garden workshops for the public and Plant clinics, We also do the horticulture displays at our local county fair.
I enjoy talking to people about gardening and my favorite things to do are grow plants from seeds and making compost.

Hey there Jani, you learn something new every day. Apparently it's $18 an hour tax-deductable valuable service.

And yes, the background check is associated with working with children, about 90% of the class said they would like to do youth work. It seems to be one of the details which was overlooked until the actual class as hardly anyone from four or five counties seemed to know about the check. As I am already employed by A&M, my background is already checked and no, I don't especially want to work with children but know that occassionally projects might come up in which it happens. Anyway, clearly there is tons of attention on kids.

I, however, want to get out into the dirt and plant. I want to improve specific ugly areas of my town (with the permission of the town, DOT, etc). You know, actually garden.

My feeling is if I don't do it, no one else is. No one has in the years I have lived here. I don't see why I can't plant xeriscaping plants and maintain until established and beyond if necessary, and why this would be considered undesirable gang labour.

That is my idea of serving the community through gardening, not answering a phone or filing. I could do that a million other deserving places that have absolutely nothing to do with gardening.

As for all the dollars saved for other projects, that's a great way to look at it but none of those other projects are the ugly places. It also explains why, with a system of 3 million gardeners 'master gardening' and a healthy representation in my town with an active gardening club, too, there are still so many highly visible public places begging for impovement.

And I must say, when I protested in class the "no beautification projects, must be educational" announcement by another agent, my county agent backed me. Bottom line, it really is up to your local extension agent. I'm hoping all the people who wanted to plant prayer gardens etc get support from their agents, too.

And, most fortunately, I am in Hopkins, or I would have waved farewell by now.

Sounds to me like more master gardening PROGRAMS are unique than are master gardeners, themselves, lol.

It seems it really depends on the whims and opinions of whoever runs each individual program. I know the year I graduated, our program director felt too many folks got most or all of their volunteer hours at one or two places on the list (which had other resources), and at the expense of the vegetable gardens, so the following year, he simply limited the number of hours that could be earned at those two places, hoping to get more hours spent on the garden.

Some folks complained to the state program director, who DOES work for Clemson (our program director is just a longtime master gardener -- orginally from Michigan, in fact), and were told by the state director that he could do nothing about it... that it's up to each local program to decide how it's run.

Strange, but true :)
Jeff

Broward County Florida Master Gardeners are trained to teach the community about Fla. gardening. We answer the phones and also help "Replant Broward" a group that gives away small trees to county residents to replace the lost citrus trees. We work with 4-H and are developing a speaker's bureau for schools &garden clubs etc. There is also a naturescape program(Fla. Yards and Neighborhoods)to teach Florida friendly practices. We teach more than we dig or plant. Of course we love to socialize and eat, too!(Love those appreciation dinners)

I am a Master Gardener in Texas . I was really hoping that the message about 18.00 per hour off the taxes was true. I called the IRS. I talked to a charity specialist. There is no way to claim reimbursement for your time. The only thing you can claim If you itemize is .14 cents a mile to and from the garden. BUT You must be able to prove it. You can claim it on a schedule A Line 15. Wish the other was true because I already have over 200 hours of volunteer time this year.
Diane Bryant Harris County Precinct 2. Texas.

DianeBry
Thanks for the update...I was just about to check on it myself!

Don't give up on the tax deductable. Somehow I don't think they would stand in front of 40 people from 4 counties and make it all up. My class runs again tomorrow, I'll ask for precise details. From what I remember they would furnish you with something detailing the hours worked, which could be used for the tax thang.

Well, asked about the tax deduction of $18 for volunteer hours worked in today's class and I must have understood something veeeeeery wrong.

Ooops, I am sorry about that, everyone.

Also, today's lecturer gave the volunteer hours value as being $17.something, not $18. Don't know which of the two is right, but it probably doesn't matter.

Hi I am a Master Gardener on Long Island, New York.We do all kinds of volunteering We work on the gardens at the county farm, also any group that wants help either with a lecture or working in their gardens. The best thing I ever did was to take the training I am having a great time. I work full time so there is not as much time as I would like but retirement is just around the corner.

Hi from Tyler, TX. I hesitate to itemize all the programs going on here because it'a a lot. I love working in the gardens, especially during planting time as we get lots of freebies to take home. I also love working at the Overton Experimental Station so I get to see the latest & greatest in plants, especisally the roses being trialed for Earthkind certification. We also do a calendar & grdening guide & a garden tour in the spring.

The background checks are now mandatory for any program where you work with children. Sad to have to do this, but I gues you can say it's the way of the world.

My tax guy says you can't deduct your time off your income tac, but I keep mileage logs of all my volunteer activities & that gets deducted. I haven't been audited - yet.

I have been a Master Gardener here in Oklahoma for 2 years now and I have learned alot. It's been keeping me pretty busy here lately. Tomorrow I'll be going to the county fair to do a little judging. I'm looking foward to it.

jpgardener - You too seem to be unique. You just sent me (via the Garden Web) an e-mail, asking me a question. I've tried to send my reply four times - but every time, it came back with a message saying that your address couldn't accept e-mail e-from me.
Herb

I am a Master Gardener from Michigan. I am one of 5 in my county so we dont really have projects that we do togeather. I have to agree with so many things that have been said here!!! I agree totally with SowthEfrikan about if I am dont do it it wont get done. That has been proven to me over and over again. I worked on a project with MDOT/city/county/townships blessing. In my class several people volenteered but truely few ever shows up. There is only 5 master gardeners in my county and the class i was in put though over 30 people. MY county lets you work on projects you enjoy so that makes it really nice. I myself am more labor type of master gardener and helping others with there soil samples/ pruning trees/ plant idenifcation/ bug problems ect. These are some ways to help get a few volenteer hours even though i dont need them for this year. I had to do 40 for my certifcation and then i needed 50 more for advanced master gardener. I have over 120 hours this year alone and 12 hours education with another 40-50 hours of education set up.
Jcb, I also work full time. I have found myself doing alot of time management this year. I really enjoy doing volenteer work and helping others with anything i can help with. It's funny becouse my and my husband works at the same company but he sits with a different group of people so he gets asked to tell me come see this or that person befor I leave so I can try to help or give them an answer. Its great.

I've been disappointed in my program b/c before we graduated we were told that any sort of volunteer gardening effort in the community would be accepted. I had started a horticultural therapy program at a center for developmentally disabled adults. Shortly after a new agent was hired, I was told that my program there was not what they had in mind, b/c it was too much based outside of county extension. It was as if I were a volunteer for the adult center rather than cooperative extension.

This really disappointed me, as I felt that was bringing gardening to a group that wouldn't have it otherwise. Instead, now I am answering the phones in the office, schmoozing at home & garden shows and making displays at the county fair. Many MGV's give talks to retired citizens groups. To me, these are people who already have all the advantages of education in their life, not to mention the internet. I'd rather be with a disavantaged group, but there is just not a lot of support for that. Maybe it's b/c MGV is really an arm of a political entity. We serve those who vote for the money to keep the program going.

Sometimes I feel like the only ones who benefit are the paid employees who support MGV's and myself, who enjoys working with plants.

peace, claire in nc

I'm upset! When I went to register for the Master Gardener program in Fairfax, Virginia, I received an email back "I'm sorry to inform you that the 2006 Waitlist is closed. Please check back in January 2006 for the 2007 Waitlist." Also the fee for this program is around $400! My husband took this program several years ago and payed only $80. I believe Fairfax is getting greedy.