AMEN!!! Penny

Yes, and wouldn't it be nice if we could say to our Extension Agent and other control people when they are saying no, no, no, . . ."Just beem me up Scotty!"?

IB - excellant, well-written perspective.

I have always enjoyed Iron Belly's postings over the years, but this time he has put his finger on one of the problems I could see, but not express as he has done. Thank you. Al

IB wrote:
Once we put many of these urban myths to bed; so much the better.

Boy, that would be the day!

I've been teaching gardening/horticulture since 1976. And the myths and misinformation haven't changed.

Jean, what do you attribute that to?

When I signed up for the program this was the one fly in the ointment for me. As it turned out our group has just finished it's first year and has avoided this pitfall. There seems to be plenty to do just answering questions (the original intention of the organization).

Another Amen!!!

Unfortunately, some of what I see is that new Master Gardeners are tentative about how much they really know. So they go back to what they are sure they know which is how to do "grunt work". How do you get people over the fear of working with the public, not knowing an answer, or being "wrong".

As IB noted that MG's are used sometimes to do the labor in a community.......in our organization we were specifically told to advise people or organizations, not to do the actual labor. In some instances, we have done the labor for community sites, etc. We are in the process, now, of completing the landscaping for the new police department and county jail which are across the street from our MG headquarters. Our MG demonstration gardens in Rockport are so large, we've got a lot to do just to maintain them! I, personally, feel I have a mission to spread the word on proper gardening technique.......only when asked, though.

I have a different take from IB's and the other reply posters above.

Education is still the prime focus. But: I think we need to move to a model that embraces more rather than less hands-on work--maybe using a garden-coaching model. The internet is a better question answerer than most MGs will ever be. Even the few gardening questions that show up on this forum are answered here, by Master Gardeners, most often with a link to a site that will truly answer the question in depth.

Preparing for the future(which is already here in some states according to some posters), we as Master Gardeners need to become more advanced in the actual doing of gardening. As $$$ dry up and calls dwindle b/c people find answers on their own via the internet, we can probably best promote good practices and fight misinformation by showing up in person and demonstrating how things are better done.

We have an Advanced Master Gardener designation now in our state program here in NH. It requires more continuing ed credits and more volunteer hours. We have been told to take the educational offerings provided by the MG program and UNH - a smattering of this and a smattering of that. We can submit other educational opportunities for approval before taking them but were advised not to submit anything like a college level botany course or a 6 month pruning training course as "we want you to stay generalists and not learn too much about any one thing." That sort of thinking will surely keep the MGs as dilettantes who truly never reach the "master" level of the title. MGs are tenative about sharing what they know because often they don't know enough to truly differentiate them from the average gardener.

Lets learn more about and do more of the hands-on work of gardening. On-site pest and disease ID and super-googling can go to the ext agent with assistance from a smaller percentage of MGs who do not wish to do the hands-on piece of gardening. We are needed out in the garden, on site, to make visits to real gardeners in real time--something that the ext agent truly is stretched too thin to do. More demonstration gardens, more teaching of gardening in the schools, more community gardens, more classes offered to the public by MGs who have in-depth knowledge of some area of horticulture; less googling, less office work.

Maybe there could be two types of MG designations: garden reseacher and garden coach. It is time for some type of change in the MG program format in keeping with the changes going on around us.

What do you think?

Ginger

Did you ever notice that things go along pretty smoothly on the starship Enterprise until some Klingon or Feringee gets on board? --- Live long and prosper, Ginger. ;-)

Back in 1988, Michael E. Gerber in his classic book, The E Myth thoroughly explores the human psychology of the mental processes that subconsciously lead us back to the astute observation made above by ejb190:
"...Master Gardeners are tentative about how much they really know. So they go back to what they are sure they know which is how to do "grunt work"."

I don't have a lot to quibble with your perspective, Ginger, other than perhaps the scope of it is too limited. I am a bit more cautious as to phrasing because of the universal human propensity to gradually slide into the same situation as witnessed by ejb190.

The problem, as I see it, occurs when we pursue projects when we should really be pursuing presentations. I **think** this is essentially what you are trying to say. Most any presentation is much improved when actual hands-on can be incorporated into it. I have no qualms about going out into the garden to demonstrate something and then supervise others from the community while they do the bulk of the work. This can be an opportunity for learning at its best. However, I think most of us know all too well that this is not usually what happens. Instead, we all hop in there and get good and sweaty. Yep ... we showed the community what a display garden is supposed to look like. And who learned what? Typically, the leader of some other civic organization learned that all they have to do is flip out "the garden lure" and we will bite like blue gills in the pond.

There is a world of education waiting to be deployed. Quite frankly, what we really need to do is break free from the structure and typical restraints of academia. Learning should be fun. Unfettered learning is fun. We sometimes make the mistake of trying to conduct classes like we were forced to endure in elementary school. Typically, Master Gardeners are dealing with adults and the requirements of adult education placed upon the instructor (whether they realize it or not) are quite different. Hands-on is one of the most effective educational tools we can use.

I suggest going out into the garden but avoiding garden projects. Give a demonstration class on pruning and make sure to bring along extra pruners. Give a demonstration on amending clay soil and let the students dig and till the stuff in. Give a demonstration on installing a terrace and have the students lay up and level a few landscaping blocks. The possibilities are endless.

One demonstration I often give during a small portion of one of my classes is propagating plants by division. It is usually conducted on the tailgate of my pickup truck in the parking lot outside of where I am giving the class. I often bring a few clumps of pulmonaria, five gallon buckets, pots, potting soil and various implements of destruction. I wash off the roots in a bucket of water and then demonstrate a couple of times how to make divisions and pot them up. Pretty quickly, most of the students are hacking and planting away with me at their side answering questions. When we get done, it is break time and then we go back inside. Always a few students opt out of getting their hands dirty but everyone leaves class with a new plant. As a side benefit, I get to promote a great plant that not nearly enough people grow.

I have seen wonderful herbal demonstrations where many of the actual plants were passed around in pots. Dried samples were also provided with the coup-de-gra being homemade lavender cookies for everyone. Perhaps one of the best educational formats I have ever seen is called "A Walk With The Expert." It is simply where a group of people walk around a park, large private garden or botanical center and simply talk about what they see. Several times a year we will have these and bring in several professors from different departments. Their given expertise might be in trees, plant disease, turf, insects, perennials, weather, fruit or most any other horticulturally related subject matter. We all simply walk around and they point out this or that -- typically things we all "learned" about but don't really know enough to recognize it when we see it. These sessions are very popular and extremely informative. Yes, they are spent in the garden but they avoid the project syndrome.

Your chosen term of "garden coach" is probably a pretty good one. However, the organizational admonishment to avoid in-depth education smacks of academic elitism.

Now, if any of you still feel compelled to do heavy garden work for no pay, please email me directly. I have lots of jobs that need doing -- especially if your labor is free!

IronBelly