By Sharon Omahen
University of Georgia

As state agencies struggle to operate under budget cuts and
hiring freezes, volunteers can make a big difference in keeping
their programs effective. At the University of Georgia, Master
Gardeners do just that.

“We’ve always relied heavily on our Master Gardener volunteers,”
said Mel Garber, associate dean for Extension at the UGA College
of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“Master Gardeners play critical roles in delivering consumer
horticulture information to people across the state,” Garber
said. “As a state agency, we’re able to make state dollars go
farther by maximizing the use of our volunteer work force.”

Marco Fonseca, the Georgia Master Gardener coordinator, said more
than 2,200 people worked for UGA last year for 141,911 hours and
never drew paychecks.

Cost of training

To become a Master Gardener in Georgia, you have to apply to the
program, be accepted and complete a three-month training program
and a 50-hour volunteering requirement.

The classroom and hands-on training costs around $120 (about $6
each for 20 twice-a-week sessions) and includes a 600-page Master
Gardener manual. The instructors are county agents, UGA Extension
specialists, Master Gardeners and green industry professionals.

Master Gardener volunteers must work at least 50 hours within one
year of their training. They work with their county Extension
office, where the program is administered. The county agent
decides how the Master Gardeners donate their hours.

“Many of our Master Gardeners stand in for our county agents when
the public calls a county office,” said Krissy Slagle, a Georgia
Master Gardener program assistant. “It’s important that they
answer a consumer’s question and answer it correctly. And the
training program prepares them to do so.”

Big in the city

Helping county agents answer phone calls and e-mails is
especially helpful in metro areas, Slagle said.

“In Atlanta, some county agents get 150 to 170 horticulture calls
per day,” she said. “The heaviest need we’ve had for Master
Gardeners is in the northern part of the state, where the
population is heavier and agents receive more calls than they can
handle alone. We’re very interested in having the program grow in
the southern part of the state, though.”

Master Gardeners work outside of county Extension offices, too.

“In Fulton County, the Master Gardeners put in a Gold Medal plant
garden in Centennial Olympic Park,” Slagle said. “Several Master
Gardener groups put in ‘Plant-a-Row for the Hungry’ gardens,
where the vegetables are donated to the needy. And Master
Gardeners are working with Habitat for Humanity, installing
plants and teaching the new homeowners how to care for the
plants.”

In schools, too

Fonseca said another new part of the program is the Teacher
Master Gardener Program. Offered in the summer, this condensed
program trains teachers to develop lesson plans centered around
horticulture.

“The teachers then go back and coordinate the installation of
school gardens that are used as teaching tools,” Fonseca said.
“We’ve had 150 teachers participate so far.”

Surprisingly, you don’t have to have a green thumb to be a Master
Gardener in Georgia. You just have to have a giving heart.

“Most people assume the Master Gardener program centers around
gardening,” Slagle said. “Volunteering is the real meat of the
program. And most of the volunteering centers around gardening.”

Yesterday, today

The program was developed by Extension Service faculty at
Washington State University in the early 1970s. Since then it has
spread throughout the United States and Canada.

Many county agents are accepting applications now for Master
Gardener trainings to begin in January 2005. Contact your county
extension office for details.

If you can’t take part in the program, you can still buy the
Master Gardener Handbook. Mail your order to: Georgia Master
Gardener Program, 1109 Experiment Street, Cowart Building,
Griffin, GA 30223. Include a check for $60, payable to “UGA CES.”

(Sharon Omahen is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)