A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting of the Durham Region chapter of the Master Gardeners of Ontario. The Master Gardeners don’t mess around…before they allowed me to join them, I had to write an eligibility test to see if I was worthy of their ranks. Fortunately, I was.
I first thought about joining this organization and working toward becoming a Master Gardener a couple of years ago. I met up with the co-ordinator while I was still pregnant with Nate, and although I wanted to get started with the group, I decided to put it off while I concentrated on learning to be a mom. Now that life is a little more settled, I’ve decided to jump in!
Master Gardeners “provide horticultural information to the public via garden clinics, telephone, letters, displays, workshops, television, radio and newspaper articles. For example, the Master Gardeners man a booth at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto to answer horticultural questions form the public.” There’s an educational component to becoming a Master Gardener, too. I’ll need to take three courses from the University of Guelph online over the next three years, including Cultural Practice for Plants, Introduction to Plant Identification and Growing Plants.
I hope that this experience will give me the credentials to teach horticulture someday, and in the meantime, I hope my back yard perennial and vegetable gardens will benefit from my newfound knowledge! In any case, it feels really good to be part of a group of like-minded people, to be doing something I love. I can’t wait until spring!
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That is very inspiring! I enjoy maintaining a large garden and grow veggies. Something to think about. Thanks for the course links!
I am wishing spring like crazy right now! I can’t wait to get my seedlings going!
Afraid I’m no where near a master gardener, but I don’t think I need to be. The enjoyment I get from my garden is all I need. I make plenty of mistakes but I thats half the fun
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