Master Gardener programs (also known as Extension Master Gardener Programs) are volunteer programs that train individuals in the science and art of gardening. These individuals pass on the information they learned during their training, as volunteers who advise and educate the public on gardening and horticulture.
The first Master Gardener program was founded in 1973 by Dr. David Gibby of Washington State University Cooperative Extension in the greater Tacoma area to meet a high demand for urban horticulture and gardening advice. [1] The first trial clinic was held at the Tacoma Mall in 1972. When that was successful, the Master Gardener Program was officially established, a curriculum created, and training began in King County and Pierce County in 1973. [2] The concept then spread to other U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
In the US, groups are affiliated with a land-grant university and one of its cooperative extension service offices. Canadian Master Gardener groups have different organizational structures, including incorporation as a charitable non-profit (Ontario) and universities (Saskatchewan). Typically, Master Gardeners receive extensive training and then provide information to the public via phone or email helplines, speaking at public events, writing articles for publications and the internet, and partnering with other community programs, gardens, and educational facilities. [3]
Master Gardeners are active in all 50 states in the United States and eight Canadian provinces. [4] According to the 2009 Extension Master Gardener Survey, there are nearly 95,000 active Extension Master Gardeners, who provide approximately 5,000,000 volunteer service hours of per year to their communities. [5] Once volunteers are accepted into a Master Gardener program, they are trained by cooperative extension, university, and local industry specialists in subjects such as taxonomy, plant pathology, soil health, entomology, cultural growing requirements, sustainable gardening, nuisance wildlife management, and integrated pest management.
After completing training, master gardeners serve their communities by providing guidance to others and maintaining community and historic gardens. [6] [7] [8] Awards are regularly presented to master gardeners for community service, innovative programs, and other topics. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
Horticulture is the cultivation of plants in gardens or greenhouses, as opposed to the field-scale production of crops characteristic of agriculture. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and non-food crops such as grass and ornamental trees and plants. It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, landscape and garden design, construction, and maintenance, and arboriculture, ornamental trees and lawns.
Washington State University is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant universities in the American West. With an undergraduate enrollment of 24,278 and a total enrollment of 28,581, it is the second largest institution for higher education in Washington state behind the University of Washington. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is headquartered in Burlington owning extensive environmental protection areas, historic sites and culturally relevant gardens in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the major tourist attractions between Niagara Falls and Toronto, as well as a significant local and regional horticultural, education, conservation, and scientific resource. The mandate is derived by a Provincial Act of 1941 centred on human interaction with the natural world and protection of environmentally significant lands that form the western tip of Lake Ontario. Royal Botanical Gardens spans an area of about 10 km by 4 km, dominated by two coastal wetlands, and glacial-carved landscapes that extend from the lake up to the Niagara Escarpment plateau. The various gardens and natural areas are accessed through nine public entrance locations. It is one of several Prescribed Public Bodies listed under the Ontario Heritage Act.
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation.
The Rockingham County Botanical Garden was a botanical garden in Brentwood, New Hampshire, United States.
Agricultural education is the teaching of agriculture, natural resources, and land management. At higher levels, agricultural education is primarily undertaken to prepare students for employment in the agricultural sector. Classes taught in an agricultural education curriculum may include horticulture, land management, turf grass management, agricultural science, small animal care, machine and shop classes, health and nutrition, livestock management, and biology.
Misericordia University is a private Roman Catholic university in Dallas, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1924 as College Misericordia; in 2007 it became a university and changed its name. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees as well as post-master's and post-bachelor's certificates. The university operates a campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where it offers an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in partnership with Orbis Education.
Neil Sperry is a Texas gardening and horticulture expert known for his books, magazine, radio program, and annual gardening show. Sperry was born and raised in College Station, Texas where he graduated A&M Consolidated High School as Salutatorian and Student Body President. He attended Texas A&M University and earned horticulture degrees from Ohio State University. He married his wife Lynn in 1967, and they now live in McKinney, Texas.
This is an alphabetical index of articles related to gardening.
Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in attention with the global trend of urbanization and works to study the harvest, aesthetic, architectural, recreational and psychological purposes and effects of plants in urban environments.
Washington State University Spokane, branded as WSU Health Sciences Spokane, is a campus of Washington State University located in Spokane, Washington. It was established in 1989 and, as of 2010, is designated as the university's health science campus. The urban campus is housed on the 48-acre (19 ha) multi-institutional WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus, formerly known as the Riverpoint Campus, in Spokane's University District just east of Downtown Spokane.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is one of eight colleges at Virginia Tech with a three-part mission of learning, discovery, and engagement and it is one of the best agriculture programs in the nation. It has more than 3,100 undergraduate and graduate students in a dozen academic departments. In 2013, the National Science Foundation ranked Virginia Tech No. 6 in the country for agricultural research expenditures, much of which originated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Community gardens in the United States benefit both gardeners and society at large. Community gardens provide fresh produce to gardeners and their friends and neighbors. They provide a place of connection to nature and to other people. In a wider sense, community gardens provide green space, a habitat for insects and animals, sites for gardening education, and beautification of the local area. Community gardens provide access to land to those who otherwise could not have a garden, such as apartment-dwellers, the elderly, and the homeless. Many gardens resemble European allotment gardens, with plots or boxes where individuals and families can grow vegetables and flowers, including a number which began as victory gardens during World War II. Other gardens are worked as community farms with no individual plots at all, similar to urban farms.
The University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is a public agricultural college at the University of Kentucky. The college was renamed the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment on July 1, 2013. The name change incorporates the college's expanded role that occurred with the merger of the College of Human Environmental Sciences into the College of Agriculture. The college's research, teaching and outreach programs encompass farms, forests, food, fiber, families and communities. On May 25, 2023, the college announced a $100-million gift from late University of Kentucky alum and former trustee Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton. The college subsequently announced it would be renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment pending approval from the UK Board of Trustees. As of June 16, 2023, the college is officially renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service is an outreach-based educational delivery system supported by a partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The UAF Cooperative Extension Service annually serves approximately 80,000 Alaskans, “providing a link between Alaska's diverse people and communities by interpreting and extending relevant university, research-based knowledge in an understandable and usable form to the public.” Since 1930 the UAF Extension Service has partnered with many organizations across the state of Alaska in pursuit of fulfilling its land-grant university mission to disseminate agricultural research and other scientific information.
Gateway Greening is non-profit organization based in St. Louis, Missouri that works to educate and empower the community through gardening and urban agriculture. The organization operates demonstration and community resource gardens and an urban farm, hosts lectures and education programs, and supports school and community gardens throughout the City and St Louis County, Missouri.
Illène Pevec is an author, journalist, children's activist, and educator who works in developing youth gardens at schools and community centers. Based in Carbondale, Colorado, Pevec serves as the program director for Fat City Farmers, a local food education program in Basalt, Colorado. She is a multinational citizen and has developed youth gardens in all three countries. Pevec authored Growing a Life: Teen Gardeners Harvest Food, Health, and Joy, a book that integrates her work in US community youth gardens with observations from other disciplines to generate a better understanding of the positive effect mentored urban gardening can have on youth development.
Abra Lee is an American public horticulturalist, historian and writer, who researches Black garden history and raises awareness of the subject through social media.
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