Master Gardeners
The Master Gardener Program is sponsored by Washington State University Extension. Volunteers are trained to solve gardening problems and provide WSU research-based advice to the public. Our volunteers staff regularly scheduled plant problem diagnostic clinics in several locations during the gardening season, helping people learn to manage their landscapes and gardens more more effectively with environmentally sound gardening practices.
In Benton and Franklin Counties training is held annually during the winter and early spring starting mid-January. Classes are four hours in length and are usually on Tuesday afternoons. Thirty to forty students are selected from the pool of interested people who submit applications to the program.
The Master Gardener core curriculum includes lectures in
- basic botany and horticulture
- soil and garden management
- principles of pest management
- landscape plant management
- integrated pest management & pesticide safety
- entomology
- plant pathology
- principles of weed management
- tree fruit and small fruit production
- vegetable garden production
- home lawn management
- insect identification and plant problem diagnosis
The 2007 WSU Master Gardener training program in Benton and Franklin Counties has concluded. T o be put on the waiting list to receive an application for 2008, contact the Extension office at (509) 735-3551 or print the two part application off on-line here:
New volunteers who take the Master Gardener training must pay total of $50 for materials and commit to 50 hours of payback service to the program. After completing the training and scoring well on the chapter tests, Master Gardener trainees are scheduled to staff plant problem diagnostic clinics and work in one or more of the Master Gardener programs gardens, such as Plants Grow Children or the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden.
Trainees earn the title "Certified Master Gardener" by completing 50 hours of a volunteer service obligation to the program and successfully completing their weekly quizzes and final exam. Master Gardeners are encouraged to remain in the program after their first year to continue their education and participate in the many educational program activities.
Learn more about the statewide WSU Master Gardener Program by clicking on the logo below.
Master Gardeners Help You Grow
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"Glimpses." Students talk about life at WSU