You’ve seen them at plant diagnostic clinics, local garden tours and other local events answering gardening and landscaping questions. You’ve seen the Demonstration Garden they maintain at the Grays Harbor Fairgrounds in Elma and the Grays Harbor College Riverview campus in Raymond. You’ve participated in educational workshops or special events they’ve hosted. Perhaps you’ve even purchased a compost bin from them. And you may have thought, “I would like to be involved in those projects. How do I become a Master Gardener?”

The WSU Extension Master Gardener program actually began in Washington State when a King County agent realized that a group of well-trained volunteers could be of enormous assistance in promoting best gardening practices and answering homeowner’s gardening questions. Since then, the program, which is committed to fostering the enjoyment of home gardening through education, has spread to nearly every state as well as other countries.

While this program offers gardeners opportunities to gain personal knowledge in a variety of different gardening subjects, the focus is to develop community educators. Once training is completed, Master Gardener volunteers help deliver information related to sustainable gardening, composting, landscaping, plant disease management, and insect identification and control.

Master Gardener training is held every other year in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, with classes slated for this fall. The training consists of 16 sessions over 8 weeks, covering 24 topics from the basics of botany and soils to the complexities of entomology and plant disease recognition.

Classes will be held on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. starting Monday, September 13th and ending on Thursday, November 4th. Participants will have the opportunity to attend Monday classes in one of three locations including Ocean Shores, Hoquiam or Montesano. Thursday Classes will be held in Cosmopolis.

In Pacific County Monday classes will be held at the Grays Harbor College Riverside campus in Raymond and the Thursday class in Cosmopolis.

All sessions begin at 9 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. The cost to attend the 2010 training is $125.00, which includes a DVD of information presented in the class and a the course textbook, the Sustainable Gardening Handbook.

For an application form, please contact: Don Tapio, WSU Area Extension Agent at 360-482-2934 or tapiod@wsu.edu.

Thanks for the info. I've wanted to do that to see if my black thumb can turn, at least, a pale green. I really enjoy your annual tours and am planning to go next Saturday. It's always fascinating to see what art people create in their yards with plants.

Welcome to the forums.

You'll love the training! It's amazing how much information you take away--both knowledge and books/pamphlets.