I was almost a MasterGardener
 

I was excited to sign up for the class, even though I couldn't really
afford the 6hr commitment once a week, or the $250.

Ended up dropping out - just didn't show up to drop off the take-home
final.

It was a very poorly run class - sixty people watching PowerPoints for
four hours every Monday evening for three months. No interaction. A
lot of interest in pesticides and lawn care and ornamental shrubs. In
the one class that dealt with vegetable gardening the instructer
focused on her work with commercial growers. Interesting - I would
have watched this on PBS, but it ain't helping my tomatoes. Community
gardening was never mentioned.

The volunteer work choices - mostly planting flowers around government
builings, or working the phone hot line for suburbanites with yellow
patches on their lawns - those of us most untrained giving advice to
the public as Master Gardener Trainees under the aegis of university
extension service. Complete BS.

The nice, semi-retired ladies running the classes seem to mean well.
The thick loose-leaf textbook (repetitive and self-condtradicory as it
is sometimes) may be good for a reference, if I ever get back into the
garden.

Having seen it from the inside, the title Certified Master Gardener
means less than nothing to me.

B

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:31:36 -0700 (PDT), bulka
> wrote:

>I was excited to sign up for the class, even though I couldn't really
>afford the 6hr commitment once a week, or the $250.
>
>Ended up dropping out - just didn't show up to drop off the take-home
>final.
>
>It was a very poorly run class - sixty people watching PowerPoints for
>four hours every Monday evening for three months. No interaction. A
>lot of interest in pesticides and lawn care and ornamental shrubs. In
>the one class that dealt with vegetable gardening the instructer
>focused on her work with commercial growers. Interesting - I would
>have watched this on PBS, but it ain't helping my tomatoes. Community
>gardening was never mentioned.
>
>The volunteer work choices - mostly planting flowers around government
>builings, or working the phone hot line for suburbanites with yellow
>patches on their lawns - those of us most untrained giving advice to
>the public as Master Gardener Trainees under the aegis of university
>extension service. Complete BS.
>
>The nice, semi-retired ladies running the classes seem to mean well.
>The thick loose-leaf textbook (repetitive and self-condtradicory as it
>is sometimes) may be good for a reference, if I ever get back into the
>garden.
>
>Having seen it from the inside, the title Certified Master Gardener
>means less than nothing to me.
>
>B
>
That sounds pretty crummy. Are you in Texas? I've worked with the
head of the master gardner program in this county, and she stikes me
as more than what you describe. Hope I'm right.

They local master gardener home page is he
http://grovesite.com/page.asp?o=mg&s=h&p=194372

But it's incomplete -- dead links and such.

One link that does work is to this site:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/mastergd/index.html
--

modom

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:31:36 -0700 (PDT), bulka
> wrote:

>The volunteer work choices - mostly planting flowers around government
>builings, or working the phone hot line for suburbanites with yellow
>patches on their lawns - those of us most untrained giving advice to
>the public as Master Gardener Trainees under the aegis of university
>extension service. Complete BS.

Sounds like the Help desk down at your local ISP. LOL


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that
interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

On Mar 15, 9:04 pm, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
wrote:
>
> That sounds pretty crummy. Are you in Texas?
>
> modom

No. If for nothing else than the growing season, I wish I were. (and
the hats and boots). Farmers' market won't start here until May.
Maybe by then the flood in my clayey yard will have subsided.

My bad MasterGardener experience was in Macomb County, MI, just north
of Detroit. One reason I wish I got along better with them - they
also do a Composter program. Dang, if I thought I could survive
that round of slide show I'd have business cards printed, put on the
top of my resume : "Certified Master Composter".

B

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:29:20 -0700 (PDT), bulka
> wrote:

>On Mar 15, 9:04 pm, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
>wrote:
>>
>> That sounds pretty crummy. Are you in Texas?
>>
>> modom
>
>No. If for nothing else than the growing season, I wish I were. (and
>the hats and boots). Farmers' market won't start here until May.
>Maybe by then the flood in my clayey yard will have subsided.
>
>My bad MasterGardener experience was in Macomb County, MI, just north
>of Detroit. One reason I wish I got along better with them - they
>also do a Composter program. Dang, if I thought I could survive
>that round of slide show I'd have business cards printed, put on the
>top of my resume : "Certified Master Composter".
>

Word to the wise, bulka, raised beds! San Francisco is either rock,
clay or sand... trust me, it works.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that
interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

bulka wrote:
> I was excited to sign up for the class, even though I couldn't really
> afford the 6hr commitment once a week, or the $250.
>
> Ended up dropping out - just didn't show up to drop off the take-home
> final.
>
> It was a very poorly run class - sixty people watching PowerPoints for
> four hours every Monday evening for three months. No interaction. A
> lot of interest in pesticides and lawn care and ornamental shrubs. In
> the one class that dealt with vegetable gardening the instructer
> focused on her work with commercial growers. Interesting - I would
> have watched this on PBS, but it ain't helping my tomatoes. Community
> gardening was never mentioned.
>
> The volunteer work choices - mostly planting flowers around government
> builings, or working the phone hot line for suburbanites with yellow
> patches on their lawns - those of us most untrained giving advice to
> the public as Master Gardener Trainees under the aegis of university
> extension service. Complete BS.
>
> The nice, semi-retired ladies running the classes seem to mean well.
> The thick loose-leaf textbook (repetitive and self-condtradicory as it
> is sometimes) may be good for a reference, if I ever get back into the
> garden.
>
> Having seen it from the inside, the title Certified Master Gardener
> means less than nothing to me.
>
> B

Sounds like you had a terrible experience, and a boring one, too. Can
you take a class in a different county? Maybe it would not be as
boring. This will not help you with your tomatoes right now, though.


Our class started in January, it was on Tuesdays & Thursdays and we had
to do 40 hours of volunteer service (this was 10 yrs ago, it has since
been raised to 60 hours). We volunteered at the plant sale in the
spring and at the "Friendship Garden", this is where elderly people
would grow vegetables in raised beds. There was a small building on the
property and the elderly men would be sitting around a table drinking
beer and eating donuts. That was different. lol


Becca

I was almost a MasterGardener
 

bulka wrote:
>
> On Mar 15, 9:04 pm, "modom (palindrome guy)" >
> wrote:
> >
> > That sounds pretty crummy. Are you in Texas?
> >
> > modom
>
> No. If for nothing else than the growing season, I wish I were. (and
> the hats and boots). Farmers' market won't start here until May.
> Maybe by then the flood in my clayey yard will have subsided.
>
> My bad MasterGardener experience was in Macomb County, MI, just north
> of Detroit. One reason I wish I got along better with them - they
> also do a Composter program. Dang, if I thought I could survive
> that round of slide show I'd have business cards printed, put on the
> top of my resume : "Certified Master Composter".
>
> B

You probably did the right thing by not finishing. We have 'Master
Gardeners' around here as well. They are often planted in the public
libraries during the growing season to answer questions from said
public. Not once have any of them answered any of my questions correctly
or even at all. The books they keep on the table in front of them are
the same ones in my own gardening library.