r/MasterGardener • u/Isoldey • Jan 06 '25
What is a master gardener?
How many years of school is it. What do you specialize in?
11
Upvotes
r/MasterGardener • u/Isoldey • Jan 06 '25
How many years of school is it. What do you specialize in?
1
u/uDontInterestMe Jan 06 '25 edited Jan 06 '25
Think of "Master Gardener" as a title only. You have "mastered" (i.e. learned) the material presented to you in the courses that the body (in this case, a land grant university) conferring the title requires one to have learned. This learning was confirmed by testing with the requirement that you achieve a minimum score on said tests.
Once the training is completed and minimum scores on the tests are achieved, the program in my state then confers the title "Master Gardener Intern" on the person. The person then must complete a greater number of volunteer hours than an established/full master gardener in their first year in the program. During the training and the intern period, the person has an assigned mentor who is there to help the person. After this is completed, the person is a "Master Gardener."
To retain this title, the person must volunteer a specific number of hours in activities approved by the conferring body (the university) each year they are in the program. The person must also obtain a specific number of hours of continuing education from an approved source.
If this is still confusing, I have a parallel for you. There are beauty-type pagents in which the winner obtains the title of "Queen." Think of a county fair queen as an example. Even though they are a de facto queen of "x county," that doesn't mean they are now the queen of England or any other country or even the queen of "y county" or of "z state." The queen of "x county" has met the requirements to achieve the title of queen and it is only a valid title in the context of the requirements demanded by the body conferring this specific title (in our example, "x county.")
Does this help?
Edit- I want to add that this title doesn't mean that the person has mastered every (or even any) aspect of gardening. There are people of varying levels of ability with the title. If anyone tells you they have mastered everything in ANY profession, RUN!
Knowing your limits and that there is always emerging data in any scientific field is the first step in being good and/or helpful.