Training program starts in winter; deadline to apply is Oct. 10
Master gardener Anita Brown, from the Sacramento County class of 2020, welcomes visitors to the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on Harvest Day. Applications for the 2025 class will open Sept. 10. Kathy Morrison
Being a UC master gardener does not mean having a gardening encyclopedia for a brain.
But a master gardener does relish talking about plants and gardening: asking or answering questions, sharing skills, diagnosing problems and always being interested in learning more.
Does this sound like you or someone you know? Here's the chance, for residents of Sacramento County: Applications for the 2025 UC master gardener training class open Sept. 10.
Sacramento County’s master gardener program does not train every year; the class of 2023 is the most recent one. Applicants must be residents of Sacramento County; other counties have their own training programs.
The application period closes Oct. 10. Informational “Meet the Master Gardeners” events typically are held in the fall; dates are not yet set. The fee for the 2025 training program also has yet to be announced.
Master gardeners are volunteers who educate the public via workshops, home and garden events, festivals, talks to community groups, and the Cooperative Extension's online and phone Help Desk, sharing UC research-based home horticultural information. They are especially visible at the State Fair information booth and at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center, Sacramento County's demonstration garden. (Check them out at the next Open Garden at the FOHC, on Sept. 14.)
The training program generally starts in January and runs into May. Classes typically meet once a week, all day, and are taught by a variety of university specialists, horticulture advisers and community experts.
New master gardeners are required to put in 50 hours of volunteer time the first year; veterans have a 25-hour annual requirement. Twelve hours of continuing education per year also is required for all master gardeners.
Hint from me, a member of the 2020 class: Folks with a history of or interest in volunteering in any capacity -- church, school, community, whatever — do very well. People skills are important. It also helps if you enjoy a good research hunt. As my class was told, “We don’t expect you to memorize everything, but we expect you to know where to look it up.”
More information on the training program is here: https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Master_Gardener_Training/
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Food in My Back Yard Series
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
Local News
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
Powered by California Local
