Extension Master Gardeners Celebrating 25th Anniversary 1/31/05

MANHATTAN, Kan. – A Kansas gardening program is marking its 25th anniversary this year.

Thousands of the state’s green thumbs have earned the program’s title for graduates: Extension Master Gardener (EMG). From 200 to 300 Kansans join their ranks yearly.

Are You Master
Gardener Material?

LAWRENCE, Kan. – To recruit a new “class” of Extension Master Gardener program participants in Douglas County this year, K-State Research and Extension horticulturist Bruce Chladny circulated the following message:

If one or more of the following statements apply to you, I encourage you to consider becoming an EMG. volunteer.

1. While attending your children’s soccer games, you inspect the field for crabgrass.

2. The Extension Horticulture Hotline number is programmed on your phone’s speed dial..

3. You have at least one garden tool held together by duct tape.

4. You know the precise botanical name of every plant in your yard, but have difficulty remembering the names of relatives.

5. You clip your children’s hair into topiary forms.

6. You have bought beer solely for slug control.

7. At a dinner party, you’ve discussed the pros and cons of sterilizing garden soil in your oven.

8. As a special-occasion gift, you enjoy receiving a load of well-rotted manure.

9. You have a bumper sticker that reads: “I brake for worms,” “I’d rather be weeding” or “Manure happens.”

10. You were disappointed to learn the L.L. Bean catalog doesn’t sell vegetable seeds.

Many people still don’t know, however, what gardeners have to go through to earn that title. At their own or a nearby county’s K-State Research and Extension office, aspiring EMGs complete 40 to 50 hours of training designed at Kansas State University. They have projects and take tests.

Then they “pay” for the study with 40 to 50 hours of community service, This can include everything from answering a plant “hotline” to leading a children’s plant camp, speaking to a civic group or building a public demonstration garden.

Even so, people keep signing up. Plus, many EMGs don’t stop when their official commitment is over. The state’s active rolls now include more than 1,200 – still studying and volunteering.

Kansas EMGs range from beginning to professional gardeners. They come from all walks of life, according to Chuck Marr, the K-State horticulturist who started the program in 1980.

Common interests aren’t necessarily what keeps them coming back for more, either, he said.

An EMG’s garden may be vast plots or patio pots. EMGs differ in their views on chemical use, preferred plants and tolerance for plant-eating wildlife. Some grow and preserve their family’s fruits, herbs and vegetables. Others are more likely to “grow” hardscape from concrete, rocks or lumber.

Marr said: “Even if they don’t remain active in the program, they seem to retain its spirit. In fact, every once in a while, you’ll even see the EMG title show up now in someone’s obituary.”

Explaining why this is so may be impossible. Perhaps people are simply proud of having survived the training and service commitment. Perhaps they like the tie to EMGs in other states.

But another explanation could be hidden in the message that K-State horticulturist Bruce Chladny sent out this year to recruit Douglas County’s next EMG class. It’s a collection of what sounds like the gardener’s version of redneck jokes. (See box.)

Chladny said that EMGs in the Lawrence area enjoy working with each other because their common ground is beyond garden soil.

“Given our weather, you have to be a realist to garden in Kansas. It helps to have a sense of humor, too. And you have to be an optimist, or else you won’t keep looking for better answers and replanting things,” he said. “Then if you raise zucchini that overwhelm your kitchen ... or if you grow ever-expanding perennials, you become someone who is glad, if not really eager to share.

“Master Gardeners enjoy finding others with a common vocabulary and this approach to life. Besides, they put together the greatest pot luck meals you’ll ever find at an educational meeting!”

The Kansas Master Gardener program started in Johnson County. The idea was to help K-State’s handful of horticulture agents, each of whom is stationed at a county Extension office in one of Kansas’ more crowded population zones. These agents’ subject matter is not only the nation’s top leisure-time activity but also the No. 1 reason Kansans visit a local Extension office, Marr said.

“Without some help for themselves, these urban agents would be strictly limited in what they can offer their large clientele,” he said. “Just getting people’s soil samples processed can be a big job.”

Through cooperative agreements with other types of Extension agents, the horticulturists’ EMG program now is available in almost half of Kansas’ counties – including a few in the less populous west. Some of these “blocks” of counties start their year’s EMG training in spring and some in fall, Marr said.

The state EMG convention (and advanced training) is held in Manhattan each fall.

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.