The Portage County Master Gardener Program

The year 2005 was the 15th year of existence for the Portage County Master Gardener Program.  The program was introduced in Portage County in 1991.  

Currently, there are over 100 certified Master Gardeners in the program and the new 2005 class will train an additional 20 volunteers.  

Our Master Gardeners are involved in numerous community service and outreach projects as well as providing answers to horticultural questions from county residents.  In 2005, the Master Gardeners answered more than 2500 "hort" questions via the "hotline", a free service provided to Portage County by the Master Gardeners.   The Master Gardener office is staffed from April through October on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 

Each August, the Master Gardeners create

 a display booth at the Portage County Randolph Fair. 

The History of the Master
Gardener Program

The first group of Master Gardeners to be trained by Extension specialists was in King and Pierce Counties in the state of Washington in 1972.  The Extension Agent for horticulture in those counties, Dr. David Gibby, was inundated by the number of requests that came into his office.  He tried to answer questions more efficiently by using the media, but this only served to increase the volume of calls from people wanting individual attention.

Dr. Gibby thought about the idea of using specially trained volunteers to do outreach work in the area of home gardening.  These first 120 Master Gardener volunteers served more than 7,000 clients at plant clinics during their first year.

It was a concept that has now spread to more than 40 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and Canada.  Today, more than 80,000 volunteers have received Master Gardener training and contributed hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours to their communities.  In addition to plant clinics and telephone hotlines, still a basic activity of most Master Gardener programs, these volunteers conduct research; maintain demonstration plots and carry out gardening projects with school groups, 4-H clubs, youth at risk, senior citizens and other special groups.  Master Gardeners are involved with community beautification, composting and recycling and similar planting and environmental projects.  This list of activities is practically endless.

 The Master Gardener Program in Ohio

In Ohio, Franklin and Cuyahoga Counties piloted training and working with Master Gardener volunteers beginning in the late 1970's.  These first endeavors were short lived.  In 1986, however, Cuyahoga County once again initiated the program and now has the longest continuously running Master Gardener program in Ohio.  The program slowly began to build in northeastern and northwestern Ohio with about 10 counties involved in 1990.

Since 1991, the presence of a State Coordinator for the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program, with guidance from an Advisory Committee consisting of Extension professionals and Master Gardener volunteers from throughout the state, has added impetus to the program.  Today, 50 counties, rural as well as urban, are served by nearly 1,800 Master Gardener volunteers, and the number of participating counties and Master Gardeners is expected to continue to grow.

Much of the work accomplished to date by the State Master Gardener Advisory Committee has concentrated on ensuring consistency among counties regarding how training is provided, as well as establishing general guidelines for managing the program.  The types of activities with which the Master Gardeners are involved are still left to the discretion of the county coordinator and are based on local needs.

The Advisory Committee has developed State Master Gardener Policy Guidelines, Master Gardener Standards of Behavior and the Master Gardener Volunteer A

greement that indicated how and when the title Master Gardener should be used, and that only OSU Extension - approved pesticide recommendations may be provided to clientele.

In addition to the work carried out by the Advisory Committee, the writing of the Master Gardener Training Manual has provided a big boost for the Master Gardener Program.  The Ohio Master Gardener Manual was developed by Jack Kerrigan with considerable input by Master Gardeners, as well as State Extension Specialists and other Extension Agents.  It is precisely suited for Ohio conditions and to our needs within the OSU Master Gardener Program.

To help support the program in the counties, a quarterly newsletter, the Ohio Master Gardener, is sent to all active Master Gardeners on the state level.  Each county program is distinctive and Portage County Offers you unique opportunities for you to use your gardening knowledge and skills to help others.