Home gardeners and potential gardeners in Sonoma County may be
having a tough time with the unpredictable weather experienced over
the past few years.
After three years of drought followed by a typically wet year,
another dry year is taking place despite recent spots of rain.
In addition to dealing with the vagaries of weather, there are
many gardening choices, from removing lawns to grow food or plant
drought tolerant natives, to learning to prune fruit trees or
roses.
So what is the layman gardener – or the experienced gardener
seeking to expand their growing horizons – to do?
One answer is to ask a Master Gardener.
The Master Gardeners program is a one-stop shop for anyone with
questions about home gardening.
The program has been in existence in Sonoma County since 1981,
providing volunteers trained and certified in the fields of
gardening and horticulture by the University of California
Cooperative Extension (UCCE).
There are more than 200 Master Gardeners in Sonoma County, with
96 in the West County – 65 in Sebastopol – 28 in Healdsburg and
eight in Windsor.
“We give scientific, ecologically sound advice to home
gardeners,” Barbara Kirbach, Master Gardener publicity leader for
Sonoma County said. “Our mission is education. We advise gardeners
what to do with compost and how to get rid of insects. We teach
about first time vegetable gardens, lawn removal, drought tolerant
plants, planting natives, bees and more.”
Becoming a Master Gardener is not for the faint of heart. Each
volunteer receives more than 100 hours of instruction by UCCE
advisors and professors from UCs Berkeley and Davis, local college
faculty and other specialists in their fields. The courses cover
subjects such as soil, water, pest and fertilizer management,
entomology, plant pathology, weed science, composting and growing
fruits, vegetables and other plants in the home landscape.
Volunteers must then pass examinations on plant science and
horticulture.
Once training is completed, each Master Gardener must volunteer
for a minimum of 60 hours of community service in their first year
with 12 hours of continuing education. After the initial year, they
must volunteer for a minimum of 25 hours with 12 hours of
additional study.
“The training was intense,” Master Gardener Gayle Bergmann of
Sebastopol, said, “I didn’t realize what I was getting into.”
Bergmann in co-coordinator of West County Area Master Gardeners
along with Gene Gallock and has been a Master Gardener for 18
years, after moving to Sonoma County from Palm Desert in 1993. She
said that she moved around a lot in her earlier years, but has
always enjoyed gardening.
After moving to the area, Bergmann saw an ad in the paper about
becoming a Master Gardener and found her calling.
“It always took so long to figure out the growing seasons and
the local climates, I figured this would shorten the learning
curve,” she said.
In spite of the intensity of the training, Bergmann said that
there is a lot of on-the-job training.
“We’re not expected to know everything. They know you’ll learn
along the way,” she said.
But once the training is complete and the novice becomes the
Master Gardener, “There’s a real sense of community” among them,
she said.
As one of the longer-term Master Gardeners, Bergmann credits the
professionalism of the organization, which has evolved over time,
for its longevity.
“This is our 30th year, our 30th graduating class, and that’s
something of a historical achievement,” she said. “We’ve done a lot
of innovative things.”
The Master Gardeners disseminate information in a variety of
ways, through workshops, library lectures and plant clinics, but
also provide additional services including staffing an information
desk in the UCCE office in Santa Rosa; working on special community
horticultural and gardening projects, such as school gardens and
the biennial garden show and staffing information booths at local
farmers markets, and the county fair.
Letitia Caruso coordinates volunteers and staffs the booth at
the Windsor farmers market, where they provide handouts and answer
questions.
The booth is typical of Master Gardener booths in that
volunteers are on hand to answer questions and provide information,
as well as providing displays of damaged plants and “interesting
bugs” so that local gardeners can get a tactile example of the
problems they may encounter.
“I’ve attended many farmers markets and found that people are
interested in gardening. … A lot of people seek us out,” she
said, adding that Master Gardeners provide an important service as,
“I haven’t run across too many farmers with the time to get away
from running their farms and businesses” to teach.
Caruso moved to Windsor in 1990 and has always been a gardener,
even helping her friends, but she decided she wanted to “take it to
the next level,” learn more and volunteer in the community.
“People have their own knowledge from pots on their porches to
their back yards,” she said. “There is a mix of well educated,
successful Master Gardeners passing our knowledge on to other
people.”
The best way to see the results of the service the organization
provides, is to participate in the biannual Bloomin’ Backyards
tour, which is the sole fundraiser for the organization.
This year’s event takes place in the Healdsburg area, where
Janet Norton – a newbie to Master Gardeners, having graduated in
the class of 2009 – lives.
Norton and her husband came to California from Massachusetts 50
years ago – she lived in Santa Clara when it was “all orchards” –
and was living with her husband in San Francisco when they bought
property in Healdsburg that they moved to in 1998.
“It’s a very unusual property. It’s .6 mile from the Healdsburg
Square and sits on an acre,” she said. “For us, it was like being
in Golden Gate Park.”
The property has oaks trees, an “ancient gingko,” and
Gravenstein apples among other horticultural delights.
They were originally taken by the bounty of the property, but
once the wonder wore off, they realized they had to take care of
the plants.
“Once we got over it, we said ‘what are we going to do?'” she
said. “We’d just moved from a flat in San Francisco and we didn’t
even have basic tools.”
She decided to learn more about being an urban gardener in order
to become a better steward of the property, which led her to the
Master Gardeners.
“It is a very good organization and such a wonderful teaching
tool,” Norton said, adding that the training was “like going to a
big museum. There were textbooks and field meetings and
speakers.”
As an intern, she was selected to serve on the board, so most of
her experience has been in management, although she was also able
to get experience “behind the desk.”
“Behind the desk, you learn how to do research,” she said of
answering questions from the public. “You take calls or they come
in with damaged leaves or twigs or bugs. … It’s all so
esoteric.”
During Norton’s time on the board, the Master Gardeners also
became involved with iGrow Sonoma, which is part of the county’s
Health Action initiative.
“We realized how important it is to empower people with the food
they eat,” she said.
The Master Gardeners have focused on growing food, helping to
create community and school gardens, as well as teaching families
in urban areas about lawn replacement to grow food.
“If 10 families can get together, we’ll come out and train
them,” Norton said. “You can grow enough food for a family of four
in a very small area.”
Norton is also in charge of marketing and public relations for
Bloomin’ Backyards this year, after working as a volunteer in
2010.
“My favorite part is the way it organizes and the way Master
Gardeners come together over and above what we usually do,” she
said. “People come out for an entire year to prepare the gardens.
They propagate some 3,000 plants and it’s an opportunity for people
to see home gardens where people have met the challenges. …
Everybody gets a chance to see them in a day.”
The UCCE programs are funded by three government entities:
federal, through the USDA; state, through the University of
California and county, which provides housing and operating
expenses for the local UCCE office.
Additional funds to support the Master Gardeners’ community
education programs come from Bloomin’ Backyards, which will be held
on June 3 in Healdsburg.
Overall policy for the Master Gardener program is developed by
UCCE and is implemented by County Director, Linda Garcia and County
Farm Advisor, Paul Vossen. The Master Gardener Coordinator, Deborah
Curle, and the volunteer Board of Directors then initiate and carry
out educational programs.
Applications for the 2012 Master Gardeners training class are
currently being accepted and can be made online at
www.sonomamastergardeners.org.
Paper applications are available at the SCMG office, farmers
markets, and public libraries when library series talks are
held.
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More about Master Gardeners
Sonoma County Master Gardener Office:
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
University of California Cooperative Extension, 133 Aviation
Blvd., Suite 109
Santa Rosa, 95403. Phone: 565-2608.
Sonoma Office: Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 1 to 3
p.m.
19722 8th St. East, Sonoma, 95476.
Phone: 938-0127.
Website:www.sonomamastergardeners.org.
Upcoming workshops:
Sebastopol: Feb. 18, Winter Care and Pruning of
Fruit Trees; March 10, Growing Great Tomatoes’ April 28,
Encouraging Honeybees in the Garden, May 19, Super Succulents.
Windsor: Feb.25, Rethink, Reduce, Replace Your Lawn; April 14,
Growing Vegetables; May 12, Garden Lessons.
Healdsburg: Feb. 25, Catching Varmints, March
3, Habitat Gardening; April 7, Soil; May 19, Drip Irrigation.
For a complete schedule and location of workshops, go to
www.sonomamastergardeners.org.
