Master Gardener

Master Gardener Program

What is a Master Gardener?

Master Gardeners around the country provide free, research-based horticulture information to the community. In the Tahoe Basin, they are volunteers who learn advanced plant science and landscape and resource management skills from at least 50 hours of classroom instruction by University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE) professionals.

The program grew out of the need to meet an enormous increase in requests from home gardeners for horticultural information. Master Gardeners provide a valuable service to the community by helping Cooperative Extension meet the home gardener’s demand for information. Master Gardening has also become a fun and useful volunteer activity, which has given its participants a sense of community spirit, accomplishment and intellectual stimulation.

Becoming a Master Gardener

To find out about how to become a Master Gardener, contact the UCCE or UNCE office in your county. The El Dorado County UCCE contact for the Tahoe Basin is Susie Kocher: sdkocher@ucdavis.edu, 530-542-2571.

In most counties, once accepted into the Master Gardener training program, participants complete an extensive horticulture training course of 50 hours and pass a take home test. First year Master Gardeners are required to volunteer a minimum of 50 hours of service to master gardener program activities. Master Gardeners then re-certify annually. In order to recertify, Master Gardeners serve a minimum of 25 hours of volunteer time and complete 12 hours of continuing education annually.

Master Gardener E-News, Classes, Events & Updates - Central Sierras