1. Cuyahoga County Master Gardeners OSU Ext.
Bloodroot?
Cuyahoga County Master Gardeners OSU Ext.

2. Master Gardeners Community Service Community Support
A diverse group of people
Sharing knowledge
Helping others
Providing volunteer leadership and service
Samuel Johnson (18th century writer) said “knowledge is of two kinds: knowing a subject directly and knowing where to find information about a subject…”
Master Gardeners are a diverse group of people who share their knowledge and help others grow by providing volunteer leadership and service to their communities through various gardening activities. 

3. Our Vision –
The OSU Extension Master Gardener Program is a premier statewide network of volunteer education and leadership development; as well as a consumer horticulture education delivery system that maximizes human, material, and natural resources, and values teamwork and excellence in educational programming.
Our vision {read it}
A fancy way to say that Master Gardeners are committeed to providing the best information, based on up to date research from the Ohio State University Extension Service, to assist individuals and communities improve their lives through horticulture.
Master gardeners are not “experts in the sense of knowing all about gardeners. Experience, education and working with other master gardeners and knowing where to locate information is how we gain our knowledge

4. Our Mission – To provide horticultural education
develop leadership ability of volunteers
The Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Program provides knowledge to volunteers
and develops the leadership abilities of volunteers. The volunteers in turn, enable others to improve the quality of their lives by enhancing their home and community environments through horticultural education and activities. Through it all the support and education is backed up by the research of the extension service and the staff of the local extension office.

5. Back to the Beginnings When did the Master Program Begin?
Washington State
The beginnings in Ohio
In the 1970’s
Revitalized in Cuyahoga County in 1986
Longest continuously running program in Ohio
10 counties around the state in the 1990’s
~35 counties in 2006 and over 900 volunteers
When did the Master Program Begin? The Master Gardener program was started by Dr. David Gibby from the State of Washington in 1972.  In order to meet the horticulture needs of his community, Dr. Gibby used specially trained volunteers to complete outreach work in the area of home gardening.  His concept has now spread to more than 40 states with 50,000 people serving as Master Gardener volunteers. 
for more history…in washington state
From
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.
In Ohio
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.
The Master Gardener program has been in Ohio since the late 70's but did not really take off until 1986 when the Cuyahoga County Master Gardener program began.  We now have 30 county programs in Ohio with over 900 volunteers

6. Brief history of the “extension service”
Land grant colleges
Mission
outreach
Evidence based/best practices
Grassroots development
Rural and community development
Mentioned extension service many times already
What is the extension service
Outgrowth of laws passed in 1862 to assist the family farmer
Homestead Act, Morrill Land-Grant College Act and the creation of the depart of agriculture
Land grant act provided land to states to build a university to teach agricultural knowledge.
1887 the Hatch act provided a grant to each state for the support of an agricultural experiment station
The step was to communicate the results of the agricultural research and initially that research did not meet the needs of the intended receipients.
The response was the creation of “farmers institutes”, trraveling exhibits and short college courses began to bring the results of research to the user in the “field” (excuse the pun)
More efforts to bring practical education to farmers and families were initiated
demonstration farms, boys and girls clubs, home demonstration clubs, extension programs—the core of what we now know as the extension service.
All of the programs representing the research done by the university and the best practices of agriculture that were being developed
The program emphasized the role of grass roots development. Community oriented projects locally developed and supported by centralized agencies like the extension service.
The model holds today.

7. Part of larger picture
Trained and supported by the Ohio State University
With the staff and resources of the county extension service
Emphasis is on going “lifelong” education for the Master Gardener volunteer
“picture” here from master gardener program 2006 (recruitment program?)

8. Volunteer Training 10 week intensive program
Over 60 hours of classroom training
Instruction provided by
Staff of the OSU Extension office
Other Master Gardeners
Internship program
50 hours of additional training through participation in Master Gardener programs
Classroom training centers around the Master Gardener Training Manual and lectures presented by Ohio State University Extension faculty and staff  A quiz at the beginning of each session measures your grasp of the previous week's material. If you have difficulty with a course topic and score badly on a quiz, you will be given similar quizzes until you pass.
The Master Gardener Training manual, provided by OSU Extension, provides the framework for classroom instruction. Extension faculty members, all experts in the specific  areas of horticulture, build on the manual's basic information to give trainees greater breadth and depth of horticultural knowledge.
Topics covered in training include:
soils and fertilizers
entomology, pesticides and integrated pest management
plant pathology
plant propagation
houseplants
lawns
herbaceous and wood ornamentals
vegetables
herbs
fruits
A final exam and 50 hours of additional training through interships makes a potential master gardener a full fledged master gardener.
Once the Master Gardener finishes the year of training he or she msut complete 20 hours of “continuing education” each year to maintain the Master Gardener title.

9. Master Gardener Services & Activities
Garden Hotline
Demonstration  and test gardens
Thursdays in the Garden programs are offered by the Master Gardeners throughout the growing season
Volunteer booth at flower shows & fairs
Horticultural therapy
Educational programs
The Trumpet Vine newsletter
Thursdays in the Garden programs are offered by the Master Gardeners throughout the growing season at 10:30 in the demonstration gardens behind Ben Franklin school, 1905 Spring Rd. These programs are free and open to the public. Park in front of the school and walk back to the garden area.  Also, you may want to bring a folding chair. A program flyer will soon be available.
All persons attending any of the Thursday OSU Extension Demonstrations at Ben Franklin are more than welcome to visit and ask questions of the Master Gardeners at any of the other demonstration gardens (Herb, Perennial and Vegetable).

10. Outreach to the community
Informing the public
Home and garden show
“Bug Fest!”
Plant sale
Speakers service
Library programs

11. Outreach to the community
Educating the public
Demonstration gardens
Experimental approaches to gardening practices
School programs
Senior education at Tri-C

12. Outreach to the community
Assisting the community
Nursing home programs
Hotline

13. Hotline!
Answering telephone inquiries on horticulture topics (the Master Gardener Hotline)
Phone volunteers
Backed up by
University research
Up to date library
Supported by technology
Computers for research
support for gardening questions
Volunteers—hours of operation
Hotline is perhaps the best know feature of the Master Gardener program. Operating out of the extension service office on Miles Road the phones are manned two days a week (Mondays and Thursdays 10 am to 1 pm) all year round.
The service is supported by the extension staff and a large (over 200 volumes) library related to horticultural practice. In addition the hotline office has computer access to the variety of

14. Goverence of Master Gardeners
Volunteer arm of extension
Lifelong learning for volunteers
Various committees and advisory groups
Self supporting
Extension staff