Iowa Master Gardeners launch Garden Academy training program

Casual home gardeners and dedicated volunteer gardeners alike can attend a brand-new program that will help them grow — or nurture — their green thumb.

Garden Academy is launching in September this year. The program will replace the former Iowa Master Gardening training course. Garden Academy is a 10-week asynchronous online course that allows gardeners of all experience levels to dig deep into 17 horticulture topics, like native plants, turf grass and pesticides.

Depending on the desired level of commitment, participants can choose either the Master Gardener volunteer track or Home Gardener track.

Home gardeners complete the training program entirely online and asynchronously and do not have a volunteering requirement, whereas master gardener volunteer trainees must fulfill further requirements.

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After Iowa Master Gardener volunteers complete the 10-week training course, they will have one year to complete a 40-hour volunteer “internship.” Once the internship is completed, participants will achieve active master gardener status. Master gardeners must complete 20 hours of volunteer service and 10 hours of continuing education annually to stay active.

Herzog said that there are about 1,800 active master gardeners in the state at a given time.

“So that’s one of the main considerations is how much time are you willing to give this program? Because becoming an Iowa Master Gardener really is a commitment to that ongoing volunteer service and continuing education and making sure that you’re staying up-to-date on relevant horticulture information so that you’re able to use that during your volunteer service,” said Alicia Herzog, Iowa Master Gardener program manager.

Herzog said volunteer hours can be fulfilled in creative ways, not just through “backbreaking work in the garden.” Internship hours can be completed by working on community garden projects, leading educational offerings and working with youth, to name a few options.

She added that completing the volunteer service requirement goes by quickly when you’re out in the garden, but the requirement can be prohibitive for gardeners with busy schedules.

“If someone is wanting to sign up as the Iowa Master Gardener volunteer track, they should reach out to their county extension office and talk to their county master gardener coordinator and see what does that volunteer orientation look like for their specific county so that they can understand if they can fit that into their life,” Herzog said.

Master gardener volunteers also will complete an in-person orientation through their county extension office. The orientation will connect volunteers to the network of master gardener volunteers in their county.

“The Iowa Home Gardeners, since they are not volunteers, they don’t have to participate in any of that volunteer orientation, although some of our counties do some really fun field trips, and sometimes they do welcome the Iowa Home Gardeners to come along,” Herzog said, noting that field trips and volunteering opportunities vary from county to county.

Online registration for the master gardener volunteer track opens July 14 and closes on Aug. 22 on the Iowa Master Gardeners website. Home gardeners can purchase their enrollment on the ISU Extension store website starting Aug. 25. Fall training runs from Sept. 2 to Nov. 7.

Registration for the Iowa Master Gardener volunteer track is $150, and the Iowa Home Gardener track is $300. Scholarships are available for those on the Iowa Master Gardener volunteer track. There is not scholarship funding available for home gardeners.

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Herzog said participants can apply for scholarship funding on the Iowa Master Gardener volunteer application.

“That stays private and it takes the fee down to $50 on the volunteer track,” Herzog said, “and if they find that that remaining fee is still prohibitive to them, they can discuss that situation with their county master gardener coordinator, and additional funding may be available on the county or the state level.”

Garden Academy Live to replace Class on Campus event

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The reimagining of the Class on Campus daylong workshop marks another change to Iowa Master Gardening training. The workshop was previously a required training event for master gardener volunteers. Now it has transitioned into a one-day stand-alone seminar open to garden academy participants, active master gardeners, and interns, Herzog said.

She said the event will be faster-paced than the Class on Campus workshop and will feature Q&A sessions with experts, lectures, and hands-on workshops on topics like landscape design, plant identification, flower dissection and the basics of botany.

“One of the options that we’re going to have is landscape design, which is usually very popular with our students and it helps people understand that even if they aren’t the most artistic or the most creative, that when they learn some of these basic elements of landscape design that they can really ... utilize them in a realistic way in their lives or in their volunteer service,” Herzog said.

The first Garden Academy Live will be held Oct. 18 at Reiman Gardens in Ames. Registration opens in early September.

Iowa Master Gardeners also host a free home gardening webinar series January through mid-March. Herzog said the program is great for gardeners who can’t commit to the Garden Academy program but are still looking for an informative gardening series.

“We are looking for sponsors for that series to make sure that we can continue to keep it free to the public,” Herzog said.

Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com

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