The Master Gardener Program: Its History, Local Projects, and How to Join

Are you interested in becoming a Master Gardener?  The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County will begin training a new class in mid-January 2024.  Graduates of the 17-week course will join the current roster of 100 volunteers involved in a multitude of local gardening projects. If you want to learn more about the Master Gardener (MG) program, please consider attending one of the upcoming informational meetings being held from July through early September (three at locations in Chico and one in Oroville).  A full list of these meetings can be found on our Join Us webpage.

The origins of the nation-wide Master Gardener program go way back – to a Senate bill signed by Abraham Lincoln in July of that year, 1862, to be precise. 

The first half of 1862 was a busy year for Lincoln and the US Congress. Our country was a year into a brutal civil war when two bills were signed that would shape our nation in ways that are still pertinent 160 years later. The first of these congressional actions was the Homestead Act of 1862, signed into law by Lincoln in April of 1862. Hot on its heels was the lesser-known Morrill Act (also known as the Land-Grant College Act), which was passed into law just before 1862's Independence Day celebrations, such as they were at that fractured time in our history.

Sponsored by Vermont Senator Justin Morrill, the Land-Grant College Act called for the donation of public lands “to the several States and [Territories] which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the Mechanic arts…” Through this Act the Federal Government was committed to grant each state 30,000 acres of public land, which became the basis of our national system of Land-Grant state colleges and universities. It is important to acknowledge that lands nationwide had been occupied by Native Americans for tens of thousands of years. In keeping with the dominant world view of that time, the land appropriated by the federal government was considered “public” and could be given to each of the states for beneficial use.

The Hatch Act of 1887 is also relevant to the history of the Master Gardener Program. This Act provided federal funding to the state land-grant colleges to conduct basic and applied agricultural research in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The resulting Agricultural Experiment Stations now exist in all 50 states. Congress continued its interest in developing agriculture and supporting farmers throughout the US by passing the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. This took farm advisors directly into the field to teach improved agricultural practices to farmers through the Agricultural Extension Service, later becoming Cooperative Extension. For farmers to access these new services, a county “farm bureau” had to be organized to request the posting of a county extension advisor in partnership with the USDA and the Land-Grant College.

In California, the University of California at Berkeley was established as the Land-Grant College. Today, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, and closest to home, UC Davis carry on that legacy by housing the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Cooperative Extension specialists and Experiment Station Faculty are based on these three campuses and coordinate their education efforts with UC-funded Cooperative Extension Advisors. Fifty of California's 58 counties support a UC Cooperative Extension department.

The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) County Advisors are valuable resources who conduct outreach and education that encompasses much more than crop development. In addition to plant sciences, pest management, and soil and water health, they oversee agricultural economic issues; management of livestock and natural resources; nutrition, family, and consumer sciences; and youth development – particularly through the 4-H program.

Over time, as the reputation of the County Extension programs and California's population grew, busy Farm Advisors increasingly found themselves fielding questions about plants, pests, and problems from home gardeners. The Master Gardener (MG) Program was developed to help the Farm Advisors extend information by training volunteers in the science of gardening and horticulture. This program was conceived by Dr. David Gibby of the University of Washington Cooperative Extension. Gibby ran a pilot program in Tacoma, Washington in 1972. Following its resounding success, the Master Gardeners were officially established, along with a rigorous training program and curriculum. The concept quickly spread throughout the US and Canada. Each MG program in the US is affiliated with a land-grant university and a county UC Cooperative Extension office.

In California, Riverside and Sacramento Counties were the first to launch programs in training and certifying Master Gardeners, beginning in 1980. Since then, certified Master Gardener programs have been founded in more than 50 California counties.

In 2007, Butte County UCCE Farm Advisor Joseph Connell and Family and Consumer Science Advisor and County Director Susan Donohue identified a real need for a local MG Program. Working with UC Davis, the county, the UCCE office in Oroville, the Butte County Farm, Home, and 4-H Support Group, and three Master Gardeners trained elsewhere, Connell and Donohue organized a local MG training program. The MG training course was to be taught by Advisors, Specialists, and professors from the UC system and the Butte County UCCE put out a call to enroll volunteers. In May of 2008 the inaugural group of Butte County Master Gardeners completed their training. The 17-week training program of weekly classes is now offered every other year in Butte County. The upcoming 2024 class will constitute our eighth cadre of graduates.

Master Gardener training is thorough, comprehensive, and science based. The mission of the UC Master Gardeners is “to extend research-based, scientifically accurate knowledge and information on home horticulture and pest management to the residents of California.” Aspiring Master Gardeners are trained in a wide variety of topics, including (but not limited to): Botany, Irrigation, Soils, Plant Pathology, Entomology, Integrated Pest Management, Fire Safety, Plant Identification, Diagnostic Techniques, Trees, Turfgrass, Irrigation, and Home Vegetable Gardening. The goal is to familiarize students with a wide range of pertinent topics, not to create experts in each field. The training emphasizes research techniques, so that MGs can assist clients by knowing where to look for the information that will help them identify and solve issues faced by local home gardeners.

The Butte County MGs have come a long way since the first class of 21 volunteers graduated in 2008. Currently we have exactly 100 active Master Gardeners. We staff a Hotline for gardening questions which can be reached by phone at 530-552-5812 and by email at mgbutte@ucanr.com. Each spring and fall we present a public education workshop series covering a wide variety of topics. We've established a helpful and beautifully-designed website which contains a wealth of information and tips specifically focusing on our local gardening environment, as well as details about our upcoming activities. Every month we email a newsletter to subscribers. Our Gardening Guide and Three-Year Garden Journal contains information, tips, and note-taking space for every week of the year. You can find our outreach booths at local farmers markets and garden-related events. Twice a year we hold a plant sale, highlighting plants that grow well here. And on Fridays we publish an article on a gardening topic in our Real Dirt column in this newspaper as well as on the Real Dirt blog on our website.

Perhaps our most ambitious and rewarding project to date is our Demonstration Garden at the Patrick Ranch Museum on the Midway south of Chico. We call it “A New California Garden - A Garden for Today: Sustainable, Functional, Beautiful.” Here we have established multiple landscape examples, including gardening under oaks, edible landscaping, a space dedicated to Butte County All-Stars (plants proven to thrive in our local environment), and a cleverly designed space for holding outdoor classes. The one-acre area dedicated to the Demonstration Garden was made possible by Patrick Ranch Museum.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County owe our inception to the foresight and hard work of Joseph Connell and Susan Donahue, Cooperative Extension Advisors Emeritus. Major portions of the Demonstration Garden were made possible by funding from the Farm, Home, and 4-H Support Group. And we owe our continued existence to our MG volunteers and all the gardeners and plant lovers in our region. Please consider joining our ranks! For more information, a list of upcoming informational meetings, and the on-line application, see our Join Us webpage.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system.  To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website.  If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.