WATERTOWN – Do you enjoy growing your own fresh veggies? Is your home surrounded with annual or perennial flowers each summer? Do you spend hours in greenhouses each spring?
Or do you just want to have fun and learn with others who enjoy nature like you do? Here’s your chance to become a Master Gardener.
SDSU Extension Master Gardener training is being offered in Watertown this year. Classes will be held on Tuesdays, from May 28 – July 23, except July 2, 8:30 a.m, – 4:30 p.m. each day, at the SDSU Extension Regional Center in Watertown. Training only comes to this area once every 4-5 years; other locations for 2019 include Yankton and Sturgis.
This program provides training for gardening enthusiasts who share research-based horticulture information with their communities through programs, projects, and services. Online registration is available: https://extension.sdstate.edu/event/2019-sdsu-extension-master-gardener-training. Registration deadline is May 6.
Trainees receive 60 hours of training in horticulture and environmental topics of special value to home gardeners. Topics include basic botany and taxonomy; soils and fertilizers; turf and weed management; plant pathology/composting; tree and shrub care; pest management; planting and landscape use; pesticides; insects and pollinators; biodiversity; vegetables and season extension; herbaceous ornamentals, native plants, plant propagation and more.
Trainees will receive a curriculum manual written for South Dakota – brand new in 2018. SDSU professors and faculty present the material in a hands-on classroom setting. Field trips to area gardens, yards, or parks for plant identification and real-life problem-solving help to solidify training concepts.
Cost - two options:
• Training with volunteer commitment as an SDSU Extension Master Gardener (Discounted rate of $250): To take the course at the discounted rate, trainees agree to provide at least 50 hours of volunteer service over the next two years as a Master Gardener intern. The balance of the full course fee will be invoiced if service commitment is not completed. Eligible for 6 CEUs.
• Training to Obtain Certificate of Recognition in Horticulture – No volunteerism required (Full price $600): Participants will receive the same training but will not be required to volunteer and will receive a Certificate of Recognition in Horticulture. Eligible for 6 CEUs.
Following successful completion, gardeners are volunteers, an arm of SDSU Extension, answering horticulture questions and sharing current, research-based information with the public, working to make a difference in the places we live, learn, and work.
In 2018, over 10,000 hours were volunteered by hundreds of Master Gardeners in South Dakota, representing a value of over $200,000 to communities.
Benefits of becoming an Extension Master Gardener include tremendous knowledge gained, new friends with like-minded interests, fun activities such as trips to gardens and greenhouses, and being valued for one’s contributions. They are the first to say they don’t ‘know it all’, but they have the resources in order to find the answers.
The deadline to register is May 6, online registration available: https://extension.sdstate.edu/event/2019-sdsu-extension-master-gardener-training. Questions can be addressed to SDSU Extension staff: sdsu.sdmg@sdstate.edu or 605-782-3290, or local Extension Master Gardener Arlene Brandt-Jenson, abj@wat.midco.net, 605-868-6180.
The Coteau Prairie Master Gardeners, a local club with current members from six counties, formed in 2011 after receiving training from SDSU Extension, and gained more members after a 2015 training session was held in Watertown.
Messages can be sent to their Facebook page Coteau Prairie MGs.
