plant regulation-Trivial-and OT

Bracey Tiede tiede@pacbell.net
Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:58:21 PDT
Thank you, Tony.   

I am a Master Gardener here in San Jose CA for over ten years.  I have met
MGs who could not give me the name of a common plant yet could tell me in
great detail about the soil foodweb.  I have met MGs who know the binomial
of every plant that I point to but cannot tell me how glyphosate works.  I
have met MGs who will not start plants from seed because 'it's too hard' but
can ID any insect I bring to them.  I know MGs who excel at office or
library work but don't dig in the dirt.  I know MGs who love to give talks
to organizations and will spend hours and hours writing up their talks to be
accurate.  MGs are MGs because their mission is to educate the public on
good gardening practices - not because they are botanical experts.  As Tony
says, the title is unfortunate.

MGs are just like you and me - some of us know more about some topics than
others and we all bring some strength to the program.  Perhaps a little more
tolerance and patience and there may be an opportunity to share and learn
something with a MG.  I love my local program and the people (of all ages)
in it.   

Our program has been tapped by the local ag commissioner to help with field
surveys for pests and we have contributed research data twice over the past
three years to the state invasive plant people on which nurseries are
selling which invasive plants.  We teach many classes in many places
reaching thousands of people every year.  We had 150 people show up on the
4th of July for a summer fruit tree pruning class and they received
excellent training.  And almost all of it is free to the public.

We do our own fundraising and cost our county very little.  Other programs
differ.

Check out what we do at

http://www.mastergardeners.org/scc.html

Cheers,
Bracey
San Jose CA


More information about the pbs mailing list