Submitted by Gail Reynolds
(September 5, 2024) — The UConn Master Gardener Program is now accepting applications for the UConn Extension Master Gardener Program beginning in January 2025.
Class sites for 2025 include Haddam (in person on Tuesdays), Stamford (in person on Mondays), Farmington (in-person on Saturday mornings), Brooklyn (in person on Fridays), and a virtual class affiliated with Fairfield County on Thursday mornings. All classes will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Applications are online only and must be submitted by October 25, 2024. The program cost is $495. Partial scholarship is available.
The classroom portion of the program that will be held at the Middlesex County Extension Center in Haddam meets Tuesday mornings from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Anyone from the Haddam area can affiliate their office hours and outreach projects with the Middlesex County Extension Center in Haddam if they enroll in the virtual or the Saturday class, once the classroom portion concludes.
Students enrolled in this program receive training in an extensive range of horticultural and environmental topics, including botany, plant pathology, entomology, integrated pest management (IPM), vegetables, fruits, herbaceous and woody ornamentals, turfgrass, invasive plants and insects, and diagnostic techniques for the home gardener.
Program requirements:
- 100+ class hours. Classroom training includes approximately three hours of online material for each classroom topic as well as one half-day per week for sixteen weeks, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., January – April 2025
- 30 hours of supervised service answering the public’s horticultural questions and researching gardening problems and 30 hours outreach on approved educational outreach and/or community project(s); both to be completed by the end of September 2025
- Subject quizzes and graded mid-term exam (all online)
- Tree/Shrub/Vine identification and research project due by the end of August 2025
- Attendance at one of five summer diagnostic practice sessions
- Successfully completing the final diagnostic exam at the end of in-service training
- Final essay due at the end of September 2025
Some local projects include designing/maintaining the gardens at the Middlesex County Extension Center, working on the model community garden at the Extension Center, working on the gardens at Brainerd Memorial Library, and working on the gardens at the Thankful Arnold House. There are many more opportunities! In fact, in 2025, UConn Master Gardeners will begin a project to renovate the gardens and landscaping at Mystic Aquarium!
Master Gardeners help grandparents, parents, and children learn about insects
For additional information on the program and to apply online, please visit https://mastergardener.uconn.edu/2025-application/
Photo by Gail Reynolds
