Training and Certification

If you are accepted into the Master Gardener Volunteer Training Program, you will receive 72 hours of horticultural training in a 12-week course. A required fee covers educational books from the University of Florida Press, numerous handouts and other class expenses. The course is held one full day each week (typically Thursdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm).

This comprehensive Volunteer Master Gardener course covers basic botany and entomology; plant propagation; pruning; how to fertilize; how to grow vegetables, fruits, and ornamentals; landscape design; and plant pest problems, among other topics.

This curriculum will help you be a better Florida gardener. Most importantly, it will enable you, working through the Extension office, to help fellow citizens with their gardening questions as well as teach them how to be Florida-Friendly gardeners.

Individuals who are accepted into the program must agree to give a minimum of 75 hours of volunteer work the first year and 50 hours each year thereafter and receive a minimum of ten hours of continuing education annually to remain certified as a Florida Master Gardener.

Maintaining Master Gardener Certification

• Volunteer a minimum of 50 hours a year
• Areas of volunteer service include, but are not limited to, staffing plant clinics, answering residents' questions on the phone or in person, maintaining demonstration gardens, assisting with displays at public venues such as the county fair, teaching youth through schools or 4-H, speaking to clubs or civic organizations, etc.
• Attend Master Gardener monthly meetings, field trips, and activities
• Complete at least 10 hours of continuing education/training per year