Cultivating a Crop of Volunteers

A passion for helping others and playing in the dirt can produce a field of Master Gardeners

Written And Photographed

Growing up in the heat of South Georgia, Renae Lemon’s childhood chores included watering the azaleas. She recalls taking the water hose to over a dozen backyard bushes and then going back again to give a second soaking, so the water could seep down through the dry red clay to the roots. It’s a fond memory and one she didn’t realize would be so profound later in her life. Now as the University of Georgia Extension Master Gardener Coordinator, Renae finds more significance in those hot summer days holding the hose, helping those southern bushes, not only survive, but to flourish.

Renae also recalls her mother asking a neighborhood church cemetery if she could edge the road where the grass was growing over. Her mother, with Renae and her siblings help, spent hours edging, took the debris home, roughed up the soil of the bare patches in their backyard and nursed those trimming to take hold and eventually become a lush yard.

The 2023 University of Georgia Extension Master Gardener Class of 2023 on their first day of horticultural education at the Cobb County Parks and Recreation.

The University of Georgia Extension developed the Master Gardener Volunteer program to extend their reach and to share extensive gardening knowledge to the public

Renae is cultivating something much more than grass roots these days; she’s growing a crop of Master Gardener Volunteers.

More than 250 Cobb County residents share the title of Master Gardener for the purpose of sharing their horticultural education with the community. They do this by providing thousands of volunteer hours, supporting 16 community and demonstration gardens in Cobb County, speaking engagements, an annual plant sale and garden tour and sharing their knowledge and experience.

The University of Georgia Extension developed the Master Gardener Volunteer program to extend their reach and to share extensive gardening knowledge to the public. They do so by training home gardeners to be volunteer educators. It could possibly be said that the students who graduate with the Master Gardener title have earned UGA bragging rights, horticulturally speaking.

Becoming A Master Gardener

While a garden isn’t planned in a day, neither is becoming a Master Gardener. The Class of 2023 Cobb County volunteers started their journey to the coveted title last spring when the three-month application period opened. By June 15, 2022, 38 people had submitted their ten-page application along with three letters of recommendation.

Not everyone is accepted into the program. Once the applications are reviewed, the interview process starts. Hopefuls are questioned by a group of five, which includes Renae and four other Master Gardeners, to learn about their experiences and expectations. Notes are taken, all is documented as the search for a heart of service and volunteerism commences. Plant knowledge and gardening experience is not necessarily a determining factor as much as having the time and desire to volunteer and dedicate to the program.

“The number one thing we are looking for is time,” Renae says. “Does the person have the time to take the 12 weeks of classes, held every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; time to volunteer the first year for 50 hours?”

“You don’t necessarily have to have gardening experience, but it helps to know the basics,” she explains. “You do need to have a heart for volunteerism and a compulsion to go out into the community to educate, to be a speaker, to help others by sharing the education that the UGA Extension program has taught you.”

“This is serious… we are looking for the best to make the program its most successful,” Renae emphasizes.

Once the interviews were conducted last summer, 24 of the 38 applicants were accepted into the program and notified by email that their formal education would start at the beginning of 2023. The program costs $200 and includes over 70 hours of classroom instruction, a program handbook valued at $95 and an insect identification book.

Being Accepted Into The Program

“That was the most exciting email of my life,” says Denny Wilson of south Cobb, who retired from her IT job in December. “It was number one on my bucket list! I got accepted on my first try.”

She checks all the boxes of what can make a successful Master Gardener Volunteer. Denny sits on the board of directors for the Family Life Restoration Center and is actively involved with the south Cobb non-profit. She also says there is talk of creating a community garden.

“I’m really looking forward to that because they’ve got the land to do it,” Wilson says. “It hasn’t even been created yet, but once I finish the Master Gardeners program, I plan to create it. I’ve got the vision in my head; I just haven’t put it on paper yet.”

As an avid home gardener, Denny is fluent in perennials, annuals, bushes and trees. The idea to become a Master Gardener was planted about 10 years ago when she received helpful information from the UGA Extension Help Desk.

“I relied on them a lot for tips on some things that were going on at my home and just going in and talking to them and finding out what I needed to do to get my yard up to par, it just made me more and more interested in the program,” she says. “But I just didn’t have the time because I was still working.”

Now is her time to flourish and she especially looks forward to volunteering at the Help Desk which helped her so much in her gardening endeavors.

That’s a good thing since the recent graduates of the program, who are called interns for the first year, are required to serve at the Help Desk for the majority of their required volunteer hours which is a great way to practice sharing knowledge with others. Renae is lenient on the Help Desk volunteer requirement though, if answering phone call questions is uncomfortable then volunteers certainly don’t have to do it.

“If it makes them nervous then they won’t want to be a master gardener anymore. When they wake up in the morning and it’s Master Gardener Day, I want them to be excited about it. I want them to be excited about what they’ve volunteered to do,” Renae explains.

There are many volunteer areas and projects to choose to spend time and energy. The Master Gardener’s website is a visual encyclopedia of opportunities under the Where We Dig tab and Renae welcomes all types of experience and backgrounds to add to the breadth of the program. The mission is to educate and that takes a variety of volunteers which is evidenced in the many program committees that include Communication, Education, Development and Community Outreach to name a few.

Tom Beck, of east Cobb, a newly appointed Master Gardener, is no stranger to gardening, volunteering or the program. He and his wife, Beth, have been involved for the past three years. Beth is already a Master Gardener, and Tom decided to follow in her footsteps this year. While he is versatile in moving dirt, digging holes and working with the community in an east Cobb school vegetable garden, he knew it was going to be a commitment to formally complete the class.

“There’s a fair amount of studying, a midterm and final exam,” Tom says. “You’ve got to take is seriously.”

In regard to the interview process of the application, he says it was casual and comfortable but explains “they’re trying to verify that you’re not doing it just so you can say they you’re a master gardener. You have to be willing to volunteer and be interested in volunteering, so that’s important.”

Tom has found great reward in the volunteering he has already done as well as the camaraderie of working with fellow master gardeners, all of whom encouraged him to apply to the program to join the elite horticultural aficionados. Every Friday, he and Beth head to the volunteer garden to work the crops and dig in the dirt with fellow garden lovers, but this year he’s officially a Master Gardener.

“I think the program is for people who are interested in gardening and helping other people,” Tom says. “It’s not become educated on gardening and then keep it to yourself. It’s about more than learning about grass and soil and plants, but how can you use that to help other people.”

Julie Phillips, of east Cobb, received the Master Gardener title in 2016 and has happily led the 2022 MGVOCC board of directors this past year as president. Involved in many aspects of the program through

“I think the program is for people who are interested in gardening and helping other people. It’s not become educated on gardening and then keep it to yourself. It’s about more than learning about grass and soil and plants, but how can you use that to help other people.”

Tom Beck

leadership and the Plant a Row project she has found enjoyment in “like-minded people, who have a servant’s heart, are willing to educate and always say ‘yes’. This program is really about giving and serving.”

While friendship with others who you are digging in the dirt, harvesting vegetables and planning the year