Graduating Green Thumbs Continued...
“The ‘Master Gardener Café’ is a wonderful support system for students,” says Bill. “They can ask each other questions and also learn from their different experiences with gardening.”
Students enrolled in the Master Gardener Training Program are evaluated by short assignments and quizzes along the way. A passing grade of 60 per cent is required for each course. There are also self-tests available to help students track their personal progress.
The required courses to complete this program are: Plant Identification and Use, Science of Gardening, Maintaining the Garden, the Art of Gardening, Summer School Level 1 and an optional Summer School Level 2 which focuses on a new topic each year.
“People like me, who haven’t been in university for 30 years, have to learn how to learn again,” says Bill. “Fortunately, the material for these courses is very wellpresented and easy to follow,” says Bill.
The summer school sessions give students the opportunity to meet the gardeners that they’ve been chatting with throughout their courses. The sessions involve one week of hands-on training where students learn practical techniques to build on the skills that they have acquired through their courses.
“We can actually practice what we’ve read in our textbooks throughout the courses,” says Bill. The Master Gardener Training Program accepts students at four intake dates during the year – October 1, January 1, March 1 and May 1. The summer school sessions are held during the month of July.
Recently, the Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc. (MGOI) adopted the NSAC Master Gardener Training Program as the educational component for becoming a Master Gardener in Ontario. The program was reviewed by the MGOI’s education committee who recommended that it be adopted as their official training program. This is an exciting opportunity for NSAC’s Continuing and Distance Education to form a new long-term partnership and increase exposure both for the program and for NSAC as an excellent provider of distance education. NSAC is a specialized university that cultivates learning and research, focussing on improving and sustaining our environment for the health and well-being of society.
