Tom Ingram Master Gardener
Last week I mentioned that fall vegetable season has begun. Fall gardening season also means it's time to become a Master Gardener. I say “season” because the Tulsa Master Gardener class only meets once a year.
While a fair number of people are familiar with the term Master Gardener, not many know what it actually means, so let’s talk about what a Master Gardener is and how you can join us in giving back to your community through gardening.
The Tulsa County OSU Master Gardener Program is actually part of a national group of Master Gardener Associations, and our roots go back to 1862 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act and established the Land Grant University Program.
The Morrill Act authorized Congress to allocate 17 million acres of land across the United States to each state. Each state could sell the land and establish an endowment fund with the proceeds to fund a university. Iowa State University was the first to sign on, but Kansas State University was the first actual land-grant university established under the program. Oklahoma State University was established through the program in 1890.
Anyone else reading this…
At the time, most universities were “liberal arts” schools, but land-grant schools had a different mandate: they were expected not only to teach but also to do research and share the results of that research. So Oklahoma State University had a teaching department, but it also had a research department, and it also had something called Extension, which shared information with the public of the state.
OSU has Extension offices in all 77 counties, most of which have at least one full-time horticulture educator on staff. While that may have been enough in the early days, as the population grew it became harder for horticulture educators to effectively serve the horticultural and agricultural needs of everyone in the county. That's where the Master Gardener program comes in.
The first Master Gardener program was started in Washington state in 1973 as a way to meet the needs of a growing population, and current estimates are that there are approximately 100,000 Master Gardeners nationwide, affiliated with each county extension office.
Tulsa has about 350 Master Gardeners, who volunteered about 40,000 hours of service to the community last year. So what exactly are we doing as we spend more and more time volunteering?
First, we are available to answer your gardening questions five days a week from 9am to 4pm at the Extension Office Diagnostic Center. We can answer your gardening questions by email, phone, or by stopping by in person. When you visit the office, please take a moment to explore our beautiful memorial gardens, which have been created and are maintained by our Master Gardener volunteers.
Additionally, we teach classes each year and have a Lunch and Learn series in collaboration with the Tulsa County Library, as well as an Urban Gardener class that teaches best practices for growing vegetables at home and an annual Master Composter class where you can not only learn how to be a good composter but also become a teacher to teach others about the benefits of composting.
We also teach local elementary schools, reaching out to about 18,000 elementary school students each year about butterflies, insects, spiders, earthworms and other gardening topics. To do this successfully, we need a significant number of Master Gardeners.
A few years ago, we started a program called “Insect Expeditions,” which invites about 1,000 third graders to participate in fun, hands-on activities related to insects. Activities included maggot art and, for those brave enough, a chance to taste-test fried mealworms.
Tulsa Blooms is one of our programs that you may have seen but didn't know about our involvement. With Tulsa Blooms, we plant and care for flowers in pots in the Brookside neighborhood. The goal of this effort is to make our city more beautiful. You may have seen some guys driving around Brookside with big water tanks on the back of their John Deere Gator. They are Tulsa Master Gardeners, and they bring water to flowers that need it.
And during our annual Garden Tour, Master Gardeners open their gardens to you so you can not only learn about gardening, but also get ideas for how you can incorporate what you see into your own garden.
Most of us know about Habitat for Humanity, and the Tulsa Master Gardeners partner with Habitat for Humanity to landscape the homes they build, so new residents not only get a great new home, but beautiful landscaping as well.
This will also be the third year of our Seed to Supper Farm, where we train master gardeners to grow vegetables on a large scale, and donate the produce we harvest to local food pantries. So far this year, we have donated nearly 6,000 pounds of fresh, home-grown vegetables, helping to put healthy food on the tables of those in need. If this year is similar to last year, we will harvest and distribute over 15,000 pounds of produce.
We also have a new program that we started last year with the Tulsa Boys Home, where we teach gardening classes to our residents in July and August as part of our summer program. The rest of the year, we lead and help with something we call garden club. Boys who want to get a little more interested in gardening have the opportunity to grow their own vegetables. It's very rewarding for us to see boys who had no interest in the activity at first become actively involved not only in planting, but also in maintaining and harvesting what they grow. As you can see, we have a lot going on.
To learn more about what we do and how you can get involved as a Tulsa County Master Gardener, please join us for two information sessions: Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. and Aug. 14 at 1 p.m. At each session, you will not only learn more about the program but also fill out an application and schedule an interview. These information sessions and classes will be held at the OSU Extension office, 4116 E. 15th St. Classes will be held every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. throughout the fall. We look forward to seeing you at one of our information sessions, or in the garden!
To get answers to all your gardening questions, call the Tulsa Master Gardeners Helpline at 918-746-3701, visit the Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th St., or email us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org.
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