The Courage Garden tucked into a hillside on the southwest side of the Jefferson County Administration and Courts Facility is a labor of love for Jefferson County master gardeners.
And it offers one of the few opportunities for the plant aficionados to actually get their hands dirty.
People who love plants and are at least 18 years old apply for the master gardener program, offered by the Colorado State University Extension Service. Once accepted, they go through 60 hours of basic classroom instruction to become master gardeners. Classes are taught by CSU specialists and cover basic botany and plant physiology; soils and soil fertility; identification and control of insects, weeds, and plant diseases; and culture of vegetables, fruits, trees, and lawns.
In exchange for the instruction, students pay about $240 for course materials and agree to give 50 hours of volunteer time in the first year. Most of that time is spent manning the phones in the county extension offices to answer people’s plant and gardening questions. They also put in time at the master gardener’s booths at the Farmers’ Market and other events, diagnosing plant problems people bring into the extension office, writing newspaper articles and serve as speakers at community events.
In subsequent years, master gardeners take 12 hours of continuing education and volunteer 24 hours a year.
People who want to take the classes without committing to volunteer time can do so, but must pay for the instruction and are not considered master gardeners. The fee for 2012 will be $575.
Master gardeners also get to work on special projects, including the Courage Garden.
Once a month, volunteers gather with their gloves, rakes, trowels and other tools to take care of the garden that was created by Jefferson County’s Victim Outreach Information, Inc., to provide a place of respite for victims of crime who had to come to the court facility. It is dedicated to the innocent victims of crime.
Volunteers also help with the Junior Master Gardener program. This summer, master gardeners are working with elementary students around the county to help them plant their own gardens.
The first master gardener education program was established by the Washington State University Cooperative Extension in the Seattle Area. After a trial clinic in 1972 was successful, the extension office created a curriculum.
It didn’t take long for the program to take root in all 50 states. A 2009 Extension Master Gardener Survey indicated there were nearly 95,000 active master gardeners who give more than 5 million volunteer service hours to their communities each year.
In Jefferson County, the number of people who can enroll in the program varies from year to year.
Mary Small, horticulturist with the Jefferson County Extension Office, said the classes are shared by Jefferson, Broomfield and Denver counties. This year, Jefferson County enrolled 27 students.
“We frequently have to turn down people who apply because we’re limited by seating,” Small said.
The next crop of classes for master gardeners will begin in January. Small said people can call the extension office now, at 303-271-6620 to get on a waiting list for the interview/screening process. Applications will be available early this fall.
“We look at people’s gardening experience in the area, what their other volunteer experience has been, what motivates them, how they would respond to certain situations,” Small said. “We want to consider how they will fit into our program.”
“The classes were delicious,” Master Gardener Apprentice Judy Huckeby, of Lakewood, said. “That’s the best mental candy I’ve had in my life.”
She said she enrolled in the program for this year because she loves gardening and had been taking plant samples to the Jefferson County Extension Office to get questions answered. One day she picked up a flyer about the master gardener program.
“I realized I finally have time to do this,” she said. “And I liked the idea of becoming a better gardener. I had no idea I’d learn botany and about lawn problems and pruning.”