How I Became a Master Gardener

After receiving the Media Award from the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State (see yesterday’s announcement on my blog), I’ve been reflecting a bit on the interesting twists and turns my career has taken. One of them was becoming a Spokane County Master Gardener way back in 2002. Since a few folks have asked me about it, I thought I’d share that with you today.

As many of you know, I have had a long career with The Spokesman-Review newspaper here in Spokane, Wash. I worked full-time for them from 1982 to 2003 and have written the Sunday garden columns since 2007 as a correspondent. (you can read my columns from 2010 to the present by going to my column index, just in case you didn’t know that!)

Gardening has been very important to me, ever since I was first introduced to it at a very young age by my wonderful grandmother Emma. She showed me how to grow, tend and love plants. I started growing my own vegetable garden in my teens, without any prompting by my parents. I just knew it was something I wanted to do and to be around.

Those of you who live in the Spokane area know Phyllis Stephens, right? She has been a garden guru in this region for a very long time and is a dear friend of mine. Phyllis used to write the garden columns for the newspaper but later told me writing them was a struggle  — which you’d never know because her columns were always a joy to read!

In 2001, Phyllis knew she had too many things on her plate (she was also a TV and radio personality, plus did a lot of public speaking) so she decided to stop writing the garden columns.

For a couple of years prior to that, I had been writing a garden column for the newsletters of Spokane’s largest garden club, the Inland Empire Gardeners, which has over 400 members!

Unbeknownst to me, the garden club president had been sending their newsletters to the Features editor at the newspaper (Susan English). Susan had been Phyllis’ editor and came to me one day to let me know that Phyllis had decided to stop writing the garden columns. She told me, “I really like your writing style and am wondering if you’d like to take over the columns?”

I was stunned. “Wait, what? How do you know about my writing style?” And that’s when I found out she’d been reading them in the garden club’s newsletters! Son of a gun.

Well, of course I said YES! (and, in retrospect, I hope I didn’t come across too eagerly, LOL). After writing a few columns, I saw an announcement about the Spokane County Master Gardeners going through a screening process for new Master Gardener applicants. I’d always wanted to become a Master Gardener but figured with my full-time work schedule, there would be no way I could take time off from work to go through the required 16 weeks of training.

I decided to at least run it by my boss, Scott Sines. His response, which I will never forget, put into motion a series of life-changing events:

“Since you’re writing the garden columns now, going through the Master Gardener program would help you increase your knowledge and, in turn, benefit your columns. Let’s adjust your schedule so you can go through the training.”

I was stunned and elated! After submitting my application and going through the interview process, I was accepted into the program in 2002. It’s hard to believe that was 17 years ago.

Scott was right: I have learned so much by being a Master Gardener, I’ve met the nicest people over the years, and a lot of wonderful opportunities have come my way as a result. I loved working in the Master Gardener plant clinic, diagnosing problems that clients  brought in, phoned or emailed us about because I always learned new things as a result.

For those of you wondering about the “Emeritus” ribbon on my badge in the photo above, I like to joke that that means I’m now highly esteemed! However, what it really means, is that I’m in a different category of Master Gardener volunteer now, where I have fewer volunteer and continuing education requirements each year. This was something I needed to downgrade a bit to, due to all of my time commitments. But I’m still very much a part of our Spokane County Master Gardener program!

If you are into gardening, consider becoming a Master Gardener in your own county. It’s a great way to become involved in your community and to teach others about gardening. And let me reassure you that you DON’T have to know everything about gardening! If you don’t know how to contact your local program, use this link to find the programs throughout the U.S. and Canada. Just as it was for me, it will be a positive, life-changing decision.