Although the weather may be frightful, something sure to be delightful is gaining knowledge of skills you can use once Jack Frost stops nipping at your nose. This is the goal of Utah State University Extension’s Master Gardener Program. Castle Country Radio was joined by Rowe Zwahlen and Steven Price to provide a more in-depth look at what it takes to become a master gardener.

Opening our conversation, Zwahlen explained what the program is all about,” The Master Gardener program is one of our oldest and probably best-loved programs with USU Extension. And ultimately it’s a training program; we’re hoping to teach people how to become master gardeners,” Zwahlen continued,” You don’t have to be a great gardener when you begin. We’re going to start with, you know, what is a plant and how to water it, what is soil, and we’ll delve on from there. It’s very time-intensive, but a lot of people love it. And we’ve always had great success with it.”

Price joined in and discussed some of the areas that are covered by the course,” We start with the basics. So, that’s basic botany, basic soil science, basic irrigation. And then we keep building on that foundation. Ultimately, we’re talking about growing vegetables, season extensions, fruit trees, small fruits, and flowers. And it’s meant to be kind of an all-encompassing program. So, by the time you’re done with it, you can take what you’ve learned and apply it to your home landscape and maybe even help others with their gardens.”

The course does require some post-course work to become fully certified, “to truly call yourself a USU Master Gardener, we do require some community service. So, once you’ve learned something, we want you to put that into practice. And so, there are 40 hours of community service required to officially get your certificate and be called a Master Gardener.” explained Zwahlen. Price added,” It’s pretty wide-open is what we consider service. We’ve had folks do lots of different things around town to fulfill those service requirements that are meeting a greater need. And really, we want projects that give back to the community to where you can take the knowledge that you’ve learned through those first few months of training and then apply it.”

Zwahlen dove into the benefits of participating in this program,” you get a greater understanding of how to really garden and to enjoy your time outside. It’s also a great chance to meet other people who have similar interests and hear from some great people … We get some great guest speakers from around the state. A lot of people from our Logan campus and some real experts are coming in to talk and hopefully give you some good ideas.”

A unique aspect of the Master Gardener Program is how it caters specifically to the environments found in the Castle Country Area,” I think to have a really good, productive garden and home landscape in Carbon and Emery County, you have to be some of the best gardeners on the face of the planet. We have some tough soils. We have a tough climate. And things aren’t exactly easy, but the nice thing is that the information we’re providing is locally relevant.”

In closing, the duo shared,” Come join us. It is a lot of fun. It’s a great way to spend your evenings thinking about spring and gardening during those dark winter evenings.”

To register for the Master Gardener program, you can call your local USU Extension office. For Carbon, you can call 435-636-3235. For Emery, that number is 435-381-3535. You can also visit the Master Gardener website to learn more about the program.