The Tennessee Master Gardener Program is a volunteer service program that serves state citizens with home horticulture information and trains and certifies volunteers who provide community service through county Extension offices.

Master gardeners have a love of gardening and a passion to share it with others, but despite the esteemed title, they don’t have master’s degrees. “I don’t really like the word ‘master,’” says David Cook, UT Extension Agent for Davidson County. “With gardening and horticulture you could and you should learn something every day.”

The lack of an extensive time and financial commitment is exactly what makes the master gardener program so popular. Though programs vary from one extension service to the other, enrollees take approximately 40 hours worth of classes—often once a week for about three months—and are exposed to basic knowledge in every aspect of horticulture from soil science to botany and entomology. “People get whole college degrees in soil science and we try not to scare students off with too much chemistry,” Cook says. “But we cover a lot in these classes and by the time it’s over people always want to learn more.”