Yes, it's a pipe dream of mine to find the time to study and dedicate myself to becoming a Texas Master Gardener. Has anyone done this course?

[url]http://mastergardener.tamu.edu/become/[/url]

You should just do it! You'll find it was one of the best decisions you'll ever make. I always tell people that, if sick, I would have have still dragged myself to the botanical garden every Tuesday afternoon. I learned so much about what I was doing wrong, and how to correct it. I still refer to my MG notebook (and so do my neighbors).

I would still be volunteering, but after a while, those of us who did a lot sort of burned out and moved on. I hope you'll try it. It's an amazing program for anyone who likes to garden...."successfully."

I would love to do it, but the classes take to long to complete. I would have to use up most of my vacation time to do it and still have to complete the volunteer requirements also.

It does take time and dedication for the program. I work full time and travel for work often. I might have to wait until I retire to enjoy this and have the time.

ShadyGreen, you're not alone. I've wanted to complete the master gardener program for years, but the schedule just doesn't line up for me. Sigh. Someday!

It does take a lot of time. When people ask me how to become a master gardener, the first thing I tell them is that the program is really made for people who have a lot of free time and are looking for a really rewarding experience to take up their free time. Most of the master gardeners I've seen around the state are retired but very active gardeners who love spending lots and lots of time serving the community.

For people with a full time job that doesn't relate to gardening, the master gardener program can start to feel like a burden. For those people, I recommend they join local garden clubs instead of the master gardeners.

What exactly entails the 50 hours of instruction? How many classes are we talking here? It is like 3- 4 credits per class in college? Anyone know where the classes are held in Houston? Do they have to be taken consecutively, and is there a time limit? I know I could go to the website and ask but I thought I'd ask those who have been through it.

I think each area has different requirements for classes. You should contact your local Extension ofc. and ask them to send you some info. There's also a cost for the classes. I believe ours was $250. ($50. was for the notebook) and that was a long time ago. We had really interesting speakers every week. Dr. Welch from A&M came to talk about roses. We had landscapers, propagation specialists, entomologists, on and on. The hours commitment is different for each county also. The classes have to be taken consecutively. I guess if there was some reason to miss one, you could possibly make it up in the next session, but you wouldn't be certified until you had taken all classes.

Classes are provided by the local Extension Agency so they may vary some but the state has some requirements that have to be met. There is a minimum of 50 hours classroom hours plus minimum 50 volunteer hours to be certified. Recertification requires 6 hour classroom and 12 hours volunteer each year.

I took the Fort Bend County Master Gardeners course and completed the classroom part plus some volunteer work, but I knew I wasn't going to have time to actually put in the hours for certification. It was a good experience anyway; I learned a lot.