SFG Teachers and Master Gardeners

I was just looking at how to become a certified SFG gardener, and then I started looking at how to become a master gardener. It got me wondering, what kind of stuff do the SFG teachers and Master gardeners do? Do they put on classes at schools? Do they charge for consulting?

Is anyone here a certified square foot garden teacher or master gardener (I know there are.) What experiences do you have doing that?

Kabaju42 wrote:I was just looking at how to become a certified SFG gardener, and then I started looking at how to become a master gardener. It got me wondering, what kind of stuff do the SFG teachers and Master gardeners do? Do they put on classes at schools? Do they charge for consulting?

Is anyone here a certified square foot garden teacher or master gardener (I know there are.) What experiences do you have doing that?

You can become a certified instructor with the foundation. There are two ways to do it. We have a correspondence course Here:
http://squarefootgardening.mybisi.com/product/sfg-certified-speakerteacher-course

or you can attend one of our 3 day symposiums and be taught by Mel himself. Some people become certified just to teach for fun. Others do it as a business and make a business out of it. It depends on you. Hope that helps. Alan

Hi from Polk County Central Florida. I started this in Sept took the online course and just got to work, telling everyone about an engineers way to garden. It was and is a fun thing to do. I am going to charge for anything else I do. I showed this method at a city seniors group and give my time each week to keep this rolling. what a way to help the economy and teach a legitimate skill to the youth. Remember the Victory Gardens.
Have a wonderful time with this hobby or a way to make extra $$$$$
Pat from Central Florida..Director of the "GRENETEAM...

I'm a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and a Certified Square Foot Garden Teacher.
As a U of I Extension Master Gardener we are volunteers, we don't charge money for anything we do. If you are interested in becoming a master gardener you can contact your local extension office for more information.
Some of the things we do is assist the U of I Extension to distribute horticulture information to individuals or groups in our community, we give community programs related to horticulture. We work with school children, teachers, seniors, community gardeners, and homeowners, or wherever there is a need in our community. Recently 11 of us, 10 U of I Extension Master gardeners and 1 Jr. Master Gardener took the Square Foot Garden correspondence course to become Certified Square Foot Teachers. We plan to give volunteer classes to teach SFGing to our community and the surrounding counties. We will have SFG display gardens at our Extension office for the community to see how wonderful and productive Square Foot Gardening can be.

what a great question! i enjoyed reading the replies. learned some new info today. now i'm even more interested in learning about master gardening. . .

SquareFoot wrote:
You can become a certified instructor with the foundation. There are two ways to do it. We have a correspondence course Here:
http://squarefootgardening.mybisi.com/product/sfg-certified-speakerteacher-course
or
you can attend one of our 3 day symposiums and be taught by Mel himself. Some people become certified just to teach for fun. Others do it as a business and make a business out of it. It depends on you. Hope that helps. Alan

Would someone please update this link Thanks!

LittleGardener wrote:

SquareFoot wrote:
You can become a certified instructor with the foundation. There are two ways to do it. We have a correspondence course Here:
http://squarefootgardening.mybisi.com/product/sfg-certified-speakerteacher-course
or
you can attend one of our 3 day symposiums and be taught by Mel himself. Some people become certified just to teach for fun. Others do it as a business and make a business out of it. It depends on you. Hope that helps. Alan

Would someone please update this link Thanks!

This is a really old thread... just an fyi, you can go directly to the foundation anytime by clicking on the "Website" button in the green menu bar. And here is your link: http://www.squarefootgardening.org/teaching#!__teaching

nKedrOoStEr wrote:
you can go directly to the foundation by clicking on the "Website" button in the green menu bar:
http://www.squarefootgardening.org/teaching#!__teaching

Thank you!

I am an Iowa State University Extension Master Gardener. We can charge for speaking or demonstrations if we wish to. We are encouraged to donate all or some of the money back to the program if we chose. We have speakers on every subject from soil to trees and inbetween lol...
Some of the things we do include: maintain public parks, give speeches of various subjects, organize tours (for example last year my town group organized a "Hosta Garden" tour around town), give talks to kids, volenteer/work at arboretums and botanical centers. We also coordinate and organize farmers gardens, answer clientele questions one-on-one. The list is long on the subjects we are involved it.


For example, personally I maintain the spring garden center at our grocery store here in town each spring. While not in a MG capacity, I was hired BECAUSE I was a MG.

CindiLou wrote:I am an Iowa State University Extension Master Gardener. We can charge for speaking or demonstrations if we wish to. We are encouraged to donate all or some of the money back to the program if we chose. We have speakers on every subject from soil to trees and inbetween lol...
The list is long on the subjects we are involved it.
For example, personally I maintain the spring garden center at our grocery store here in town each spring. While not in a MG capacity, I was hired BECAUSE I was a MG.

another walking Encyclopedia I see. Two of our (sometimes) neighbors are as well, with an answer to everything. One in particular is just so nice. for sharing Cindi

MGs don't know it all lol..mainly what it give us is a basic background to many areas and the contacts to find out the answers to questions lol...

In Holland there are only 2 certified instructors and they are mother and son if i see that correctly.
So there is space for another one... I think I will try it if i get a big garden next season
For me it will take a year and a lot more experience before i will be certified instructor