Washington State University Extension

Snohomish County

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The Washington State University Master Gardener program grew out of the need for county agents to respond to the growing interest in home gardening. Several county agents in Washington State trained the first Master Gardeners in the nation over 35 years ago. Today the program operates with trained volunteers working in communities to teach good gardening and environmental stewardship practices.

Over 300 Master Gardeners volunteer in Snohomish County donating more than 28,000 hours of volunteer time in 2011. Each winter a new class of approximately 60 volunteers is trained. Application forms for the following year's training are available on this website and at the Extension office by September 1.

Training involves approximately 80 hours of classroom and workshop instruction held once a week every Thursday during January, February and March. Classes are held at the Extension Office at 600 128th Street in South Everett generally from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Homework averaging 3-5 hours a week during training includes reading the Master Gardener Manual and studying other course material online.

For the 2012 class, Tuition for this extensive training program was $220 to cover the direct costs and a minimum volunteer commitment of 50 hours each year for two years working on approved MG programs (100 hours total). Cost of the training without the volunteer commitment was $720 for a limited number of tuition-based students, which are usually, but not limited to, horticultural professionals who don't have the time for volunteering.