Whether you are a person doing your own backyard gardening or someone who does it for a living, the Colorado Master Gardener program may be for you. The Colorado Master Gardener program is a program where you learn about gardening in Colorado.

The gardening classes includes vegetable gardening, tree care, diagnosing problems, weed control, plant pathology, soils and some time spent on mountain gardening. This Colorado Master Gardener program will be taught totally online, starting on Jan. 10, 2022, and going through April 30, 2022.

The two program tracts are the volunteer tract. If a person has time to volunteer to teach horticulture to others, they can take the class for a reduced fee. By agreeing to be a volunteer the fee is reduced to $200. With the reduced fee the volunteer agrees to provide 50 hours of volunteer time back to Colorado State University and the San Luis Valley through the local Extension office.

The second tract is the non-volunteer tract. It is called the Colorado Gardener Certificate. Those who chose this program will not provide the volunteer hours to Colorado State University and the San Luis Valley. Those following the Colorado Gardener Certificate tract are also not a Colorado Master Gardener. They are not eligible to call themselves a “Master Gardener”. This tract pays the full fee of $530.

There is also a Short Course option at a reduced fee, and there are a limited number of scholarships available which cover half of the fee. All details can be seen by going to the link provided below.

Time is of the essence to register. As is required of all Colorado State University volunteers, a background check and reference check are required before you can begin the course, and this takes a couple of weeks to complete. Therefore, we request your registration by Dec. 10. Registrations received after Dec. 10 will be processed but may not clear in time to enroll in the course.

All details and the on-line registration form can be found by going to the following link https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/about/become-a-colorado-master-gardener-2/

For more information on the Colorado Master Gardener or Colorado Gardener Certificate program contact the San Luis Valley Extension Office at 719-852-7381 or email Larry Brown at [email protected].