Marianne Rowse graduated last month from the Master Gardener Certification class, sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension.

Marianne was one of 35 people who were taking the gardening class this spring. We asked her to sit down for a virtual interview, an e-mail Q&A.

What’s the difference between a Master Gardener and someone who just knows a lot about his backyard and the plants in the neighborhood?

Eight weeks of training and 45 hours of volunteer work gets you certified as a MG (first year). After the first year we are required to put in 20 hours of volunteer work, and 6 hours of continuing education each year to maintain our certification.

Does the designation give your voice added weight? What was involved in the training? And what did you learn?

Our class was from 9-4 every Saturday for 8 weeks. Each class was divided into a morning session and an afternoon session. Each session was on a different topic, and was taught by an expert in that area (trees, turf, soil, insects, landscape design, vegetable gardening, annuals, perennials etc.) So, it was really a general overview of everything gardening. It gave us a taste of each subject, and spurred us on to research something that interested us for our final paper. With the continuing education requirement, we get to choose subjects that we’d like to get stronger in.

What’s involved in the internship. How many hours? What type of volunteering?

When we graduate we become trained volunteers for the Extension service. They use us to answer questions on the Extension Hotline. Some of us will be on the Speakers Bureau and will do talks for various groups who want to learn about gardening. We provide assistance (weeding, planting) in the gardens at Swope Park Community Center, Powell Gardens, Kauffman Gardens and various others. There is a school program for KCMSD that teaches kids to grow vegetables. We can also serve in various capacities for Master Gardeners of Greater Kansas City (fundraising, marketing etc.). All will earn us volunteer hours.

I’m sure the badge you’ll be issued is one of honor, but what else does the designation mean to you? Why did you go through it?

I run a community garden in my neighborhood, Historic Northeast, and it occurred to me that it might be helpful for one of us to have an MG certification. I can answer gardeners’ questions, we can have workshops, I can help with Schoolyard Gardens at the elementary schools etc.

A lot of my classmates have a similar interest in vegetable gardening, which, I believe is a departure from the norm in the MG Program. I’d like to help people from the urban core learn about growing food.

People who are on foot, often have limited access to fresh vegetables. My hope is that we'll have more and more interest in our community garden, and improve the health of our community.

Did you wake up on Sunday thinking about the Master Gardener program, and wake with a smile?

Yeah, mostly I just feel like I have a lot of work cut out for me. Now that I can identify all the weeds in my yard, I really should get out there and start pulling them up!