About the Master Gardener Program
Program Success
The success of the program has been phenomenal. During 2008, 3,822 volunteers contributed 349,039.6 hours to local county horticulture extension educational programs providing services to citizens of Florida worth $7 million. The Florida Master Gardeners provided services to a documented 894,144 citizens in Florida last year. On average, each Master Gardener volunteered 91.32 hours in 2008.
Other noteworthy statistics include:
- 2009 is the 30-year anniversary of the Florida Master Gardener Program.
- From 1979 to 2008, the volunteers have donated over 5 million volunteer hours (5,403,574.37), valued at well over $83 million ($83,147,832.03).
- More than 80 percent of counties adopted the program within its first two decades.
- As of January 1, 2009, 58 of Florida's 67 counties were running active Master Gardener programs.
- Each county has an average of 66 trained volunteers
- More than 82 percent of counties train one new class of Master Gardeners each year.
The ultimate end to the educational outreach efforts of the Florida Master Gardener Program is to extend the vision of the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, all the while protecting and sustaining natural resources and environmental systems, enhancing the development of human resources, and improving the quality of human life through the development of knowledge in agricultural, human and natural resources and making that knowledge accessible.
