
Throughout this site there are links to documents of various file types. Please contact our Statewide Program Leader if you require this information in a different format.
The history of our program
In the early 1970’s, area Extension Agents Bill Scheer (Pierce County) and David Gibby (King County) started assignments with the dual focus of urban and commercial horticulture, but the public demand was overwhelming. So, they united to pioneer a new way to deliver gardening support at scale. Their idea was to ‘teach the teachers’, volunteers who would be university educated on the science behind gardening, and then offer that knowledge, free, to the general public.
That they were onto something was evident when the advertisements for their first class attracted more than 600 applicants. Two hundred were accepted into that first training session and the Master Gardener program was born.

