CORVALLIS, Ore. — The green felt vest and skirt looked homemade because they were.
An official Master Gardener patch had been sewn onto fabric cut and assembled by hand. Small felt pieces decorated the ensemble, which had belonged to a volunteer in Clackamas County decades earlier.
To Leslie Madsen, the statewide Master Gardener Program manager, the vest looked a little like something worn by a Girl Scout leader. That resemblance was meaningful.
“I think that the Master Gardener volunteers were tapping into a very, very long history of public service,” Madsen said as she briefly wore the vest and skirt during the 2026 Joy of Gardening conference at Oregon State University. “Not only were they experts in horticulture, but they were there to serve communities.”
That tradition of service framed Madsen’s July 10 keynote celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Oregon State University Extension Service Master Gardener Program.
The two-day conference, organized by the Oregon Master Gardener Association, brought volunteers, faculty and educators together for classes on biodiversity, pollinators, food production, irrigation, soil, artificial intelligence, gardening in a changing climate and other topics.
The annual gathering reflects a longstanding partnership between OSU Extension and OMGA. OSU Extension trains Master Gardener volunteers to provide practical, research-based horticulture information. OMGA supports that work through advocacy, fundraising, continuing education and assistance to local associations.
In 2025, the program operated in 28 of Oregon’s 36 counties. Its 2,418 volunteers, including 402 trainees, contributed more than 160,000 hours of service — the equivalent of more than 76 full-time employees.
Volunteers answered more than 70,500 documented gardening questions and donated 35 tons of produce to 85 organizations, including food pantries, senior centers and Title I schools.
Those numbers show how far the program has expanded beyond its original purpose of helping Extension agents respond to gardening questions.
“The way the program has morphed over the years is just so lovely to me,” Madsen said. “It was started to answer questions, but in addition to answering questions, you have built community.”
From pilot program to statewide partnership
The Master Gardener concept began in Washington in 1973, when Extension agents facing growing demand for home gardening advice decided to train volunteers to help answer questions.
Oregon followed soon afterward.
In 1975, OSU Extension sought legislative support for an urban home horticulture program adapted to Oregon communities. The program officially began the next year with pilots in Lane and Clackamas counties.
The first class included 36 trainees. Their goals were to relieve Extension employees of repetitive questions, expand educational outreach and provide unbiased, research-based information.
The idea spread quickly, but Oregon’s program encountered a major obstacle in the early 1980s when budget reductions led to layoffs. The number of counties offering the program fell from 10 to seven between 1981 and 1982.
Master Gardener volunteers responded by organizing.
In November 1982, 85 volunteers from 10 counties met at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham to form a statewide association that could provide financial and organizational support. OMGA drafted its first bylaws in 1983 and incorporated in 1985.
The organization’s first Mini College was held in 1983. More than four decades later, that continuing-education gathering has become the Joy of Gardening conference.
By 1989, Oregon had 570 new trainees and 930 veteran volunteers in 18 counties. Together, they donated 78,000 hours of service that year.
The figures document growth, Madsen said, but do not fully capture what the program became. Volunteers created friendships, developed leadership skills and helped people remain active and engaged in their communities.
Madsen quoted Jan Powell McNeilan, retired Master Gardener Program statewide coordinator, who observed that although gardening with plants was the program’s work, “we also grow people.”
New questions for new conditions
Following her keynote, Madsen moderated a panel of OSU Extension Master Gardener coordinators from different regions of Oregon.
Some gardening interests have remained consistent across the program’s history.
Grace Florjancic, agricultural Master Gardener and home horticulture coordinator in Jackson County, found early course materials while researching her local program’s history. Fruit trees and vegetable gardening were popular then and remain so today.
Other subjects have changed with Oregon’s climate and communities.
Amy Jo Detweiler, professor and community horticulturist in Central Oregon, recalled being asked to give a presentation on water gardening when she interviewed for her position in 1999.
At the time, landscape ponds and water features were popular. Decades later, the emphasis has shifted from water gardening to water-wise gardening.
In Klamath County, interest in drip irrigation and alternative lawns rises when water becomes scarce, said Nicole Sanchez, horticulturist and professor of practice. Vegetable gardening remains popular because of the region’s short growing season and challenging conditions.
In Jackson County, Florjancic said residents increasingly seek information about Firewise landscaping following the destructive 2020 wildfires in the Rogue Valley. She has been training to provide that education and prepare volunteers to help residents make informed landscaping decisions.
The changing questions illustrate one of the program’s strengths: Local coordinators and volunteers can respond to the conditions people experience where they live.
Information that reaches people
Master Gardener work increasingly extends beyond Extension offices and traditional plant clinics.
Volunteers answer questions at farmers markets, community celebrations, food pantries and other gathering places. In Benton County, volunteers have expanded their farmers market presence beyond Corvallis.
Otillia Schreuder, agricultural Master Gardener coordinator in Linn and Benton counties, said accessibility matters because people might not visit an Extension office to ask a question.
“Ultimately, it will be the convenience of it being accessible,” she said.
Community partnerships also allow programs to respond to needs beyond ornamental gardening.
Schreuder worked with the OSU Extension Family and Community Health program and Linn Benton Food Share to develop Grow a Row, a class that explains the emergency food system and shows gardeners how to donate surplus produce.
The partners also asked food pantries which crops their clients wanted. Volunteers now grow produce that families recognize and know how to prepare.
In Jackson County, Florjancic has worked with the Rogue Valley Food System Network and food pantries to reach people interested in gardening. Volunteers demonstrate microgreens as an entry point for residents who may live in apartments or have only a windowsill.
The work depends on volunteers becoming comfortable as teachers and problem-solvers. Detweiler pairs newer volunteers with experienced instructors. Teaching assistants can observe classes, build their skills and eventually become lead instructors.
Sanchez uses a similar approach in plant clinics. New volunteers learn to think like detectives, asking questions that help identify a plant problem rather than feeling pressured to produce an immediate answer.
“It is completely reasonable to not have the answer,” Sanchez said. “Enjoy the journey of figuring it out.”
Grants support local ideas
OMGA reinforced its support for locally driven education during the conference by recognizing recipients of its 2026 grants and awards. The awards totaled $9,000.
Karl Carlson grants went to county associations for bilingual signs in Lincoln County demonstration gardens, an outdoor learning center in the Columbia Gorge, a seed library in Clatsop County and a permaculture food forest in Columbia County.
Extension educator grants supported demonstration garden signs in Marion County; improvements for Douglas County’s Junior Master Gardener Program and Boots on the Ground, Hands in the Soil veterans program; Seed to Supper and youth gardening in Columbia County; and a low-water turf and turf alternatives trial in Deschutes County.
The Lane County Master Gardener Association received the Search for Excellence award for its Edible Gardens program. The project includes public seminars, educational materials, demonstration beds and monthly herb and edible flower walks.
Trusted answers, stronger communities
Fifty years after the Oregon program began, gardeners can receive an answer from a search engine or an artificial intelligence summary within seconds.
That makes the Master Gardener Program’s role more important, Schreuder said, not less.
“The most important job of the Master Gardener Program in 2026 is to make sure that we are providing evidence-based information to the public,” she said.
The program’s underlying promise remains much the same as it was for Oregon’s first 36 trainees: Provide reliable information and put it to work in service of the public.
For Detweiler, that service manifests in conversations she overhears in the Master Gardener plant clinic next to her office. Volunteers sometimes spend 45 minutes on a single tomato question.
“They’re meeting an individual face to face, hands on, taking the time,” she said. “The volunteers are committed, and they’re going to do their best to help.”
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