Okay, okay…we know it’s a little early to be recapping the year and setting sights on the next one, but when our Master Gardeners finish their hours and the graduation/appreciation dinner is wrapped up, we feel a little empty in our hearts–and office.  Accompany this with the seasonal closing of our Master Gardener help desk, less daylight hours and sleepy garden beds and a person can get pretty reflective.

Set up for Master Gardener Appreciation Dinner

So while we aren’t putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, we are seeking to recruit the next batch of amazing volunteers before the snow falls! We can’t think of a better recruitment tool than highlighting just how much fun we are. Oops—we mean how fun the program is! Master Gardener word art in shape of butterflyLast Tuesday we partied hard with all of our remarkable volunteers at the Conservation Garden Park. We played games, shared stories and laughed a lot — especially when we busted out the honeybee waggle dance.

Volunteers attending the Master Gardener Graduation Party.

We enjoyed great food, even better company and per tradition we ended the evening with the announcement of our ‘Master Gardener of the Year’. This year it just happened to be TWO very talented volunteers.

Master Gardener(s) of the Year

[noun] –  a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

 

Wait – that’s the definition of a hero, but in our eyes that’s what the volunteer(s) of the year are to us! We can’t say enough nice things about the two gentlemen below. They were a joy to work with, they took on leadership roles and they truly went above and beyond for us.

Master Gardener of the Year photo - Phil Master Gardener of the Year photo - Warren

Honestly, we have so much fun with our volunteers! We enjoy getting to know them during the training portion of the program and we adore working side-by-side with them in our gardens all summer long. We constantly work to improve and expand the Salt Lake County Master Gardener program and we hope our volunteers enjoy it as much as we do.

We feel honored to have so many talented individuals join our program each year and help us accomplish our mission of “Building knowledge and improving lives”. Master Gardener volunteers make our program what it is and we could not do it without them!

So, before you start screaming “Hold on a second, there are TWO months left of 2017” pause, take a deep breath, and use that time to sign up for the 2018 Master Gardener Program. Classes start in January and we all know time flies when you’re having fun!