Program Requirements

DC MGs Kathy Sykes and Mary Beth Tinker and UDC's Diego Lahaye growing seedlings for schools gardens on the Green Roof at Van Ness. Photo credit: Patricia Bon.

For the most recent information about the program, please click on the link below to

download the DC Master Gardener Guidebook and the UDC CAUSES Volunteeer Handbook.

DC Master Gardener Guidebook

UDC CAUSES Volunteer Handbook

Volunteer and Continuing Education Requirements

DC Master Gardeners must complete a minimum of volunteer and continuing education hours per calendar year (January to December) to remain active. Volunteers who do not meet these requirements relinquish their right to the Master Gardener title.

The hours will vary for certified versus intern Master Gardeners. They may also split their volunteer time between pre-approved program activities (75%) and local community activities of their choosing (25%).

All hours should be recorded using the provided logs. For those Master Gardeners that do not complete their annual volunteer hours, they will need to make up for their hours the following year to regain certification.

Certified Master Gardeners

Certified Master Gardeners must complete a minimum of 20 volunteer hours and 10 continuing education hours a year to remain active.

Seventy-five percent (15 hours) of volunteer activities should be from a pre-approved program activity. Contact the MG program coordinator for a list of activities or to gain pre-approval for an activity.

Twenty-five percent (5 hours) of volunteer activities can be spent on a garden-related activity in your local community (not in your own home) and does not need pre-approval. For example, a neighborhood cleanup, manning a table at your local plant sale, starting seeds for your granddaughters' class, etc. could be applied to these elective volunteer hours.

Intern Master Gardeners

Intern Master Gardeners must complete a minimum of 40 volunteer hours to achieve certification.

15 Hours of volunteerism should be on a UDC Extension or Master Gardener program activity. This could be at a UDC food hub, Master Gardener meetings, or Master Gardener sub-program activities (outreach, public education, 4H Grow DC, etc.)

15 Hours of volunteerism should be from a pre-approved program activity, but don't have to be with a UDC or Master Gardener program. Contact the MG program coordinator for a list of activities or to gain pre-approval for an activity.

10 hours of volunteerism can be spent on a garden-related activity in your local community (not in your own home) and does not need pre-approval. For example, a neighborhood cleanup, manning a table at your local plant sale, starting seeds for your granddaughters' class, etc. could be applied to these elective volunteer hours.

General Guidelines for Volunteer Activities

The primary objective of the DC Master Gardener Program is to provide volunteer service to the community. Educating the general public on urban horticultural and agricultural practices is also an important goal.

Below is a guideline with five broad types of activities that count as volunteer service for DC Master Gardeners. Feel free to suggest new activities to the Master Gardener coordinator.

Trays of seedlings for school garden project grown by team of Master Gardeners at the Bertie Backus Native Plant Nursery.

1. Action-based activities

Why do we become Master Gardeners? To help people!

One of the best things we can do as Master Gardeners is to put our knowledge into practice by volunteering in projects that need help around the city. This includes anything from transplanting seedlings at a community garden, to planning a planting calendar at an urban farm; from designing a rain garden at your local library to building an ADA accessible bed at a senior center. The important thing is that we apply our knowledge and help those who need our expertise. This often involves being pro-active and having an enthusiastic can-do attitude.

2. Stewardship

Volunteering to clean and maintain the environment is definitely a Master Gardener duty! Pulling invasive weeds from DC parks and participating in river clean-ups, are all fantastic ways for Master Gardeners to give back to the city.

3. Community and Youth Education

One of the primary responsibilities of Master Gardeners is to teach - to share your knowledge with others. This can be done in person or online, in a hands-on demonstration or a lecture, in a webinar or a zoom meeting, with a workshop or a presentation. It can be done by preparing a fact sheet or a handbook, by compiling resources on a website, by writing an entry for a blog or newsletter. It can be done formally or informally, by delivering a powerpoint presentation at the local library, or by talking to your friends and neighbors over the backyard fence.

You can also claim time spent speaking to school groups, Scouts, 4-H'ers, and garden clubs. You can host a seed starting workshop in schools and organize a nature themed story time at your local community garden. Any positive way you find to engage youth in gardening counts.

4. Outreach and Communication

One of the most valuable things we can do as Master Gardeners is to engage DC residents in our activities, creating connections between people and projects. Being a ward rep within your local community would allow members to have greater reach in each neighborhood and improve the outcomes of the Master Gardener programs. Participating in local meetings (ANC, PTA, civic and citizen associations); identifying volunteer opportunities and needs, connecting with neighborhood groups, garden clubs and schools, sharing information with your neighbors, and bringing feedback and input back to Master Gardeners is key role for us to better understand and better serve residents in all 8 wards. Communication and outreach can also be done in print via a newsletter, or virtual by writing on a blog or managing a social media page.

5. Leadership roles

The only way our Master Gardener program can survive is if people volunteer to chair projects, lead activities, organize meetings, serve as officers, help with fund-raising and more! Your efforts to lead and guide the Master Gardener program will help the members learn more, and be more effective volunteers for other community projects.

A special note about Community Gardens

Community gardens are a prime location for MG activity. However, even though community gardens are public settings, it is important to differentiate between activities that benefit the community (and may be counted as service hours) and those that benefit the MG as an individual (and may not be counted as service hours).

All MG service hours must be associated with a service you are providing to your community. If you are using your individual plot as a demonstration bed to teach others at the garden how to plant, or if you are harvesting from that bed and sharing the food and flowers with others, or if you are in any other way tending for your bed in service for the community, you may count those hours. However, if you are tending an individual plot with no direct community impact, you may not count those hours.

There are many other ways to count your hours at community gardens. For example, if your garden has a watering schedule where members are responsible for watering all the beds one day of the week, you would be providing a service to your fellow gardeners and may count those. Or if you are working on communal projects like rain gardens, butterfly gardens etc., those hours may also be counted.

Community gardens also require a lot of community organizing. Any time spent planning, at meetings and involved with other similar activities may also be counted, especially if you have a leadership role in the garden.

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