VOLUNTEER WITH MAMGA
Maybe your knees or back aren’t what they used to be. You can still log hours by volunteering with MAMGA.
Be an elected member of our Board of Directors
Volunteer to help with the annual membership meeting
Participate as a member of our Communications, Fundraising, or Community Grants committees
Help maintain our website
Respond to emails sent to MAMGA
Write, take photos, or provide editing expertise for our newsletter
ALL MGs are eligible to volunteer for a variety of Extension activities - Plant Health Advisor, Teaching Garden, Speaker’s Bureau. However, you will need to complete the Extension Horticulture Volunteer process which follows.
VOLUNTEER Through the UW-Extension
You no longer need to be currently certified as a Master Gardener to volunteer for Extension. When you volunteer for Extension, you are an Extension Horticulture Volunteer (EHV). All volunteers throughout UW Extension including areas other than horticulture must follow the same process.
The instructions for becoming an Extension Horticulture Volunteer.
Once you complete these steps you can help Lisa Johnson at the Extension including the teaching garden, the Speakers Bureau, Horticulture Helpline and the Ask-a-Master-Gardener table at local community farmer’s markets.
Go to getting started for detailed instructions on the Master Gardener certification journey.
volunteer at the uw ag research station
The UW West Ag Research Station is looking for Master Gardener volunteers in 2025. These display gardens host national plant trials, so new genetics are always on display. Volunteers get to enjoy the stunning beauty while getting fresh air and good exercise. The environment is serene with hundreds of acres of farm fields surrounding the gardens.
Adopt-A-Garden program
Where: UW West Ag Research Station, 8502 Mineral Point Road, Verona, Wisconsin (near West Towne Mall)
When: Throughout the 2025 growing season
Time Commitment: 3 hrs per month minimum for Adopt-a-Garden program; 10 to 25hrs for the growing season
Master Gardeners are invited to adopt an entire bed/area to take care of during the growing season. There is a fair bit of flexibility in this opportunity. You can be creative and add new plants or remove badly behaving ones, too. There are different levels of work needed for the various beds, and visiting weekly or every other week for 1-2 hrs/visit is adequate. Interested but short on time? Some areas will require less frequent maintenance for those with less availability.
Here’s a chart that shows which gardens are still up for adoption, along with information on how much care they’ll need. Perks include free plants, fruits & veggies, fresh air, and a tranquil escape anytime you want, between dawn and dusk.
other opportunities at UW West ag research station
The UW West Ag Research Station also needs volunteers for other various tasks such as:
Helping transplant things in the greenhouse in April
General gardening (pruning, thinning, de-stalking/deadheading, weeding, mulching)
Promotion of the All-American Selections program
Photographing plant trials at peak bloom
Plant digs for donation/thinning purposes
Sprucing up the grounds before an event in August
Planting bulbs in the fall
Enjoy learning opportunities and networking with fellow MGVs and station staff.
Ready to volunteer? Contact Janet Hedtcke janet.hedtcke@wisc.edu
For more info visit: https://westmadison.ars.wisc.edu/university-display-gardens
VOLUNTEER in the community
Service hours are essential to remaining certified as a Master Gardener. There are several opportunities throughout Dane County including school gardens, food pantry gardens, non-profit organizations, Olbrich, Arboretum, Dane County, and Madison Parks. Also regularly check our FaceBook page for updates and volunteer opportunities.
BLAIRS STREET GARDENS
MADISON PUBLIC GARDENS RECRUITING NEW volunteers
Two public gardens - The Gateway Garden and Wilson Green - beautify one of Madison's busiest intersections. Literally hundreds of people - in cars, on bicycles and on foot - enjoy the gardens each day. The gardens are located on City of Madison property at or near the intersection of John Nolen Drive, and Williamson, S. Blair and E. Wilson Streets. They are maintained by donations from the community and gardening done by volunteers; minimal support is received from the city.
The gardens are collectively called The Blair Street Gardens (BSG). The Gateway Garden on Williamson Street across from Machinery Row Bikes is a small urban park with hardscape, benches, and native perennials. Wilson Green on E. Wilson Street toward the capitol across from The Cardinal Bar contains a large perennial bed. The governing body is The Blair Street Gardens Committee, Inc., which through its volunteer board of five members has continuously managed the gardens since its creation as a 501(c)3 non-profit in 1985.
To remain a place of beauty and respite in the busy city, BSG needs more volunteers to replace current volunteers who have served for decades and now wish to move on. BSG is particularly interested in recruiting Master Gardeners because of your love and knowledge of gardening and plants, and your understanding of the value of beautiful outdoor spaces.
Volunteers are needed to do the usual work in a garden – weeding, pruning, and mulching. Work can be done whenever the volunteer wants or during a scheduled volunteer event.
BSG also needs volunteers to serve as Board members. Serving on the Board involves 2-4 meetings a year, consultations by email, text and phone, and gardening chores as needed throughout the season.
For more information, please email info@blairstreetgardens.org. Info about the gardens is on our website at www.blairstreetgardens.org or our FaceBook page.
FOLKLORE VILLAGE
The story begins 15 years ago when a director of Folklore Village Folkarts center, near Dodgeville, signed up the non-profit to put some of its fields in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), to coax fields into prairies, in exchange for a modest $5,000 - $8,000/year. Well, one director passed on to another and the payments kept coming, but the small print about Folklore Village's obligations to develop and nurture the prairie got buried. Until the US Dept of Ag came calling to check on the 15 years of enrollment, and they sternly informed Folklore Village that with such a mess of weeds, etc., that not only would the land lose its CRP certification, but the hard-scrabble organization would owe thousands of dollars back to the feds.
Eek. Board members actually discussed selling the land! Enter knowledgeable volunteers on white horses -- Dan Wallace, Wendy Frances, Cathy Palzkill, David Lovell, and others, who in the past months made amazing progress. Some of you know the routine: getting rid of tangles of trees/bushes, burns, and now rooting out specific invasive plants. The Ag folks came back a couple weeks ago and couldn't believe the positive changes.
But we're not yet out of the weeds. We still have lots more to do on the land before the previous CRP contract "passes" and future plans can be made.
I'm asking if YOU can come out to this quiet, beautiful land and dedicate 2-3-4 hours. I've been surprised how much I enjoy it. One person alone can't make much progress ; we need a little team of 4-5 people.
If yes, definitely RSVP.
If this date doesn’t work, let me know and I can contact you in the future. It is a good, healing, lovely way to spend a morning -- creating a beautiful prairie under blue skies to nurture butterflies, wild flowers, and moments of peace, of which the world needs more.
Kindly RSVP to me, Madeline Uraneck or (608) 658-5537 (Cell)so we'll have leaders and tools. Thank you for considering.
LITERACY NETWORK
Literacy Network Needs Volunteer Gardeners to Help Us Plant our 50th Anniversary Shade Garden!
Literacy Network is a charitable nonprofit offering free adult education (ESL, GED, and Citizenship classes) in Dane County. We are looking for volunteers to help us install a perennial garden in front of our building this May! We will be planting a north-facing shade garden with a mix of native and cultivated perennials.
You can sign up HERE by May 1 for one or more 2-hour shifts. Any questions? Contact Associate Director Jennifer Peterson at jennifer@litnetwork.org, or 608-244-3911.
We also have a wish list of plants. If you grow any of these and have extras you’re willing to share (or are prone to fun impulse purchases at your favorite greenhouse!), we’d be grateful to have them! Please sign up HERE by May 1 to share plants.
Thank you for helping us make our center as welcoming as possible for our learning community!
SMITH CROSSING COMMUNITY GARDEN
Are you a skilled gardener looking to make a difference? Join us at Smith Crossing Community Garden as a Master Gardener volunteer for our Food Pantry Garden. Help grow fresh produce for families in need!
Responsibilities:
Plan and execute planting schedules.
Implement sustainable gardening practices.
Harvest and deliver fresh produce to the food pantry.
Benefits:
Make a direct impact on local food security.
Gain valuable volunteer experience.
Foster community connections.
Ready to grow with us? Contact Casey (caseyboyle96@gmail) to get started!
ORCHARD RIDGE ELEMENTARY Master Gardener Help Needed
The Madison Area Master Gardener Association just awarded Orchard Ridge Elementary School (5602 Russett Road) a $500 grant to help revitalize the school’s existing garden and create a more welcoming place for students and the larger school community. The current garden was created about ten years ago and has raised beds in good condition and a well-stocked shed. This grant will allow the school to add seating for students, refresh existing beds, and add new garden beds. What’s needed for this project are additional Master Gardener Volunteers. The volunteer commitment could range from a couple of hours for the whole season to a few hours every week or so. Examples of volunteer work that needs to be done:
prune an existing raspberry patch in April
plant seeds and seedlings with individual classes in May
water and weed gardens during the summer (sign-up for what’s possible for you)
plant native pollinators in July
help individual classes work in the gardens in September
help put the garden to bed in October
The project has some volunteer help already but needs more people who are knowledgeable and experienced gardeners to work and to help less experienced gardeners. Please consider offering your help by emailing Anna Biermeier, abiermeier@wisc.edu. Anna is a Master Gardener who is working with this project.
Here’s a little more background on what was funded. . . With a portion of the grant money, an Eagle Scout candidate will create and install eight Aldo Leopold style benches. The circle of benches will welcome whole classes to the garden for instruction and work. The Scout’s project will also help prepare an area this spring for a pollinator garden to be planted later in the summer. The Scout is responsible for planning for this work and finding volunteers. The other portion of the grant money will pay for garden soil to refresh the existing raised beds and top the new pollinator garden, a strawberry bed, and a bed of annual flowers. Plants for the new garden beds will be donated by a variety of sources.