Jess writes:
So nice to find your human-written blog! I was a mom blogger in the 2000s-2010s Blogging Golden Age, and I truly miss that huge community of writers who wrote all sorts of amazing stuff. And we promoted that content via email and on these new platforms called Instagram and Pinterest, plus the more established one called Facebook Ah, the good old days when social media wasn’t toxic and filled with influencers and dominated by video…
Anyway, I found you because of your Master Gardener blog post. I am annoyed that I didn’t get into my local Master Gardener program in Massachusetts. They had a crazy amount of applicants for not a lot of spots. And I learned that the fact that I mentioned I work as a paid gardener, and would use MG knowledge to help me in my job worked *against* me, which is INSANE. I mean, how dare I earn a living by doing something I love, right?
So I’m still searching for some sort of certification program that will increase my knowledge but isn’t as expensive as going to a university. Any ideas?
Thanks for not being a robot blogger
Alas, I miss the Blogging Golden Age. May it rise again!
Even a Silver Age would be good.
My 2016 post on the failings of the Master Gardener program sure made some ripples.
It surprised me to learn that the program discouraged members from mentioning their Master Gardener certification if they were in some sort of agriculture-related business.
Why? Didn’t I work for this certification? Why can’t I tell my plant nursery customers that I am a certified Master Gardener?
If I got my HVAC cert, I could share it with customers. I earned it! But Master Gardener certification? Oh no, that’s some sort of conflict of interest.
I was proud to earn my certification back in the day. It felt good.
But it doesn’t mean much in the long run.
Now I hold a much dimmer view of certifications.
Which brings me back to Jess:
I’m still searching for some sort of certification program that will increase my knowledge but isn’t as expensive as going to a university.
Why?
As I wrote back in 2016:
If you want to continue your gardening education, particularly in the realm of growing food, skip the Master Gardener program and find good gardening books to read instead. Then join some gardening Meetup groups and hang out at permies.com. Hang out here. Find gardeners that are doing what you want to do, then follow them around.
Practice your gardening. Experiment. Grow. Fail. Try different things.
And let your garden be your certification!
Why do you need a certificate to give you validity?
Even the modern college system is a joke. It’s better at creating student loan debt than a great career. There are a few fields in which a college degree helps, but it’s not even remotely the prize it used to be.
And now AI has flooded everything.
As my wife said to me last night, “Going to college so you can get a good job is like going to a bar to find a good wife.”
Another option is to join my Skool group. I posted multiple video courses in there. It doesn’t give you a “certification,” but it definitely increases your knowledge.
