The Latest Dirt - November 2024

Welcome Class of 2025! A New Journey Begins

by Lisa Bramblet, ELT Member at Large, Rivertown Garden Co-Lead

Greetings and welcome aboard to the UC Master Gardener Class of 2025! You have chosen to embark on a wonderful journey of discovery and as a resource for the community in Contra Costa County. As you do so, I hope you will drink deeply of the streams of knowledge and expertise you have access to through your training. You would use your newfound botanical and horticultural powers to improve our gardening in Contra Costa County, reaching out to the youth and our lesser-served communities. Nothing heals, sustains and brings joy like gardening!

Let me take a moment to introduce you to your Executive Leadership Team, the body of elected individuals tasked with leading our UC Master Gardener organization locally. (I am honored to be a member of this august body of folks and am truly blessed by the experience.) First - you might be wondering about the name Executive Leadership Team (or ELT as we typically refer to ourselves in the land of acronyms and text speak for brevities sake). The ELT is essentially the ‘board of directors’ – an approach chosen a number of years ago after deciding that the prior structure of a ‘President, etc., etc.’ was not what we wanted but a balanced board of folks who take turns at the helm for meetings. Our job is to follow a Calendar of organizational activities and guide the various tasks needed to make things happen, maintain communication, and follow the organization’s needs and desires.

Yes, we attend a few meetings (sometimes more than others!) We put our heads together and do our best to look out for your local UC Master Gardener experience, facilitate project management, oversee main social events, and plan for the future by constantly taking a pulse on what is most important and needed as a body of volunteers serving together. It’s not all hard work; as UC Master Gardeners from various parts of our very diverse County, we have the chance to come together and form fulfilling working relationships and appreciation of one another for all the things we each bring to the table – yep we have some fun while we work hard for you.

As you get your feet wet (perhaps literally at some projects!) I hope you connect well in the organization. Try on for size various projects, and travel around our County and see places different from yours. Contra Costa has an amazing diversity of people and natural, cultivated, and urban spaces. Gardening has a place in all of it and is vital to our communities’ beauty, bounty, and well-being. Finish well in your training and the rest of the ELT, and I look forward to getting to know you better as you step forth and begin your new adventure in this fine endeavor. Dig deep and grow well.