If you’re looking for a comprehensive, science-based, horticulture and gardening essentials course, our Home Horticulture Certificate could be for you!
This expert-led course provides the same training as our popular Certificate of Home Horticulture program, which offers an exceptional experience that will help your garden thrive.
NOTE: Though this is the same training as the Master Gardener program, this Certificate of Home Horticulture will not lead to a Master Gardener Certification.
Upon completion of this accelerated summer course, you will receive a Certificate of Home Horticulture. The curriculum for the online Home Horticulture course includes an innovative online format that includes:
This new summer intensive version of the course allows you to gain the same training in a fraction of the time!
The Home Horticulture Basic Training course is designed for anyone who is interested in learning more about the effective and sustainable management of their home horticultural landscape. There are no course prerequisites, although a basic understanding of plants is helpful. In this course, you will learn about the art and the science of caring for plants.
During the seven weeks, we will examine:
We will also focus on the prevention and diagnosis of plant problems, as well as a least-toxic approach to tolerating and/or managing plant problems in the home horticultural landscape.
By the end of this online Home Horticulture program, you will learn:
This program is open to all. You don't have to be an OSU student or even live in Oregon.
Many of the modules, such as Botany Basics, Soils and Compost, Intro to Entomology, Pesticide Safety and more are applicable anywhere. Others that are more plant-oriented use mostly western Oregon examples, although there is still plenty of basic, essential information. We include some information for dryer regions as well.
If you live in a climate that is extremely different from western Oregon (like a desert or tropical area), you'll learn all the essential information, though you might want to supplement the course with local information as well.
A very limited number of scholarships are available.
Applications are due three weeks before the start of the next course. You will receive a notification at least two weeks before the start of the next course.
You can complete your Home Horticulture Certificate scholarship application here.
If you live in Oregon and are interested in becoming an OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer, visit this website https://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg to find out about in-person training in 2022.
I wanted to learn more about the science behind plants. I also wanted to validate my pre-existing knowledge of horticulture and desired a defined certificate that I could present to a future employer. I learned more information, gained quality written readings in the form of pdf downloads, and received a certificate for my resume. And the online flexibility, and the readings were all really easy to read and full of important information.
This program taught me how to correctly manage my plants and any pest/disease they have. I was concerned about the pace of the class as it was accelerated, but did not find it to be too fast. I enjoyed the online flexibility and ability to look through quizzes at a later date. It was very instructive and just challenging enough to really teach students.
"Thank you to all of the instructors for providing such a wonderful course. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and would highly recommend it to anyone that has an interest in Horticulture."
Signe Danler is a veteran Master Gardener and landscape designer with a Masters of Ag degree in Horticulture. In the Master Gardener Online program, she uses her experience and training in gardening, urban forestry and ecological landscaping to communicate about and promote sustainable gardening and landscaping practices.
Gail Langellotto is a Professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University, where she also serves as the Principle Investigator of the Garden Ecology Lab and leads the statewide Oregon State University Master Gardener program. She has a M.S. and Ph.D. in entomology, and has published research on topics as diverse as the costs of starting and maintaining a vegetable garden, pollinator-friendly gardens, and the benefits of gardening to healthy eating. Her OSU Extension Service and outreach efforts are focused on communicating research-backed management practices to home gardeners. For the online Master Gardener and urban agriculture PACE courses, she supervises overall course development, and reviews and contributes to course content.