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Fairfax County officials honored the county’s Master Gardeners on Tuesday, March 17, celebrating five decades of volunteer service, environmental education and gardening support.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay praised the volunteers’ “dedication, expertise and spirit of service,” calling their work increasingly important to the county’s environmental efforts.

“You have been the educators, the advocates of leading us in the right direction,” Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck said.

The program dates to March 1976, when Fairfax County trained its first 45 volunteers through the Neighborhood Plant Clinic Program. The Fairfax County Master Gardeners Association was formally established in 1997.

Operating through Virginia Cooperative Extension, a partnership between Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, the initiative provides home gardeners with practical information and expert guidance.

Today, roughly 230 members contribute about 20,000 volunteer hours annually. Volunteers complete 33 hours of training and 24 hours of service before earning certification.

Their outreach reaches adults and young people, including thousands of Fairfax County fourth graders each year. Those lessons are designed to build gardening skills and encourage a lasting interest in growing plants.

McKay also highlighted gardening’s therapeutic benefits. Susan McCrackin, the organization’s leader, encouraged residents to try gardening even if they doubt their abilities.

“Gardening is the great experiment,” McCrackin said. “Don’t give up.”

The broader Master Gardener movement began in Washington state during the early 1970s. It was developed to assist Puget Sound residents who increasingly grew their own food as Boeing’s financial troubles battered the regional economy.

In Fairfax County, the program emerged from work by the National Capital Area Federation of Garden Clubs during that decade. McCrackin said its volunteers intend to maintain their commitment well into the future.

“We hope to continue this commitment for the next 50 years,” she said.