Home - Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association

Each spring the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association hosts three symposiums to help gardeners of all abilities expand their gardening knowledge and skills. Workshops cover ornamental gardens, vegetable gardens, backyard fruits, garden design, composting, insect identification, attracting pollinators, gardening with native plants, and the list goes on. If it's a topic of interest to local gardeners, there's sure to be a workshop on it at one of the three symposiums!

Gardening as a Community!

Saturday, March 21, 2026

9:00 AM to 2:15 PM

Frontier Regional High School

South Deerfield, MA

Let's Get Growing!

Saturday, March 28, 2026

9:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Westfield Middle School - South

30 West Silver Street

Westfield, MA

Gardening for Today

& Tomorrow

Saturday, April 11, 2026

9:00 AM to 12:15 PM

Lenox Memorial Middle & High School

Lenox, MA

GARDENING AS A COMMUNITY!

Doors open at 8:00 AM for Registration, Refreshments, visits to the Marketplace vendors, Raffle, and to have your soil samples tested (pH only).

Keynote Address: Lyme Light: Bringing Tick Safety Out of the Shadows

TOPICS:

Cool Plants for a Changing Climate
Gardening for Baby Boomers: 10 Ways to Garden Smarter and Live Longer - Parts 1 & 2
Garden Hand Tool Sharpening, Upkeep, and Care
Growing Up Green: Hands-on, Minds-on Ideas for Gardening with Children
Enough for Everyone: Living in Reciprocity with the Land
Raiders of the Lost Park - The Latest Invasive Plants We have a Chance to Beat
Letting the Garden Garden: Native Self-Seeding Annuals (and some biennials)
Pressed Flower Creations
Structural Pruning for Resilience in Young Trees and Shrubs

Download the event flyer for more information and to mail in your registration.

Register online via credit card

LET'S GET GROWING!

Doors open at 9:00 AM for Registration, Marketplace Fair, Raffle and Refreshments (PLEASE bring your own water bottles. Refills available.)

10 Classes Designed to Educate and Empower the Home Gardener

TOPICS:

Using Trees and Shrubs for Year-long Interest
Berry Delicious Gardens
Practical Tips: Growing for a Changing Climate
Gardening in Small Places
From One Comes Many: Propagation Workshop (Hands on)
Invasive Species 101: Identification & Management
Vegetables vs. Pests: How to Win!
Design Your Own Water Feature
Let's Go Native: A Sustainable, Attainable Approach
Get your Hands Dirty: Creating a Succulent Garden (Hands on)

Download the event flyer for more information and to mail in your registration.

GARDENING FOR TODAY & TOMORROW

Doors open at 8:00 AM for Registration, Vendor Sales, Environmental Organization Tables, Puzzle Sale, Used Gardening Book Sale,. Houseplant Sale & Refreshments.

Keynote Address: Sustainable Landscaping to Support Berkshires Wildlife

TOPICS:

• Kitchen Medicine: Cooking with Herbs

• Invasive Species of Western Mass

• Growing Better Blueberries

• Deer Defense: How to Outwit the Wiliest of Wildlife

• Localizing Your Landscapes with Native Trees and Shrubs

Download the event flyer for more information and to mail in your registration.

What Does Being a Master Gardener Mean?

What does being a Master Gardener mean?

Proud for sure! Master Gardeners have learned a lot and passed a rigorous course in horticultural fundamentals that consumed a big part of our lives while we were doing it, then followed it with an extensive period volunteering on an array of projects.

Challenged! There’s always something new to learn or some new problem on the horizon. Keeping up or feeling pressed to “know” the answer can be daunting. Just remember, even the experts don’t know the answer to everything. The answer is often, “I don’t know but I’ll find out.”

Empowered! As Master Gardeners we’ve learned how to research and investigate, and each of us have developed a network of others we can draw on to find answers. Every new class taken or problem figured out builds on the foundation of the fundamentals we learned in the training course.

Connected! Master Gardeners are an incredibly talented and knowledgeable bunch with a wide range of interests & life experiences. We enjoy working with each other on ongoing WMMGA projects & events that help educate home gardeners as well as maintain local green spaces and support food security.

Are You Seeing Spotted Lanternfly?

Spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula or "SLF") is an invasive insect first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014. It causes damage to trees and other woody plants by feeding on their sap. While the primary host plant of SLF is the invasive tree-of-heaven, researchers have found that it also targets grapevines, hops, and fruit trees, giving it the potential to become a serious agricultural pest. Spotted Lanternfly has been spotted in the Springfield

These links provide information on the insect.

How to Identify Spotted Lantern Fly (video)

Life Stages of Spotted Lantern Fly (PennState Extension web page)

Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Program

Email Hotline or Telephone Hotline

What Master Gardeners Do

Like the plants we love, Master Gardeners continue to grow and learn. Being a Master Gardener isn’t a static, one-and done accomplishment. It’s an active commitment to being involved by helping people with their gardening problems in a sustainable way. This takes many forms such as holding the spring symposiums, being at a community garden, or talking at a local library, among many others

Full Circle Garden

Full Circle Food Pantry Garden, located at the heart of the South Hadley Community Garden, is dedicated to providing fresh, organically grown produce to Neighbors Helping Neighbors, The all-volunteer staff is responsible for all aspects of the gardening process - from planning to twice-weekly delivery during the growing season.

We grow a variety of seasonal vegetables. Our produce varies by month, and includes garlic, greens, peas and rhubarb in early spring. Tomatoes, peppers and summer squashes are harvested all summer. Hardy winter squashes are ready in the fall. We also have an herb garden and flowers.

The Springfield Museums Thank the Master Gardeners

In this video, the Springfield Museums highlight the wonderful work by our volunteer Master Gardeners. Interviews with Master Gardeners Janet Dolder, Carol Hegeman, and Beate Bolan.

The Pollinators Garden at Grow Food Northampton

The Pollinators Garden at Grow Food Northampton (GFN) was launched in 2017 when the Western Massachusetts Master Gardener Association (WMMGA) was invited to take responsibility for one 20’ x 20’ plot, directly adjacent to a healthy stand of sumac and Japanese knotweed. An initial gift of mostly unlabeled pollinator seeds and plants from Nasami Farm (Native Plant Trust) and the Northampton Community Garden got the project off the ground (or in the ground). Since that time, the Garden has grown fourfold to 1600 square feet. More than 60 species of pollinator-friendly plants have emerged or been installed over the past five years. We continue to work to contain the more exuberant, fast-spreading species, to protect light and space for more delicate plants, and to ensure that the Garden will attract a range of native pollinators. We hope that this guide will be helpful to other gardeners in western Massachusetts who wish to install pollinator-friendly spaces in their yards and gardens.

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Bug ID	How to test your soil	PlantID

Smith College Botanic Garden	Berkshire Botanical Garden	Arnold Arboretum
Wisteriahurst	New England Botanic Garden	Springside and Hebert Arboretum