Adams County Horticulture, Lawns, Trees and Master Gardeners

Extension Master Gardener Volunteer shares experience during his first year in program  

Every fourth Tuesday, spring through fall, a group of plant-loving friends gather to share what’s working in their gardens.  

They also hear reliable horticulture information from the Nebraska Extension that help them help others.

“I like being able to talk with other Master Gardeners to get ideas for my garden,” said Mike Brhel, of Fairfield, who trained to become a Nebraska Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in spring 2025.

“I like to learn new things and then pass that information on to others,” he added.

Mike is among 16 Extension Master Gardener Volunteers who regularly attend monthly meetings through the growing season at the Adams County’s Nebraska Extension office near Hastings.

“I like the monthly meetings,” he said, “because the Master Gardeners are able to talk with each other and get to know each other, and the programs brought in are very informative.”

This year’s meeting topics included succulents, starting vegetable seeds indoors, triaging tree concerns, cultivating mulberries, hydroponics, lasagna gardening, touring the Adams County Extension office’s prairie, Pawnee corn preservation, and using wool pellets as a soil amendment.

Some of the programs are given by invited speakers and others by Extension Master Gardener Volunteers. Mike was excited to present on mulberries at the May meeting of the Adams County Master Gardeners, which is also open to Extension Master Gardener Volunteers in surrounding counties. He’s already planning a presentation for one of next year’s meetings.

Trying new things is what drew this lifelong gardener to put in his application to become an Extension Master Gardener Volunteer at this time last year.

In 2026, the Nebraska Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program celebrates its 50th anniversary of training volunteers to strengthen their local communities through science-based horticultural knowledge. The application for people interested in the 2026 training is now open: https://mastergardener.unl.edu/become-ne-emgv-volunteer/  

Training involves both a self-paced, online course with an open-book exam at completion and additional workshops offered in-person and by Zoom in February and March. The education provided covers soil health, plant selection, pollinators, turf management, tree care, water conservation, and pest management as it applies to the whole landscape. Cost of training is $250, although there is a $50 scholarship available on request.

“The value you get in training from Extension and the friendship with other Master Gardeners is well worth the cost,” Mike said.

After receiving 40 hours of training and education, new Extension Master Gardener Volunteers then contribute 40 hours of community service in their first year. Returning Extension Master Gardeners volunteer 20 hours annually.

Volunteer work is at the heart of the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program. During the 2025 growing season, Adams County’s 16 Master Gardeners volunteered 1,170 hours to provide reliable horticulture information to 7,208 people—a value of $39,980.19.

Many activities qualify as a Master Gardener volunteer project as long as the project involves educating others in some way. Mike’s mulberries presentation counted and so did casually talking to students about how to determine vegetable ripeness while building raised beds at the Hastings Middle School Community Garden. He volunteered one to two hours a week there this summer.

Mike was also able to help care for a garden involved in the University of Nebraska’s Vegetable Variety Trials that tracked growth characteristics and yield differences between varieties of certain vegetables.

“It was interesting to see how the five different varieties of tomatoes compared with each other,” he said. “I would grow two varieties of cucumbers again. If I liked jalapeno peppers, I would grow those again because they were prolific!”

Another of Mike’s favorite volunteer projects is Highland Park Arboretum, the care of which is a long-time partnership between the City of Hastings and Nebraska Extension.

“I volunteered with other Master Gardeners at Highland Park Arboretum one hour a week two to three times a month in the spring and summer,” he said. “I learned from the other Master Gardeners in how to care for the Arboretum’s trees and garden areas.”

All in all, Mike concluded that the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program has been a way for him to give back to his community in a way that he enjoys and with other people who like to do the same. Being an Extension Master Gardener Volunteer reminds him of growing up on a farm and helping his parents and grandma in their gardens, everyone working together for the common good.

The Nebraska Extension Master Gardener Volunteers in Adams County are a group of volunteers, trained by the Nebraska Extension, who share information with the public through a variety of community gardening projects and educational programming for adults, youth, and children.