Fort Bend County Master Gardeners recently added 22 certified Master Gardeners to their ranks. Bud O'Shieles Community Center hosted the graduation celebration on May 13 welcoming new gardeners with diverse backgrounds, from an oil industry retiree, a recent graduate of the University of Houston, a registered nurse, a retired school teacher and a retired police officer. They come from throughout the county from Rosenberg to Missouri City and Needville to Weston Lakes. Their love of gardening brought them together for eight months of classroom instruction plus volunteer service. "The class as a whole contributed 2,424 hours," said Master Gardener Nancy Utech, who welcomed more than 60 people to the ceremony.

The newly certified Master Gardeners, in alphabetically order, are: Judy Bodson, Judy Carley, Joyce Carter, Tina Cray, Alexandria Davis, Coach Jalon Debbs, Susan Fink, Alicia Hunter-Lynch, Debbie Jones, Anna Lee, Gus Lynch, Calina Moon-Kumula, Elissa Roesch, Martha Rushing, Esther Salazar, Julie Sawyer, Jackie Daniels-Sharkey, Kim Smith, Su Tang, Simon Tsai, Shekhar Vaidya and Nina Williams.

Judy Carley and Debbie Jones talked about the class' journey, what they learned and how they became a team. The program included a skit by the class and a class Power Point Presentation.

Mentors to the class during their studies were Master Gardeners Peg d'Hemecourt, Shelly Beck and Ashok (Kumar) Vakamudi. D'Hemecourt introduced the graduating Master Gardeners to the audience and Beck and Vakamudi presented them with their certificates, aprons, name tags and T-shirts. For information about Master Gardeners and how to become one, visit https://fbmg.org/become-a-master-gardener/.