Cooperative Extension expands gardening education with Spanish talks, publications

A new University of Arizona effort is opening a wealth of landscaping and gardening information to a new audience: Spanish speakers.

The Master Gardener Program from Arizona Cooperative Extension has long offered online and in-person talks and publications to English-speakers across Arizona. Now those talks – and some translated publications – are available in Spanish.

The effort fits squarely into the university’s mission as a federally recognized Hispanic Serving Institution, a program that recognizes universities with more than 25 percent Hispanic undergraduate enrollment.

The master gardeners hope their efforts will help them reach the roughly 20 percent of Arizonans who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, speak Spanish at home.

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“Extension's outreach should mirror the census data. Our programming should look very similar to the communities in which we serve,” said Celeste Gambill, one of two statewide Master Gardener coordinators.

Although the program has always had Spanish-speaking master gardeners, they didn’t have enough to support in-person library talks and Zoom presentations. Different dialects and the specialized language of horticulture made translating presentations more difficult and time consuming, she said.

For the past three years the program has focused on recruiting more Spanish speaking master gardeners to help fill the gaps. They now have a robust Spanish speaking team, a separate team to answer Spanish questions from the online Plant Clinic and several people helping keep the new Spanish Master Gardener web pages up to date, Gambill said.

The effort came in response to requests from master gardeners, whose mission is to reach everyone, and demand from the community. 

Pima County Master Gardener Alfredo Fragoso did not become a volunteer in January 2025 to help with Spanish presentations - he just wanted to learn more and teach others about gardening. But when he found out he could help, he was all in, he said.

“That was pretty important to me, being Hispanic and not having those connections, especially in the gardening community. I thought it would be a nice way to create them,” Fragoso said.

The program is also chipping away at translating University of Arizona publications, which in many ways are the backbone of the program. Three of the top 10 Extension publications downloaded from the Campus Repository, which curates Extensions publication library, are in Spanish. All of the Spanish materials and presentations duplicate English material.

The translation has been funded by a patchwork of Master Gardener generated funds, grants and donations, Gambill said.

Live talks have been held in three libraries – all in Pima County Hispanic communities. They started Spanish library talks in September and Zoom talks in November. Topics have included water harvesting, citrus and vegetable growing. More are planned. 

Although in-person talks in Spanish are only available in Pima County, the Zoom talks can be accessed from anywhere.

“I think that's the most accessible option for many people. Maybe that will influence other Extension offices to start training or attracting Spanish speakers for in-person talks. But the easiest one, I think, would be online for now,” Fragoso said.

To view Master Gardener Spanish web pages, see the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension website.

Use this form to submit questions in Spanish to the Master Gardener Program plant clinic.

Click here for a list of Extension gardening publications available in Spanish.

Click here for a list of Master Gardener classes or other events offered in Spanish.