|
|
October
2005 Unit Reports |
|
AMHERST, CAMPBELL and
LYNCHBURG (Hill City MGA) Al Thompson |
The Perrymont Elementary School children spent time getting their
hands dirty with the Hill City Master Gardeners (HCMG) recently by planting
bulbs along the school’s Nature Trail.
Two hundred bulbs, won from the National Gardener’s Association by
HCMG, were planted by the kindergartners.
The bulb planting is a continuation of the development of the Nature Trail
that was a project started after winning a grant last year from Project
Learning Tree. Up next for the
children is the planting of native plants. Dave Close visited the HCMGA‘s General Meeting this month and spoke to
the Master Gardeners. topics included
Master Gardener College, MG volunteering, and a Q & A session. Dave was rewarded for his contribution
with lunch at one of his favorite eating places. For more information on the activities with the elementary children
please visit the newspaper at www.newsadvance.com. website - www.hcmga.com |
|
BEDFORD Patty Gamache |
VMGA Report has been silent but
BMG's have not been idle. Summer Fairs, Farm Day, Farm Tour Day, Sunflower
Festival & Bedford Centerfest. BMG info booth enjoyed sharing the
joys of gardening with over 300+ contacts. Greenline continues with Ellen
Deane & Dick Berry at the helm with BMG's working the phones. BMG's continue to help in
beautifying the Wharton House Gardens with Lea Simpkins, Cathy Byrne, and
Sara Braaten; Claytor Nature Center with Gardner Simpkins; and Poplar Forest
with Sharon Wrenn. Monthly speakers; Terry Hubbard (harvesting and drying
herbs); Jackie & Peter Hull (gardening tools, use and care); Mantana Heim
(Flowers of Thailand); & a special day at Paul James' gardens. May & October were our annual Spring and Fall plant
sales directed by Ann and Shim Zudekoff. All projects have comradery
from our fellow BMG's to make these fun times with many rewards. On
November 3rd we will graduate 12 new BMG Interns of which we wholeheartedly
welcome into our world of Happy Gardening. |
|
CHESAPEAKE Pinky Derieux
|
PAR Program to date has donated over 4,000 pounds of vegetables and
fruit to feed the hungry. Participated in the Community Gardening Festival held on Sept. 17 at
the HRAREC sponsored by the VBMGs.
Our display featured backyard gardening and Extension handouts were
dispersed to the public. Participated in the State Fair by sending seven CMGs to man the booth. Conducted a plant swap on October 1 at Major Hillard Library for CMGs
and the public. Will conduct a Fall Plant Faire on October 15 at TCC sponsored by the Scholarship
Committee to raise funds for expanding our scholarship program and will
participate in the Heritage Arts Festival on November 5 and 6. website - http://www.chesapeake.va.us/services/depart/agricul/master-gard.html |
|
FAIRFAX George Graine
|
The class of 2006
will commence in January. An
orientation to our program for 53 prospective MGs was held in September. A commencement
and awards ceremony will be held in October.
Twenty-five MGs will be recognized and certified. Nine people have been singled out to
receive special awards. website - www.fairfaxmastergardeners.com |
|
FAUQUIER
Jim Scibek |
Fauquier MGs continued our outreach to members of our community by helping with insect information tables for third-graders at the annual Fauquier Fall Farm Tour in mid-September. On Saturday, October 1, the first annual Autumn Plant Show and Sale at Fauquier Fairgrounds featured Master Gardeners giving demonstrations on composting, planting trees, mulching, dividing perennials, and lawn care. Our September Association meeting included a talk by the Fauquier County Soils Scientist on the constructed wetlands system behind #18 Schoolhouse in Marshall. We began our fall lecture series with a well-attended September presentation in Bealeton on "Fall Lawn Care," and will continue with a talk on "Edible Backyards" in Warrenton in October and wind up with a panel of MGs discussing "Putting the Garden to Bed" in November in Marshall. Meanwhile, we are maintaining our plant clinic at the
Saturday Warrenton Farmers Market, staffing the Phone Hot Line at the
Extension Office, and beginning fall cleanup at the gardens at #18
Schoolhouse and Rady Park Arboretum. |
|
FLUVANNA Pat Platt |
Our Horticultural
Help Desk has finished up its second season with a more organized workspace
and new reference materials. Our Old Farm Day
booth was a big success – dispensing gardening information, selling hypertufa
pots, gourd Pilgrims, cornhusk dolls and plants and raffling off door prizes. With school back
in session, the children’s garden is ready for harvesting gourds. website - www.fluvannamg.org |
|
GOOCHLAND/ POWHATAN Alexandria Haselman/ Chuck Miller |
We had a great program for Camp Gooch offering five horticultural programs to children ages 6 to 12 years of age. We held eleven plant clinics at Hertzler, Dirty Hands and Southern States nurserys. A native plant trail was completed at Fighting Creek Park which allows the public self-guided tours through brochures along with a sensory garden. A butterfly garden is being designed to complement the above and should be completed within the year. Our Green 'n Clean program attended to forty one clients throughout the two counties. In October three classes were held in Goochland for the public teaching landscaping, lawn care, and composting. Plans are in the works for a historical garden in conjunction with the Jamestowne Celebration. Members currently are writing and publishing articles on Invasive Species and Horticultural Tips as well as our interns manning the phone bank. In September we provided 7 of the 10 articles for the Powhatan Today's Home & Garden Inset. We are moving forward on our plans for our Second Annual Spring Fest on April 29, 2006. We look forward to hosting the VMGA Board Meeting December 10 in Goochland. website - www.gpmga.org
|
|
HALIFAX (Southside VA) Bill McCaleb |
The SSMGA
participated in the Halifax County Fair with an Educational Booth on water
quality and conservation in the Landscape, and once again they have taken the
first place blue ribbon for their efforts We are fast
getting our 1 acre Evaluation and Teaching Garden ready at the new Paul C.
Edmunds Park in South Boston. We have completed training for 12 MGs who
are volunteering at the site. Plants will be arriving on
October 14 and planting will commence with students from the Hort Dept of the
High School assisting. We assisted our
Farmer's Market with a Help Desk on Saturdays in June, July, and
August. Several MGs have
spoken to groups around the county and are working to assist in getting the
America's Anniversary Gardens placed at the entrance to the town of
Halifax and South Boston, as well as at several of our Elementary
Schools. Edith Stutts, Vicky Cliborne, and Dean Payne will be
working with Turberville Elementary in landscaping this school, using
the students and other PTO volunteers. Students will
be following the SOL criteria in this project. The Halifax
County High School Horticulture Dept. will be working with MGs in
providing educational tours of gardens and research plots in the county during
the coming months. |
|
ISLE
OF WIGHT, SOUTHAMPTON, SUSSEX (Western Tidewater) Betty Jo Hendrix |
The
Western Tidewater Master Gardeners got off to a great fall season with the
Isle of Wight County Fair where we held a 4-day plant clinic despite
hurricane warnings. Our interns decorated the main entrances and the
Garden and Field tent. We
followed that up with a new program assisting the Smart Choices Nutrition
Education Program director showing participants how valuable herbs and
garlic can be in making food more flavorful and how easy it to grow the
plants in containers. We
resumed our program at the local nursing home and the 4 H Jr. Master
Gardening program in a local apartment complex. We have
a weekly column in the local newspaper written by a rotating roster of
MG's. Our recruiting has started for our new MG training to start in January |
|
JAMES
CITY COUNTY / WILLIAMSBURG Ann DeForest |
The Williamsburg Botanical Garden is ”taking root” as a Community Demonstration Garden at Freedom Park in James City County. Visit www.williamsburgbotanicalgarden.org for more info. Jamestown 2007, America’s 400th Anniversary already has a beautiful brochure for a Statewide Theme Garden using specific designs and plants with a red, white and blue theme. We are proud that our extension agent Leanne Dubois was one of the six people who produced this brochure. Our 4th annual Turf Love Saturday was a success thanks to the hard work of Bob and Jean Winters. Angela Cingale will teach a Power Point class for our members on November 16th. We have a new “Water Stewards” Program with our first class in training. Participation with different
themes and answers to questions every other Saturday at the Williamsburg Farmers’
Market as well as our guided garden tours two days a week for the Reid Garden
in Colonial Williamsburg will soon end for this year and return in the Spring. website - www.jccwmg.org |
|
LANCASTER, NORTHUMBERLAND (Northern Neck) Jinny Estell |
We have been invited by the “Friends of Totuskey”, a citizen group in Richmond County, to repeat the symposium “ A Beauty or a Beast”, concepts and practices to protect waterfront property and have a beautiful yard, which we presented as our annual Gardening in the Northern Neck program in April. This is the first time we have been asked to repeat a program for another community group. Our after school gardening program at Lancaster Elementary School has been so successful that it was opened to the 2nd graders and we now have over 60 children signed up. One of the 3rd grade teachers will work with the 2nd grade students at the front of the school, while we continue with the 3rd graders in the school garden. We will assist with lesson plans and assign one of our volunteers to work with the second grade children. We have begun planning for the third grade science program on Shoreline Ecology which we will present to all the third graders in both Northumberland and Lancaster County the first week in November. Our Hort Therapy program, Plant
Clinics at our Farmers’ Markets, and maintenance of our Demonstration Gardens
continue to keep us busy. |
|
FLOYD MONTGOMERY, FLOYD, GILES, PULASKI (New River Valley)
Bill Gottert |
On 15 October we will have a tree “walk and talk” with Dr. Jay Stipes, on Virginia Tech campus. Our Fall Seminar presentation, by Dr. Mike Goatley and Dr.
Jim Parkhurst will cover lawns and wildlife. website - www.civic.bev.net/nrvmga/ |
|
NELSON Maudie Ratliff |
We might be a tiny MG unit in Nelson County (in reference to a comment in the Sept.-Oct. VMGA Report) but we are a mighty group with many projects and always on the go. We are planning a new training class tentatively set to begin in late Feb. Horticultural therapy, working with senior adults at the Nelson Center, is our latest project. Our immediate goal is to assist them in decorating grape vine wreaths that MGs have made from vines gathered at Humpback Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Farmers' Market at Nellysford where MGs have had a weekly VA Extension Service table has ended for the year. Another project we are working on is Save Our Streams where we are monitoring the Tye and Rockfish rivers for levels of pollution. website - www.nelsonmastergardeners.org |
|
NORFOLK Don Snipes |
The Norfolk Master Gardener web site is now up and running. Check us out! A new work and educational outreach program has been initiated. It is the Norfolk Pagoda and Oriental Gardens in downtown Norfolk. On the days we are at work sites, the new Master Gardener banner is displayed on a metal frame showing that Master Gardener Volunteers are on duty. Norfolk Master Gardeners are hosting the Regional Master Gardener Advanced Training 21 Oct 2005 at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Don't forget to send Tom Bolt your Virginia Master
Gardener license plate applications as soon as possible. website - www.nmgv.org |
|
NORTHAMPTON, ACCOMACK (Eastern Shore) Alice Megerlin |
In September we had our annual plant sale in Exmore. We participated in Farm Field Day in Accomack County where third graders learn about agriculture, our primary industry on the Eastern Shore. Our lesson was composting. Everyone got to touch the compost in its various stages of rot and look at a worm bin. There were about 600 students and teachers that day. In October we worked with The Nature Conservancy at the Birding and Wildlife Festival in Kiptopeke. We talked about the importance of native plants and gave away starter plants of three natives. Each plant came with an adoption card of instructions on its care. Our ongoing project with the second grade at Pungoteague Elementary got ten new raised beds. They have planted pansies there and will put in bulbs in a fairy circle in November. Our historic herb garden is flourishing at Ker Place in Onancock. |
|
PRINCE GEORGE Cheryl Sebera |
Prince George Community Day is Saturday, October 15th. We will have a plant sale and have MG’s
and Interns available for questions. Greater Tomato Contest turned up a 3 pound 4 ounce super big steak as
the winner this year. Jr. Master Gardener program is getting back off the ground with
school back in session and the help of Hermon Maclin, 4-H Agent. Grass Roots assessed 19 lawns.
This program has been very successful (despite digging into
“concrete”) and probably will become an annual event. Good Gardening Symposium-Saturday, March 11, 2006. “Makeovers—Revitalizing the Garden and the Gardener”. |
|
PRINCE WILLIAM Pat Reilly |
MGs sampled soil and measured lawn areas for 122 clients, putting over 1,000,000 square feet of turf under nutrient management. website - vmga.net/mgpw/ |
ROCKBRIDGE AREA
Ted Jenks |
MG Ted Jenks taught a large group of Master Gardeners and the public one of the MG College courses on Tree ID using Tree Finder guides. It was so successful that we are will need to order more books and are considering doing a class next year with one of the other “Finder” Books. Master Gardeners will be supporting the Rockbridge Historical
Society Traditional Crafts Fair with a Plant Clinic and a demonstration
garden |
VIRGINIA BEACH
Liz Maurer |
Even with hurricanes threatening to show up as unwanted guests at our 6th Annual Community Gardening Festival, the tents went up and around 660 people attended the well-organized event. To recognize the dedication and hard work of our members, we held the 2005 VBMG Appreciation Picnic at the end of September. At the Va Beach Farmers Market, VBMGs will be assisting with Farm Days on October 6th and 7th and Harvest Fair on October 8th by staffing a youth activity area. website - www.vbmg.org |
YORK COUNTY
Jackie Lohr |
It seems we just celebrated 100% completion of last year’s class intern hours. Now we are already half way through the current class instruction. The new master gardeners will graduate November 15. Our 4-H Chrysanthemum project is well underway and the
mums are ready to be sold. website -
http://york.extension.psu.edu/Horticulture/masterg.html |