April 2006 Unit Reports
AMHERST, CAMPBELL and LYNCHBURG (Hill City MGA)  Al Thompson	The 2006 Master Gardener training class graduated thirty new Master Gardener interns this month.  The entire 2005 Master Gardener class completed all of the requirements to become Master Gardeners.  This is the first class to have a 100% completion rate.  As a result of this accomplishment, the Extension Agent lost his challenge to the 2005 class and must now eat his hat. The Festival of Gardening (FOG) will be held at Miller Park Aviary on May 6. This is the Hill City Master Gardener Association's (HCMGA) annual fund raiser that supports the School and Community Center educational programs.  website  -  www.hcmga.com
BEDFORD Patty Gamache	Bedford MG interns have completed their Spring 2006 Seminars.  All seminars were so well attended we are looking for larger location to have them next year. Spring plant sales have begun with vigor.  We are trying a new format this year.  All plants are being grown and donated by members rather than team planting.  We will keep you posted as to the outcome.  Our next plant sale will be at Poplar Forest on April 29.  PIP gardens are going strong.  As the plantings start to show new life we continue to weed, measure, report, and mulch.  Weather station is up and running, irrigation has been installed.  What a beautiful sight it is to see this project grow and we are honored to be a part of it all.
CHESAPEAKE Pinky Derieux	Chesapeake has started a JMG program with twenty children ages 8 - 14 which is held at the Arboretum and will run for eight weeks.  A gardening clinic has been instituted to provide answers to gardening questions from homeowners throughout our city.  This event is held at our six libraries and location is rotated monthly in order to reach a greater number of citizens in all areas of our city. Propagation classes are being held monthly and are open to homeowners as well as MGs. Our monthly tree tour at the Arboretum held on the second Saturday of each month remains in progress and is a big attraction to the community. Ready-Set-Grow began on March 27 and will be ongoing through May. This year we expanded our program to include kindergarteners as well as first graders.  When the program is completed we will have reached almost 5,000 children. A pruning class on roses was held at the Arboretum on March 24 with instructors from the Norfolk Botanical Garden staff. April 13 we graduated 20 interns and welcomed them into our MG ranks. The annual plant sale is scheduled for May 5 and 6.   web site - cmgv.org
CULPEPER, MADISON, ORANGE, RAPPAHANNOCK (Four County) - Betty Fortner	The Four County MG Association kicked off the year with their annual Meeting/Gala in Madison in February. The new MG interns have hit the ground running and are busy helping the kindergartners plant vegetables in Mr. McGregor’s Garden at Madison Primary, and helping first graders do Ready, Set, Grow in all six elementary schools in Madison and Culpeper counties.   MGs are continuing our on-going Hort Therapy program at the nursing home in Orange County and teaching 4-H’ers in Madison, as well as gearing up for our Hort Helplines that begin May 1. An exciting new project is underway in Rappahannock County!  The Rappahannock County Recreation Board has approved a multi-year plan for the development of several demonstration garden beds at the Rappahannock County Park Arboretum and the first bed is coming along on schedule.  The local high school is creating GPS maps for us, and will print brochures to guide visitors as they view the native Virginia plants that will be incorporated into the garden design.
DANVILLE - Jeff Beck	Highlights of our activities for 2005 included holding plant clinics in the garden sections of Lowe's, Wal-Mart, and Southern States.  We operated an information booth on Saturday mornings at the Danville Community Market from May to August and assisted with the maintenance of the educational gardens in and around the Butterfly Station at the Danville Science Center.  During the spring, we visited every third grade classroom in the Danville Public Schools and present the "Seeds for Kids" program. This program educates the children about how plants grow, how important plants are to us, and each student receives a packet of seeds to take home to plant.  Our annual plant sale was held at the community market where plants grown by our members were featured.   Trips during the year included a visit to Gethsemane Gardens and A & A plants in Greensboro, NC, to view hellebores in a natural setting.  Also we visited Kathy Walton’s lovely garden where several of her bonsai creations are housed and received a demonstration on growing bonsai.  Several of our members participated in the landscaping of the Habitat for Humanity program.  During 2005 our 45 active members performed 855 hours of volunteer service providing horticulture education and information to Danville residents. So far in 2006 we have helped facilitate pesticide re-certification, have drawn plans and implemented plantings at Little Life demonstrating hard and soft scapes, renewed a greenhouse at a elementary school and provided horticulture classes to preK through 4th grade.  MG's have also been active in a local nursing home horticulture program.
FAIRFAX George Graine	At the 2005 MG College–Leadership Training, a suggestion was made to consider a certificate called  “Friends of Master Gardeners.”.  This recognition is a token of our esteem and will recognize five outstanding people who support the Fairfax program but do not require MG training. The Points of Light Foundation, Presidential Volunteer Service Awards was approved for all 16 applicant submissions (3-gold, 4 silver, and 9 bronze).  See VMGA Report (Mar/Apr 2006)–News From Across the State (Fairfax) for information regarding this program that honors volunteerism. Our 30^th anniversary gala is scheduled for October 3, 2006 at the Fairfax Government Center.  A representative from each Unit is invited to attend and help us celebrate.  Contact Fairfax Extension Agent, Adria Bordas via e-mail abordas@vt.edu, for additional information especially as we get closer to October. website -  www.fairfaxmastergardeners.com
FAUQUIER Jim Scibek	Twenty-one people graduated from the training class on Feb. 28 and became new Master Gardener interns.  The Association held a congratulatory brunch for the graduates. Our Spring Continuing Education program was held March 11^th and was a great success with over 92 participants from 12 different counties. The Association will have a booth again this year at Prince William County Spring Fling on April 29.  We are designing a mini townhouse garden display. We kicked off a garden Photography contest in late Feb. which will run through Oct.  Entries can be photos of a wide variety of garden topics, including insects. Our public lecture series got underway on Sunday, March 19 with a panel of MG speakers addressing “Gearing Up for Spring”.  Two more lectures are planned:  One in April on “Gardening in Small Spaces” and one in May on “Perennials for the Piedmont”. Training has been provided for Help Desk and Farmers Market volunteers.  The phones will be staffed starting in April; the Market in May. Ready, Set, Grow is underway for all first graders in the county, approximately 1900 students; and all school visits will be completed by Early May.
ISLE OF WIGHT, SOUTHAMPTON, SUSSEX (Western Tidewater) Betty Jo Hendrix	WTMG graduated 19 trainees and 15 interns became MG volunteers at our ceremony on March 30. Four of the interns had earned over 100 hours each.  The regional advanced training held in Smithfield was a great success with 105 MG's in attendance.  Our membership now stands at 73.
JAMES CITY COUNTY / WILLIAMSBURG Ann DeForest and Anne Odle	In March, the Williamsburg Area Council of Garden Clubs presented the 21st Annual Arbor Day Individual Award to Ailene Bartlett recognizing her community involvement and Kari Abbott was presented a Certificate of Appreciation for the Junior Master Gardener Program. Rebecca Reid, Assoc. Garden Writer for Southern Living magazine visited Mattey's Garden (a JCCW MG core project), a learning garden at Matthew Whaley Elementary School for possible future articles. JCCW MG received United Way's Cruikshank Spirit of the Community 2006 Nomination award. On April 4, JCCW MG kicked off a 10 session Therapeutic Gardening program with Eastern State Hospital residents and staff. Also started was our SOL (Seeds of Learning) 1st grade program beginning at Matthew Whaley Elementary School reaching 85 students.  When the program ends May 9, we will have taught children at all 7 of our elementary schools with approx. 1,000 1st graders.. website -  www.jccwmg.org
MONTGOMERY, FLOYD, GILES, PULASKI (New River Valley)   Paula Van Curen	Our fundraiser, the Spring Flower Plant Sale netted NRVMGA $790.  We had a VCE Open House at Virginia Tech on February 25 and over 35 Master Gardeners showed up to help out. On April 22, we had our first Plant Clinic at the Blacksburg Garden Fair. website - www.civic.bev.net/nrvmga/
NORTHUMBERLAND, LANCASTER, RICHMOND, WESTMORELAND and ESSEX (Northern Neck)  Jinny Estell and Pat Rogers	On March 29 we held our annual public education Gardening in the Northern Neck program entitled “Tough Plants for Tough Places”.  The program dealt with Invasive Aliens, Native Salt Tolerant Plants for Shoreline Planting and Plants that Thrive in Tough Places. We had more attendees then we have ever had at previous programs and will have to find a larger venue for the program next year. In April we will start a new Extension MG Help Desk at the Westmoreland County Extension Office in Montross.  The office will be staffed each Wed. morning from 9-12 through October.  We are excited that demand for our services has increased sufficiently to justify this.  Of course, we will continue our Help Desk at the Northumberland and Lancaster Offices on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The ABC Garden at Lancaster Elementary School is being renovated to make it more user friendly for all the teachers.  We moved and enlarged the Alphabet Bed, planted some early season vegetables and are preparing for the Arbor Day celebration and Ready Set Grow program.
NORFOLK Don Snipes	The NMG interns '05 will become NMGVs and receive their name tags April 13.  Also 29 graduates of the NMG training class '06 will become NMG interns that same day. Our major fundraiser, the Spring Plant Sale, will be held at the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival May 20 and 21. The Grass Guru program is up and running and specialized training will be given April 25. Plant Doctors will receive additional specialized training April 18. NMGV will help fund and participate in a summer camp program for children which includes a horticultural element. website - www.nmgv.org
ROANOKE Kathryn Debnar	The Roanoke Master Gardeners hosted their first lunch education event on Tuesday, April 4th.  Dr. Jay Stipes, retired plant pathologist from Tech gave a brief talk about plant pathology before lunch.  After lunch the group carpooled to Virginia Western Community College, where we walked through the arboretum, inspecting and learning about tree conditions  We will host our second evening meeting in June, where we will honor our local emeritus members.  This event will also be held at VWCC.  In an attempt to share our knowledge and calendar materials with our full timers, we will host another evening meeting in September. We invite all Virginia Master Gardeners to the Roanoke Spring Plant Sale on May 20th. Details can be found on the calendar page at www.vmga.net .
ROCKBRIDGE AREA Ted Jenks	In January, twenty-four RAMGA members and/or Native Plant Society members joined together for an educational walk through the woods identifying trees and other flora in winter. During the four Saturdays in March we provided a short course for the public on vegetable gardening, which was attended by 18 enthusiastic students. Our tenth annual Plant Sale & Clinic will take place on Saturday, May 13 at Waddell Elementary School in Lexington. Rockbridge MG’s have started supporting a 15-minute gardening presentation once a month on our local radio station.
SUFFOLK Danna Vroman	In January we had a dinner program to install the new officers and say farewell to the old.  In February we had a daytime meeting at Danna Vroman's house.  Mike Andruczyk (Chesapeake VCE Extension Agent) joined us to demonstrate pruning techniques.  He walked with us around Danna's garden and showed us exactly how and where to make our cuts.  He also discussed times to prune and proper tools to use.   In March our program was using color with flowers and plants with Robynne King, a floral designer, with a talk and demonstration about the color wheel and different ways to combine color.
VIRGINIA BEACH Liz Maurer	Virginia Beach MGs participated as volunteers January 20-22 at the Virginia Flower and Garden Show which was held for the first time in the new Virginia Beach Convention Center.  VBMGs also served as moderators at the Mid-Atlantic Horticulture Conference first week of February.  Tree Stewards taught their Tree Dormancy program in two schools and the Ready-Set-Grow team has had their training class. website  -  www.vbmg.org
WYTHE, BLAND, and SMYTH (Wythe-Bland Region) - Nancy Hagen	Wythe-Bland Region Master Gardener Association had a very successful public ‘Garden Fest’ on Saturday March 25, 2006.  We were especially pleased with attendance at the four speaker sessions.  The popularity of the Container Garden Workshop exceeded all our expectations as did participation in the Youth Projects.  Raffle proceeds go into a horticulture student scholarship fund and to our Resource Library. website - http://civic.bev.net/WBRMGA