August 2006 Unit Reports
AMHERST, CAMPBELL and LYNCHBURG (Hill City MGA) Al Thompson	The Hill City Master Gardener Association (HCMGA) is proud to announce another record breaking volunteer hour milestone; 8,702 hours were volunteered from January 1^st. through June 30, 2006. The volunteer hours were performed supporting the Elementary School SOL Programs, Neighbor/Community Centers, Development Centers, Detention Centers, Senior Centers, and the Boys & Girls Club. The HCMGA would like to thank those Master Gardeners from other Master Gardener Units who participated in and attended this year’s Thomas Jefferson Tomatoe Faire. website - www.hcmga.com
. BEDFORD Patty Gamache	Bedford  MG’s hosted a booth at the Lynchburg MG’s Tomato Fair and Bedford Farm Day (Wipledale Nursery).  The August monthly meeting was held at the home of renowned herpetologist Jerry Craig.  Members learned of the different types of snakes and their habits.  MG’s have set up an information booth at the city of Bedford's "tasty Tuesdays" where area gardeners and crafters bring their plants, vegetables, etc. for sale.
BOTETOURT, CRAIG and city of ROANOKE Kathryn Debnar	The Roanoke membership will present their first PUBLIC education event on Saturday, the 9th of September, at the Brambleton Center.  The topics will be Native plants and Fall CleanUp.  The event is posted on the Calendar page at VMGA.net. We hope other units will reach out to their neighbors to promote good gardening practices across the commonwealth.
CARROLL, GRAYSON and city of GALAX (Blue Ridge) Charles Whittle	MG Training Course is scheduled in conjunction with Wythe/ Bland Unit to commence September 18 through November 16.
CHESAPEAKE Pinky Derieux	CMGVs have awarded their fourth annual scholarship of $1500 to a TCC student pursuing a degree in horticulture. Our Intern Training & Program Committee is looking into offering evening intern classes for 2007, January through March. To date our Plant a Row Program has donated over 2,000 pounds of food collected to feed the hungry. We have a new program called Mental Health Day which is held every other Tuesday from 10:00 to 1:00. No hours are awarded for this project. The purpose of this get-together is to clear your minds and enjoy a morning of fellowship and fun by creating crafts such as knitting, crocheting, painting, mosaics, stained glass articles, and jewelry making. Plans are being formed to offer other activities as the fall season approaches. Will be participating in regional Community Gardening Festival and Heritage Arts Festival. web site - cmgv.org
CLARKE, FREDERICK, PAGE, WARREN, and SHENANDOAH (Northern Shenandoah Valley Fran and Bud Gregory	The Northern Shenandoah Valley - 5-county unit graduated TWO classes -- northern end and southern end -- and held a pot luck graduation ceremony. One of our members, Paula Brownlee attended her first MG College in June and found one of her former chemistry students, Bob Lyons to be the guest speaker.
CULPEPER, ORANGE, RAPPAHANNOCK, MADISON (CORM) (Four County) Betty Fortner	Sometimes it’s difficult to reach residents of rural counties with information available through the Master Gardening program. In Madison County, though MGs are faithfully manning the Helpline phones, calls are not coming in on a regular basis, so Coordinator Pat Eveland has created a more personal, face-to-face forum. At the Gazebo in front of the library in Madison, MGs present a twice-monthly lecture on a topic of local interest, such as Beekeeping. In the question and answer session following, people have the opportunity to discuss the lecture and any other gardening issues. Advertisements in the newspaper and posted signs have brought increasing attendance and a plant sale planned for October is expected to draw even more people into direct contact with the Master Gardening program.
DANVILLE - Jeff Beck	Six new members who had completed the MG class received certificates of appreciation from Glenwood School for outstanding efforts in the greenhouse and their work with the students growing potatoes, herbs, and flowers in the greenhouse. Volunteers have been busy at plant clinics and the information booth at the Danville Community Market this summer.
FLUVANNA Pat Platt	The Fluvanna Master Gardeners helped the Piedmont Horticultural Council with a tour open to the public at Sage Garden – the home of John and Roberta Mann, the horticulturalist for the City of Charlottesville. Master Gardeners will have a booth at Old Farm Day held at Pleasant Grove the first Saturday in October. With school starting, volunteers are making plans for the Children’s Garden at Central Elementary Check out our website at: website - www.fluvannamg.org
GLOUCESTER Bonnie Bernard	The Gloucester Master Gardeners will man a booth at the Gloucester County Fair on 17-20 August and again at the Guinea Jubilee on September 29th and 30th. The Guinea Jubilee is a festival created to honor the local Guinea community and to taste some of the best seafood as well. September 16^th will be our Annual Plant Extravaganza, our big fundraiser for the year. Money earned will be used to plant AAG flowers at the toll booths and around our welcome sign to the county for the Jamestown celebration. The rest will be donated to local charities.
GOOCHLAND, POWHATAN Chuck Miller	The 2nd Spring Garden Fest held at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College had 50% more classes and 100% more attendance than in 2005, a great success! Work continues in the gardens at Hidden Rock Park to identify all of the plants for use in future training sessions.  Green 'n Clean is nearly complete with the interns and their mentors taking soil samples and instructing clients how to improve their lawns and minimize damage to the Chesapeake watershed.  The Historic Garden, behind the Powhatan Historical Society, was completed and dedicated in June. The garden showcases native plants typical to the area in the 18th century.   In Goochland, MGs assist with horticultural fun at Camp Gooch at the YMCA, and in Powhatan a new project, Nature Quests, had the first of three sessions to learn about nature first hand. The landscaping and drainage improvement project at the Powhatan County Animal Shelter was completed and turned over to the Shelter.  A butterfly garden is being planned for Fighting Creek Park in Powhatan adjacent to the Helen Pearson Sensory Garden that was dedicated last year by the GPMGA. web site: www.gpmga.org
HALIFAX (Southside) Bill McCaleb	Southside Master Gardeners have been busy manning the HelpDesk in Halifax as well as setting up a Help Desk at the South Boston Downtown Farmers’ Market once each month.  An “Open House” was held at the “Beautiful Gardens™ “Evaluation site at Paul C. Edmunds Memorial Park in South Boston.  This was an opportunity for landowners/producers to see the test and evaluation plants that our Master Gardeners have been assisting with for the past year.  Representatives from the Board of Supervisors, Agriculture Development Office, VDAC, IALR, VT, VCE, and the Green Industry were on hand to help answer questions about the future of Horticulture in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Have been working with the Town of Halifax on a streetscape plan that has now been accepted by VDOT and will be implemented using several native American species of woody shrubs and trees.  Taught a class at 4-H Camp entitled “Miracle Growers” which falls in line with the SOLs in teaching soil and plant sciences.
HANOVER Christy Brennan	Master Gardeners are in process of developing a new vision for MG program. Dave Close will be facilitating the first visioning session to help us develop short and long-term goals for the association. We will not be offering a MG class in 2007 but offering advanced training for our current 200 MGs. The New HMGA room is fully functional. The new accommodation comfortably supports 2-3 people working the help desk simultaneously and has been available to the HMGA for evening training and labs. It is supported financially by individual Master Gardeners and HMG association contributions. The Fall Bayscapes workshop will be held Sat. Nov 4, in coordination with the Dept. of Environmental Quality. Focus is on Home Gardeners, with a theme of “Streamscaping,” targeting impaired streams. Hanover Landcare, Tree Stewards and Master Gardeners have been busy with public speaking & demonstrations throughout the County. Recent talks/topics include Recycling and Composting, Right Plant, Right Place, Proper Lawn Care, Vermicomposting, and Soil Preparation. website - hanovermastergardeners.org
ISLE OF WIGHT, FRANKLIN, SOUTHAMPTON, and SUSSEX (Western Tidewater) Betty Jo Hendrix	The Isle of Wight 4/Jr. Master Gardeners will be entering their Anniversary Garden container gardens at the Isle of Wight County Fair in September. Both groups prepared their exhibits at their summer camps this summer in Isle of Wight and Southampton Counties. The Isle of Wight MG’s will prepare and man exhibits and plant clinics of approximately 300 sq. ft. in the Garden and Field tent. The theme is America’s Anniversary Garden. The MG program will be showcased with photos, ongoing slide presentations and the upcoming training classes
JAMES CITY COUNTY / WILLIAMSBURG Ann DeForest and Anne Odle	Farmers Market Master Gardener booth will include the following schedule: Therapeutic Gardening 8/26, Herb demonstration 9/9 at the Reid MG Learning Garden, waterwise Gardening 9/23, Composting 10/7, Incredible Edibles - Vegetables 10/21  New this summer was the computer connection through the WI-FI service.  Americas Anniversary Garden was featured in July. Our Fifth Annual Super Turf Saturday was held at JCW Community Center with 6 concurrent sessions. Topics included Weeds, Care, Renovation, Controlling Critters, Soil Testing presented by a panel of expert from VA Tech and Turf Industry. This fall's session of Landscape Love is getting underway.  20 homeowners have already sign up for 2 hour home visits. 16 of our MG's helped make June's  Taking Root Farm Tour a big success with 550 visitors to 6 diverse farms in New Kent County website - www.jccwmg.org
NORFOLK Don Snipes	Several Norfolk Master Gardener Volunteers completed the Tree Steward training program recently.   NMGV Plant Doctors participated in advanced training as well. NMGV Plant Doctors have an additional project and site at the Norfolk Botanical Garden on Saturdays. website - www.nmgv.org
NORTHUMBERLAND, LANCASTER, RICHMOND, WESTMORELAND and ESSEX (Northern Neck) Jinny Estell and Pat Rogers	Twenty-five people have signed up for our 2006 Training Course which is an all time record for us. Although we will cover all the material one usually includes, we are trying to modify the presentations to make them more focused on our particular environment and topics that frequently generate questions from the public at our Farmers’ Market Booths and Help Desk. We will be presenting a new program on Lawns in September. The population of the Northern Neck is growing rapidly and many recent arrivals come from areas with both climatic and environmental differences. Our emphasis will be on “Turf and Surf” – how to have a great lawn without negatively impacting our creeks, rivers and the bay. Our “America’s Red, White and Blue Garden” (red zinnias, blue morning glories, and white marigolds) at Lancaster Elementary school is thriving. We can’t wait for the students to return so the former second graders can see the results of their Ready, Set Grow project.
PRINCE GEORGE Cheryl Sebera	Gardener’s School Series is in progress. Topics include Houseplants, WaterFeatures, and Lawn Care. These are free and open to the public. Jr. Master Gardener program “Summer in the Garden” had 8 students ages 8-11. They are reaping the benefits of a vegetable garden they planted in the spring. The Help Desk will be up and running soon with a dedicated phone line. Greater Tomato Contest is in full swing. Tomatoes are coming in weighing over 2 lbs. We will have a picnic in Heritage Gardens on Sept. 14^th to thank everyone who entered and “crown” the winner. Good Gardening Symposium is slated for Saturday, March 10, 2007.
ROCKBRIDGE AREA Ted Jenks	RAMGA Master Gardeners designed and helped plant an America's Anniversary Garden at McCormick Farm in northern Rockbridge County. This is the birthplace of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper, and home of the Shenandoah Valley AREC. By next summer, as the 400th anniversary of Jamestown continues, the garden should be in full red, white and blue glory. Once again RAMGA and the Rockbridge Regional Fair sponsored the ever-popular Horticulture Show. On August 26^th the Master Gardeners’ will have a booth at the Rockbridge Community Festival providing an important public relations opportunity to present good horticultural practices and advertise the Master Gardener Program.
SUFFOLK Danna Vroman	SMGA enjoyed hearing Master Composter, Annie Simpkins, talk on composting and worm composting.  She even demonstrated making a worm composting bin which we then gave away to one lucky person attending.  By August 9th we will have planted about 2000 peanut plants.  Some will be given away at the Community Gardening Festival on September 30th and the rest will be used for Driver Days and the Peanut Festival.
VIRGINIA BEACH Liz Maurer	Ten VBMGs completed the recent Regional Tree Steward training. VBMGs presented a Junior MG summer camp program at the historical Adam Thoroughgood House. The 7th Annual Community Gardening Festival at the Hampton Roads AREC on September 30 will be sponsored by the VBMGs. website - www.vbmg.org
WYTHE-BLAND Nancy Hagen	We have three new certified Master Gardeners for 2006.  We are enjoying a new project working with Wolf Creek Indian Village.  For more info, please visit:  http://civic.bev.net/wbrmga/
YORK - Jackie Lohr	We are holding homeowners lawn maintenance clinics and are approaching the 4-H mum project final evaluation. We’ll hold our annual landscape extravaganza on the first Saturday in October. Work continues for the Horticultural Therapy Group at the York Convalescent Center and for those at the learning garden this summer.