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December
2006 Unit Reports |
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(Hill City MGA) Al Thompson |
My last report is the following "Happy Holidays to All from the Hill City
Master Gardeners". The new unit rep is Deborah Straw and her alternate is George Boyd. website - www.hcmga.com |
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(MGs of Vivian Ballard |
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Patty Gamache |
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BOTETOURT,
CRAIG and
city of Kathryn Debnar |
The year is winding down, and
the last fund raiser was a success. Just two more events, the new
student graduation on Nov 28th, with guest speaker David Close and the annual
Christmas Dinner. We look forward to holding both events in the new
building we use with the Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs. Holiday
Greetings and Warm Wishes to all Master Gardeners across the Commonwealth. |
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CARROLL, GRAYSON and city of ( Charles Whittle |
Unit’s first MG Training Course completed with the help of 12 instructors and over 260 hours by unit volunteers. Volunteer mentors have been assigned to all 20 new interns. Pruning classes are being planned for late Feb and grafting
classes for early April with MG and general public sessions. Wythe Morris,
extension agent, will coordinate these sessions. |
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Lynn Foote |
October 21 was a celebration for all the MG’s who helped with the very
successful Grass Roots program at The county received the National Association of Counties Award partly
due to the Extension Service participating in a Water Quality Round Table
with other county agencies and non-profit organizations such as: Friends of
Chesterfield Riverfront, Department of Utilities, Office of Water Quality, James
River Association, etc. The Advanced Training Committee continues to meet and offer MGs many
training opportunities, such as, Weed Walk, Fungi Identification, and Tree
Health Assessment. This year flyers titled “Recycle Your Christmas Tree” were developed
and distributed to 34 locations in Susan Edwards, ANR Technician and Master Gardener Coordinator, and
several MG’s are beginning to write a curriculum for a New Residents
Program. Hopefully the program will be
implemented in March 2007. website
www.chesterfield.gov/extension . |
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FAIRFAX- Green Spring Susan McDonald |
In the Fall of 2006, the Green Spring Master Gardeners began to teach
the Basic Gardening Series of classes at The Training class of 23 new Master Gardener interns graduated on November 16th. |
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FAIRFAX - Merrifield George Graine |
Two hearing impaired people will be admitted to the intern
class of 2007. An interpreter will be
provided by
Starting in spring 2007, a gardening series pilot program
will commence at four |
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FLUVANNA Pat Platt |
As 2006 draws to a close and we put our projects and our gardens to bed, plans are well underway for a new class of Master Gardeners to start in late January. New officers have been voted in and committees in progress for 2007 projects. Our chapter bade a sad goodbye to Scott Byars, our county extension agent who accepted a position back in Hope your holidays brought lots of grins and giggles, new gardening tools and a new pair of clean, hole-free gardening gloves! See you in the new year. website - www.fluvannamg.org |
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( Kay Kimmell |
Master Gardeners of the Central Rappahannock Area in
Fredericksburg will be presenting First Saturday in the Garden Spring themes
of Garden Insects April 7th,
the University of Mary Washington, Combs Hall at the right of the main
entrance; Caledon Natives, May 5th featuring walks, talks
and the outstanding herbarium developed by Martha Schelky, the Calendon
Nature Center, Rt. 218, King George, Virginia; and Blooming June, June 2nd featuring design, blooms in the kitchen and
native grasses at Kenmore Plantation and Gardens, 1201 Washington Ave,
Fredericksburg. All programs start at |
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GOOCHLAND,
POWHATAN Chuck Miller |
We held our Transition meeting in Nov. This
session combines final reports from this year's officers and committee
and project heads with the next year's officers assuming their positions
to plan next year's activities. The core activities for 2007 are
divided into five topic areas aligned with the activity categories that our
agent reports to VCE. Under Environmental
Horticulture, we have scheduled our 3rd Spring Garden Fest (now we can call
it "annual") and community outreach projects (other classes on
specific topics). Under Youth Gardening we continue to offer The Value of Landscape category includes our Green 'n Clean lawn care
program, plant clinics at Southern States and Participation in the Goochland Rural Market is in the Food and
Nutrition category. Continuing activities in our learning gardens in Our graduation dinner for the 2006 interns will be Jan. 11 and a
new class of 17 trainees will join us later in January. We look
forward to 2007. web site: www.gpmga.org |
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Christy Brennan |
Hanover Master Gardeners attended a Holiday Gathering to celebrate accomplishments of 2006. Garden Columnist Sylvia Wright gave an informative presentation on Elements of the Eco-wise landscape. The A Home Gardening Series will also begin in January, with a series of 8 classes on Saturday mornings taught by Master Gardeners to homeowners in the area.
All Plant clinics scheduled for 2006 have been completed.
The numbers do not include the larger festivals, which are reported
independently, Maymont has outsourced the Flower Show and several volunteer opportunities have been cut. Cherie Haggerty is coordinating the VMGA/ Hanover MG booth at the show and is beginning to recruit regional volunteers. website -
hanovermastergardeners.org |
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ISLE OF WIGHT, FRANKLIN, SOUTHAMPTON and SURRY (Western Tidewater) Betty Jo Hendrix |
T Western Tidewater has recruited 15 students for our upcoming class, starting January 18, 2007. We are looking forward to the start of classes with some tremendous speakers including three field trips. Our Christmas party will be held in the historical Old Courthouse
in |
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Ann DeForest and Anne Odle |
The Water Stewards
in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Save the Bay project have
developed a plan to begin a new program - Preserving and Protecting our water
resources. Community-wide, significant impact on our watershed by
educating the HOA's and homeowners on MANAGING STORM WATER RUNOFF to prevent
nutrient loads from the outset, extending the life of retention ponds
(BMP). EPA has given our state and others 10 years to improve our
"Dirty Water" of the MGs and Water Stewards working with a common mission of the JCC Environmental Division, PRIDE - Protecting Resources in Delicate Environments, Community Conservation Partnership - Saving the Bay.
website -
www.jccwmg.org |
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LOUDOUN Linda Shotton |
We have planted cover crops and put all to bed at the Our overriding effort and objective is to reach the public and let them know of our existence. We had made the decision in Spring 2006 to maintain a consistent presence at the Leesburg Farmer’s Market. We had a tent with at least two MG volunteers and resource material at the market each week. We feel that, though the volunteer burden was higher than in prior years of once a month attendance, the benefits to the public were unquestionably great. As people knew we would be at the market, they began to bring samples and questions. It’s also no doubt that the new members of our training class for this next year came from getting to know us at the farmer’s markets. We are hoping to add another venue this upcoming spring. In addition to the Farmer’s Markets, we had successful
“Lunch and Learn” programs weekly in our We are currently at work on a “Pledge for 2007” where we
will encourage our seasoned volunteers to pledge more than the required 25
hours to our varied interests. We have
estimated that we require over 1500 volunteer hours in two areas: our We are currently preparing for our 2007 training class. We have 22 of 30 slots filled and are hoping to fill the remainder in this next month. Training begins in February. . website - www.loudouncountymastergardeners.org |
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MATHEWS Jo Anna Brown |
In September, Mathews Master Gardeners participated in the
annual Mathews |
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Don Snipes |
Several Norfolk
Master Gardener Volunteers received classroom and field training in November
to prepare them for the Beautiful Gardens (tm) program at website - www.nmgv.org |
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NORTHUMBERLAND,
Pat Rogers |
At the beginning of November our MG Trainees presented their class
projects to our membership. They were
very professionally done and will help support and expand several of our
activities in the community. On November 14th
the Northern Neck Master Gardeners welcomed the largest class of interns –
ever – 24! Along with their
certificates of course completion, each was given an application to
VMGA. We look forward to integrating
them into our group and working with them. In the lower Northern Neck we have extended our Help Line to include
coverage during the entire year.
Previously it was manned only from April through October. Expansion of
the MG Help Line to Westmoreland county was not overwhelmingly successful. We have decided to focus on introducing
ourselves to the residents of the county by offering plant clinics at events
both in the community and historic sites. We held a very successful clinic at
Stratford Hall on 28 October. |
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Lu Anne
Copeland |
Our new agent, Cynthia Wyskiewicz, arrived the latter part
of November 2006. We are very excited
to have her join our group. She brings
expertise in the Master Gardener Program from her former job in We are currently finalizing arrangements for the Master
Gardener Training Class that will begin on February 6, 2007 and end in early
April 2007. It looks like it will be
our best class ever. On January 24,
2007, we will have an open house for potential master gardener trainees. We are excited about the coming year and
happy to have Cynthia join us. |
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ROCKBRIDGE AREA Ted Jenks |
Preparations are nearly complete for our next training class, which will begin in January. After not having enough students to hold a class last year we are very pleased to now have 23 applicants for this class. Ann Spivey, a long-time Master Gardener, brings practically a full lifetime of education, experience and expertise with her to assist RAMGA in offering a series of Advanced/Refresher classes this winter for Master Gardeners. She is a font of knowledge, both scientific and practical, and she has a keen sense of garden design and plant selection. Each class will be presented on Wednesday mornings from 9:00-11:00 at the Rockbridge County Extension Office. The dates and topics are as follows: January 10 - Tree Identification and Characteristics January 17 - Shrub Identification and Characteristics February 7 - Rejuvenating Landscapes February 21 - The 4 Season Garden March 7 - Topic will be decided by Ann and the class |
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Danna Vroman |
The Suffolk Master Gardeners have had a very busy
fall. The 2006 Peanut Festival October 12-15 kept us very busy.
We had almost 50 volunteers over a 5 day period involved in all aspects of
the event. We gave our approximately 1800 peanut plants that we had planted
from seed. We also made over 58,000 face to face contacts with the
public. We also distributed 150 lb. of peanuts which were donated by
Birdsong Peanuts. The following weekend was Driver Days, a two day event in
Driver, We also finally completed revisions of our By-laws which was an ongoing project for two years. Now we look forward to relaxing at our Christmas Potluck Dinner |
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Paul Campbell |
Master Gardeners assisted the Virginia Beach
Agriculture Department and Virginia Dare Soil and Water Conservation District
with “Farm Days”, which brought 400 elementary school children to the
Farmer’s Market to have close encounters with live farm animals and
educational presentations concerning local crops. On the following day, VB
MG’s provided Children’s activities for about 200 children at the Farmer’s
Market for “Harvest Fair”. Our recent graduation class provides us with
30 new energetic interns to provide service on a variety of projects. |
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Patte Redmond |
The Extension Agent Phil Blevins recently received an award for his work
on finding organic ways to combat tomato blight. At the National Association of county Agriculture Agents in For this project, Phil compared six organic treatments to untreated
tomato plants and tomato plants sprayed with conventional treatments.
His test plot was on a site adjacent to the 4-H Center on He discovered that some organic treatments were statistically just as
effective as conventional treatments while others fared even worse than when
the plants were not treated at all. Phil credits the success of the project with the hard work and
dedication of many people including those at the extension office, Appalachian
Sustainable Development and the 4-H Center. |
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WYTHE, BLAND,
SMYTH
(Wythe-Bland Region) Nancy Hagen |
Wythe-Bland Region MG Association will have a graduation dinner to
welcome new interns on December 14th. Plans are underway for
our annual Garden Fest to be held on April 30, 2007. website - http://civic.bev.net/wbrmga |
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Jackie Lohr |
Each year this is a time of renewal for the York Master Gardeners. We
reaffirm our intent to provide horticultural educational opportunities to the
public in partnership with the York County Extension Agent by taking time to peruse
all the programs available and by signing up for new ones or staying with old
favorites. Once we are on the new year’s roster, we are available to anyone
who needs help. Our first happy task is to welcome the new graduating class
with a pot luck and plant exchange. We assisted in developing the Wetlands Interpretive Sanctuary for
Education at Our (CCPP) Care of Common Plants of the |
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