NORTHEAST
Chesterfield
Chesterfield continues to
graduate excited and ambitious Master Gardeners, our newest 18 MGs graduated on
November 12, 2009. Their mentors always provide support and food for the
occasion, also there were 12 who received 250 hours and 1 who received 500
hours. There is no rest for the weary and Susan Edwards then began training MGs
to become Urban Tree Specialists. Chesterfield Extension honored our Veterans
with cookies and hospitality on Veteran’s Day provided by several MGs.
MGs have volunteered to
present 4 new topics for the community which will begin in January at the
public libraries. One of the highlights of December was the poinsettia tour at
Boulevard Flowers and advanced training on production, cultivars, selection and
care.
http://offices.ext.vt.edu/chesterfield/
Lynn
Foote
Gloucester
This past summer MGs were
working hard preparing a revision to our “Gardening in Gloucester Book” and
now, hot off the press, the second edition is ready for holiday shopping. If you know of anyone who is
moving to this area, this is the perfect gift. We will start 2010 with a series of public presentations on
gardening at the local library which is a new endeavor we hope to continue in
the future. At our December
meeting, we welcomed 11 new members and, with the addition of a couple of
transfers, our roster has hit a 100 milestone! Good news because we have a very busy challenging year ahead
of us and we plan to keep everyone actively employed…. All of us here at the Gloucester unit would
like to wish all of you a very healthy and safe holiday season and a Happy New
Year!
Bonnie Bernard
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Hanover
Christy Brennen
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Henrico
On December 9th, Henrico graduated 22 new Master Gardeners
at our volunteer reception and gave milestone pins to an additional 19 Master
Gardeners. We are receiving record numbers of applications for the
program and look forward to meeting our new Interns at the Mentor Luncheon on
January 14th and getting to know them when training begins on January 26th.
In November our MG Association Board voted to begin a MG
Scholarship Fund to offer scholarships to deserving students who wish to pursue
a career in horticulture. We also voted to contribute
additional monies to the State Master Gardener Endowment Fund.
Beverly Cochrane
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James City Co./Williamsburg
http://jccwmg.org/
Jim and Nelda Pressly
Newport News
Anita Smith
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Northern Neck
Ted Munns
www.nnmg.org
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York County
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NORTHERN
Albemarle/Charlottesville
Piedmont
www.PiedmontMasterGardeners.org
Joyce Grunewald
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Arlington/Alexandria
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Name: George Graine
Unit: Fairfax
Local Association: Fairfax County Master Gardeners Association
Project:
Unit Contacts:
Extension
Agent: Adria Bordas, abordas@vt.edu,
12011 Government Center Parkway, Suite 1050, Fairfax, VA 22034.
President: Janet Barbee, janet_barbee@msn.com,
3234 Fox Mill Rd., Oakton, VA 22124.
Website/Master: www.fairfaxmastergardeners.org, AmolKaikini/amolkaikini@gmail.com.
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Fluvanna
JoAnne Henry
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Green Spring Unit
Green
Spring Unit met November 7, 2009 in the Horticulture Center at Green Spring
Gardens to set the course for 2010.
Adria Bordas, our county extension agent, spoke on the concerns of and
changes in Virginia Cooperative Extension due to the proposed budget cuts
Sandra
Reichert, our master gardener coordinator, followed by speaking about the
budget cuts in the county budget, especially those concerning the programs of resource management
which includes the park authority. Not all was upsetting as Sandra announced
the 154 master gardeners at Green Spring had 4,331.5 hours of volunteer service
making 7,979 contacts with county residents.
Cyndi
Bishop developed a six slide presentation of Why VMGA? This was presented to
the graduating trainees pointing out the importance of joining VMGA. She and Joan Richards presented letters
of congratulations from Betty Villers, VMGA president, at the graduation of the
2009 class. Statistics will be
kept to determine the efficacy of the attempt to encourage greater
participation in VMGA.
Plans
are well underway for the Master Gardeners 6th annual Eco Savvy
Symposium to be held on Saturday, February 27 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM at the
Horticulture Center at Green Spring Gardens. The theme for this year’s educational event is
‘Understanding Your Garden’s Life Cycle.’
Cost for the daylong event is $45 with an additional $12 for a boxed
lunch of either meat or vegetarian options.
Joan
Richards and
Cyndi Bishop
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/PARKS/gsgp/
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Loudoun
Ingrid Fovargue
VMGA Rep
Loudoun County
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Louisa
Central Virginia Master
Gardeners
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SOUTHEAST
Norfolk
This has been an
interesting year for Norfolk Master Gardeners. We had to fight with the
city to get funding included for our extension agent in the Health Dept.
budget. Our unit is the only one in the state that is part of the health
department.
We have many projects under
way and more requests for new projects than we can staff. Water projects,
rain gardens and school horticulture projects are the most heavily requested
items.
The intern class this
year was smaller than past years. Hope this isn't a trend.
Don Snipes
www.nmgv.org
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Prince George
www.pgmga.org
Cheryl Sebera
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Virginia Beach
Fran Shelton
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chesapeake
Pinky Derieux
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WESTERN TIDEWATER MASTER GARDENERS
The WTMG has had a most
successful year of volunteer projects in the area. We held a Junior Master
Gardener camp at Paul D. Camp Community College, held weekly plant clinics at the farmers markets in both Smithfield & Windsor during the summer,
trained 16 new interns, were instrumental in helping both our agent and other
agriculture based groups in setting up the tent and manning the ag tent for the Isle of Wight County Fair..
Numerous exhibits of our training and activities were displayed for the community
as well as water garden and exotic plant displays, instruction in projects from
rain barrel construction to honeybees as pollinators and home food canning and preservation. The area
media featured several stories about our participation in the community as a
result of the fair and features Master Gardening overall. Therapeutic gardening
with two nursing homes and one senior community is an ongoing project. Our final project was decorating a
Christmas tree for sale at the YMCA
Christmas Tree Auction with proceeds going to provide for children to attend the YMCA on a needs
basis. We all had a great time and our interns were some of our most
enthusiastic volunteers.
Betty Jo Hendrix
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SOUTHWEST
The Blue Ridge (Carroll,
Grayson, city of Galax)
Name:
Charlie Whittle
Unit:
Master Gardeners of the Blue Ridge
Local
Association: Master Gardeners of the
Blue Ridge (Carroll, Grayson, city of Galax), Southwest District, 54 active
members, 4025 service hours in 2008.
Programs/Projects
CENTRAL
Amherst, Campbell, and
Lynchburg (Hill City MGA)
Our School Programs in five
of Lynchburg’s City’s Schools have ended for the fall. The program that was conducted with the
3rd graders in these schools was titled “Compost”. The children learned about
worm composting, how to build a compost bin and what to put in and what not to
put in their compost pile.
The School Programs will
resume in late February. Some of
the programs will include the children potting up Spider Plants to take home
and planting petunias in their respective school gardens.
www.hcmga.com
Deborah Straw