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AMHERST, CAMPBELL and
LYNCHBURG Karen Sacasky |
The nineteenth annual Thomas Jefferson’s
Tomatoe Faire was the highlight of August as we accepted 423 entries from
86 participants for competition. The Faire was a joint effort by our
Association and the Lynchburg Council of Garden Clubs. As our members sold baked goods together
with the garden clubs, our MGs were educating the public in the art of
composting, answering their gardening questions, and our local artist painted
faces with tomatoes, insects, flowers, etc. If you see a bright, beautiful garden at a school,
recreation center or community center in Lynchburg, it is probably the result
of our VCE/HCMGA children’s horticulture programs. In addition to our school programs, we
have summer activities at Yoder and Diamond Hill Rec Centers, Hunton Y,
Crossroads House, and Jubilee Family Center.
The children are reaping the rewards of their hard work by sharing in
the bountiful crops. They get to
divide the produce and take it home. Our
cookbook “Cooking with the Masters” will be available in October
2004. In addition to helping provide
funding for our very ambitious children’s horticulture programs and training
of new Master Gardeners, we feel this publication will also make the public
aware of our program and what we do. |
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CHESAPEAKE Pinky Derieux |
Between the heat and the rain, it's been pretty quiet in Chesapeake since MG College. However, upcoming events are scheduled for September as follows: Plans are underway for our annual picnic on September 8. On September 18 and 19 one of our local garden centers is highlighting a Grand Reopening to announce the completion of a large greenhouse and general rearrangement of their premises and have asked CMGVs to be on hand in a plant doctor capacity. A plant swap is scheduled is scheduled for September 25 at Major Hillard Library featuring perennials only. Chesapeake is participating at the State Fair on September 30 with ten MGs. We are making plans for the VMGA Board meeting in Chesapeake on October 16. |
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FAIRFAX George Graine |
A special diagnostic training workshop was completed in June. Another similar workshop is planned for August. These workshops are designed to hone diagnostic skills for individuals as well as for Master Gardeners working as a group. The August session will concentrate on using the Pest Management Guide. Four garden lunch and learn trips were completed including Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD; Lewis
Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond (Tom Hephner, Master Gardener from
Chesterfield was the tour guide); U.S. Botanic Garden; and Meadowlark Gardens
Regional Park in Vienna, VA. Two more
trips are planned for the fall:
Hillwood Museum & Gardens in Georgetown (former home of Marjorie
Merriweather Post that she acquired in 1955) and the U.S. National Arboretum. Hosted NoVaMGCaucus on July 16. Our guest speaker, Tanis Skislak from Fairfax County government, discussed with Extension Agents and Master Gardeners, from four units, the subject of outreach, diversity, and accountability as it relates to a VCE Civil Rights Compliance Review. We believe this is an area that should receive greater emphasis throughout the state as our population shifts and changes. The Fairfax Extension Agent is in process of collecting suggestions from Fairfax
Master Gardeners for improving the Pest Management Guide. Apparently this effort extends beyond the
Fairfax Unit. Hopefully, an editorial
policy change(s) will make the Guide “user friendly.” |
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FAUQUIER Linda Pranke |
We're
staffing the Extension Office Hot Line Monday-Friday; we do plant
clinics at the Warrenton Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and at
Archwood Green Barns market in The Plains on alternate Sundays. We also
supplied information to fairgoers for one day of the Fauquier County Fair
in July. In addition, we're continuing our regular maintenance and
development work at our Rady Park Arboretum in Warrenton and at the #18
Schoolhouse demonstration garden in Marshall. This fall we are planning to give three lecture programs for the public on Thursday evenings in September, October, and November. We'll lead off with "ABCs of Water Gardens" on Sept. 9, then "Underused Trees and Fall Color" on Oct. 7, ending with "Plants for Winter Interest in the Landscape" on Nov. 4. |
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GOOCHLAND-POWHATAN
Chuck Miller |
As of today, we
have 41 members and 16 interns.
You can learn about our activities on the web at www.GPMGA.org. In July we
assisted at Camp Gooch at the Goochland YMCA to help teach children
about planting and vegetables. During the spring
and summer we have held information booths at Hertzler’s Farm and
Feed, Inc. Farm and Home Trade Show, Powhatan Festival of the Grape, and
every month at Southern States in Goochland. We have manned
the Hotline and Help Desks at the Goochland and Powhatan Extension
Offices one or more days of each week. There was a plant
swap at our June picnic at Hidden Rock Park in Goochland and a tour of
the MG constructed education gardens – a work in progress. We presented two
seminars in Powhatan – one on native plants combined with a tour of the
MG native plant planting/labeling in Fighting Creek Park, the second on iris
and daylilies. We visited the
National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. in May and invited the Hanover MGs
to accompany us. We plan to visit the
Norfolk Botanical Garden in Sept. Executive
Committee meetings for
July and August were held at the homes of two members in order to see what
others are doing. We are writing
2 articles per month for the Powhatan Today and up to 4 articles per
month for the Goochland Courier. We
have been asked to provide 6-8 articles for a gardening insert for the
Powhatan Today in Sept. This effort
has prompted us to develop a formal “experience list” to document persons who
have capability and willingness to help answer questions on diverse
topics. We hope to use this list and
the newspaper articles as a base to develop canned Speakers Bureau topics
so that we can help local organizations as well as develop more frequent
seminars. We developed
an inquiry card to use at various events to provide ways to contact us
and ask questions, express interest in gardening classes, and express
interest in becoming a MG. This has
resulted in 20 applications for membership before our public recruiting has
begun. |
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HALIFAX
(Southside Master Gardeners)
Grace Elliott |
Halifax sent 4
Master Gardeners to 4-H camp as counselors, Bill McCaleb, Agnes
Gregory, Beth Gillis, and Julie Ann Thurston. They presented a program entitled" Miracle Growers." They taught basics of good soil, recognition of trees, and Good and Bad Insects. Four Halifax members attended Master Gardener college, Bill McCaleb, Joan Whitt, Agnes Gregory and Donna Broda. We have an active committee working on a booth for the Halifax Co. Fair October 10-15th. In past years we have taken 1st place 11 times out of 12 fairs. Our landscape
committee is volunteering to assist 2 county schools with developing their landscapes
for the school grounds. |
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JAMES CITY COUNTY,
WILLIAMSBURG Angela Cingale |
The JCC/Williamsburg will be guest speakers at the 2004
Northeast Regional Master Gardener Conference in Baltimore October 5-9; The
Therapeutic Gardening Project Team will present a 2 1/2 hour workshop Thursday, October 7, titled
"Opportunities for Volunteers to
Initiate, Facilitate and Establish Independent Horticultural Activities as
Therapy". It will examine how this project has developed and
overseen horticultural activities in a variety of convalescent,
assisted-living, memory-impaired, and
respite-care facilities by assisting facility professionals in an ongoing program and providing resources for
continual programming. The Project Chairs have had two meetings as a
method of reporting any problems with any of the projects and as a means of
reporting up-to-date information to the group. And another important
reason for having these meetings is to coordinate our projects, interact with
other project groups, The EOC and JCC/Williamsburg MG's are developing a
video under the direction of our Community Video Center to be shown on
our Community TV Channel. The objective is to educate our community
about the variety of our projects, where they are located, what each of
them teaches, and how, using |
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NORTHERN NECK
Jinny Estell Pat Rogers |
The Northern Neck Master Gardeners continue to participate in the Irvington, Tappahannock, and Heathsville Farmers' Markets on the 1st-3rd Saturday of the month. We man the "Hot-line" at the Extension Office in Heathsville on Tuesdays and Lancaster Courthouse on Thursdays. We have been pulling weeds at our demonstration gardens at Lancaster Courthouse and Dreamfields. A group of volunteers continues to work on the garden beds at George Washington's Birthplace - the Lemon Balm has taken over the world! We have 9 students signed up for our fall Master Gardener Training Course. The schedule is set and we will be joining the Mathews/Gloucester group for the class on "Plant Pathology and Diagnosing Plant Disease" at the library in Mathews. We are beginning to plan for our elementary school programs through the school year and the Hort Therapy Group continues on Wednesdays at Westminster-Canterbury Retirement Community. |
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PRINCE WILLIAM Pat Reilly |
MGs and staff in Prince William participate with other
environmental |
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ROANOKE Kathryn Debnar |
Roanoke MG unit had 161 applications for 25 openings for their Master Gardener training class. |
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ROCKBRIDGE AREA Ted Jenks |
The Rockbridge Area Master Gardeners Association (RAMGA) annual picnic and election, our social event of the year, was a huge success. Our officers for the year September 2004 to August 2005 were unanimously elected at this meeting. Congratulations to James Davis, president; Maureen Becker, vice-president; Emma-Golde O'Donnell, treasurer; Barbara Thomas, secretary' and Ted Jenks, VMGA representative. Once again RAMGA and the Rockbridge Regional Fair sponsored the ever popular Horticulture Show. This year after a lengthy hiatus, the Rockbridge Council of Garden Clubs conducted a Design division featuring floral arrangements interpreting a variety of themes. Master gardener, Nancy Cook won the Horticultural Excellence Award. The Alma Firebaugh Garden at the Rockbridge Regional
Library is now featured on the library website. Included is a short
history of the garden and information about RAMGA, maps and plant listings,
and a featured Plant of the Moneth. The library website can be found at
www.rrlib.net. |
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VIRGINIA BEACH Liz Maurer |
Green Thumb Series, coordinated by committee members Jessica O’Connor, Fran Shelton and Paul Campbell, concluded at the end of June. It was a regional MG project in which VBMG’s participated as speakers, moderators and facilitators, helping to educate the public on various gardening issues. Birds, Bugs and Blooms Camp consisted of 2 one-week day camp sessions for 9-12 year olds. It was held at the Virginia Beach Farmers’ Market and staffed by VBMG volunteers. The Fifth Annual Community Gardening Festival is planned for Saturday, September 11th from 10 am to 3pm at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center on Diamond Springs Road in Va Beach. Excellent speakers are lined up on topics for Fall Gardening, Container Gardening, Flower Trials, Flower Arranging, Herb Gardening, Orchids, Water Gardens, Grasses for Tidewater and Butterfly Gardening. The day’s activities will include children’s events, demonstrations, educational displays, Garden Society displays and sales, a Silent Auction, a bake sale, plant sales, Tree and Plant Doctors and tours of the Arboretum and Display garden. Get
Involved Virginia Beach, a TV program outlining volunteer opportunities
in the city, was hosted by the Mayor and featured the Horticultural Extension
Agent Susan French and VBMG Paul Campbell. During the program, Paul and Susan
discussed the process involved in becoming a Master Gardener for the city as
well as the many-faceted volunteer efforts of the Virginia Beach Master
Gardeners |
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YORK
Jackie Lohr |
York County begins its Master Gardener training September 7. We are finishing up our general public lawn clinics and the 4-H mum project, "Growing Mums for Fun and Profit." We have a Landscape Extravaganza on Saturday, October2. Our fall home gardener program begins October 9 and runs for four consecutive Saturdays. The topics this year are Lawns; Bulbs and Propagation; Landscaping for the Year Round Garden; and House Plants and Winterizing Your Garden Equipment and other needs. Our annual picnic has been moved to September 26. Our theme is homecoming. We’re inviting all York master gardeners whether active or inactive who can possibly make it |
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