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AMHERST, CAMPBELL and
LYNCHBURG Karen Sacasky |
Volunteer opportunities are numerous in our unit as we assist the
children in our schools as they plant bulbs, create new landscaping,
learn about soil, life cycle of bulbs, butterflies, and vegetables. Our training committee is hard at work setting
up class schedules and obtaining instructors for our 2005 winter class. After setting a Lynchburg
record for hours contributed to our MG program for the first half of the
year, it was time for a little relaxation for our members. We enjoyed several educational and fun
field trips to Boxerwood Gardens, the Roots and Shoots Program in
Lexington, and the Kluge Estate Vineyards and Conservatory. We feel that field trips and other social
occasions help build relationships and develop comradery among our members |
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CHESAPEAKE Pinky Derieux |
A scholarship
of $500 was awarded to a student at TCC for the spring term Of 2004 as a
result of money funded earlier this year by CMGVs for horticultural scholarships. Another $500 scholarship will be awarded
during the current fall term. A plant swap
was held on September 25th at Major Hillard Library featuring perennials and
house plants and we have been asked to conduct the swap again next year. The State Fair was attended by seven CMGVs on September
30. Regional
training will be held on
October 23rd at Currituck, N. C. Our intern
training class schedule has been completed and will range from January 25
through April 12 on each Tuesday and Thursday during that period. Orientation
sessions are set for November 9 and November 18. Heritage Arts
Festival will take place
on November 6 and 7 and CMGVs will take part with a composting display, a
children’s activity, a plant doctor table and dissemination of Tech publications. A field trip
is scheduled for November 10 when we will visit Anderson’s Garden Center in
Newport News, lunch at Old Chickahominy House in Williamsburg and a tour of
gardens in Williamsburg and James City County led by James City County
Extension Agent Leanne Du Bois. Last, but not least, Chesapeake is proud to host the VMGA Board Meeting today. |
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FAIRFAX George Graine |
Programs/Projects:Web
Site: More than 7600 inquiries since January
2004. This site is available to the
public although some parts are restricted to Fairfax MGs with a password. NoVaComCol Prof Emeritus Larry Shapira. Loudoun and Green Spring MGs also participated. Diagnostic training
session will be held in mid-October. Insect identification and insect pest update will
be presented by Eric Day of the VaTech Insect ID Lab. Adria Bordas, Fairfax Extension Agent will
update the class on Sudden Oak Death a.k.a. SOD. This training will also be held jointly with Loudoun and Green
Spring. Plant Clinics: Completed end of September.
Data in process of being compiled. Help Line will operate on a limited
schedule starting in November. Orientation Class of 2005: Anticipate 45 new members will commence MG day or night training in January (ten
classes each). Approximately 200 MGs
will attend classes. Graduation/Awards:
19 MGs received certification and 25 received service awards including two
received 15-year milestone. All
together this represented 145 years of community service. Also, 14 MGs received hourly awards. Glen
Seely and Edith Probus received an award for 6,000 hours! Together, these two ladies have worked as
MGs for 55 years. Both are stalwarts
in our own laboratory facility. Can
anyone else match this record of achievement? Additionally, several MGs were singled out for special
recognition. NoVaMGCaucus: A meeting
was held on October 15. This sharing
session agenda included Mentoring, Sharing of
Resources, Scholarships, Fund Raising, and Demonstration Garden
Programming. Information will be
provided at the next VMGA board meeting/News From Across the State (VMGA
Report newsletter). |
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FAUQUIER Linda Pranke |
Summer's
end has begun the process of looking back on the Master Gardener season in
Fauquier County, and as with other MG organizations around the state,
assessing its successes and setbacks. Most of our major activities--our
Phone Hot Line, the demonstration gardens at #18 Schoolhouse
and Rady Park, the Ready, Set, Grow! program for elementary students,
and the plant clinics at the Farmers Market in Warrenton and at
Archwood Green Barns in The Plains have been real winners, making significant
contributions to the community. Only at Archwood did we decide the effort
wasn't worthwhile (due to lack of traffic at that location), so it was
discontinued. Our
first two Fall Lectures for the public were well attended and well
received. Still to come is the Nov. 4 lecture by Horticulture Agent Alison
Hectus on "Plants for Winter Interest in the Garden." We're
also beginning plans for a winter lecture series at the public library in
Bealeton. On
Sept. 25 we held an Association meeting at #18 Schoolhouse for our fall plant
swap and a potluck lunch. We also had a weed identification
contest that challenged all of us. New Master Gardener class will begin the second week in November. We're looking forward to meeting the new MG candidates and getting them involved in our activities next year |
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FLUVANNA
Pat Platt |
The
Fluvanna Master Gardeners have been as busy as bees this summer. Our first venture into a Horticultural
Help Desk was a great success thanks to many members’ efforts in getting
a reference library assembled, training completed, scheduling and
volunteering to staff the phones. The
Senior Garden at the county Recreation Center in Fork Union was expanded
to add four new beds. The
Children’s’ Garden at Central Elementary School was harvested, cleaned up
and readied for fall planting as the
new school year began. The
design proposed for a 19th century Demo/kitchen garden at the historic Haden House at
Pleasant Grove (a 900-acre county park) was approved by the county Board of
Supervisors so we will soon begin actual work on the site. Our exhibition/plant sale at the
Fluvanna County Old Farm Day was visited by many residents and was a
fund-raising success. In addition, we established an information booth at
the weekly Fluvanna Farmers’ Market – passing out literature and answering
questions for customers interested in gardening. Stay
tuned for information about our 3rd annual spring seminar/plant
sale. It is approved for six
hours of Master Gardener continuing-education. |
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GOOCHLAND-POWHATAN
Chuck Miller |
As of today, we
have 42 members and 16 interns During the late
summer and into September we have held information booths at Southern
States in Goochland and at the Field Days of the Past Festival in Goochland,
a 3-day event with lots of activities for the family We have manned
the Hotline and Help Desks at the Goochland and Powhatan Extension
Offices about 3 days of each week. We held our 2nd picnic
meeting at Fighting Creek Park in Powhatan in September and combined the
fellowship with a tour of the native plant demonstration plantings. The MGs planned, planted, and maintain
these plantings and use them for native plant seminars. Also, in September a new sensory garden
was begun at one entrance to the park.
Five 4’ x 8’ raised beds about 30” high will be planted with plants
that offer pleasure to the senses. A butterfly garden is being planned for an
adjacent area. In addition tending gardens
at Hidden Rock Park in Goochland is ongoing. These gardens in Powhatan and Goochland were planted by MGs and
will be used for beautification, memorials (trees) and for teaching. Fifteen of us visited
the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Sept. and three Hanover MGs accompanied
us. It is a wonderful resource for
the MGs of the Hampton Roads area. We completed work
on the landscaping of the Powhatan Animal Shelter and the new Amelia
County Library, which was dedicated in September. (Although we technically represent only
Goochland and Powhatan Counties, there are a few members from Amelia.) We continue to provide
articles twice a month for the Powhatan Today, but unfortunately, new
management at the Goochland Courier no longer uses our articles, which has
limited our public communication with the citizens of Goochland. We coordinated a special Home &
Garden insert for the Powhatan Today and wrote all of the articles. Our committee on Invasive Species has
published 3 articles for these local weekly newspapers. We hope that this will be developed into a
public seminar when the remainder of the topics is fully researched. 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 will put the presentations on
PowerPoint and provide “talking points” so that any MG can use them. Most of our newsletters
are now being sent via email (less graphics) although some printed copies
are provided for placement in the offices, sending to key community leaders,
and to those without email. We have
significantly reduced the costs of publishing the newsletter that is sent 6
times a year. One other advantage is
that links to referenced sites can be selected immediately without copying or
retyping. We have a good
and useful website that presently features pictures of our trip to the
Norfolk botanical Gardens as well as our work with Camp Gooch (YMCA Camp for
young children) from back in July. We
have complete information on how to submit ideas for projects and how they
will be selected via a rating system.
Also, the site includes a calendar of events, new activities, links,
Bylaws & Rules, listing of current projects and forms – nearly everything
we do! Join us vicariously by
visiting www.GPMGA.org. Finally, the most
exciting news of all for us is that after visiting the very well done 2004
Community Gardening Festival at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research &
Extension Center, we thought that maybe the GPMGA could do something
similar. So, we had a preliminary
meeting with the leaders of the horticultural staff at J. Sargeant Reynolds
Community College, Goochland Campus, and have tentatively decided to have a
cooperative venture that will produce a spring seminar. We hope also to cooperatively
develop demonstration gardens.
Thanks VA Beach MGs for a great festival and for the inspiration! |
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HALIFAX
(Southside Master Gardeners)
Grace Elliott |
Bill McCaleb and
several Master Gardeners would be holding an educational class
October 5th ,for the public, on Fall Lawn
Renovation and Care. This was based on suggestions made from
earlier public class evaluation sheets. The public class responses
during the fall of 2003 and spring and early summer of 2004 prompted
Extension and its Master Gardeners to increase the number of public
programs this year. The Grant
Proposal submitted to the Tobacco Commission, for the new Edmunds
Park, was reviewed and discussed with the
membership. Volunteers are already signed up to assist with this
new project. We are looking forward to starting a teaching
garden in this joint South Boston/Halifax County Park that will
include areas for youth education and also adult education. There will
be a demonstration orchard, along with native landscape plant materials and
other adaptable plants for Southside Virginia along with a small
vegetable garden. It is hoped that we will also have a
demonstration compost center. Chair Donna
Brauda and our Halifax County Fair Booth committee reports that
all is ready and on track. We have a challenging educational subject
this year and are hoping for another 1st place blue ribbon this
year. The Southside
Assoc. will man a table at the Clarksville Fall Festival to provide
educational materials for fall "to do's" and to sell the
remainder of the cookbooks we have on hand. The cook book sales
will help defray expenses involved with the teaching garden
start-up. |
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HANOVER Pamela Armstrong |
Tomato
Festival Plant Clinic/Information Booth held July 10 netted over 400 contacts with 120 being
Youth. Decided to scale
back the number of Plants Clinics to focus on quality rather quantity.
Over 3000 contacts this year Added a JR MG
Program in Richmond at Whitcomb Court School for at risk youth. This is
in coordination with Andy Hankins of VSU. That area of Richmond has the highest
number of at risk youth. Hanover is in
line for a fulltime ANR agent in Horticulture position in the VCE
office and the Farm Business Management Specialist for the NE district area
will be located in the Hanover office. ANR position will be filled November
1. In 2005, will be
conducting collaborative MG classes with Chesterfield, New Kent,
Goochland-Powhatan and Henrico. Also will be offering Advanced MG
Training with the same units in 2005. Harvest
Jubilee held at 17th
Street Market. MGs from Hanover, Henrico and Chesterfield staffed a MG booth
along with representatives of 4-H, Soil and Water Conservation, College of
Life Sciences from VT and Extension agents from Goochland and New Kent.
Attendance was around 10,000. Bayscapes
Workshop coming up November
6 on coordination with Hanover - Caroline Soil and Water Conservation.
Emphasis will be on Water Quality. Information will be posted to the Calendar
page at vmga.net. |
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JAMES CITY COUNTY,
WILLIAMSBURG Ann DeForest |
Our unit held its popular annual "Turf Love Saturday" with speakers and classes in September. Members of our award winning Therapeutic Gardening Group taught classes two days at the conference in Baltimore. Our 2004 class of 34 is our largest and brightest. One of their ideas was for a "Landscape Love" Program which we are currently testing. Our Tree Stewards (which include members from York County, Newport News, Hampton as well as James City County/Williamsburg) are involved in several interesting projects including a Community Reforestation Project, a Tree I.D. along the Noland Trail, planting trees at one of our main projects, Mattie's Garden at Mathew Whaley Elementary School and planting seven dwarf apple trees at Stonehouse Elementary School and providing an educational Power Point Program on apple trees. We are also working on a cookbook to raise money as well as preparing for our 2005 class. |
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NORTHERN NECK
Jinny Estell Pat Rogers |
Our Master Gardener Training Classes are going very well. Thanks to one of our students you will have directions, capable of being posted on the web site, to the December meeting here in the Northern Neck. The students have chosen topics for their class presentations dealing with expansion or revisions of some of our current projects. We have started working
with the third graders in our after school SUMS (Students Using Math and Science) program at Lancaster
Elementary school. We have expanded
the garden, and, thanks to the work other MG units have done, we will be developing
an “alphabet” garden to join the “senses” and “wildlife” gardens we
implemented last year. We will be
presenting our “Soils” program to all of the third graders in both
Northumberland and Lancaster Elementary schools later this month. This is the first of three programs we will present during the
school year. Our Hort Therapy and Plant Clinics at the local Farmers’ Markets continue, and we have started planning for our spring all day public educational program - Gardening in the Northern Neck. . The program this year will concentrate on environmentally appropriate landscape management of water front properties. |
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PRINCE WILLIAM Pat Reilly |
A ‘college
reunion’ was held in August where the MGs who attended MG College this year,
and their spouses, got together for a potluck. This kind of activity helps us
get around 25 people to College each year. We added a kids’ activity
to our Fall Field Day this year, which we think helped attract a few more
adults. Our spring lawn and garden show and sale will have a new
format next April, a ‘pathway to a better landscape.’ A new partner has been
found for the event. County public schools’ “Youth Ambassadors for the
Environment” will exhibit alongside the MGs |
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ROANOKE Kathrine Debnar |
Roanoke Master
Gardeners sent 161 invitations/applications to local residents |
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ROCKBRIDGE AREA Ted Jenks |
In August the
Master Gardeners’ booth at the Rockbridge Community Festival provided
an important public relations opportunity. People enjoyed our display on
proper mulching techniques and five signed up for our upcoming MG class. In September, we
were asked to develop a booth display at the County’s 4-H Fall
Extravaganza. We took six unusual fruits and vegetables,
all available at local produce markets, set them out on plates and asked the
kids if they could identify them. Our
choices were a plantain, an avocado, a jicama root, tomatillos, a daikon
radish and a ginger root. Some of the children were very familiar with
some of these; others had never seen nor eaten any of them. The same was true among the chaperoning
adults. This was a great opportunity to support our 4-H Extension Agent and
expose both children and adults to the Master Gardner program. Clay Atkins,
RAMGA member and correctional officer at Natural Bridge Juvenile
Correctional Center, has established a horticultural project there. This summer the Center produced a garden
of bounty and gathered a loyal following of five eager and interested cadets,
as the young men at the center are called |
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VIRGINIA BEACH Liz Maurer |
The Fifth
Annual Community Gardening Festival was held on Saturday, September 11th
at the Hampton Roads Agricultural Research and Extension Center drawing over 800
members of the public to the festival. Master gardeners from Norfolk, Suffolk
and Portsmouth also participated in the event. VBMGs supported
the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association and Va Tech HRAREC
jointly sponsored Field Day held on September 1, 2004 at the Research
Station. Harvest Fair - VBMGs sssistied with school tours and other children’s activities at the
Farmers' Market on October 7-9th. Tree Stewards'
Project - VBMG Tree
Stewards are working on developing a PowerPoint presentation of Va Beach’s
champion trees for use during special events, speaker’s bureau engagements
and other presentations. Seasonal pictures will be taken of the designated
trees as well as measurements to document height, girth and spread. VBMG Intern Orientation - orientation will be held for the new
Master Gardener intern class end of October. |
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WASHINGTON
COUNTY
Tommie White |
The Washington
County Master Gardeners started 2004 with our seventh annual MidAtlantic
Garden Faire in Abingdon in April. With thirty committees composed of
fifty teams leaders the Faire had approximately 10,000 attendees from 11
states. The Bristol MGs planted
flowers in containers on State Street in downtown Bristol in the spring.
A landscape design by MGs for two gardening areas at the Farmers Market
in downtown Bristol at the site of the new half million-dollar Transit
Station was accepted by the City of Bristol. Fundraising meetings resulted in
the entire cost being donated in a six-week period. We developed the herb
bed portion of the Field's-Penn House Garden in Abingdon while still
maintaining the hollyhock garden there. There is interest in making the
garden an educational project with brochures and a possible
lecture/demonstration on preserving or cooking with herbs during the Highlands
Festival. We maintain and
provide plant material to the Abingdon Senior Center Gardens. Other
organizations help with contributions and support. We are in the process of identifying and developing care
instructions for all the current plants. We assisted with
the Marion tree inventory by tagging 216 trees. The fall new
Master Gardener Class has been rescheduled for spring 2005. This year,
2004, was our first year without a paid MG Coordinator. We have had a full
year and a successful year through the efforts of our strong volunteer Master
Gardeners. |
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WISE
COUNTY
(Southwest Master Gardeners) Barbara Hayes |
We are having a plant
sale on October 16, 2004 and the proceeds will be donated to the Estonoa
Project it Saint Paul, Va. |
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YORK
Jackie Lohr |
Only one more person from the class of 2003 needs to complete his hours and they will have 100% completion of intern hours. Great weather and attendance contributed towards our annual picnic’s success. Our junior MG program received a grant to purchase the texts for all the children enrolled this year. We’ve completed our lawn clinics and the fall landscaping extravaganza was well attended. Our extension agent, Jim Orband, is attending the 4-H conference in Atlanta. Our tree steward activities are mentioned in the JCC report as we are both part of the Peninsula Tree Stewards |
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