Ascension Parish Master Gardener Association

Transcription

1 Ascension Parish Master Gardener Association DECEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER FROM CRAIG ROUSSEL, APMG HORTICULTURAL AGENT The deadline to enter your volunteer and educational hours into the Master Gardener database for the 2015 year is December 31, MEMBERSHIP MEETING The 2016 APMGA meetings are usually held on Tuesday at 9 am at the LSU AgCenter Office, Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. If you have an item for the agenda, please contact Julie Elzer: January 19 th (membership dues will be collected) March 15 th May 17 th July 19 th September 20 th (possible change due to MG Classes) November 15 th Ascension Parish Master Gardener Program 9039 St. Landry Road Bldg. C Gonzales, LA (225) AscensionMasterGardeners Don t forget your to wear your name tag! EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING The 2016 Executive Board meetings of the APMGA are usually held on Tuesday at 9 am at the LSU AgCenter office, Lamar- Dixon Expo Center. The board looks forward to serving the association and welcomes suggestions and comments. January 12 th (meeting longer than usual, 3-4 hours) March 8 th May 10 th July 12 th September 13 th (possible change due to MG Classes) November 8 th

2 CONGRATULAT I ONS TO THE APMG CLASS OF 2015! Le to right: Hor cultural Agent Craig Roussel with class members Sue Cain, Aaron Bacala, Pa Campo, Michael Bonfan, Helen Causey, Philip Bowman, Bernade e Duplessis, Charlo e Melancon, Mary Beth Roussel, and Eugene Singletary. The GET IT GROWING 2016 Lawn & Garden Calendar published by the LSU AGCENTER is available to purchase at our LSU AgCenter Office and local garden centers. Once again a photo taken by Conchita Richey is featured in this issue!

3 Ascension Master Gardeners Aaron Bacala, Terry Tripp, Conchita Richey, Barbara McCormick, Mary Beth Roussel, and June Thomas recently replanted the color end caps of the entrance landscape bed at Lamar Dixon Expo Center with Louisiana Super Plants - Mesa Gaillardia, Amazon Dianthus, and Camelot Foxglove. FROM CRAIG ROUSSEL, APMG HORTICULTURAL AGENT The deadline to enter your volunteer and educational hours into the Master Gardener database for the 2015 year is Thursday, December 31, The system won t allow back dating after December 31st and assistance won t be available between Christmas and New Years as LSU is shut down. If you have entered the required number of hours for the year, I encourage you to continue entering hours so that we can capture our total effort for the year.

4 APMGA FLAMINGOLICIOUS 2015 HARVEST SOCIAL A QUIRKY SPANISH TOWN GARDEN Thank you Co chairs Barbara McCormick, Kat Hightower, and Mary Jo Pohlig for planning this fun event and Smiley Anders for his engaging presenta on!

5 Growing and Harves ng A Thistle Family Plant* Just by chance I happened upon some half dead green globe ar choke plants. The nursery owner donated them to the garden and said he knew they would be in good care in my hands. The pressure was on. My husband and I are very involved in the local Thibodaux LA community garden en tled, the St. Francis Vegetable Garden. This garden was the brain child of my husband, who felt a strong calling to create a community garden. He wanted to give back to the community; thereby contac ng Catholic services to see how he could help. As it happened, someone donated large refrigerators to the food bank, thus making the ming of this project a heavenly sign that this might be the right track for us. The food bank now had space to store fresh vegetables to give away to those on hard mes. With few words, let me just say that the frui on of his dream came to be a reality. Should anyone like to know this process, I will be happy to give you the specifics and tell you how the garden has become a model for the community of Houma, La and HL Bourgeois High School's garden for students with special needs. Truly these expansions have been exci ng. Back to ar chokes. My friend and co master gardener planted these one leaf transplants with me in front of the community vegetable garden sign. We strive to use vegetable plants as ornamentals to keep within the thema c approach. Po ng soil, osmocote and a layer of pine straw mulch were the only ingredients. No water was added due to the distance from the water source. We counted only on rain. It was in late October that these eight scraggly plants were placed in the dirt. No a en on was given to these plants over the winter of And I mean none! When we began plan ng the spring garden of 2015, these ar choke plants were gorgeous. These beau ful thistle family plants looked like some majes c specimen that I had imported from another country. The purple flower buds appeared as crown jewels from the earth. Basically, they morphed from the ugly duckling into the swan. Other local master gardeners o en stopped to inquire and gush about them. They asked many ques ons about these plants of which they had never seen the like. No master of knowledge could be imparted on my part of ar choke history other than I liked to eat them. I was quite embarrassed that I really had nothing to offer. A er all, I am a master gardener and I should know, right? That is what most people think. I was just a lucky gardener who did something right by doing nothing, such a happy circumstance. Over 30 edible ar chokes were harvested and eaten by these li le gems. Hence, my search for knowledge began.

6 This is what you need to know to plant ar choke plants successfully just for fun. And I strongly encourage you to do so. Plant them in the late fall with space to grow, pray it doesn't freeze into the teens for several hours, harvest the chokes in the spring when they are 3 4 inches in circumference and before they flower. Thistles are considered a weed, a er all. How hard do we work to kill weeds to no avail? Surely we all know how to grow weeds through drought, freeze, monsoon and extreme heat. This makes for a very easy crop to grow. These li le "thistles that could" are s ll growing a year a er they were planted. Several plants died in the summer, but of the 8, two had shoots that grew from the original stalk. My hypothe cal opinion is that the two remaining plants were shaded from late evening blistering sun by the vegetable sign, leaving the others to die, but protected these two. On October 18, 2015 I planted some healthy ar choke plants and I am hoping for a duplicate experience. However, I am afraid that my determina on may be too great and, that in itself, may kill them. I will do my best to ignore them. For a more in depth study of ar chokes. Let me refer you to the LSUAg Center. Several ar cles can be found just by searching the word "ar chokes" on the web page. In addi on, I researched "growing ar chokes in south Louisiana" on Google. In this ar cle, which is located in the Louisiana Commercial Vegetable Produc on Recommenda ons, published by the LSU Ag Center, a full page source is offered on page 4. The site has wonderful guidelines that I could never reinvent. Many addi onal resources can be found online as well. Wishing you joy in gardening beyond your unknown desires and best efforts of neglect. Lynn Ledet APMG Class of 2011 *Lynn is taking the Advanced Master Gardener Class & shared this great article written to fulfill one of the class requirements.

7 Ascension Parish Master Gardeners were buzzing around the bee tent with some of the students at the FAST FOOD FARM S FALL AG DAY held on October 15th at the Fast Food Farm in Gramercy.

8 DECEMBER EVENTS APMG JOY Team Christmas Project Thursday, December 3rd, 10 am (Volunteer Hours) Azalea Estates of Gonzales, 2305 S. Purpera, Gonzales, La We will be helping residents plant small herbs in Christmas mugs. Contact Eileen O Brien ( ) for more informa on Poinse a Show and Sale Friday, December 4, 8am noon LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens Choose fresh poinse as from a wide selec on of varie es. Plants $8 14. For more informa on, call Holiday Plant and Gi Shop Sale Saturday, December 5, 9am 2pm LSU Hilltop Arboretum The Hodge Podge Annual Year End plant sale and gi shop open house. Admission is free Annual Symposium Saturday, January 16, 8:30am 12:30pm LSU Design Auditorium, LSU Hilltop Arboretum The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden, featuring guest speakers Rick Dark and Doug Tallamy. Cost $50 (member), $65 (nonmember) Contact Peggy Davis Coates ( ) for more informa on UPCOMING 2016 EVENTS Louisiana Master Gardener 2016 Conven on May 12 14, 2016, Airport Hilton, Kenner, La Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Spring Library Series Save the Date February 23 Galvez Library March 8 Gonzales Library March 22 Dutchtown Library April 19 Gonzales Library Plant Swap