What a Beautiful Day for a Garden Walk!! By Co-Chairs, Kathy Hughes, Barb Neal, Sarah Neff and Julie Stark

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1 Vol. 28, No. 8 Editors: Julie Stark/Lisa Slattery August 2018 LINN COUNTY MASTER GARDENER EVENTS Steering Committee Meeting Extension Office August 7 6:30 pm Extension Council Meeting Extension Office August 6 5:00 pm Executive Council Meeting Extension Office August 20 3:00 pm What a Beautiful Day for a Garden Walk!! By Co-Chairs, Kathy Hughes, Barb Neal, Sarah Neff and Julie Stark The 2018 Garden Walk, held on Saturday July 7, 2018, is now history. Mother Nature helped in a big way with this year s Seeds of Kindness theme in providing us kind (actually PERFECT!) weather sunny and about 80 degrees. In the spirit of our theme, each garden offered take away gifts (homemade cards with pictures of lilies, pollinator seeds, compost, and homemade dandelion cookies) which were well received. This year was also the 1 st Annual Garden Crawl in which a gift package containing a locally made pallet Continued Page 2 What s Inside 2018 Garden Walk Recap Pages 1-3 Coordinator Comments Page 4 Upcoming Webinars Page 5 Lowe Park Team Designs Butterfly Shaped Garden Page 5 Things We Love When A "Disability" Is An Asset Page 6 Steering Committee Report Pages 7-8 August

2 Continued from Page 1 garden bench, Home pillow, and a copy of Get Your Feet Wet, Again book was raffled (photo right). The very appreciative winner, Pat Baker, was thrilled saying she NEVER wins anything. These bits of kindness added a lot of prep time for the co-chairs but we hope they added a lot of cheer to someone s day. Photos from Kay Schultze s garden (with husband, Bob). Special thanks to our garden hosts for opening their lovely gardens to the public: Kay Schultze, Brenda Havlik, Wanda Lunn, Sue Usher and Lauran Friedman. Also, thanks to our Garden Leads for their time and efforts working with the hosts to make ready the gardens and to the guide the day to success: Bev Whitmore, Jan Knott, Kay McWhinney, Linda Hinzman, Barb Wing, Louise Harn, Carrie Nilsson and Paula Wilson. Finally, thanks to the 50 plus Master Gardeners and Interns who volunteered to help in preparing gardens or worked the day of the Walk your time and efforts are greatly appreciated. Photos from Wanda Lunn s garden. Several responses from the guests evaluations mentioned it was the best Garden Walk EVER! We received high (5 s) on almost every evaluation. The lower marks (4 s) were primarily because guests felt the gardens were too far from each other or they wished maps could have been downloaded from the website. We provided each garden with five Getting Your Hands Dirty and Your Feet Wet, Again books which sold much quicker than anticipated. Continued Page 3 2 Germinator

3 Continued from Page 2 Photos from Brenda Havlik s garden (with Vicki, Linda Hofmeister and Becky Ray manning the ticket table; Garden Lead, Kay McWhinney, in background). Income totaled $2,312 with an additional $120 in book sales. Income received from each individual garden (excluding the sale of books) was: Friedman $622 Havlik $380 Usher $370 Lunn $345 Schultze $595 Photos from Sue Usher s garden. Paying guests numbered 462, and, with the approximately 30 nonpaying guests (neighbors), this year s Garden Walk totaled nearly 500 guests! Planning for the 2019 Garden Walk is already underway! Photos from Laura Friedman s garden. August 3

4 Coordinator Comments By: Kristen Peyton Hello Master Gardeners, I hope everyone is having a great summer and enjoying their flowers and gardens! Thank you to all the individuals who helped with the Garden Walk. It was a success and I am so excited that I came onboard just in time to experience it! All of the properties were beautiful and we had a great turn out. I don t think we could have asked for better weather, it was perfect! Everyone should have received a packet of information in the mail which included: The Master Gardener Volunteer Manual (State) approved. The Linn County Master Gardener Procedure Guide for Master Gardeners approved May 2, 2018 by the Master Gardener Steering Committee, and on June 11, 2018 by the Ag Extension Council. Linn County Master Gardener Contact List (excel document). Two copies of the Receipt: Master Gardener Acknowledgement. Please let me know if you did not receive any of these documents and we will make sure to mail them to you. Several people have indicated that their contact information on the Contact List that was sent out doe not have their correct information listed. Please me at kmpeyton@iastate.edu if you need your contact information changed. Please do so by August 15 th so we can send out another updated PDF copy of the contact list via . As some of you may already know, the 2018 Training for MG trainees starts on Thursday, August 16 th. We are looking for some volunteers who may be interested in being a mentor. The mentors would help check homework, welcome the trainees, etc. I will be sending out an with a link to an online sign-up for each training date. Best wishes! Kristen 4 Germinator

5 Upcoming Webinars By Linda Hayward September 11, Insect Update and Tree Care Receive the latest details about invasive garden pests, including Japanese beetle, Emerald ash borer and spotted wing drosophila from Donald Lewis, professor and extension entomologist at Iowa State. Then learn about how to maintain the health of trees from Jesse Randall, associate professor and extension forester at Iowa State. September 25, Local Bees and Organic Vegetables Find out how to attract native bees and other pollinators to the garden from Randall Cass, entomologist with ISU Extension and Outreach. Then learn how to organically maintain a vegetable garden from Kathleen Delate, professor and extension organic specialist in horticulture and agronomy at Iowa State. Each webinar will be at the Extension Office, 383 Collins Road NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the large conference room from 6:30 8:30. The Webinars will be open to Master Gardeners and the public. It is important to register so there will be enough handouts. Popcorn and drink will be available. To register follow this link - or call the Linn County Extension by calling (319) or by jorah@iastate.edu Lowe Park Team Designs Butterfly Shaped Garden By Jan Knott With 2018 being themed the Year of the Pollinator it seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a garden in the form of a butterfly. Our team spent a fair number of hours in planning how the butterfly would look. All of the perennial gardening experience the Lowe Park Team has had in past years played an important part in how we arranged and planned this garden bed. The Lowe Park Greenhouse staff grew all of the flowers that were used in the garden with a few yellow marigolds broadcasted to fill in spots where needed. Many different groups and Master Gardeners played a part in making this beautiful garden. It is starting to look fabulous! August 5

6 Things We Love When A "Disability" Is An Asset By Jean Wilson Everyone ages, and as we age, it may become more difficult to do things that once were easy: hauling a load of brush to the compost pile, or digging out a tree to transplant it, or even planting bulbs for spring blooms. Try to view these so-called limitations as an opportunity to try a new technique or a new process or a new tool. Here are some examples: Is it getting tough to dig those holes for bulbs? You can buy a 3-foot auger that fits on to a power tool. Attach the auger and dig it into the ground. Reverse the power, and the dirt comes out of the hole. Drop your bulb in and move the dirt over the hole with your foot. Move on to the next one. Is it hard to climb up and down that hill to work on your plants? Go to the local landscape center and buy four or five (or more) 1-foot-square pavers. Dig out a level spot in your bed and put in the paver. Now you have a place to stand instead of balancing on that hill. Or buy a length of green rope and attach it to something sturdy. Let it rest on the ground most of the time and when you need it, you have it to help pull yourself up that slope. Weeding can be a real back-breaker. Try putting strips of newspaper between your plants and cover it with a deep layer of mulch. Or, become "Dead Eye Dick" with your weed sprayer, and take a moment in the cool of the day to walk around your garden and zap whatever you see. If you can't have a 'real' garden outside, why not start a miniature garden inside? Your imagination is the only limitation to what can be done. Need inspiration? Look here: Or use any search engine online and type "miniature garden." You'll find a lot of ideas. Don't let anything hold you back--just look for a workaround, and you can find it! 6 Germinator

7 July 10, 2018 Steering Committee Minutes DRAFT The meeting was called to order, roll called, quorum established, and minutes from last meeting approved. Present: Present : Steve Bartlett, Kathy Carew, Randy Dusil, Cindy Fagan, RaeAnn Gordon, Linda Hinzman, Sam Krumbholz, Jackie MacLaren, Kay McWhinney, Kristen Peyton, Linda Shephard, Bev Whitmore, Diane Wiesenfeld, and Jean Wilson. Absent: Glenn Babinett, Sylvia Kelley, Jackie MacLaren, and Linda Shepard. Announcements: Linda Hinzman presented the financial report and it was approved. Our current balance as of May 31, 2018 is $50, The Policy Guide was approved by the Extension Council at their June Meeting. It was sent out to all MGs, and will be handed out to new interns. MGs should complete and return the acknowledgement of the receipt. Our fall classes are delayed from August 2 to August 16 because course materials will not be available. A gambling license was needed for the Garden Walk for the raffle of the bench. The license fee was $15 for the one event. We need to note this on the Garden Walk project description if a raffle is repeated. Jean will look into how many events this would affect. (for example The Winter Garden Fair) Signage for the Community Gardens: RaeAnn showed us two signs that could be placed at each of the community gardens. We have 13 sets of signage (one reflects food for the community and the other reflects MGs partnership). Wording on the sign may be changed to give more acknowledgement of community volunteers at the gardens. Kristen shared a MG applicant letter for our input. It will be revised a little to reflect that interviews will begin soon to be accepted into the program. Other important information such as the time commitment, cost, and schedules will be included. The applicant should be aware of these topics as they move forward. The committee members to review the applicants are: Kay McWhinney, Bev Whitmore, Jackie MacLaren, Sam Krumbholz, and Cindy Lehman, new intern. Interviews will be scheduled in July. (18-19 applicants so far) The MG online directory is no longer online. Paper copies were sent to MGs with the Handbook, and we will look at a way to have this online with password protection. New Business/Discussions Jean did a review of the MG website and gave some recommendations to Johanna for changes. There is a lot of outdated information there that our MGs are responsible for. There is a media form that everyone needs to use to request publicity and/or updates to the website. We ve talked about a Media Committee before, but this gets to the heart of the matter: how to August 7

8 get the information out to the media. Jean will contact Project chairs with upcoming events to see what Media needs they have. Garden Walk Over 460 people attended the event. Reviews were mostly favorable and survey results will come in soon. Memorandum of understanding with the City of Marion. This will be sent out to the committee members for review. VRS Hours: Can MGs see past year s total hours for each year of volunteer service before the VRS system was in place? This will be researched. MG Storage Space: We do not have enough space in the basement for MG storage. Kristen will look into getting us more space. NewBo Gardens: Jean will look into past and present MGs working with NewBo. Perhaps a conversation with their new leadership is needed. Project Reports: No discussion, reports were approved. Reminder Project Reports are no longer a part of the monthly Steering Committee Minutes and may be viewed by Master Gardeners at the below link: Next Steering Committee Meeting: August 7, 6:30pm Next Executive Meeting: July 23, 3:00pm Respectfully submitted, Sam Krumbholz, for Linda Shepard Linn County Extension Master Gardeners 383 Collins Road NE, Suite 201 Cedar Rapids, IA ph (319) Hortline (319) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Many materials can be made available in alternative formats for ADA clients. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC or call Germinator