The Mason Jar Mason County WSU Master Gardener Newsletter

Transcription

1 Mason County WSU Master Gardener Newsletter SPECIAL EDITION July 2013 MG Highlights: SPECIAL EDITION newsletter this month highlighting the Garden Tour. Full regular newsletter will resume in August GARDEN TOUR SATURDAY,, JULY 13 FROM 10:00 A.M. TO 4:00 PM Tickets $12 CLINIC volunteers needed on Mondays from 12-3 p.m. August 10:00 General Monthly Meeting at the Timberland Library The Garden Tour is Back! Come visit six beautiful gardens in Mason County. All of this year s gardens are located in the Arcadia area for easy travel in between gardens. All will inspire wonderful ideas for garden creativity! Tours are self-guided but the garden owners and Master Gardeners (us!) will be on the property to answer questions. Ticket booklets, which include garden descriptions and a map to this year s gardens will be on sale for $12 per person. You can purchase a ticket at the following locations: Sage Book Store, Lynch Creek Floral, Cameo Boutique, Hunter Fars, Laurie s Gifts, Hama Hama Seafood, Jeanette s Old Town Flowers and Pacific Northwest Salmon Center. Thank-you to those MGs who have volunteered to be docents at the gardens. The schedule is included in this Special Edition newsletter for your information. For those that were not able to volunteer we hope that you can take the time to come visit the gardens on Saturday. Thanks to Pat Carpenter and Lou Schmidt for co-chairing this event.

2 Page 2 NOW IS THE TIME! By Mary Bigger Please put Mother s Day weekend 2014 on your calendar NOW! We are on a roll, plant sale 2014 here we come! CHEERS: For all those people fostering plants for next years sale, moving those that didn t sell into prime time for a stupendous 2014 sale. For new vendors contacted and planning on being here! Details later and if you know of a possible vendor, please contact Margie. For tufa gardens being planted in color spot pots waiting for tufas to be made and new garden ideas being put into action For two red wagons added to our transport list (my kind of roll!) For home garden plants being scouted, readied and potted for 2014 For members taking pictures of plants in bloom giving us solid, attractive point of sale information, our customers really liked this! Lots of good stuff going on! It never ceases to amaze me how much needs doing so soon after the sale. It seems we hardly have time to digest the evaluation and it s time to see what we have and how we can best move forward. Bonnie Ross, Carol Freytag and I met to explore ways to improve and expand the tufa component and broaden its market appeal. Out of a fun brainstorming session came ideas for diversifying the gardens, starting with mid-size planters and expanding the price range through some high end specialty ones. While they continue to research and explore plants and possibilities I have been working on new molds that hopefully will support this direction. Three new face molds are ready to assemble. Lisa S. and Jan M. will be making and taking two tufa gardens with them to Everett. What a cool way to showcase our special containers. Propagation is a wonderful thing and foster care is right there with it. By next spring the plants you pot now will be in prime shape. Those you are fostering from this year s leftovers will be in fantastic condition. The sedums I am fostering are ready to be divided and split into new pots. My scented geraniums are coming along nicely. If you want an idea of how attractive geraniums can be, all you have to do is check the March Mason Jar newsletter picture of Sherry s alligator geraniums. These are perfect examples of what our customers hope to find. (Continued on page 6)

3 SPECIAL EDITION Page 3 (plant sale cont. from page 2) GARDEN TOUR 2013 Some of the gardens you will see.

4 Page 4 Garden Tour Docent List Garden AM shift (9:30-1:15) PM shift (12:30-4) Kinney Sybil and Don Jones, Susan Selby Karen and Doug King, CJ Nichols Roberts Bobbie Wilson, Beatrix Jan and Jim Mutter, Blackerby, Karen Erika Stewart Paxson, Don Acheson Christy Rowe Wark Mendy Harlow, Louann Moeller Evon Masteller Lou Schmidt Tsai Lisa Henderson, Pat Edmonson Pat Carpenter, Pat Grover Taylor/Walsh Puja Pecovsky, Bonnie Day Orr, Casady/Viney Sherry Clemmens Carol Freytag, Bonnie Ross Norma Borden Cheryl Stewart, Michelle Lapp Master Gardener 40th Reunion Washington State University Extension is proud to be the founder of the nationally and internationally acclaimed Extension Master Gardener Program. Our volunteers have been serving residents of Washington since To celebrate this anniversary of 40 years Master Gardenering the Mason County Master Gardener Foundation will be holding a reunion for all past and present Mason County MGs. Save the date of September 21, We will be meeting at the home of Steve and Pat Edmondson in Dayton. Watch the Mason Jar newsletter for more details to come! On the right is Steve Edmondson attending the Master Gardener Gala in He still looks exactly the same!

5 SPECIAL EDITION OFFICE CLINIC NEWS R. Jeanne Rehwaldt Page 5 The computer at the Master Gardener desk has been upgraded with a new anti-virus software system by the county. Due to this change, they are no longer able to provide a log in for Master Gardener use at this time. The IT department is working on connecting another line so that MGs can log on to the computer as a group. Currently, each user of a computer needs to be an individual. Until the IT department is able to make the change for group use, a staff member will need to log onto the computer at the Master Gardener desk with their personal log on name and password. I will log on with my ID when I am in the office. If I am not here, please contact Lisa DeWall, office manager. Either Lisa or Michelle will be able to log on for the MG clinic or other MG use. The reason for this change is to be able to track all internet use and sites visited by an individual. I expect all MGs using a county computer to only access approved WSU recommended sites for plant clinic information. You may remember in February a request from me to log onto to the WSU website and sign up and view the Putting the Child First video as a requirement to remain an active WSU Master Gardener. Below is a list of those who were able to log on and view this video. Several MGs weren t able to get on and see it because of technical difficulties. I will be showing this video during the first session of MG Basic Training on September 16 at Mason County Public Works. Please watch for a reminder so you can attend and watch it. I will then report back to WSU those who viewed it as a group. An has gone out to all MGs with a list of who has completed this training. For those of you who want to try to watch it on your own, the instructions are below: This 20-minute presentation may be viewed at any time at your home or Extension office computer. Your registration for the training will be kept in the system as proof of your participation. To register for Put the Child First go to: Fill in the information requested and press submit. You will soon receive an automatic from Bob Hoffmann with login information to view the presentation (called a training event). Not successful? If after attempting to register, the browser says, This login is already in use. Please choose another login. Not a valid address. Go to And log in with your address and Connect (Breeze) password. Follow the instructions to register. If your password does not work, reset your password by going to Then go back to and register as above.

6 Page 6 (continued from page two) Lou, the Campfire stick starts you gave me are perking right along! Thanks to a diligent but a absent minded squirrel I have thirteen baby walnut trees and one hazelnut. Who would have thought? They are flexing their roots in gallon pots, enjoying mushroom compost and a sheltered sunny garden spot. One never knows what will appear when the ground warms up. Good news, two wagons have been added to our plant sale rolling stock. My husband is accusing me of a love affair with little red and company. What s not to love? They are cute, sturdy, make my life easier and never complain about paper scraps or thread bits scattered about. We need to locate as many wagons as possible that members are willing to loan for both the set up and sale days. The easier it is for our customers to cart away the larger more expensive plants, the easier it will be to take advantage of their buy it now impulse. With three thousand plants to move, wheels are a wonderful thing. Thank-you to all who brought them this year. A potential area for helping our sale reach the 10K level is to explore and expand the dried plant materiel component. Often plant material from our gardens can be used to create and share gifts. Many of the people who purchased our plant material this May were very pleased to have it available. This niche can make us a nice piece of cash. All we need to do is plan ahead and prep the material as it becomes available in our gardens. Full headed geraniums dry as nicely as hydrangeas. Having some delphiniums, roses and other striking flowers would be a terrific addition. You know what the best good stuff is from your yard that will dry and hold its color. Please give it a go. Our first plant sale meeting will be in SEPTEMBER. We are looking forward to exploring ideas for increasing profit, expanding or modifying components to better balance what we offer and tightening cost controls while anticipating basic expenses. These are all vital planning pieces for a successful event. These considerations are among the reasons it is so important to work on the sale all year. The plant sale has grown in a fantastic, positive manner. We are on the cusp of seeing 10K as a realistic, sustainable goal. The sheer size requires a strong look at being as efficient and proactive as we can. The evaluation Evon has led for the past two years has been invaluable in framing out next steps. Every insight takes us one step closer to a strong $$$ return on time and effort. While we are waiting for September, let s get as many plants and seasonally related pieces ready to go!

7 Page 7 CONTACTS: Office: 303 N. 4th Ave Shelton, WA Ext. 680 Fax Extension Staff: Robert Simmons Director Ext.690 simmons@wsu.edu R. Jeanne Rehwaldt Master Gardener Coordinator Ext. 688 rehwaldt@wsu.edu Michelle Lapp AmeriCorps Ext. 687 Michelle.lapp@wsu.edu Master Gardener Ext 689 gardener.master@gmail.com Foundation Representative Janet Mutter Janmut@msn.com Executive Board President Pat Carpenter patandlexi@gmail.com President Elect, Mason Jar co-editor Christy Rowe carowe@hcc.net Vice President Lou Schmidt willilou@q.com Secretary Evon Masteller hatmast@comcast.net Treasurer Margie Plebuch quilted2@aol.com Directors at Large Sybil Jones sybiljones@hughes.net Lisa Stroman wisawobby@gmail.com