The Kitchen Garden Seminar

Transcription

1 February 2013 The Kitchen Garden Seminar An Educational and Entertaining Event by Debbie Beauvais Guests were registered and browsing in the vendor area when I arrived around 8 a.m. The early birds were eagerly looking through and selecting seed packets donated by Burpee and American Meadows, and all those seed packets prepared by our Master Gardeners. Wow, you all did a great job saving and packaging all those seeds. Our guests loved it! Thank you all. Thanks also to all who brought plants to give Debbie Beauvais delivers her welcoming message. away. Many couldn t believe they were free. Some who had been at last year s seminar remarked on how very nice it was for us to give away plants and seeds. Well, it wouldn t have happened if Midge Willis hadn t suggested this long ago. As Midge said, their astonished expressions and happy smiles make it all Kerry Heafner kicks off the seminar with opening remarks. worthwhile. Midge loves seeing those smiley faces. When some returned later to find some large plants brought in by Mr. Joe Sullivan, they were overwhelmed to receive such nice plants free. Continued on Garden Seminar, Page 2 Inside the Gardener s Scoop Garden Seminar Meeting Minutes... 3 Membership Benefits... 4 Butterfly Garden Enhanced Edging... 6 Test Your Gardening Skills.. 6 Schedule of Activities... 7 From the Editor... 8 Volunteer Service Hours... 8 Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 1

2 Garden Seminar Continued from Page 1 Books-A-Million was there with books on gardening and also one that Roger Swain contributed to; his writing is found on pages in the book entitled A Gardener s Guide to Frost, by Philip Harnden. Roger referred to this book and highly recommended it during his presentation to everyone present at the seminar. We had several vendors present selling plants, herbs, jewelry, home décor items, handcrafted wooden bowls, plates, etc., and Pink Zebra items for pampering yourself. Kerry Heafner opened the seminar, thanking all who came and all who helped make it happen. He announced the winners of the Centerpiece Contest. The Centerpiece contest winners were: First Place Second Place Third Place Teresa Morris entertains with her garden-spun humor. Dr. Warren Daniel Nancy Sandel Mary Lou McFarlan Next I welcomed everyone and thanked them for choosing to be at our seminar, and assured them their time would be well spent. Then Kerry came back and introduced our first speaker, Teresa Morris. Teresa went through many slides as she talked about herbs and gardening. She gave out lots of information on herbs to our guests, and in response to a question on combating fire ants, Teresa had them roaring with laughter at her attempts to eliminate this exasperating pest. Christy Francis spoke next and also had many beautiful slides of gardens at Kiroli Park and the community. She had lots of good information on hardy plants, arrangement of plants in the beds, coping with bugs, etc. You could tell that everyone was paying close attention to Christy and Teresa by all the questions they asked at the end of each of their presentations. After a break for refreshments and more shopping in the vendor area, guests returned to hear our main speaker, Roger Swain. Wow! Was he ever entertaining! I could have listened for days. Roger has so much knowledge of vegetable gardening which he interspersed with a lifetime of experiences and humor. I wish more could have been there to hear him. He was fantastic! Roger Swain wows the audience with his vast knowledge and humor. Christy Francis shares slides and gardening tips. After Roger ended and the last door prize was given away, I returned to the vendor hall to shop a little. All the free plants and seeds had disappeared. It was a great seminar! Thank you, Kerry, and all who put so much time and effort into this educational and entertaining seminar. Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 2

3 Meeting Minutes for January 8, 2012 Newly elected president, Debbie Beauvais, called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. The 2013 board members were introduced. Plans for the 2013 Gardening Seminar were discussed. Featured speaker, Roger Swain, will be at the Master Gardener s table at Ag Expo from 2-4 p.m. following the morning seminar. Bill Albritton is designing an interactive plant identification activity for the MG display. Steve Hotard noted the good article in the Louisiana Road Trips magazine, and suggested we use their Facebook page to thank them for mentioning our Gardening Seminar. Christy Francis has flyers ready to promote the Master Gardener s Spring Fest Plant Sale that is being held on April 6, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the West Monroe Farmer s Market. Christy reported that 30 people are already working on various aspects of the plant sale. There are a number of jobs to do right now. Christy is looking for someone to coordinate the volunteers. Plants are needed, propagation is in progress, and members are tending to seedlings at home. Donated plants from Master Gardeners yield 100% profit. The sale will have several new features this year. More information to come. Announcements: Master Gardener Cookbooks are available for $15. The Master Gardener training program begins February 7. To help with the Plant Sale, call Christy Francis. The annual Master Gardener Association fee is due now and is $15. Submitted by Elaine Smith, Secretary Next MG Meeting February 12 Program by Elaine Smith Wake up Spring! Gardens wake up this time of year as spring bursts into bloom. It's a colorful sight isn't it? Elaine will create small indoor spring displays, combining just a few flowers with common objects, interesting materials found in the garden, and a few simple techniques. Once you choose the blooms, you are ready to add a bright spot of spring at your house. NELA MG Board Members Board Officers President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Recorder P. J. Debbie Beauvais Kerry Heafner Elaine Smith Jack Battaglia Board Members at Large Christy Francis Mel Kallal Casey Stevens Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 3

4 Enjoy Benefits of MG Membership Learn from Fellow Master Gardeners by Midge Willis When I finished the Master Gardener course, I didn't feel like I had learned all that I needed to know in order to be a Master at Gardening. In fact, I knew I didn't know enough, and I really thought about just fading into the woodwork because I thought everybody else surely must know a lot more than I did. I made this remark to a friend that I met during the classes. She is a retired teacher and she said this to me: "Midge, when I first graduated from college I didn't feel like a teacher either, and I felt a lot like you do. As I began to get more involved with teaching, I became more and more confident, and soon I began to feel like a teacher." If you'll just get in there and become involved with the Master Gardener program, you will learn that none of us know everything. Some know a lot more than others, some know less, but all of us know something. One thing we all have in common is the love of gardening and the confidence that if we have a question we all know where to find the answer. We have the big notebook we were given for the class, and most of the answers are in there. We learn through our failures and successes and by talking to others about their failures and successes. We have direct access to very knowledgeable people at LSU. We can call on the experts any time we have a problem and expect to get an answer as quickly as possible. The class is a base, a good foundation, something to build on. It was not meant to teach you everything there is to know about gardening in those few short weeks. It takes hands on experience, trials, and patience to learn the many ins and outs of gardening. By the time you put in those 40 hours of service you will see that you have learned a LOT more than you knew. As you become more active in the activities of the Association, the knowledge just keeps on piling up year after year. The classes are the first part of the course. The 40 hours are the hands on experience. Knowledge will not come looking for you; you must look for it in every project you can find the time for, everything you plant, every question you ask, every meeting you attend, every success and every failure. You will find it if you look for it. Most of us joined the Master Gardener Association so we could learn more about our favorite pastime, and we did, and still do, learn as each season melts into another. We learn through our failures and successes and by talking to others about their failures and successes. Everybody has something they are really good at and are anxious to share with others. If you are not participating in the different projects the NELA Master Gardener Association has going on, your glass is, and will remain, only half full. You are missing out on the best part of the program. Come join us for a full year of fun and learning in You're gonna love it! Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 4

5 A Note from the Butterfly Garden by Susan Aguettant With the holidays behind us, Reba and I continue to reflect over our first year at the Butterfly Garden. Last month we looked at our strong performers and now, as promised, we will move on to the plants that tried really hard to make it through the summer but with difficulty--in other words our strugglers. Unfortunately, these are also some of our favorite plants and important nectar and host plants for the butterflies. Fennel, whether green or bronze, is an absolute requirement to have swallowtail butterflies come to the Garden. This year the fennel bed was fabulous, but as the temperatures increased, it began to fade. On the other hand, one thing we have learned is that fennel is susceptible to too much moisture. We had access to pea shells from the market and these were used as mulch. I do wonder now if, besides the hot temperatures, the depth of the pea shells around the fennel plants played into their demise. Buddleia is another favorite that struggled. The smaller variety, Blue Chip, handled the summer better than the larger varieties. The plants that fared the worst were the larger varieties of buddleia that were transplanted from Calhoun--perhaps a factor that added to their weakness. Purple Homestead verbena bloomed gloriously at Calhoun, so Reba and I expected nothing less this year. Some of the plants died while others managed to hang on, but their blooms were far from what we had hoped. Another disappointment was our pineapple sage plants--these included some transplanted from Calhoun (where they did well) and new plants. None survived. I must say, though, that I had trouble with my own pineapple sage plants at home, losing all but one. The pentas and rudbeckia made it through the summer; however, the pentas did flourish more than the rudbeckia. We started with three rudbeckias, lost at least one, and we are just hoping that some will come back from the roots. As pentas are annuals, we will plant again this spring. Parsley has been a problem for us, first at Calhoun, and now at our present location. Most butterfly plants are sun lovers and we do have plenty of sun. Unfortunately, our full, hot sun is too much for parsley. We tried one location this year that we hoped would offer just enough shade for the parsley to be happy. At least it did not completely die out, but to say it was successful would really be stretching it. Overall, our herbs did not do well as we experimented with growing them in bags of various types of soil. This spring we will have a new herb garden location with everything planted in the ground. We hope our herbs will enjoy their new home. Continued on Butterfly Garden, Page 6 Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 5

6 Enhanced Edging Protects Landscape by Mel Kallal Tired of seeing damage to your manicured landscaping from the weed whacker? This is not an endorsement, but you could add some nifty finishing touches and protect your hard work with concrete Custom Curbing. Recently, the Master Gardeners were able to use Custom Curbing to protect and enhance the main sign, as well as the flagpole area, at the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum near the Monroe Airport. Aaron Cash, who installs this product in the northeast Louisiana area, donated the work. Nell Calloway, Museum Director, was pleased to see the enhancements and noted the flagpole area would now be protected from the weed whackers. Thanks, Aaron for your generous support! Test Your Gardening Skills Can you give the cause and cure for these problems that sometimes happen in the compost pile? Rotten or sulfurous oder. Ammonia smell, mostly when turning pile. Pile has low temperature. Pile is too hot. Pile bursts into flames. Be ready to discuss the answers at our February Master Gardener meeting! Butterfly Garden Continued from Page 5 Although all of the plants we have talked about struggled to make it through this past summer, they will be present in the Garden again this spring. Reba and I will start with strong new plants and consider new locations for those plants that do winter over. We will do whatever is necessary to help these floral jewels have a happy home in the Butterfly Garden-- which may involve songs of praise and some type of dance! Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 6

7 February 2013 Activities Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat MG Class 6:00 pm MG Meeting 6:30 pm MG Class 6:00 pm Newsletter article submission deadline 21 MG Class 6:00 pm Cochon de Lait at Kiroli Park Lodge 2:00 pm MG Class 6:00 pm Future Activities March :30 am to noon Volunteer gardening day at Chennault Aviation and Military Museum April :00 am to 3:00 pm Spring Fest at West Monroe Farmer s Market May :30 pm Master Gardener graduation Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 7

8 From the Editor by Tom Floyd To everyone who provided me with feedback concerning January s newsletter, I wish to thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I am especially grateful to those of you who offered constructive criticism, ideas for new features, or submitted articles. Keep em coming, folks! I realize that an -delivered newsletter is not kind to everybody s eyes. If you find this PDF document hard to read due to the type being too small, you can zoom in the view from your reader. Most people use Adobe Reader to read PDF files, but there are others. Since not everyone has the same reader, the method varies. Just explore your reader s menu. You will find a View (or similar) menu item with options that allow you to enlarge or zoom. You re just a click or two away from being in charge of the display of this newsletter. Volunteer Service Hours As of January 15, Volunteer Service Hours 0 Continuing Education Hours This time last year: 110 Volunteer Service Hours 20 Continuing Education Hours Do not forget to record your hours! The next MG meeting is Tue., Feb. 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm Note to all members: NELAMG membership renewal is due. If you have not already renewed your membership, please print and complete the form below and return it with payment to the LSU AgCenter. The Louisiana Master Gardener Program is a service and educational activity offered by the LSU AgCenter. The program is designed to recruit and train volunteers to help meet educational needs of home gardeners while providing an enjoyable and worthwhile service experience for volunteers. Contact: LSU AgCenter 704 Cypress Street West Monroe, LA (318) NELAMG MEMBERSHIP DUES PAYMENT Name Home Phone Cell Phone Address City State Zip Address (Please print clearly.) $15 DUE by FEBRUARY 28 Make checks payable to NELAMG. Mail payment and form to: NELA Master Gardeners, 704 Cypress Street, West Monroe, LA Membership Dues $15.00 Gardener s Scoop - February 2013 Page 8