April 2016 April Editor: Barbara Marese. Sowing Seeds of the Future By Joellen Dimond, TEMG Coordinator

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1 Tipton County Extension Master Gardener s Garden Gazette April 2016 April Editor: Barbara Marese Inside This Issue: 1 Sowing Seeds of the Future By Joellen Diamond, TEMG Coordinator 3 EXPO Highlights 4 Drummonds Park Arboretum 5 Pollinator Garden and Herb Garden Work day at Museum 6 AG Day Information MG Volunteers Needed 7 Fayette County MG 8 Calendar of Events Sowing Seeds of the Future By Joellen Dimond, TEMG Coordinator The drive to Knoxville for this year s EMG State Conference was beautiful with the different colors of spring emerging in the landscape along the highway! I did not know there were so many Redbud trees all across the state. The Cumberland Plateau area was a little behind the rest of the state. It was also a good time to see why Bradford Pear trees have been listed on the state s Do Not Plant list because the fruit, digested by birds, reseeds. Only around populated areas were the resulting bursts of white wild reverted pears visible! The red blooms of Maple trees and their yellow and red fruit caused there to be a red and orange cast to the roadside too. All these colors mixed with a green cast from some tree leaves made for a constant changing tapestry to view! The day before the conference stared, there was a day long Junior Master Gardener Training with Lisa Whittlesley from Texas A&M University. Texas A&M started the Jr. Master Gardener program. This hands-on day had everyone singing, catching bubbles, making gardening hats to model and an overview of the whole Jr. Master Gardener program. It was a fun day of learning! The 2016 Conference started with a presentation from

2 Dr. Tim Cross, Dean, UT Extension. He explained that the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) was separate from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, had its own Chancellor and four colleges, one being Extension. UTIA has a unique statewide presence with Extension offices in all 95 counties in Tennessee. Extension Master Gardeners bring value to the state and the counties they serve. The combined state figures for 2015 are as follows: 2250 Extension Master Gardeners clocked 168,725 Volunteer hours with a dollar value of $3,495,982! Dr. Cross stated that Extension Master Gardeners help communities solve some of the pressing problems facing our nation today and that he feels that we are at the sunrise of Extension Master Gardeners. He is looking toward the bright future held by the Extension Master Gardener program! and science based with any references cited. What a gardener does to use research data safely and effectively is gain ideas for the best control of insects, disease, weeds, nematodes, water management, nutrition, growing media and new plants. The 2015 Search for Excellence Awards were presented. It was very interesting to hear all the winners speak about their projects. Our own Roxi Phillips was listed on the program for having 400 plus service hours for 2015! Saturday s session began with Dr. Natalie Bumgarner introducing the Extension Master Gardener Work Group (West TN represented by Joellen Dimond, Tipton County, Lee Sammons, Hardeman County and Celeste Scott, Madison County) and the changes in the State Extension Master Gardener program. Then Dr. Sue Hamilton talked about all of the UT Gardens across the state. The day was spent with sessions from UT Gardens and tours of the Knoxville garden. Throughout the conference, Agents were asked to address everyone with what was going on in their counties. I mentioned our project getting the first Arboretum certified for Tipton County and all of the different community groups involved in the project and the Drummond s Park Arboretum Grand Opening Celebration with Keep Tipton County Beautiful Earth Fest on April 23, 2016! Dr. Tim Cross, Dean, UT Extension and Dr. Natalie Bumgarner, Extension Master Gardener State Coordinator During the day there were many breakout sessions to choose from with wide ranging topics from technology use to fruit trees! Dr. Alan Windham gave the last general session presentation of the day on Research and Extension Master Gardeners. He explained how to evaluate information by finding-out if the research is credible by who published it. Are they trying to sell a product, or is it educational? Then determine if the research is objective

3 Congratulations Tipton County Extension Master Gardeners Volunteers and Intern Master Gardeners Volunteers Several things about our Expo were pointed out by other Master Gardeners, our own members, and guests. A bang up job! A quote from our own as well as several of our vendors. Another successful Expo! We excelled in the Raffle and plant sale. The Speakers were happy. The Vendors were happy. The public appeared to be happy. And I know for a fact that the Bee, Butterfly Fairy, Bee Keeper, sunflowers and Hat People (even the one with antennae) had a Happy Happy Day! What a BLAST! We had MG visitors from Fayette, Dyer, & Shelby Counties not to mention some MGs Friends from Desoto County MS. Networking is what it s all about. I m dropping a plug in for The Fayette Cares Plant Sale & Union County Master Gardeners Home & Garden Show noted later in the calendar of events. There was a discussion with a group of vendors who gathered around Amy Middleton to thank her for the warm welcome they received. Then many vendors were singing the praises of the Tipton County Master Gardeners for their readily available assistance in unloading before and re-loading after the show and for the extra mile our MGs went to make everyone feel welcomed. As a past vendor of many events, I know this came as a heart-felt compliment because some people rarely show their appreciation anymore. One of our own had a brilliant Idea. To draw more people, let s have something at our Expo that no one else offers. Put on your thinking caps friends. This sounds real interesting and could pan out to be even more exciting. We need to think of a theme within the next two months for next year s expo. Let us get together a list of themes. BTW some vendors will even try to theme their product to go along with the show if they have time to prepare. It has been suggested we have a contest with the Expo fliers once we decide on a theme. We have new members, therefore new talent and ideas. Let s tap into that. Over all, just about everyone was having fun again! Submitted by Paula Sweatt

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5 Pollinator Garden and Herb Bed Workday At the Tipton County Veterans Museum

6 AG Day Hi All, Just want to let you know about this FUN opportunity to earn volunteer hours by educating our future gardeners at: Tipton County 4-H AG Day May 18-19, :15 am-12:30 pm Location: TN Gin & Warehouse at 800 Tennessee Ave. Covington, TN This event is for 5 th graders from Covington Schools. The Master Gardener booth theme will be Herbs. You can volunteer to help set up and teach or assist in teaching by passing out herb samples. Each 5 th grade class will come to our booth for an approx.10 minute class. Then that class will move to another booth for a 10 lesson from them, while we will get a new 5 th grade class, and teach the same lesson over again. This schedule will repeat from 9:15am.-12:30pm on Wednesday, May 18 and then again on Thursday, May 19. If you have any questions and/or are interested in helping, please contact me. Thank you. Pat Keller Prk1339@gmail.com

7 FAYETTE COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS The Fayette Cares Plant Sale is the primary annual project supported by the Fayette Care Master Gardeners (FCMG). This year it is on April 18 from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm at the First Citizens National Bank, 7285 Highway 64, Oakland, TN The FCMG are proud of the Home Grown plants that are donated along with various craft items. All proceeds generated from the efforts of the FCMG go to Fayette Cares, a non- profit to charitable agency that provides shelter, food, clothing, training and intervention services to help families find safety and stability in Fayette County. This year we will be featuring herb garden containers and Gardener s Hand Scrub. Commercial vendors are also at the plant sale along with interactive children s activities and interesting speakers. Please join us for the sale. Contact Fayette Cares on the web: ( Vivian England, FCMG, is responsible for the Jr. Master Gardener program in Fayette County. Students in the fourth grade and above learn about horticulture and enjoy home baked goods and fellowship in the spring and the all. This first meeting this spring will be held at 3:30 at Vivian s home. Children and adult volunteers are welcome. On April 16 at 10 AM a Pond Management Seminar will be held at Glengary Lake on Highway 64 just east of Warren Community Church between Oakland and Somerville On May 21 at 1 PM Layering Seminar will be held at the home of Will Gresham. Contact the Fayette County Extension Office ( ) for more information about these opportunities for CEUs. Our monthly meetings are held at 6 PM on the third Thursday of most months. Contact Sandra Ourth (sandraourth@gmail.com) for further information.

8 Mark your Calendar! April 7 April 11 Tipton County Extension Master Gardener Meeting 6:00pm Social, 6:30pm Meeting Hydrangea Society Meeting Hydrangeas Demystified Memphis Botanic Garden, 7pm 9pm. April 18 April 23 Fayette Cares Plant Sale supported by Fayette Cares Master Gardeners from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm at the First Citizens National Bank, 7285 Highway 64, Oakland, TN Drummonds Park Arboretum Ribbon Cutting and Earth Feast 10am 2:30pm, Tate Rd, Drummonds, TN Please submit any news or articles for newsletter to Paula Sweatt one week before end of month. Paula will to the editor of the month! THANK YOU!

9 The Tipton County Extension Master Gardener Program trains and maintains horticulture volunteers for the University of Tennessee (UT) Extension Office. The goals of this program are to increase the availability of horticultural information for their members and the community and to improve the quality of life for the residents of Tipton County through horticulture volunteer activities. For more gardening information or to join the Master Gardener Program, contact: The Tipton County Extension Office 111 West Washington Avenue Covington, TN