THE GARDENER S DIRT The Latest Scoop from the Scott County Master Gardeners

Transcription

1 THE GARDENER S DIRT The Latest Scoop from the Scott County Master Gardeners February Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardener Conference Update Submitted by Linda Kuffer At the recent Scott County Master Gardener Annual Meeting an update on the 2014 Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardener Conference was given. This will be a refresher for those in attendance and new info for those who could not make it. Plans for the Conference are progressing nicely with much accomplished and still much to do. We need everyone s help to make this a success. This is the biggest party that Scott County Master Gardeners have ever hosted. We will be entertaining of our closest Master Gardener friends at the biggest party of the year! This is our super bowl event! We will be hosting this conference for Master Gardeners from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri. We have also suggested to ISU they invite Master Gardeners from Michigan and Indiana. This is going to be the place to be in June! Wednesday, June 25th will be Registration, the Welcome Reception, and our Vendor Show. You will have an opportunity to meet some of our guests and visit with the vendors to see the latest and greatest in garden paraphernalia. Thursday will kick off with our first Keynote Speakers, Scott and Lauren Springer-Ogden, who will be speaking on Plant Driven Landscape Design and Gorgeous Ornamental Grasses. We will also have three breakout class sessions with six class choices for each session. Our featured speaker for Thursday will be Melinda Myers. You will also have ample time to spend in the vendor show area. On Friday we will head outside for a full day of tours. There will be five different tours to choose from and each one will have four points of interest. Some of the destinations include Vander Veer Park, Big Sand Mound, Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Crow Valley Golf Club, ISU Research Farm in Muscatine and Nahant Marsh. Each tour will include one private garden. Friday will conclude with a wonderful catered dinner at either the Figge Museum or the Putnam Museum. Saturday starts with a big breakfast with ISU giving out Search for Excellence Awards. Then it is more breakout classes and our final keynote speaker. Felder Rushing will be speaking on Slow Gardening and Garden Art: The Good, the Bad, the Unbelievable. Our featured speaker for Saturday will be Lorianne Barnett from the National Phenology Network. Lunch and the conclusion of the Silent Auction will wrap up our time together as we bid farewell to our new friends. It has been determined by ISU that all volunteers at the conference must be paid conference attendees. All volunteers at the conference will be representing Scott County, Iowa and the Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardeners. ISU feels the best representatives for the conference are those who see it as a great opportunity, they want to be there, and they value the benefits of attendance. The conference is a great opportunity for Scott County Master Gardeners to attend without the additional costs of a hotel room or travel. Nationally recognized speakers will be featured! You will have an opportunity to get 13.5 CEU s and many volunteer hours. You will meet people who share your love of gardening. It could be 2026 before the conference returns to Iowa! While the budget for the conference is not yet finalized, we are anticipating the cost to be in the $300-$350 range. At the last Master Gardener Advisory Board Meeting, it was voted on to assist the members with this cost. Continued on page 2, Our Mission To provide home horticulture information and education to the citizens of Scott County consistent with Iowa State University recommendations. We also strive to increase members knowledge of horticulture through educational programs.

2 continued from page 1 The Scott County Master Gardener Advisory Board voted at its January meeting to rebate $75.00 of the 2014 Upper Midwest Regional Master Gardener Conference fees to those Scott County Master Gardeners and Interns who meet the following qualifications: Attend the conference June 25-28, 2014 and pay the conference fees. Work as a volunteer at the conference. Complete the required Annual Volunteer Hours required by Scott County Master Gardeners. Complete the required Annual CEU s required by Scott County Master Gardeners. Rebate will be returned to the Scott County Master Gardener as a check as soon as reasonably possible after all the requirements are met. Be sure to register early as the price goes up on May 1! There is still much to be done and the committees are actively working to complete all the preparations for this great event. We still need a Committee Chair for the Silent Auction Committee and the Photography Committee. We still need sponsors, ads in the program, donations for the silent auction, and vendors at the vendor show. You can help with this! If you would like to find out more about how you can help, let Kay or me know. If you have not joined a committee yet and would like to get involved, contact Kay at ksp.mg.2013@gmail.com or me at skilindal@hotmail.com and let us know what area you would like to help with. Get involved! Meet new friends! Come to the conference! ********************************************** Growing Along The River Submitted by Kay Sigardson-Poor While the primary reason for Growing Along the River is educational, we are expecting this event to be financially rewarding for Scott county Master Gardeners. Raising money through various means would keep ticket prices low and provide funding for our future projects. There are four ways for you to help: 1. We are still looking for sponsors for meals, bus tours, speakers, or general sponsors. Please check with Carol Wagner for more information. 2. Maria Bribriesco sent out an , with a form last week, indicating the possible sizes and prices of ads in the program. Please check with Maria either by or phone to make sure that your place of business has not already been asked; some suggestions might be restaurants that you frequent, stores, and offices of services that you use. 3. There will be space for vendor tables at the conference beginning Wednesday afternoon and evening and Thursday all day. Please contact Michelle Dane for further information if you can think of a business that might like a booth for 300+ potential buyers! 4. Finally, we will be having a Silent Auction on Saturday and are looking for items to auction. The money raised at the auction will be used to support Scott County Master Gardener projects. Please contact Kay Sigardson-Poor if you would like to be chair of this committee, but until we have a chair I would be happy to speak to you. Suggested Silent Auction items would be gift baskets, hand crafts, gift certificates, or garden art. Thank you in advance for your efforts to support for Growing Along the River! News articles are needed for the Gardener s Dirt Please have articles to the Extension Office by February 15th

3 RECOGNITION OF ACTIVE MASTER GARDENERS With 5 Years of Service (class of 2008): Pat Christy, Michele Dane, Chuck Doss, Lois Fradel, Joyce Lee, Clayton Lloyd, & Cheri Slavens With 10 Years of Service (class of 2003): Coleen Adrian, Karen Beetham, Joan Haberkamp, & Cindy Stolley With 15 Years of Service (class of 1998): Dan Mays & Ed Sharkness With 20 Years of Service (class of 1993) Dean Stotz With 25 Years of Service (class of 1988) Wayne Hannel & Sheila Lang With 30 years of service (class of 1983) Doug McDonald With Cumulative Hours of Service: Linda Kuffer, Jan Martin, & Ray Wolf With 100+ hours for 2013: Lois Fradel, Pat Guzis, Sandra Jurgens, Linda Kuffer, Joyce Lee, Jan Martin, Kay Sigardson-Poor, Salley Stewart, & Ray Wolf 2014 MASTER GARDENER ADVISORY BOARD Wayne Hannel Pat Christy Chris Mostaert Deb Janke Pat Christy Lolis Fradel Linda Kuffer Kay Sigardson-Poor Ray Wolf Julianne Fischer New Class Representative (non-voting) (Open) Volunteer Coordinator (non-voting) Becky Bray / Duane Gissel, Staff Representatives (non-voting) Lifetime Master Gardener Award Dean Stotz New Books in the MG Office Come in and take a look! Remember as a Scott County Extension & Outreach Master Gardener or Intern you can check out books from the library November through March. Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference: 500 Recipes, 275 Photographs By Elizabeth Schneider Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks By Tom Burford Gardening for the Birds: How to Create a Bird-Friendly Backyard By George Adams Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees By Nancy Ross Hugo and Robert Llewellyn The Manual of Seed Saving: Harvesting, Storing, and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits By Andrea Heistinger Thank you to Kim Scully for the donation of the following books to the MG Library. Perfect Plant Perfect Place by Roy Lancaster Encyclopedia of Annuals and Perennials The Plant Book (previously published under the name Botanica )

4 The Papercrete Potter Submitted by Lois Fradel The ISU Scott County Master Gardeners have invited Lee Coates, The Papercrete Potter to teach the Art of Papercrete. Lee will provide and teach each class how to mix the recipe and the steps to create weatherproof containers for planting or a variety of sculptures, which could become a beautiful focal point in your garden. This is a simple easily mastered process. Each student will receive a mold and enough ready mixed material to build a papercrete bowl suitable for a dish garden. The bowl, mold, and a set of written directions are included in the cost of your class and will be yours to take home. Beautiful containers, plants and items suitable for use in miniature landscapes and Fairy Gardens will be available to purchase and there should be ample time to shop. The event will be held at Scott County Extension and Outreach, 875 Tanglefoot Lane, Bettendorf, Iowa 52722, (563) on Saturday, April 5th. Four one hour classes will be offered: Class #1 at 8:30 a.m. Class #2 at 10:45 a.m. Class #3 at 1:45 p.m. Class #4 at 3:45 p.m. When you enroll, please indicate your first and a second choice of class times. We will try to fill your first choice preference, but class size is limited and registration ends March 20th, so sign up soon. The cost of each class is $20.00, payable in advance at the Extension Office, or by mail sent to the Extension Office at the above address. If registering by mail, please pay by check or money order made out to Scott County Extension, and include a note with your name, phone number, address, and specifying your class time preferences, so we can contact you with your class time confirmation. In any given year about 55 percent of the paper created in the United States is discarded. That amounts to 48 million tons, or the equivalent of 720 million trees that are used once and then buried in a landfill. With the simple technique you will learn in this class you will be able to turn a portion of this waste into a long lasting treasure. The following Master Gardeners have items to be picked up in the MG office. Karen Beetham Beverly Broughton Suzanne Hawkinson Sheila Lang Clayton Lloyd Dan Mays Jan Martin Donna Ploof Ed Sharkness Cheri Slavens Darren Speth Susan Summers Ken Weideman

5 Using Pinterest for Garden Planning Submitted by Heather Brinkschroeder In winter, everything seems cold and dead, but as a gardener you can use winter to your advantage. Use the stark weather to study the bones of your garden and imagine its potential. You might use catalogs, books, magazines, and web sites to get through these white and brown times. I would like to suggest adding one more tool. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board for displaying your favorite images. Pinterest provides a way to organize and share images, called Pins on Boards. It can allow you to connect scattered ideas into a sweeping vision for your garden. Used for planning and dreaming, Pinterest is perfectly suited for winter gardening. How Do I Use Pinterest? The basic process is pretty simple, and Pinterest supports you with hints and red buttons along the way. Start at and choose one of the options for signing up. Pinterest will walk you through everything, including a Pinning tutorial. You will be shown Boards with interesting themes to get you started. The search box in the upper-left corner is useful, if what you re wishing for isn t listed. Once you re signed up and tutored, start browsing the Boards to find a great Pin. Use your mouse to hover over the image, and three buttons will appear. To build your Boards, click Pin It. Select a Board for the Pin in the drop-down menu that appears in the ghost window, or create a new Board. Click Pin It again, and the ghost window changes to show you someone else s Board. Click through to the new Board, or stay on the page you have. Find a new Pin. Be warned: this cycle can repeat endlessly. Maximizing Pinterest for Your Garden As you browse, look for inspiration. At first, don t worry that the plants won t survive, or that your space is limited. Concentrate on collecting ideas to build from. Note flashes of inspiration in the comment box, but don t force your thinking right now. You can figure out how it s all going to work later. As you browse, you ll find Boards of people with great taste. To make your next Pinning experience better, click on Follow Board, directly under its title. When you return to Pinterest, the latest Pins from boards you follow will be there. If you find a beautiful, useful image on the internet, you can use the Pin It toolbar button to add it to one of your Boards. Get the button at When you click it, a window appears to help you Pin from that website. To make Pinning from the internet even easier, some websites have their own Pin It buttons. I ve Got My Boards, Now What? Once you ve collected a good selection of great images, review your Boards and look for patterns. Click the pencil poised in your Pin s upper right corner, called the Edit button. Another ghost window appears. Here, you can start a new Board, move the Pin to another Board, delete a Pin you don t love, change the comments, or view the original web source. Save your changes with the red button in the lower right corner. As you organize your Boards, bring your dreaming closer to home. Each Board you create might represent a separate project. This could be a yard, border, walkway, seating area, or focal point. Start planning how to combine the best ideas and scale dreams for your space. Record or sketch out possible designs. If modifications are small, you might note them in Pin comments. When I am in this stage, I tend to stare out the windows or tromp around in the snow with a notepad, imagining the possibilities for spring. You might sketch designs onto a copy of your carefully-measured yard diagram. Choose species and varietals now, so that you are ready to purchase them when the time comes. Looking Forward to Spring When I look outside, the snow is beautiful, but winter beauty is wearing thin. I want to see growth and color. I m using Pinterest now to fuel my garden dreams. What are your sources of inspiration in the coldest months? Do you use other internet resources for garden planning? I d love to hear about it. Visit my blog at leafingqc.blogspot.com/ to start a conversation. I m looking forward to spring. Hopefully, I ll get to meet you or see you again as our volunteering activities pick up over the next few months.

6 The Gardener s Dirt ISU Scott County Extension 875 Tanglefoot Lane Bettendorf, IA (563) Fax (563) Upcoming Classes & Events: CEU s Course # Topic When Where Cost Instructor Registration Information BlawkHawk State Historic River Bend Willand Trust site Singing Bird Lodge Donations February 4 & 11, Winter Ecology Series Black Hawk Road & 15 th Various rbwt.org St accepted Rock Island, IL 2 - Sunday Garden Forum Clematis to Swoon For February 9, :00-4:00pm Winter Gardening Fair February 15, 2014 Nursery School 2014 Lessons in Gardening February 22, 2014 Shade Tree Short Course February 25-27, 2014 QCBC Bus Trip to Hausermann Orchid Greenhouses and Woodfield Mall NA - Master Conservationist Green Scene Garden Symposium 2 - Jackson Co. MG s Adventures in Gardening IX Sunday Garden Forum Garden Design Without Blueprints Iowa City Public Library rm A 123 S Linn St, Iowa City, IA Kirkwood Community College 6301 Kirkwood Blvd SW Cedar Rapids, IA iwireless Center Moline, IL Scheman Building ISU Ames, IA Free Rita Minard NA $49.00 Various $45.00 Various February 27, 2014 TBA $99.00 NA Starts March 5 ends Aug. 6 th March 1, :00am 2:30pm March 8, :30-3:15 March 9, :00-4:00pm Nahant Marsh and other sites Waterloo Center for the Arts 225 Commercial St Waterloo, IA Maquoketa Middle School 200 East Locust St Maquoketa, IA Iowa City Public Library rm A 123 S Linn St, Iowa City, IA news/winter-gardening-fair registration/? RegistrationID=9462 See the website Various $ & (32 hours of volunteer service) QCBC x 203 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 TBA $20.00 $25.00 after March 1 st Free various Various Various Susan Appleget- Hurst ISU Scott County Extension 875 Tanglefoot Lane Bettendorf Registration deadline is 2/21/2014 Checks payable to Green Scene Symposium Mail to PO Box 2004 Waterloo, IA Maquoketa Co. Extension Office NA