volume 12 issue 47 celebratecelebrate - alabama master...

Special points of interest:

AMGA is 30 years old

AMGA License Plate

Inside this

issue:

30th Birthday

1

President’s Message

2

2012 Conference AMGA License Plate

3

4

Board Meeting Notes

5

Happenings Around Alabama

6

Fall Continuing Education Ample Harvest

19

19

Links 20

P a t h w a y s

Alabama Master

Gardeners Association

Garden Summer 2011

Alabama Master Gardener is 30 years old this year! In 1981 a Mas-ter Gardener from New York and an enthusiastic Extension Agent in Madi-son County combined forces to host the first MG training classes in Alabama. We’ve now grown to a state-wide program supported by 18 Extension Agents, 37 lo-cal Master Gardener As-sociations and a state association, the Alabama Master Gardeners Associ-ation. Master Gardeners, here and in other states, have common goals of sharing information, volunteer service, learn-ing more about gardening, and in making their com-munities better places to

live. Consider planting a tree…………. Alabama's urban forests offer im-measurable benefits to our cities and towns.

Urban trees work to give our state a healthier environment, stronger econo-my, and a more vibrant social fabric. Early generations of Alabamians

planted trees in our cities. Trees brought them a sense of beauty, comfort, and relief. Today local governments and private citizens continue this tra-dition by planting trees in their yards, public spaces, and streets and highways. We even have concrete evidence of the benefits of these investments. Through research and other studies, we have

learned that city trees:

Enhance retail busi-

ness trade

Reduce storm water

runoff

Attract tourism and

development

Increase property

values

Lower energy costs

Improve personal

health and well-being

Clean our air

Build community

pride

Increase recreational

activities

Lower urban noise

Improve citizenship

The ACES and AMGA are encouraging all local MGA's to celebrate our 30th anniversary with a fall tree planting in a public spot – park, school, city hall, street, etc. It's the perfect way to show MG's investing in the fu-ture of Alabama's local communities. Plant three, plant 30, or any number your association is able to do. Kerry Smith has post-ed resources on-line (www.aces.edu/mg) to assist your project. [ANR 1255, ANR 0976, ANR 0814, ANR 1210 and

more]. Let's make it a really big event - tell Kerry about your plans and we'll create a state-wide media blitz on Ala-bama Master Gardeners. You have a HUGE impact in Alabama. We should

brag about it to everyone!

Volume 12 Issue 47

CelebrateCelebrate

Garden Pathways Summer 2011

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By John Baker

There are some new and exciting things com-ing up with the AMGA. First, let me bring you all up to date with what is

happening with the database. I realize some of you are not too sure of what this is, so allow me to explain. The database is an electronic system that allows the AMGA to keep track of mem-bers - both past and present. We use this to keep an account of who has paid dues and also who the local officers are. The names and addresses in the database are used for mailing out the Garden Pathways news-letter. There is a person in each local association who submits an update quarterly with such information as address chang-es, e-mail address changes, new members, interns and such. Needless to say, this is a big task but one that needs to be accomplished so that mem-bers can receive copies of the Pathways, membership cards, and information from the AMGA. We are trying to make the reporting system easier by doing it electronically. There-

fore, we are exploring the possi-bility of adding the database system to the electronic report-ing of volunteer hours which is currently in place. If this hap-pens, it will mean a lot less work for those reporting and storing information and much more accurate information in the database. It will also mean that we may go back to sending out the newsletter electronically for those who wish to receive it that way. This represents a great cost savings to the AMGA. A paper copy will continue to be available to those who do not do computers. I will be keeping you all up to date with our progress. The Alabama Master Gardener License Plate is in need of your help. At the present time, we have only 31 people signed up and we need 1,000 by the end of November for this plate to go forward. There is some mis-information out there about ordering this license plate. Be informed that you do not have to be a Master Gardener to order or have this plate on your vehicle - anyone may have the plate. To order the license plate you must go down to your local auto license registration office and make application. You will need to

pay $50 at that time. When we reach 1,000 orders, the plate will go into production and you will be notified by the license registration office that the plate is available. You can then go down, pay your normal registra-tion fee, and pick up your Mas-ter Gardener Plate. It’s as sim-ple as that. The best part is that when the plate does go into pro-duction, half of the $50 you pay goes to the Master Gardener Program and half goes to the Extension Service for support of the Master Gardener Program - it’s a ―win-win‖ situation. Howev-er, in the event we do not reach 1,000 orders (or 250 orders for a modified, less impressive plate) by the end of November, the $50 that you paid at the time you ordered your plate will be returned to you, minus a small handling fee that the state charges; or if you choose, donate the remaining amount to the Master Gardener program. I encourage you all to consider supporting this worthwhile effort. It’s been HOT, it’s been DRY - I hope your garden is doing better than mine! My poor garden just cries for water and more water. Have a happy summer…. John

Save 40 gallons of water a day for your county and state. Read more about the program

http://www.40gallonchallenge.org/about.cfm

http://www.40gallonchallenge.org/index.cfm


2012 Alabama Master Gardener Conference

March 22 – 24, 2012

Every gardener has experi-enced the magic of gardening, from the first sprouts that push up from within a buried seed to the way that everyday stresses and cares seem to vanish when we labor in our gardens. Jefferson County’s

Master Gardeners invite you to join us at the 2012 Alabama Master Gardener Conference as we celebrate ―The Magic of Gardening.‖ We are looking forward to welcoming our fellow Master Gardeners to ―The Magic City‖ for the 22nd Annual Conference on March 22 - 24, 2012. Conference activities will be centered at the Birmingham Marriott, located on Highway 280 near shopping and a variety of attractions, including the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Aldridge Gardens. Conference attendees will have an opportunity to tour either Aldridge Gardens or the Birming-ham Botanical Gardens on Thurs-day afternoon. We will welcome

our guests that evening with a Barbecue Dinner at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The Friday and Saturday sessions will take place at the conference hotel with a lineup of accomplished speakers, authors and industry experts who will in-form, entertain and inspire with their insights and experiences. Look for more information about the 2012 Conference in the Fall issue of Garden Pathways and mark your calendars now to be a part of this ―magical‖ experience. Tricia Farris Program Chair, 2012 AMGA Conference

Mark Your

Calendar

Wherever flowers bloom

so does hope. Lady Bird Johnson


Alabama License Plate By Kathie Bass - Fundraising Chair

Master Gardeners Distinctive License Plate

The AMGA license plate has been approved by the State of Alabama and members can start

the “Commitment to Purchase” process from December 1, 2010 and will continue thru November 30, 2011.

NOTE:

Your $$$ will not be lost if we fail to reach the

required 1000 sign ups by November 30th.

Funds paid will be sent to AMGA for reimbursement to you or you may elect to

donate the funds to AMGA. Donated funds will

be split 50/50 between the Scholarship Endowment and the Master Gardener Program

as originally planned. And they are tax deductible. Your money will be refunded,

minus a small handling fee.

“Ride with Pride with the AMGA License Plate”

Go down to your local Department of Motor

Vehicles and ask for a Commitment to Purchase” document for the Master Gardener license plate. Pay $50.00 in advance with the application. Keep your copy of the “Commitment to Purchase” and “Receipt” together, you will have to have them when the plates come in

to the DMV. Wait patiently until we have 1000 “Commitment

to Purchase” agreements on file. Go down to the DMV when you’re notified that

your plate is there.

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914


We are in the process of con-tracting with Hemispheres Inter-net to provide enhancements to the Service Report System which will expand and add data fields related to officers in local leadership, memberships in multiple local associations, dues activities, membership status (paid, unpaid, provisional, hon-orary, lifetime). This system will replace the current member-ship reporting done by local as-sociations.

The Advisory Council has been working developing purpose objectives, qualifications for officers and advisory council representatives.

There are seven members on the AMGA awards committee. Gold and platinum badges and star (gold, silver, bronze) re-quests will be submitted to the Awards Committee Chairperson

(not to the AMGA Treasurer). Some wording changes for some of the award descriptions and qualifications were ap-proved. The changes will be reflected in the Local Associa-tion Handbook, posted on the AMGA website.

Donations made to the AMGA Endowment Scholarship should be made through AMGA. Checks should be made out to AMGA and the AMGA Treasurer will send the monies to Auburn University.

As of April 30th only 30 people have signed up for the AMGA license plate. We need 970 more people sign up before No-vember 30, 2011. If we do not make the 1,000 goal, then those who have signed up will receive their $50.00, less a small processing fee. Tell your friends and neighbors about

the plate, as anyone who loves gardening can get this plate; it is not limited to Master Gardeners alone.

Get your upcoming events listed on the AMGA website. If your local association is having a workshop or event, either for members or for public education, send it to Diana Hansen, the state webmaster at [email protected] to post on AMGA website.

Awards will be dated for the year they are presented except the top hours award, which is given for the year the hours were earned.

NOTES FROM BOARD MEETING BY Patti Householder

Join us October 11-14,

2011 In Charleston,

WV West Virginia

University

Extension

Service and

the West Virginia

Master Gardener Association

invite you to join us at the

2011 International Master

Gardener Conference.

For more information

go to:

http://

imgc.ext.wvu.edu/

ATTENTION: NEW POLICY CONCERNING "REACH FOR THE STARS" Starting IMMEDIATELY, the entire "Reach for the Stars" Program will be handled by the AMGA Awards Committee. If your local association needs to order Gold, Silver and Bronze Stars, send the order form and a check (made out to AMGA) to the Awards Chair, Karin Carmichael, 3508 Lancaster Lane, Montgomery, AL 36106. In the past, this order has been sent to

the AMGA Treasurer. Changes to the Local Association Handbook concerning Awards are posted on the AMGA website, www.alabamamg.org. Articles with specific information concerning AMGA Awards will appear in the Fall and Winter issues of the Garden Pathways.

AMGA AWARDS PROGRAM By Karin Carmichael - Awards Chair

mailto:[email protected]

http://imgc.ext.wvu.edu/

http://imgc.ext.wvu.edu/

http://www.alabamamg.org

Autauga County MGA By Nancy Waggoner


HAPPENINGS

AROUND

ALABAMA

MASTER

GARDENER

One of the most successful plant sales in our organization’s history was held on April 30th, an absolutely picture-perfect day. Customers arrived early at Prattvillage Gardens to snap up a bounty of flowering plants, herbs, vegetable plants, shrubs and trees do-nated by Autauga County Master Gar-dener members. The sale profit of al-most $2,000 will go toward funding our community projects in the coming year. On May 14th, our first-ever plant swap gave members an oppor-tunity to exchange black and blue sal-via, byzantine gladiolus, red yarrow, purple heart and other wish-list plants. Thanks to a new and efficient irrigation system, we are happily watching tomatoes, onions, potatoes, squash, peas, cabbage, peppers and collards thrive in our Demonstration Garden. Water does make a differ-ence! The vegetables are donated to needy in our area. Autauga County Master

Gardeners are an active bunch and serve the community! Last year, we tied with Lee County for 7th place in volunteer time. We recorded an astounding average of 94 hours per member. On May 28th, the lovely Prattvillage Garden was the scene of a wedding held in front of the garden’s antebellum-era wooden chapel. Cottage style plantings maintained by our members provided the perfect romantic atmosphere for such an event. Master Gardeners are always learning and we in Autauga County are no exception. Recently, we had the pleasure of visiting the Barber Berry Farm, a pick-your-own business locat-ed on the Alabama River Parkway in Millbrook. Ken Barber spoke to our group about growing blueberries and blackberries. Ken is also growing fruit and vegetables in a hydroponic stack-ing system.

Baldwin County MGA By Dr. John H. Meyer

The first half of the calen-dar year has kept the nearly 200 BCMGs extremely busy. Our spring plant sale was the most prof-itable in its 13 year history. The sale, the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in April saw hundreds of anxious gardeners purchase thou-sands of native Alabama plant-ings. The day prior to the sale we invited all Baldwin County garden clubs to hear Fred Nation share his expertise about native plants. Outreach activities continue to share the expertise and experi-ence of many of our Master Gar-deners. In March we hosted a series of five weekly evening work-shops entitled "Tuesdays With Mas-

ter Gardeners". Hundreds of new and experienced gardeners attend-ed the different workshops with positive feedback from the participants. Earth Day Mobile was also well represented by BCMGs. Our intern program was one of the largest ever with twenty five enthusiastic and dedicated individuals devoting hundreds of hours to support MG programs in Baldwin County. What a privilege it was for me to hear their final presentations on a diverse list of topics. Many of these folks bring expertise either from other states or their professional background. Thinking ahead, a team of

Master Gardeners are already planning for the 2014 State Confer-ence to be held in Baldwin Coun-ty. Sites are being evaluated and speakers procured for this educa-tional spring event in southern Ala-bama. Plan on coming to see the unique horticultural sites and may-be a little extra time at the beach! Our final activity for the first half of the year is the awarding of five $1000 college scholarships to young folks who will pursue careers in some type of horticultural en-deavor. Wishing you a wonderful growing season and a summer of wonderful memories

"Perennials sleep the first year, they creep the second year,

and they leap the third year." - Anonymous


Blount County MGA By Sarah Pass

We send prayers for healing and recovery to our friends and neighbors over the state, including our own Calhoun County, who suffered terrible losses in the April tornadoes. Cane Creek is growing: 24 raised garden beds (all adopted by MGs and community members for plant-ing) as well as four bathrooms and a greenhouse have been added. The Cane Creek facility is used for a vari-ety of Extension events as well as MG programs Having completed their class work in April the 2011 interns are working on their 50 hours of volunteer service. Our 2011 Lunch and Learn series got off to a great start in April with Dr. Art Chappelka from Auburn University. He told us about a unique Auburn program to manage its tree collection. He also updated us on the status of the Toomer’s Oaks. In May a standing room only crowd heard Eleanor Craig of Fern Ridge Farms talk about the care of ferns and brought many wonderful ones for sale. Local realtor Linda Buckner presented an in-formative program about curb appeal at our MG meeting in May. Congratulations to Laurie Pitzer, Truman Norred, and Betty Hines who received their gold badges

at the meeting. Darryl Patton, the Southern Herbalist was our June speaker. We wish all of you a productive summer with just the right amount of heat to make our flowers grow and enough water to keep them happy.

April Earth Day activities at Cane Creek Community Gardens. MGs had as much fun as the children.

Calhoun County MGA By Sherry Blanton

Blount County Master Gar-deners are among the most dedi-cated of the more than 90 volun-teers who lead the Groundwater Festival at Wallace State Communi-ty College each spring. More than 800 fourth graders from Blount County attend the educational and fun event. Hands-on activities help

the students understand the relationship of surface pollution (such as excess chemical fertilizer) and water quality in nearby streams and rivers. Jim Small and his merry band of proof-readers have just complet-ed countless hours of service to present an awe-some new cook-book. Contact any member of Blount County Master Garden-ers to get your copy for only $15.00. It should also be available at our annual fall plant sale and at our fall confer-

ence. Last year’s Fall conference at Palisades Park in Oneonta was one of the best anywhere, ever. This year’s September 22 confer-ence is titled WILD THINGS, Native Plants That Enhance Our Land-scape. Paulette Hagood Ogard and photographer Sara Bright will share their adventures attracting butterflies with native plants. Brian Keener will share his explorations of the abundant native plants in our area. Chris East will teach native plant propagation. Native trees of North Alabama will be discussed by leading authority Dr. David West. For a registration form, e-mail: [email protected] .


Our local group completed a successful year with a holiday party at Cane Creek Community Gardens. MGs Linda Crowe and Vera Jordan received the ―Red Ban-danna‖ award for their volunteer efforts. Our MGs have had a busy fall: they participated in the filming of the Extension Office’s Holiday tape shown on our local TV station; they helped with an October recep-tion for Longleaf Botanical Gardens

(on the ground of the Anniston Mu-seum Complex) and are already working with staff on the first stages of the Gardens; they helped build and plant raised garden beds at Cane Creek Community Gardens as well as clean and beautify Cane Creek (the official home of the Cal-houn County Master Gardeners), adding a variety of plants to the landscape; they also helped with Fall Fest, welcoming 600 visitors to Cane Creek. The 4-H Tree Amigos

volunteers hosted their annual Christmas party for the residents of the Attention Home at Coosa Valley Youth Services. Proceeds from spring plant sales are used to buy needed items for the home for the girls and presented at the party. We in Calhoun County wish all of you over the state a happy and healthy New Year.


Greetings from the CCM-GA. Our hearts and prayers go out to all the people affected by the tor-nadoes that hit our state last month and especially to our fellow Master Gardeners. It has been a fruitful spring for our organization. Volunteering at Earth Day celebrations, community landscape projects and the installa-tion of landscapes at three Habitat for Humanity homes were a few of the projects undertaken this spring.

Ashley Henderson of the Alabama Clean Water Partnership invited us to work with her by participating in six Rain Barrel Workshops this Spring. They were held on Thurs-days and Saturdays, just under 100 rain barrels were created, and 75 people attended. We helped with registration, drilling holes in the bar-rels, putting kits together doing whatever we could do to help. It was very interesting and education-al.

In April CCMGA members filled a bus for an exciting trip to Serenbe Farms and Calloway Gar-dens in Georgia. Serenbe Farms is an organic, self sustaining commu-nity just Southwest of Atlanta near Palmetto, GA.. Our annual plant sale the Saturday before Mothers Day, at Old Alabama Town was a huge success. Happy gardening.

Capital City MGA By Michelle Burns

We are into our famous peach season here in Chilton County, and our gardeners have been ex-ceptionally busy. Last year the Master Gardeners volunteered to prepare the beds at the hospital, flower beds that is, and plant winter flowers. This year we continued by planting spring flowers in the peace garden. The aides were very appreciative of the added beauty we brought to the gardens. At the same time the group bedecked our hub town of Clanton in flowers. Each year the Mas-ter Gardeners assist the city by planting hundreds of flowers in the already existing beds and planters. The gardeners were so enthusiastic that they extended their "flowerage" to the town of Thorsby. In May one of the coordinators for the Chilton County Master Gardeners Class, Sondra Hensley, took the class members on a tour of some of the Master Gardeners' gardens. There was quite a variety of differ-ent gardens from vegetable and fruit gardens to formal gardens to woodland gardens. Also in May we held a plant exchange luncheon with fellow Master Gardeners from Shelby County. It was held at the home of Ann Baker, one of our enthusiastic gardeners. Our president, Margaret Goolsby, has rallied us to start planning for the demonstration garden at

Agricultural Extension Farm. We hope you will come out and enjoy the day with us in August when we help the Extension Service with their Agricultural Extension Exposition Day. Be sure to visit our demonstration gar-den and chat with our Master Gardeners who will be on hand to answer questions.

Chilton County MGA By Ann Stocking

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not plan to sit

-Nelson Henderson

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=clipart+of+trees&view=detail&id=4FA6958AE7B99CA8873CB6A9B3D92703D5CCC28F&first=0&FORM=IDFRIR

Coffee County MGA By Charlie Block


Claybank MGA - OZARK/DALE COUNTY By Chuck Auman

The highlight this quarter was our annual plant sale held for the benefit of our library. On April 16 we were able to donate $1640 to them at the end of a long exciting day. The left over plants were contributed to Vivian B. Adams School, a facility for the mentally and physically disabled in our com-munity. We are establishing a work-ing relationship with this school to help them with their plant culture and sales. We will also be given access to their large greenhouse to

help with our own sales. This is a real ―win-win‖ situation and a won-derful way for us to gain hours as we give back to the community. On May 6 a group of us went to Petals From the Past at Jemison which had been described in such glowing term by its proprie-tor when he visited us here not long ago. It was well worth the trip and we recommend it to any and all gar-deners. A container gardening workshop at the library on May 14 was well attended and appreciated.

We recently elected officers for next year and they are busy planning a ―pot full‖ of activates for our next fiscal year. This will include our participation in the Claybank Jamboree, an arts and crafts cele-bration in early October where we will answer questions from the pub-lic, and sell more plants!! For further information on our activities and for some good links to gardening matters we invite you to try our internet communica-tion at www.claybankmastergardeners.

com.

On Friday, May 20, one of the highlights of our year was held as the annual awards dinner was celebrated in recognition of Master Gardener‟s who received their certificates. The dinner was a great success, with a wonderful meal catered by Johnny‟s Barbeque, served with all the trimmings, and topped off by won-derful homemade deserts furnished by the many talented cooks in our group. It was

enjoyed immensely by all. Charles Pinkston was on hand to give out the award badges and certificates to the 2010 Master Gardener‟s who com-

pleted their volunteer hours. The Reach For The Stars Pro-gram, which awards stars and new badges to a Master Gardener who has accumulat-ed LIFETIME hours by meeting certain criteria, honored several of our member-ship by bestowing upon them the following awards. Bronze Stars (100-299 hours)

Silver Stars (300-499 hours) and Gold Stars (500-999 hours) went to the follow-

ing Master Gardener‟s in our group. Bronze Stars: Mary Berrins-Chambers, Sophia Robertson, Kathleen Dunlap, Mar-garet Schwaiger, George Flinn, David Waddell, Phil Gatlin, Charles Wunderlich, Kathleen Dunlap, Margaret Schwaiger, Sara Gillis, Teresa Goodwin, Shirley John-

son Silver Stars; Donnie Douthit, Peter Douthit,

Cathy Thompson, Margaret Walsh. Gold Badges were awarded to the follow-ing for 1000-1999 accumulated hours; Hu-lon Nunn, Holly Hirsbrunner, Roy Penney, Doris Simmons, Mary Reid, Jackie Thrash-

er. A Special Ruby Star was awarded to Shirley McEwen, who has accumulated more than 4000 hours! Congratulations to

Shirley, and to all the other honorees! Thanks for your devotion to the Cullman Master Gardener‟s Association and for all

your hard work! Last but not least, a special recognition award was bestowed upon one of our hardest working members, Peter Douthit, who was chosen by the member-ship to receive the Cullman County Master Gardener of the Year Award. Many thanks

for all that you do, Pete! Our upcoming events for the month of June are a program on Butterfly Gardening to be presented by Ellen Hall, and a rain barrel workshop. Look for the Master Gardener booth at the Festhalle Farmer‟s Market, and wish us luck in the final judging for the Beautification Awards, where our Demonstration Garden is one of

the gardens nominated.

Cullman County MGA By Loretta Gillespie

The Coffee County Master Gardeners continue to thrive. We meet monthly at noon with a speaker on alternate meeting dates. We have been averaging about 80% of our members at a these meetings. We realize the importance of guest speakers but we also realize the need to have time to share ideas on

how to better serve the community through education. In this regard we have been assisting the Re-gional Horticulture Specialist by researching and answering email that the ACES office receives. This effort was expanded at our last monthly meeting by agreeing to make ―house calls‖ when the specialist received requests for

someone to come to a home to look at a problem area. By doing this we help ACES, we provide ed-ucation to the community, and we are able to better educate our-selves through research. As we approach the summer months we are looking for new projects to ex-pand our outreach to the communi-ty.

http://www.claybankmastergardeners.blogspot.com

http://www.claybankmastergardeners.blogspot.com


Dekalb County MGA By Dawn Earley

Stars fell on our Dekalb County MGs at our April meeting when the Reach for the Stars program awarded gold stars to Stanley Simms and Jay Rivett, and a silver star to Sarah Horton. Celestine Darnell and Martha Wood were awarded platinum badg-es. There were also several gems awarded to members with more than 2,000 hours. Harriet Turner was awarded a ruby for 4,000+ hours, Linda Stephens received an emerald for 6,000+ hours and Ann Houston received a diamond for 8,000+ hours. Ann also will receive a life membership pin. My

how they sparkle! Dekalb MGs were also honored at the State conference in Mobile when we received the „Search for Excellence‟ award for our Northeast AL Gardening Conference.

Our third conference was held on March 5th. We held our annual plant sale on April 16 at the VFW Fairgrounds. The doors were opened earlier this year and we closed for lunch then opened up again for our half price sale. Ann Houston, her husband and grandson and Margaret Hamm went to

Auburn the previous Monday to pick up do-nated plants to supplement those members had been growing for the sale since last year. We members stood by our computers waiting for the notification by email telling us when to come to the fairgrounds to help unload, organize, label and water. The big-

gest challenge is sorting out the azaleas. The days before the sale were spent setting up the needed tables and or-ganizing the plants according to their type; whether they were annual or perennial, tree or shrub and by their care requirements. The sale was a great success and we raised $3900, part of which will be returned to Au-burn Horticulture Department as a scholar-ship. Marshall county MGs got to take cus-tody of the leftover plants for their sale the

following week. May was a bit quieter, our pro-gram was on African violets presented by myself. However, we made up for it with our June garden tour. We visited 3 gardens this year. Donna and Robert Wells had a won-derful yard with several planted areas in the

under story of several large old trees and a great view of downtown Fort Payne. Dawn Earley‟s garden was a good example of working with construction site problems and the Alabama sun. Lastly came Jayne Ross‟ garden where we had a wonderful lunch and a small meeting before we proceeded to take cuttings from her many beautiful plants in preparation for next years garden confer-

ence.

Harriet Turner, Ann Houston, Linda Stevens, Stanley Simms, Martha Wood,

and Celestine Darnell

Jefferson County MGA By Patricia Farris

Spring‟s long-anticipated arrival not only brought showers and flowers, it also brought an abundance of opportunities for

Jefferson County‟s Master Gardeners. We have had a variety of interest-ing speakers at our monthly meetings, in-cluding John Manion, curator of the Birming-ham Botanical Garden‟s Kaul Wildflower Garden who presented a program on “Spring Ephemerals,” and Dr. Michael Wyss, a member of the UAB faculty, who showed us a different side of kudzu. Dr. Wyss is studying possible medical applications for kudzu involving hypertension and diabetes. Each year our members look forward to our May plant swap, ably presided over this year by Linda Emerson, former head horticulturist

at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Our Master Gardeners had sever-al opportunities to share their knowledge and love of gardening with the public as

volunteers at plant sales held at both Al-dridge Botanical Gardens and Birmingham

Botanical Gardens in April and May. JCMGA members have also been busy answering questions about plants and gardening from callers to the Plant Hotline at the Gary Gerlach Plant Center. Not only does this group of dedicated volunteers provide a valuable community service, many say that they enjoy taking the calls because they always learn something new in the

process of answering callers‟ questions. We are also working on revamp-ing our Speaker‟s Bureau. The Speaker‟s Bureau will be an invaluable tool when re-quests are made for Master Gardeners to

speak at garden clubs and other gatherings. Jefferson County Master Garden-ers will co-sponsor the speakers for the Central South Native Plant Conference on November 4 - 5, 2011 at the Birmingham

Botanical Gardens. The two-day confer-ence will feature well known speakers and guided fieldtrips. The keynote speaker for the conference is the renowned Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with

Native Plants. Jefferson County Master Garden-ers are looking forward to welcoming our fellow Master Gardeners to Birmingham for the 2012 Alabama Master Gardener Confer-ence, to be held March 22 – 24, 2012 at the Birmingham Marriott Hotel. Conference chair Harold Deason and our conference committees are hard at work planning what we hope will be an enjoyable and informa-tive conference for our fellow Master Gardeners from around the state. Look for more information about “The Magic of Gardening,” in this and future issues of

Garden Pathways.


East Central Alabama MGA By Martha Burnett

Elmore County MGA By Iva Wells

In April, we presented another successful ―Lessons From the Gardens‖ entitled Vegetables, What, When and Where. Dawn Cermak headed the program. Refreshments were provided by other Master Gardeners. There were 20 attendees. The April Master Gardeners Meeting included a presentation By Donny Tomlin on Japanese Maples. Our Association continues to be active in the community. We have several ongoing projects. The Wetumpka Middle School Heirloom Garden is looking good. It was dedicated in honor of one of our deceased members, Don Whorton. The Humane Shelter project is near completion. Master Gardeners and

shelter employees did most of the work in one day. Booths were manned at Lanark Floral Week-end, Holtville Middle School Going Green program, and Elmore Tractor Show and Pull. We are active again this year at the Millbrook Farmers Market. We are working toward a landscape design for the Elmore County Courthouse in We-tumpka. Some of our members have presented programs, including Drought Tolerant Shrubs and Per-ennials for Yopon Garden Club in Prattville by Phil Easter and a tour and explanation of our Learning Gardens for the Arrowhead Garden Club conducted by Linda Griebel. Johan Beumer talked about bird

houses for the Garden Club in Eclectic. In May we took a bus trip to the Aldridge Gardens and Birming-ham Botanical Gardens. Our Annu-al Fund Raiser Plant Sale held on May 7th was very successful. Our June Meeting will be a trip to Kiesel Park near Auburn to view Lee County Master Gardens Demonstration Garden and then shopping at Blooming Gardens. Although a tornado plowed through parts of our county, we are all safe. However, some had prop-erty damage.

The ECAMGA held our annual plant sale on May 7. We had a lot of fun, sold a bunch of plants, and made some money that will be put back into our community.

On May 16 several of our group drove over to

Pine Mountain, Georgia for a delightful visit at Calla-

way Gardens. It was a relaxing trip with nice cool

weather, a great day for a picnic by Robin Lake and

the Gardens were beautiful.

Join us on July 15 from 9 am – 3 pm for a

Tomato Workshop in Wedowee. In cooperation with

our county extension coordinators, Shane Harris and

Chip East, we will have a planting demonstration and

discuss topics such as Variety Selection, Container

Growing, Transplant Handling, Insect Control and

Disease Control, Food Preservation – Canning Safe-

ty, Health Benefits and Fresh Recipe Preparation.

Contact Laura Gasser at [email protected]

for further details.

"A man does not plant a tree for himself, he plants it for posterity."

- Alexander Smith



Spring was a busy time for Etowah County Master Gardeners, especially the month of April. At the April meeting, 2011 class members received certificates of course com-pletion. MG certificates were award-ed to members of the 2010 class who completed the required number of service hours. Master gardeners received bronze, silver, and gold stars; veteran MGs received gold and platinum badges. Two Etowah County MGs earned more than 4000

service hours, with recognition, to be awarded at a later date. For the 9th year, ECMGA’s greenhouse sale was a huge suc-cess thanks to the outstanding quar-tet of greenhouse leaders; Betty Hall (who has earned more than 4000 service hours since taking the MG class in 2002), Shirley Boyd, Rose Schmuck, and Dale Garner, and thanks to Joe Davis for maintaining the infrastructure of greenhouse compound—and thanks to the dili-gent workers who showed up week after week, January through April, helping to propagate and maintain plants and to keep the greenhouse operation running smoothly. Sale proceeds provide scholarships to Auburn University Horticulture students. Plants, sup-plies, hardscapes and other materi-als are provided for maintaining the association’s demonstration garden. Plants and gardening supplies are donated to Habitat for Humanity for the landscaping of new construc-

tions. Additional projects are funded, as approved by the membership. In April a group of Madison County MGs took a field trip to Etowah County, visiting the land-scape of Keith and Betty Hall’s, in Whorton’s Bend. The field trip culminated with a garden party at the home of Shirley Nall, of Southside. Although the weather forecast was a bit ominous, the rain held off until the party was over.

Etowah County MGA By Carol B. Link

Spring is here, and the pro-ject list has grown as much as the length of the day. We are supporting our seven Demonstration Gardens at Kiesel Park, have completed and painted a new shed and plan to add a pergola. The project list for Auburn University Davis Arboretum some-times exceeds our capacity, but the partnership is one that also teaches while we are giving back. Our arbo-retum docents continue to improve their knowledge base while we work alongside the arboretum staff. We have recently moved 18 native azal-

eas from Caroline Dean’s yard (she is well known across the state for her work and expertise in the field of wildflowers) to the Caroline Dean Wildflower Trail in Opelika City Park. The trail was dedicated to her a few years back, and she asked LCMGA to upgrade the trail using plants from her yard. Caroline is a Lee County Honorary Master Gardener. A few months back we accepted some free mulch from Frasure Lumber Co. of Opelika. We hired a trucking company to move it to land owned by one of our Master

Gardeners and have started selling it at a low price to homeowners. This has provided some budget re-lief so that we can pursue some pro-jects that demand funds. We are again manning the Master Gardener Helpline on Tues-days and assisting the community statewide in answering gardening and landscaping questions with liter-ature-supported responses. Our close working relationship with Lee County Extension System Office provides another excellent learning-giving opportunity for LCMGA.

Lee County MGA By Tomi Dugas

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

~John Muir

Garden Pathways Spring 2011

Jackson County MGA By Lily Noble

Marble Valley MGA By Josi Silla

On May 4th, Marble Valley Master Gardeners participated in a raised bed demonstration spon-sored by Talladega County Exten-sion Office. This event was held at Averiette Branch Farms near Fayetteville, Alabama. The owner, John Wesson, discussed the bene-fits of building raised beds. When a bed is raised, the sun warms the soil quicker, and crops are able to be grown a bit sooner. Mr. Wesson

had beds that were 12 inches high by 4 feet wide by 12 feet long. He had eight total beds planted with tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and beets as well as other vegetables that he sells at local farmer's market and Pepper Place Market in Birmingham on Saturdays during the summer. He also had a unique irrigation system that he created to keep the crops adequately watered. During the demonstration

from 10 am to 11:30, members of our club - Deborah Studdard, Bon-nie Mizzell, Debra Butler and Pat-rick Ball - assisted with handing out pamphlets to the 25 people that stopped by the farm. Our next pro-ject will be advising the City of Sylacauge with a triangular shaped bed at a main intersection in town. We are in the planning stage now. Planting will get under way during cooler weather in the Fall.

The Members at Jackson County Master Gardeners have been busy these past few months. In April, we assisted the Scottsboro High School with their annual plant sale, followed by our own communi-ty wide plant sale at the Scottsboro Heritage Center.

The money earned for our plant sale goes to our scholarship fund. Each year we award a senior high school student with a $500.00 scholarship toward an agricultural educational program at college or university. This year’s winner is Brandon Skipper from Skyline High School who wants to pursue a col-lege career in Forestry. After all the spring rain and storms, we finally finished the landscape to the 2010 Habitat for Humanity home. Each year our members donate time, plants, and money toward the land-scape of the Habitat Home for the year. We also maintain two flower

beds at St Luke’s Church where we hold our monthly meetings.

Jim and Connie Goff’s Section home was the perfect place for the 2011 Jackson County Master Gardeners Ice Cream Social. The temperature was a bit high, but, so were the spirits of the participants. It may have something to do with the view off the bluff, too. May be why this was the second year we have had it here, along with their gener-ous offer to host it again. Thank you, Jim and Connie, for being such gracious hosts.

With several projects for the year completed it was a nice relax-ing break from routine. Good food, scrumptious desserts along with interesting new home-made ice creams to try made it a very enjoya-ble evening. And, of course, some gardening discussions popped up. It was a fine evening of fellowship for all. I don’t know if they will let us have it here again next year, but, if we ask nicely, maybe!


Marshall County MGA By Joyce Davis

The April 27th storms hit many in Marshall

County hard as it did all across our state. Several gar-dens have undergone drastic changes because of the loss of mature trees with shade gardens being con-verted to sun gardens. We continue to keep all our gardening friends in our prayers. At our April meeting Luci Davis, Coordinator of the Alabama Jr. Master Gardeners, presented the program about all the opportunities we as Master Gar-deners have to be involved with the Jr. MG Program. It was very informative and as part of the program we made hats using newspaper and masking tape. Our Spring Plant Sale was May 14

th a little

later than usual but it was a great success. Thank You to Dekalb Master Gardeners who shared unsold plants from the Dekalb plant sale. The May meeting was a field trip to Cullman to tour the Cullman Wild-flower Garden and we had plans to visit their Demon-stration Garden but was unable to see that garden because of the extensive storm damage downtown where the Demonstration Garden is located. Nona Moon lead the Wildflower Garden tour for us and even though we were a little late for most of the spring wild-flowers we enjoyed the tour and garden very much.

After lunch several members went on to the AVE MA-RIA GROTTO and enjoyed a tour. J D Swartzlander and several other members have been very busy planting and weeding at the CASA Garden Project and harvest time is at hand. This project provides fresh vegetables for seniors and homebound in our area.

Standing Martha Millican, Dal Widner, Sue Walters, Martha

Lacy, Wilma Tanner, Sharon Ransdell, Luci Davis, Bonnie Bal-lard, Wand Teal Phyllis Blaha, Jean Duke, Jeanette Cauvel, J D Swartzlander, Betty Graham. Sitting Joyce Davis, Vickie Dodd,

Rebekah Bates, Annette Swartzlander.

Morgan County MGA By Nancy Waldron

On Wednesday, April 27th, our members met at the Morgan County Fair-grounds to prepare for our annual plant sale which was to be held on the following Saturday. The members were energetic and excited about the sale in spite of most of them being awakened at 5:00 AM with tornado warning sirens. As we were com-pleting getting the tables set up, dark clouds were forming to the west and the tornado warning sirens came again. We heeded the warning and decided to meet the next day to start transferring the plants and to continue setting up for the sale. Many tornados struck the North Alabama area that afternoon and many people lost homes and lives. Decatur, itself, was spared the destruction that occurred to the west, north , east, and south. The plans for the plant sale were put off as many of our members helped those who had lost so much. Our thoughts

continue to be with the tornado victims

throughout the state. We were able to reschedule the plant sale the following week, with fewer but generous customers. The plants were beautiful and the prices right and we were pleased with the outcome considering what our area had gone though the previous

week. During our May meeting, Brenda Tapp, MG Huntsville, gave an informative talk and demonstration of using herbs in

cooking. On June 4th, we took a field trip to Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Birming-ham and had an informative and delightful tour. Our June meeting will be held at Rhodes Ferry Park, in Decatur, for our

annual picnic.

Brenda Tapp, Charlotte Lindsey, Willadean

Gambrell at our meeting in May

Morgan County Master Gardeners visit Aldridge Botanical Gardens in

Birmingham


Master Gardeners of North Alabama By Elouisa Stokes

Tornadoes, floods, and 95 de-gree weather!! From a glorious spring to all this in a month. Thir-teen Master Gardeners of North Alabama were involved with the tornadoes that hit Madison County. Our president, Dottye Pierce, even called one member to warn her she had 7 minutes to get to her shelter. It probably saved her life. Many of our members have been active helping to clean up after the storms.

In spite of all that, MGNA mem-bers have been busy. With the help of many members, the City of Huntsville, and Bennett Nurseries, we have planted our Adopt a Spot in downtown Huntsville. More of us have been diligent with preparing, planting, and harvesting the Demonstration Vegetable Garden (DVG) at the Huntsville Botanical Garden, in spite of the 90+ degree days. We had a Master Gardener Weekend, gave out materials, and answered questions about vegetables.

One of our biggest projects is landscaping houses for Habitat for Humanity—6-12 houses a year. This spring with the help of donated plants, time, and MGNA line item, we landscaped 6 new houses. We also teach these first time home-buyers what needs to be done to have a nice looking lawn and on planting day show them how to put in plants—a valuable addition to their new home.

Workshops continue to be part of our work. An herb workshop in April was well attended with plenty of workers and presenters. We even had to turn folks away.

The Phenology Research Pro-ject is still going strong. In spite of no electricity and difficulty finding gas for several days, members went out to the Garden and checked the plants and their corre-sponding bugs and mailed in the results.

We have made several trips, including one to Theresa Smith’s

beautiful nursery in Arab called Frog Hollow. Unfortunately she was hit by the Arab tornado. We also visited Betty Hall’s house in Whorton Bend with 350 hydran-geas, and Shirley Nall’s house with a garden party showing off her rose garden. On to a second house of Betty Hall where we saw roses, crape myrtles, waterfall, and a beautiful, peaceful three acres. In May we headed to Montgomery where we had a beautiful lunch on Lake Martin and visited a magnifi-cent garden on the sloping shores of the lake with 17 different garden rooms. There are waterfalls, a hip-po, several lions, sculptures, small lawns, hydrangeas, lilies, a wine cave, and enough different spots to take your breath away. It was de-lightful.

Enjoy your summer. May-be it will be a little cooler in Sep-tember!

The Mobile County Master Gardeners want everyone touched by the tornadoes to know you are in our hearts and prayers. We on the Gulf Coast are well acquainted with the wraths violent weather can bring. Please know we are thinking of you. We, who worked so hard on the conference, want everyone who took the time to send the many complimentary emails and notes, to know just how much they were ap-

preciated. Thank you so much. At our June Master Gardener meeting, the extension presented certificates to Mobile’s first class of Junior Master Garden-ers. They not only completed all requirements, but built raised beds in the demonstration garden, completed several community projects, and won first place with their exhibit at the county fair. Our Penny Smith is the wonderful and talented lady working with 4-H on

this project. They have great plans for next year, including building a ―fairy‖ garden and being mentors to the new JMG’s. Our extension agent, Tom Daugherty, who is also a Master Gardener, is scheduled to retire the end of June. He is always the featured instructor in our MG classes, scheduled for August. Tom says he will teach this year, as a volunteer. Kudos to Tom.

Mobile County MGA By Patty Scott

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he

who plants kindness gathers love." - Basil


Mobile County MGA By Patty Scott

Left to right is Wanda Teal (Secretary) Wil-

ma Tanner (V ice President) Cecilia Pullen

(Treasurer) and Jean Duke (President)

MORGAN COUNTY MGA By Nancy Waldron

Winter seems to be over and spring has arrived early in North Alabama. Our January meet-ing was delayed because of snow-fall, but we persevered and had an interesting program on ―Trends in Landscaping‖ by a local Land-scape Architect. Our evening ―potluck dinner‖ meeting in Febru-ary was followed by an informative talk by bee keeper, James Macllveen. The March meeting fea-tured a timely program on Alabama Wildflowers presented by Biologist/

Park Ranger Daphne Moland from Wheeler Wildlife Refuge. Much of our efforts this fall and winter have been directed towards the annual plant sale which will be held at the Morgan County Fairgrounds on April 30th. The greenhouse is fill-ing up with maturing seedlings started last fall and potted plant divisions from member’s gar-dens. Plants for our lo-cal Hospice organization are also being prepared. A field trip to Bir-mingham area gardens is being planned for June.

Incoming president, Darryle Waldron, thank-ing outgoing president, Barbara Meyer, for

her leadership during 2009 and 2010.

.

Tuscaloosa MGA By Sybil N. Phillips

Garden Pathways Spring 2011 Page 16

St. Clair County MGA By Don Patterson

.

Garden Pathways Summer 2011 Page 16

The Pike County Master Gardeners have had an interesting and informative Spring. The January meeting was about native Alabama snakes with member Suzanne Sikes leading the pro-gram. The February meeting in-formed us about beneficial insects and how to attract them to your yard with member Judy Griswold. In March we visited The Forever Wild (Picosin area). (picture of Dr. Barger and a few members includ-ed) section in Pike County with Dr. Wayne Barger of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. This would be a good field trip for anyone in the southeast region of Alabama.

In April the association had a very interesting program on container gardening with Ona Garwood from Coffee County. The association plant sale was held in conjunction with Troy Fest. It was very well re-ceived by the community and visitors. Our May meeting wrapped programs until Septem-ber. We met at the home of president Suzanne Sikes and reviewed projects and the plant sale. After a delicious lunch we were treated to the sight of the Sikes daylily garden and some other unusual plant such as the Sikes dwarf oak leaf hydrangea, a huge Dawn Redwood tree and

a climbing fern.

Pike County MGA By Judy Griswold

Members of the Russell County Master Gar-deners spent the spring preparing for their 3rd annual plant sale on Saturday, April 30th. Almost all the plants sold were propagated and donated by mem-bers and friends. We did purchase a few flowering annuals to make up some containers for the sale. The weather was perfect and the plant sale was a great success, due largely to the efforts of plant sale coordinators Ellen Averill and Truman Cathorne. We sold over $1300 worth of plants, and what remained will be used to plant a garden at a local elementary school where member Adrienne Da-vis teaches science. This is our primary fund raiser and proceeds will be used to fund upcoming pro-jects. We’ve continued to maintain the landscape at our primary project, the Phenix City/Russell County Library. We support the library also as members of the Friends of the Library. We’re also supporting members of the Columbus Botanical Garden. Our monthly programs so far this year have included one on composting by member Dale Raines, daylilies by Larry Miller from the local daylily group, basic photog-raphy for the garden by professional photographer, Jimmy Cawthorne, beneficial insects by Kerry Smith

and this month’s program on bees by Jim Harris, president of the Chattahoochee Beekeepers Associa-tion.

Debbie Coulter, Dale Raines, Vivian Brockway and Ellen Averill

Russell County MGA By Arlie Verville & Vivian Brockway

Dr. Barger and a few members

Shoals MGA By Phillip Oliver


Shelby County MGA By Regena Varvoutis

Shelby County MGA had fourteen members to attend the AMGA conference in Mobile . Shown are (l to r, front row): Myra Healy, Jeanon Massien, Sybil O’Brien, Dot Kachelhofer, Trisha Williams, Wayne Williamson, Maves Youngblood, and Regena Varvoutis. On the back row: Jerry Raley, Robin George, LaVerne Martin, Murry Williamson, Carol

Beard, and Bill Legg. April’s meeting took place at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover and included a presentation by Dr. Vasha Rosenbloom, Children’s Ed-ucational Director, who also showed us the Children’s Garden and the handiwork of the Junior Master Gardeners. Also, we ob-served a school class on a field trip to the Gardens, too. Our meeting

concluded with lunch in the shade of trees, surrounded by hydran-geas, in radiant blooms. May’s meeting was a visit to the delightful gardens of Wayne and Murry Williamson. We strolled through several types of gardens-shade, water, bird and butterfly, sunny gardens , too, and were ―wowed‖ by the arbors, swings, brick walkways, and pond views. We picnicked in the gardens and had a delightfully large plant swap. June’s meeting was a presentation about ―Feeding Alabama’s Hungry,‖ which was both educational and enjoyable. SCMGA membership is very active in volunteering. Just to note a few: Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Aldridge Gardens, Thompson Middle School Garden Project, American Village, Compre-hensive Cancer Center, home gar-den consults, speaking to local in-terest groups, mentoring youth, mentoring MG interns, and con-sulting with Senior Centers.

The Shoals Master Gar-

deners have had a very active

Spring. Our May meeting featured

Jerry Chenault, Lawrence and Mor-

gan Counties Urban Regional Ex-

tension agent, who presented a

program on ―Faith Gardens‖. In

June, Steve Carpenter, owner of

Jack 0 Lantern Farms presented a

program on bee keeping. Our mem-

bers have been busy on our many

various projects throughout the

Shoals. In addition to ongoing pro-

jects at Rogersville Public Library,

Safeplace, WICP, TVA Walking

Trail, Girls Attention Home, Ivy

Green, Buffler House, The Chil-

dren’s Museum and the Florence

Public Library, a new project start-

ed at the Sheffield Municipal

Building. We had two successful

plant sales. The first was spon-

sored by the Shoals Beautification

Alliance and raised over $10,000!

Our Master Gardener sale event

took place at the annual Arts Alive

Festival in downtown Florence.

This is always a fun event where

we get to sell plants we have raised

and answer gardening questions

from the public. The interns have

been working on their project, led

by REA Chris Becker, which is a

continuation of the redesign of the

landscape at the Lauderdale Coun-

ty Extension Office. Our members

have also been very busy on the

Shoals Master Gardener Helpline.

Shoals Master Gardeners preparing for

their annual plant sale.


Walker County MGA By Linda Wilson

We have welcomed a number of new mem-bers this year from last year’s intern class. In our March meeting we awarded Reach for the Stars awards to ten members. We had to postpone our April meeting a few days due to the tornado that hit Moody. Our May plant sale, for the first time in Moody, was very successful. The site and weather were perfect. We planted a

number of trees and shrubs that were left over from the plant sale and are about to complete work on raised vegetable beds at the St. Clair Co. ARC in Chula Vista. We have donated a large number of trees and other plants to the Leeds H.S. ecology pro-gram. We are also investigating Junior Master Gar-dener programs in our area to provide more volunteer opportunities.

We met last month at the Home Depot in Jas-per and had an interesting program and tour with Jack Moore, the horticulturist working at the store. There was a discussion of the various gardening tools and their uses, what to do and what not to do with pesti-cides, and a walk through the garden with discussion

about the various shade and sun plants. We also looked at their selection of specimen trees. Our group is again involved in the Community Garden and have one plot for vegetables and one plot as a perennial wildflower "meadow". Last year we were able to donate extra produce to the community.

St. Claire County MGA By Don Patterson

Tuscaloosa MGA By Pam Sloan

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone for your thoughts, prayers and support after the April 27

th Tornado ripped

through Tuscaloosa! Our town may show scars for a while but people are making great progress in planning for the future while re-building and replanting! Tuscaloosa County Master Gardeners continue to be active with many projects around town. Our Annual Pass-along Plant Sale was great considering what our town was going through. Funds go to our Scholarship Fund and we are also making a donation to the Tornado Relief in Tuscaloosa. Our cookbook, on sale at the AMGA Meeting 2012, is still growing with all of the recipe contributions from our members! We sample goodies from those recipes at every meet-ing! Our meetings have been well attended and our programs are bringing new energy to our group. Meeting new people and learning new things not only about

gardening and plants but ways that our volunteer efforts can make our environment better for all is motiva-tional! Whether mingling with friends or recruiting new Master Gardening interns our meetings allow time for sharing and asking questions to learn new things about gardening! Our April meeting was held at the home of Mike and Ju-dith Rives. Judith’s lush poolside garden provided the backdrop for a great gathering. Champagne San-gria and luscious appetizers were enjoyed by all as we were enter-tained by the band, Ph’Delicious. Special thanks to Mike and the band for the fun oldies! Eleanor Craig, the fern la-dy, entertained us with stories about ferns and brought gorgeous greenery to brighten up the Exten-sion Auditorium for our May meet-ing. It was a special night to be sur-rounded by friends, food, and fel-lowship after our devastating torna-do. Unusual and gorgeous ferns were sold that night and will serve as a reminder of this special night!

We hope to get a group together to travel to Fern Ridge Farms in North Alabama soon! At our June meeting, Lorrie Lane, a local gardener and artist, shared her gorgeous paintings in her program: ―Garden Inspirations: From Plants to Paint‖. Lorrie pho-tographs gardens she visits and uses the pictures to inspire her art work. She demonstrated how she uses her photographs to create paintings, which, in turn, inspire the beauty she creates in her own gar-den. You can visit her on Facebook at Lorie Lane Studio.

Tuscaloosa County Master Gardeners are going the extra mile to help our town recover, restore, replant and rebuild for a stainable future!


Kerry Smith State Master Gardener Program Coordinator -

Auburn University

Join us in Montgomery for

the 2011 Fall CEU event. Kerry

Smith will email all local MGA presi-

dents the registration forms. This

year, it's all about TREES. Knowing

the tremendous value trees add to a

landscape and hoping you'll plant a

few to celebrate Master Gardener in

Alabama, we thought this the per-

fect topic. Whether starting over, or

just starting, we'll cover what you

need to know - selection, preventive

pruning, sizes, root health, and etc

All About Trees at Taylor

Road Baptist Church in Montgom-

ery, September 27, 2011. Lunch will

be provided. Registration is $18 per

person.

Watch for registration forms

coming soon to an MGA president

Because each cut has the potential to change the growth of the tree, no branch should be removed without a reason. Common reasons for pruning are to remove dead branches, to remove crowded or rubbing limbs, and to eliminate haz-ards. Trees may also be pruned to increase light and air penetration to the inside of the tree’s crown or to the landscape below. In most cases, mature trees are pruned as a

corrective or preventive measure. Routine thinning does not necessarily improve the health of a tree. Trees produce a dense crown of leaves to manufacture the sugar used as energy for growth and de-velopment. Removal of foliage through pruning can reduce growth and stored energy reserves. Heavy pruning can be a significant health stress for the tree. Yet if people and trees are

to coexist in an urban or suburban environment, then we sometimes have to modify the trees. City envi-ronments do not mimic natural forest conditions. Safety is a major con-cern. Also, we want trees to comple-ment other landscape plantings and lawns. Proper pruning, with an understanding of tree biology, can maintain good tree health and struc-ture while enhancing the aesthetic and economic values of our land-scapes.

The Wiregrass Master Gardeners Association has been busy over the last three months. Late March brought us a hail storm that severely damaged a lot of our nursery plants that were ready for our plant sale just a couple weeks later. But Master Gardeners are resilient; so we put a “Hail Sale” sign on those plants, knocked the pric-es way down and sold just about all of them! We were especially excited this year to host our Plant Sale at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens. It proved to be a venue that was beneficial to both our organizations. Our patrons could shop for plants at our sale and also wander the Gardens to enjoy their spring beauty. The WMGA members and

interns enjoyed the gardens of Master Gar-dener Walter Dodson who shared his love of irises with us. Some projects in the works were planting two beds at a local church where we sometimes hold our meetings, helping children plant their watermelon seed-lings at Hidden Lake Elementary School Outdoor Classroom, maintaining the demo garden at the Botanical Gardens and the kitchen garden at Landmark Park. At our picnic lunch meeting in April at the DABG, Extension Agent Claude Reeves gave us a great talk on installing and maintaining orna-mental ponds; in May we met at Landmark Park for a Memorial Day cookout and Rhoda Boone of Buds & Blossoms Nursery showed

us some of the hot new landscape plants on the market. WMGA also was very proud to be able to contribute $300 in Wal-Mart Gift cards and supplies to Broadway Baptist Church Disaster Relief in Rainsville, AL. These were used to assist folks in tornado-

stricken communities of Alabama.

Fall Continuing Education

Wiregrass MGA By Patricia Harvey

REASONS FOR PRUNING

ALABAMA MASTER GARDENER

ASSOCIATION Ona Garwood-

Editor 18381 Highway 134

Enterprise, AL 36330

AMGA Officers

President: John Baker - Shoals

256-764-5527 [email protected]

Vice President: Dottye Pierce - MGNA

256-881-8053 [email protected]

Secretary: Jeanon Massien - Shelby 205-991-3125 [email protected]

Treasurer: Jane Shalhoop - Capital City 334-271-2503 [email protected]

Board Members at Large

Term 2009-2012

Celestine Darnell - DeKalb 256-845-4740 [email protected]

Patti Householder - Lee 334-887-2237 [email protected]

Ellen Hall - Cullman 256-590-3115 [email protected]

Term 2010-2013

Karen Carmichael - Montgomery 334-271-3084 [email protected]

Sam Andrews - Baldwin 251-929-7922 [email protected]

DEADLINE FOR FALL ISSUE SEPTEMBER 15th

Garden Pathways

Summer 2011 Volume 12 Issue 47

GOT

QUESTIONS?

WE GOT ANSWERS!

http://

www.aces.edu/

questions/

STATE ADVISOR

Kerry Smith, State Master Gardener Program Coordinator

101 Funchess Hall, Auburn University Auburn, AL 36849

334-844-3036; Cell 334-329-1051

[email protected]

Term 2011 - 2014

Larry Gullett - Shoals 256-764-1626 [email protected]

Patti Harvey - Wiregrass 334-702-0094 [email protected]

Advisory Council Chairperson - Diana Jones 334-863-8527 [email protected]

NOMINATING COMMITTEE (Elected Members)

Jean Lee: Madison - Term 2010-2012 256-852-7336 [email protected]

Fred Evans - Central Alabama - Term: 2011-2013 334-285-0027 [email protected] Board member, Patti Harvey serves as the Board appointee

OTHER

Newsletter Editor: Ona Garwood - Coffee 334-393-4528 [email protected]

Webmaster: Diana Hansen - MGNA 256-430-0693 [email protected]

Membership Chair: Ellen Hall - Cullman 256-590-3115 [email protected]

Fundraising: Kathie Bass - MGNA 256-457-6530 [email protected]









http://www.aces.edu/questions/





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