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Minutes of the Master Gardeners of Union County
Education
Hours Earned: 30 Minutes
Volunteer
Hours Earned: 1 HourEducation
For the Education portion of the meeting the officers presented helpful garden tips for the group. Marsha Kiss presented 2 ideas that can help make planting small seeds easier and make cut flowers from the garden last longer. Marsha’s first idea was to use a strip of cut newspaper, put water soluble glue in little circles at appropriate spaces apart, and then stick the small seeds to the glue. You can plant the whole strip of seeds very easily. Her other tip was offering various methods for keeping cut flowers longer. For example: cut Lilac stems on an angle to increase surface area for the stem to take up water, remove foliage and place in warm water. Also, for Delphinium, you immediately place in water with preservative. You can find more tips for cut flowers in the May 2006 edition of Better Homes and Gardens. Audrey Hall showed us one of her most valuable garden tools – an electric leaf mulching machine (Flowtron Leaf Eater). She can feed through whole leaves and the Leaf Eater mulches them up very fine. She then uses the mulched leaves in her compost bin and also adds them directly to her soil. She also keeps bags of the mulched leaves on hand for whenever she may need them. Kim Main also discussed mulching leaves and using them as a soil conditioner for the garden as well as a winter mulch for tender plants. She also shared that she uses an old bag of leveling sand set inside a container to store garden art over the winter. The sand provides a great spot to stick the long stakes of several garden art items and keeps them from falling over. Claire Loeffelman shared that she uses Bonide Mosquito Beater to keep pests away while she entertains in her yard. She just spreads it a few hours before her guests arrive (enough time for any product odor to dissipate) and their time outdoors is pest free. Also, she shared she uses a great product called a Brick Clip to attach items to the brick on her house. She didn’t want to drill holes into the brick on her home but she wanted to put up some decorations. The Brick Clips work by using tension on the shape of the brick and they hold a lot of weight.
In addition, Dilu Juvarkan shared that she has planted steppables next to her stepping stones by placing the plants into cans then planting the cans into the ground. She leaves a little of the can sticking out of the ground. Also, George said if he has weeds coming up next to desirable plants he puts on a rubber glove with a cloth glove over it, then he dips the tip of his gloved fingers into an herbicide and lets the solution drip onto the weeds or he touches the weeds with his gloved fingers. This is a method to get the weed killer directly on the weed without harming the desirable plant in the process.
Claire also stated she did a survey of the Union County Master Gardeners on our favorite garden centers. She said she got a great response and many of us like to help out our local garden centers (such as Scheiderer’s) as well as The Anderson’s and Oakland Nursery. Also, she said that Dawn Combs’ sent her a note and shared that her family owns Davis Seed Service in London, Ohio.
Meeting
President Claire Loeffelman called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM.
Secretary’s Report
There was one correction to the minutes of the April 2006 meeting and they stood approved as edited.
Treasurer’s Report
Audrey Hall gave the treasurer’s report. We had income of $207 from Adopt-A-Pot and $500 for Garden Tour. Expenses incurred were $31.20 for postage and $23.44 for Earth Day.
Timekeeper’s Report
Most everyone got their hours in. If you are still experiencing problems or if you need your password please contact Claire Loeffelman. Claire shared that OSU is looking at changing the system we use to record our hours but we have no definite information yet.
Old Business
Volunteering
A poster board will be set up next to the mail boxes at every meeting to show current volunteer opportunities. It will show the active projects, chairperson’s name, the type of volunteer need and the number of volunteers needed.
Earth Day
Claire mentioned Earth Day. She said it went well. Claire will ask Roberta Gordon to share the results of the day at the next meeting.
McCloud Park
Karen Long gave the report. 6 work sessions have been held to complete weeding, pruning, fertilizing, edging, moving/dividing perennials and plant annuals. The theme of the annuals planted is green and purple. At the time of the May meeting, plant labels were still needed at the park. Mulch will be delivered and will need to be spread. Normally, work days are the first Saturday of the month, however, in July that is a holiday weekend and the following weekend is the pre-tour for the Tour of Gardens. The work day for July still needs to be scheduled and will be announced at a later date.
Getting enough volunteers to the park on days when a lot of work needs to be done has been difficult. Claire discussed putting together a focus group to talk about what has worked well, what hasn’t and ideas for the future.
Adopt-a-Pot
Everything got planted on May 20. A new pot was planted at the Courthouse.
Garden Tour
Miriam Carson spoke about the 2006 Garden Gour. Current volunteer needs were discussed. Mim passed around a tour volunteer sign-up book to ensure we have all of the volunteer names. 6 more garden volunteers are needed. Parking lot helpers are also needed. Mim asked members of the new class to work at a garden to help them learn and get to know other Master Gardeners, if you are interested.
A food vendor will be available from Noon to 6 pm and will be located behind where tickets are being sold.
Each MG has been given 5 tickets for pre-sale. The person who sells the most tickets will get a basket of goodies from Rothschild’s thanks to Chris Burnard.
Plant Sale
Kathy Altizer spoke about the plant sale, scheduled for August 26 from 8 AM till sold out. Mary McCord is working on publicity. Dutch Iris bulbs have been donated by Burbee Bulb Company. We receive over 200 of them and Kathy was taking names of volunteers who could help her pot up the bulbs.
Leaping Frog
Marcia Lee spoke about having the Leaping Frog all month. She said Froggie was very busy helping to plant 600 acres of corn and 1,400 acres of soybeans and she shared pictures of the adventures of the frog. She graciously passed the frog along to Patsy Bushdorf.
Coordinator’s Report
George brought in an example of an ash tree branch as part of identification in relation to Emerald Ash Borer.
The butterfly garden at the UCAC (south wing) will be getting planted on May 27. Also, the beds need to be edged so the county can lay mulch.
The COYC (Central Ohio Youth Center) project: 2 members of the class of 2006 are working on this project. They will provide demonstration, education and planting information to the group from COYC who will then install the garden.
George wanted to remind everyone that reading qualifies for education hours. You can read a gardening article on the internet, Veg Net, BYGL, or Fruit News. For every article or newsletter you will receive 15 minutes towards education hours.
The Association of Floriculture Professionals is offering a Floriculture Short Course on July 8, 9, 19, 11. It is mainly for those people in the floriculture trade. However, it may be possible to go and get good deals on the last day when the vendors are packing up. Claire will find out if they still need volunteers for the event. For more information check out their web site at http://grounds-mag.com/news/ofa_course_051005/index.html
New Business
Senior Fair
Marsha Kiss reported that we attended the Senior Fair sponsored by the Council on Aging on May 9. The event had good attendance and everything went well.
Festifair
We will be participating in Festifair in 2006 instead of the Union County Fair. Festifair will be held on September 9. We need to plan an education idea and giveaways. If you are interested in helping or have ideas contact Marsha Kiss.
June Meeting - Picnic
We will have a picnic at the June meeting. The meat will be provided but side dishes and desserts will be needed. Claire will send out a sign-up sheet.
The May meeting ended with the plant swap.
Members in attendance:
| Kathy
Altizer |
Claire
Loeffelman |
| Chris
Burnard |
Karen
Long |
| Patsy
Bushdorf |
Kim
Main |
| Miriam
Carson |
Mary McCord |
| Barb
Conaway |
Mary
McDonald |
| Meg
Cryder |
Nancy Mead |
| Carolyn
Gibeaut |
Carol
Mickley |
| Scheral
Greider |
Karen
Mikols |
| Audrey
Hall |
John Miller |
| Amber Haynes |
Deena Newell |
| Mary
Ann Haynes |
Ian
Pasco |
| Joe
Johnson |
Susan Pasco |
| Dilu Juvarkar |
Sheila Sands |
| Susan
Kinzer |
Linda Taylor |
| Hazel Lawruk |
Annie Wedel |
| Marcia Lee |
Nancy
Wells |
| Beth Wible |
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Revised June, 2006