Certified Master Gardeners

Florence County Master Gardeners in South Carolina

yardgranny — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:00:00 GMT

The Master Gardeners of Florence County in South Carolina will hold their 11th annual Spring Workshop and Plant Sale on Saturday, March 13, 2010. The main speaker is Pam Baggett who will begin at 10am. In the afternoon you will have your choice of mini sessions to attend. The Plants will be on sale all day to participants of the workshop.

Contact Gretchen Baumann at 843-395-3906

or Sally Haynes at 843-374-2477

Re: Becoming a Master Gardener

mourning_warbler — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Thanks, Connie. Our class will be $150 for six weeks, and it is taught by the county extension agent. A $50 increase in four years is not bad. I think they have the interviews because the class size is limited, and they receive a lot of applicants.

Elaine Rimbach, Venice FL

Becoming a Master Gardener

mourning_warbler — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

I live in Venice, FL, and I have applied to become a Master Gardener. The applicants will be called for interviews sometime in June. Is there anything specific I can do to prepare for the class? Does anyone have any advice? I don't mean to ask for particulars and anything that would not be 'kosher'. I would just like some general advice from those who have been through this process. I am very excited about the propspect of learning so much more than what I can glean by myself from reading books and by trial and error. Thank you so much.

Elaine R.

Re: Becoming a Master Gardener

bamaconnie — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

I have been a member of the Georgia Master Gardeners for about 4 years. We had to attend a class once a week for 6 weeks and take a very mild exam to join.

We did not have interviews. The class was $100.00 and included the textbook. It was taught by our county extension agent.

Connie Jenkins

Dublin, Georgia

symposiums in South Carolina

yardgranny — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Midlands Master Gardeners Association - 20th annual spring symposium - March 18,2010

Master Gardeners of York County - Joy of Gardening Symposium - February 27th 2010

Greater Greenville Master Gardeners Annual Symposium - February 6, 2010

Davidson Horticultural Symposium - at Davidson college - March 2, 2010

Master Gardener 2010 Class - Mondays beginning January 25, 2010 and will continue through January, February, March and April.

Wisconsin 2010 State Conference

captainbarteltz5wi — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

If anyone is interested the Wi. State conference will be held in Sheboygan, Wi. in 2010. the link to the web site is http://2010wimastergardenerconference.com/. Thanks for viewing and hope to see some of you there. Charles Bartelt President Sheboygan County master Gardener Volunteers.

Re: MG Websites and Newsletters

MS_Kanasoup — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Sorry, all I could do is share the site. Not a techie.

Re: hello out there

seedsaverwi_zn4 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

About the only good thing about having a head cold, is that it gives you a chance to catch up on your correspondence. So, Karen and Hjordiso, about "the newsletters".... I need to give you a little history so you can appreciate the progression of the style of my newsletter. I have been doing the newsletter a little over a year now, but about 4 or 5 issues ago, I was told that the Extension secretary could no longer help me. It was taking her too much time moving articles and columns around, and adding clip art and photos. So I was told I had to send it to her ready for the printer and email mailing. It's been rocky, I tried changing it to what was comfortable for me, and the sec'y would add her 2-cent's worth even though she was not to spend time on it. But this last newsletter, for this month, is pretty much all mine, I even managed to put in a couple of clip arts. Now, I still don't know how to deal with photos, and while I work everything in Word, when I send it on to the sec'y, she uses Publisher which changes it to a pdf file. And frankly, I haven't a clue what that really means, I just know it makes it complicated.

That's it for now. We're having our annual membership awards banquet this Thursday. The local branch, not the state. It should be interesting, although the board seem to think the rest of the ;membership should just sit there and say yes to whatever they say. I'm afraid I was never that good at be a follower. They have just updated the bylaws and expect to have them approved - move, second, approve - with no argument. What they don't know is that I have experience with by-laws and Robert's rules of order. I was state sec'y and national rep. for my professional organization (medical technologist or the new title, clinical laboratory scientist). I had to help to re-write ours. If the work day goes as badly as it usuallly does, they are not going to - move, second, approve - quite so easily. Guess I better check through my old files for those notes from my previous encounter with Robert's Rules of Order. Take care everyone, and keep in touch.

Fran

Re: Newsletters

Hjordiso — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Hey, Fran. Interesting post!

I do my newsletter in publisher too and I'll tell you why. When you do a letter in Word and then send it to someone else it changes form somehow. If you have publisher, it's easier to do a newsletter as you can add pages; delete pages, move them around, put one page over to another (drag and drop), etc. To insert photos and graphics, you just click the 'insert' button in you top menu, click 'picture', then 'from file' and it gives you the option of searching your photo files to pick the one you want. I keep all of mine in 'My Pictures". I keep all the folders for my 3 newsletters on my desktop; makes it easy to keep them separate and pull them up quickly when I want to work on them. I customize each folder with a picture to make it look like something I would identify with that newsletter.

Didn't mean to be so long, but I would suggest if you like doing this, try getting the publisher program. It's just so much easier and fun. You can pick out a different template for each letter and/or page that you want. BTW, doing it in publisher does not make it into a pdf. You can print Word into a pdf too, (a free downloadable program online)in fact, if you do that with your Word newsletter, it won't be likely to change around so much. I'm interested in hearing your response. Hjordis

Re: Business Meetings

Hjordiso — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I forgot to say, "Good for you for not being an easy follower, be a leader instead". Especially with your training. Have you mentioned to them that you have this experience?

Our 3 county MG program is very laid back; our MG's aren't even 'forced' to keep their commitment to do volunteer hours if they change their minds after the class. But we have the best and funniest FL extention agent to teach our classes. He is a riot and I loved the classes and working with such nice people.

Re: hello out there

MS_Kanasoup — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

thought you might be interested in seeing yet another mg newsletter

http://www.memphisareamastergardeners.org/

Re: MG Websites and Newsletters

Hjordiso — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Thanks, Karen. I checked out the Memphis web site and newsletter. They were great. I thought the welcome was very creative and I liked the graphics on the newsletter. I'm always looking for better graphics. Any suggestions? I would like to take a graphics class online; the CC near to us use the very expensive PhotoShop program which I don't even have.

Drying Gourds

cyotefishing — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This may be somewhere else but I have been searching endlessly. Gourd growing and drying is not common to where I live. I had a friend with a very successful garden last year give me some gourds. I made birdhouses and decor items this year from them. The seeds I plant last April in my garden and they basically took over. I have quite a few drying by hanging and the last I wanted to keep in the garden to dry. I made a judgement call yesterday and cut them(at least a 6 inch stem when possible)because our weather this year in October(due to El Nino)is very wet unlike a typical October when it is cool and dry. Some are green/yellow. My question is "Think they'll dry okay?"

Re: Hi, Fran and everyone else too.

Hjordiso — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Ok, so I went to your state web site. My it is so colorful and attractive. It’s simple enough to be user friendly but with lots of resources and info, and is also very attractive. I was impressed. And I found your newsletter as well. I thought your year long activity page would be helpful. I will send you a pdf. for our latest newsletter. We have a new website, but I will have to check it myself to see if everything is up and working and I'll send you that site. I am currently working on our newsletter this week and should have it finished before Monday for sure. I imagine you are too.

We had an Audubon representative come today to present a ppt. regarding "How to Attract Wildlife". It was quite interesting and she brought some really great books with her. I'd like to buy a couple of them. While most of us are into wildlife on our properties, it's always good to learn something new. I do know that I am going to move our bird bath out of the sun in my raised "sun" bed and put it in some diffused sun or shade where I can mist it from time to time. Well, it's been a long day. Looking forward to more posts from others as well. Have a great weekend everyone.

Re: hello out there

Hjordiso — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Can you tell me what zones your Bird House Goards grow best in? They sound very interesting. Do they make a big spreading vine? How do you grow yours?

Re: hello out there

doccat — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Hello there,

I got my Virginia certification about 3 years ago. I'm in the Fredericksburg, VA area and do volunteer work at the Mary Washington House. We are in the process of beginning a Botanical Garden in the city of Fredericksburg. Very exciting to be in on this at it's beginning. The city is working in conjunction with our MG group. We planted the first 2 trees at the beginning of the month. The city donated the site and has helped by providing water sources, etc. The ground is going to take some serious work to bring it up to par, but we're working on that. Eventually, our extension agent wants to be able to use it to teach classes for new MGs about trees, etc. Very exciting.

I'm always interested in chatting with other MGs, please feel free to contact me at doccat5@hotmail.com. Just add your a MG in the subject line, please.

Thanks,

Cathy Smith aka doccat5

Welcome, Cathy!

Hjordiso — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

It's great to hear about your new 'learning' garden that you are helping to establish. Our extension group here in Levy Co., FL are doing the same except right on their premises. We call ours a 'demo' garden for the community to share. Here they have used a lot of butterfly plants and they have butterfies already. I would be interested in what kind of trees you are using in yours - not that they would necessarily be trees we could grow here in Florida.

I am waiting for us on the Master Gardener group to begin actually sharing discussions. I hope the "reply" goes to everyone. I'm still learning this system. Maybe I need to reply to each person separately? I'll try that. I guess that's what they call the beginning of a thread; each initial posting making the beginning of a thread. Someome inform me. I usually don't have time for groups, but this one is special.

Re: Hi, Fran

Hjordiso — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Fran, I was wondering, since both you and I are newsletter editors for our MG groups, would you consider sending me via email a copy of your latest newsletter and I will do the same if you are interested. I'm always curious to see what other newsletters look like. I've even learned some things from the magazines that come to the Harley Davidson group in Gainesville as to how I could improve our newsletter; ie, putting a transparent text box on top of a floral background so you can see the background through the text box. It looks really nice. Let me know what you think about this. My email address is: hjordis@bellsouth.net. I hope to be putting a good picture on this group soon.

Re: hello out there

faison2009 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

i AM ANOTHER MASTER GARDNER OF 15 YEAR, HERE IN VIRGINIA INTHE COUNTRY 60 MILES EAST OF RICHMOND. WE HAVE HAD LOTS, OF RAIN SO THINGS ARE GROWING GROWING, BUT MY YELLOW SQUASH IS GROWING BUT THERE HARD LIKE A BASEBSALL BAT. I DONT GET IT....

Re: hello out there

faison2009 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

KAREN HERE FROM CENTRAL VIRGINIA, WITH SEEDS TO SHARE, PURPLE COLUMBINE, MARIGOLDS AND LOTS OF THEM, PARSLEY, AND CANTALOPE, ETC, ETC...ITS HOT HERE AND WE HAVE HAD LOTS OF RAIN. TOMATOES ARE GROWING, AND BIRD HOUSE GOARDS.

GROWING AND GROWING.