Where did May go?
- Did you plant a garden, harvest produce, diagnose some plant problems? If you were busy in your garden, you may just want to check out this month’s EMG Blog May 2012 blog post archive. Below, we also recap and share what we learned about gardening and the nation-wide Extension Master Gardener program through this blog, Facebook, Twitter and other information streams.
May 2012 – National Weather and Gardening Notes
It’s hot and dry in the Southwest! Southwest gardeners told us it now time to think again about firewise gardening. One of our Facebook members, Sylvia Hacker, shared this blockbuster list of FireWise Landscaping resources with resource contributions from 19 state’s Cooperative Extension Services. Check to see if your state has a resource, or share this list with a friend that may need it!
Damage to this tree from a summer storm might have been avoided if pruned properly the first time
Cool and Soggy? In contrast to hot and dry in the southwest, Pacific Northwest Master Gardener, Carla Albright discusses several clever ideas for coping with a wet spring, and thus wet garden. If you can relate to gardening under these conditions, you might want to share your experiences via the comment section and list ways you’ve coped as well!
Summer storms. As April and May are some of the peak tornado months throughout the Central Plains, and other storms (hurricanes, flooding and strong winds) cause damage to gardens and landscapes across the United States this summer, you may want to consult this list of harsh weather [landscaping] help resources. While written in May 2011, the resources listed are still very helpful and handy to bookmark should your landscape and plants need to recoup from summer storms.
Extension Master Gardeners – News From Across the Country
Foy Spicer: How I Became a Master Gardener (Class of 2012)
Washington State has its own Master Gardener Volunteer Week! Hear about why Washington State’s governor has proclaimed there is an official Master Gardener volunteer week in May 13-19. During this week, Master Gardener, Mary-Jean Grimes shared how two Washington counties see the importance in providing hands-on training and follow-up evaluations to help continually improve their Master Gardener training experiences.
What is it like to become a Master Gardener? Just initiated, new Master Gardener intern, Foy Spicer, shares her version of “How I Became a Master Gardener“, giving us an inside scoop into what she learned from extension specialists and horticulture business owners, what she saw through a field trip to a local greenhouse, and how she was able to connect, laugh, and identify with gardening-inclined people by joining her local Extension Master Gardener program. Welcome to the program, Foy!
Be on the Lookout for Events
Be on the lookout for garden tours!
Summer Garden Tours are a great way to learn, ask questions, and take great pictures! The Alabama, Lee County Master Gardeners and Johnson County (Kansas) Extension Master Gardeners just had their garden tours this May, but we’ve heard there will be many other garden tours in coming months. We see Ohio State Extension – Miami County Master Gardeners will host ‘Miami County in Bloom’ Saturday, June 16th, and this July, Hennepin County Minnesota Master gardeners are hosting their annual learning garden tour. Looking for a garden tour near you? A search on the web for ‘master gardener garden tour’ yields quite a few results – hopefully one will be near you!
Pollinator Week is June 18-24. Does your Extension Master Gardener group raise awareness of pollinators or provide pollinator education in conjunction with this week? If so, you can list it and get additional publicity with other events in your area. List your event for pollinator week at http://pollinator.org/npw_eventform.htm and (after a 3 day review period) see it listed with other pollinator events across the United States.
Educational Resources
Raised Bed Cloches (Photo: Carla Albright)
How to Build Raised Bed Cloches (PDF) is a publication that we discovered during Carla Albright’s wet spring, wet garden blog post this month. Cloches, which resemble mini-greenhouses, protecting plants from wind and cold (and too much rain in Carla’s case). For many gardeners, cloches provide the benefit of extending the gardening season. This publication covers materials needed, associated costs, and benefits of using raised bed cloches.
Webinar Recording: Fire Ant Control Made Easy is now available. This Webinar and other fire ant resources are designed for Extension Master Gardeners in states where Fire Ants are present; however, it never hurts to know about fire ants, especially if you travel to a state with them and you think you are going to sit down in the grass without looking first!
Get Involved
Compost life of the soil
Learn about the Strive for 5% Campaign that Extension Master Gardener, Connie Schulz covered during International Compost Awareness Week, May 7-12th.
Help report two plants diseases! Extension Master Gardeners are still needed to help detect a new plant disease, basil downy mildew, and to help distribute brochures about a national late blight project. If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please go directly to the blog posts links and contact project coordinator, Meg McGrath for more information.
Looking for other resources and opportunities? Check out our past monthly updates @ http://blogs.extension.org/mastergardener/tag/monthlyupdate/
What did you learn this month? What do you have coming up?
Tags: monthlyupdate
