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URI MGP Newsletter, July 20: Time to Nominate for Awards, Yoga and Veggies
Frequently Asked Questions: Replacement Pins
You may request a replacement pin using our form on the internal MG website. Go to our website and click on “MG Login”. Password – seeds. Click on Pin Replacement Form! J Please do so by August 1, as we will be ordering the next batch of pins in August for the September Recognition Event. This will be the last batch of pins ordered until our January MG meeting so make sure to get those hours in Volgistics!
Learning about URI Vegetable Research on the Farm
Here URI Master Gardeners are learning from Dr. Brown at the URI Agronomy Farm during Tuesday’s continuing education class. She is teaching us about the row covers that are kept on the young cucumber plants to protect them from cucumber beetle. In addition to chewing the leaves, cucumber beetles spread bacterial wilt. Row covers are removed when plants are in bloom to allow for pollination. Read more about this pest in this Cornell Extension Website.
Poinsettia Project Volunteers Needed
The URIMGP Poinsettia Project is still in need of volunteers starting in August of this year. The Poinsettia Project is a support activity that is part of the North America Poinsettia Trials. We receive over 1700 poinsettia cuttings from breeders and grow them in our greenhouses and evaluate different varieties of poinsettias. We then provide feedback to the breeders on the growth patterns, bloom time and bract size and color. The project runs from August through November. We need volunteers for Mondays, Tuesdays & Friday. The length of time is usually 3 hours in the morning once a week. The job demands tolerance of the heat in summer, moderate lifting, and being on your feet.
Poinsettias are unlike any other plant you will grow. If you can grow a poinsettia, you can grow anything!
Please contact Kathy Larson @ klarsonrn@cox.net or 401-828-5128 by August 4th if you have questions or are interested in joining the poinsettia team.
Yoga in the Garden
Life is all about finding balance, here Nan Quinlan, MG Class of 2003 leads a group of Master Gardeners in a “yoga for gardeners” class at East Farm. Here they are stretching after cleaning out the apple orchard. So cool!
Please Nominate for MG and Rookie of the Year Awards
As you may be aware, each year we nominate those Master Gardeners and Interns whom we feel have done an exceptional job. It is now time to do just that. If you know someone who goes above and beyond for the Master Gardeners please send in their names and descriptions of their performance. So far we’ve only received 2 nominations!
The guidelines for these nominations are also found with the forms in the documents page of the website. Click on the links below to access to forms directly.
Click here for Rookie of the Year form. Click here for Master Gardener of the Year Form.
All nominations are due by August 1st so that the Recognition Committee has time to vote on the nominees. Winners (and nominees) will be announced at the September 16th Volunteer Recognition Event. In addition, this year we will also be announcing a Project of the Year award winner to be selected by the Recognition Committee.
Thanks in advance for your help! – Charlie Junod, Chair, Recognition Committee
RIMGP Award at Newport Flower Show
You may not have been aware of it, but recently, Caryl Freedman and Betsy McClintock were judges in the Horticultural Division at this year’s Newport Flower Show (NFS), which celebrated its 22nd year as one of America’s premier summer flower shows. Held at the Newport Preservation Society’s Versailles-inspired mansion Rosecliff, the theme “Fete Des Fleurs: Painting and Parterres” was reflective of the what the show’s event organizers hoped would illustrate the distinctive flair, style, culture and joie de vie that is the very essence of France.
The flower show ran from Friday, June 23 through Sunday, June 25, with our judging duties being done on Thursday, June 22.
Betsy was also asked to present The URI MGP Award to its winner at the Sunday afternoon awards ceremony. The URI MGP Award is traditionally presented for the most distinctive indoor or outdoor container entry by a novice. A novice is defined by NFS rules as any entrant who has not won a blue ribbon in a particular category in any past NFS.
This year, The Newport Garden Club was the 2017 winner of the URI MGP Award, given for their colorful and delightful outdoor multiple-container arrangement, which also had the requirement of needing to hold up as a display in full sunlight. This particular entry contained a wide variety of bright blooming bulbs, annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, small shrubs and even a well-pruned accent tree, all of which were displayed in compatibily-colored containers and accented by whimsical garden objets d’art. On our Judges’ Remarks card, Caryl and Betsy wrote that the display “just simply made us smile.”
Caryl and Betsy were not the only judges who felt that this entry was exceptional. Along with winning the URI MGP Award, it also won the Mrs. Robert M. Grace Best in Show for Horticulture (selected from the group of the show’s blue ribbon winners), as well as the Newport-In-Bloom Award for the most exceptional outdoor container entry. Accepting for all three awards was Mary Gilbane of Newport, RI – as pictured with the URI MGP perpetual trophy in the attached pics.
Garden Design Class at Swan Point Cemetery
Thursday, August 17 at 4 PM
585 Blackstone Boulevard
Please join us on Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 4:00 p.m. at Swan Point Cemetery, 585 Blackstone Boulevard, Providence RI in the Gray Coale Reception Hall, adjacent to the main office for a discourse on garden design. Landscape horticulturist Warren Leach shall discuss planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and even onward.
His talk will focus on quenching heat, humidity and drought. A garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog days of August and drought of summer and will continue to offer colorful exuberance of flowers, maturing seedheads and colorful foliage.
The lecture will last approximately 1 hour with light refreshments.
Please call 401-272-1314 to reserve your seat, or email AnitaV@swanpoint1846.com
Update from the International Extension MG Conference (in case you missed it)
The good work of our Rhode Island Master Gardeners was front and center at last week’s International Extension Master Gardener (EMG) Conference in Portland, Oregon. This event is a great opportunity to collaborate with our peers in the Cooperative Extension system. We
have been sharing ideas with other MGs and Coordinators around the country and world, and gaining cutting-edge horticultural knowledge through workshops. The conference is held every other year.
On Tuesday, on behalf of the URIMG School Garden Mentors, we accepted the 1st place in the youth category of the Search for Excellence prize. A 4-minute video showcased the impact of SGMs in improving success of school gardens and connecting youth to the process of growing food and learning from an outdoor classroom. This video generated quite a buzz among conference participants, many of whom also work in school settings.
After a few more edits we will be excited to feature this video in an upcoming newsletter. Congratulations to the School Garden Mentors amongst us!
In addition, Vanessa Venturini, our State Program Leader and the Northeast Representative on the National EMG Committee, was featured on a panel discussion about volunteer retention and motivations. This was based on the data collected from a University of Georgia survey that 90 URIMG’s answered late last year. The Northeast MGs in attendance were eager to continue to collaborate.
In addition to learning about birds in the suburbs, growing in a greenhouse, making your garden more attractive to beneficials, growing everything from fruit trees to clematis, and designing your garden with Thomas Rainer, co-author with Claudia West of the book Planting in a Post Wild World, there has been time to visit beautiful gardens and nurseries in the Portland area. We’ve seen how hops and olives are grown and processed, beautiful shade gardens, nurseries that specialize in odd and unusual plants and looked at Portland’s urban garden movement.
And then there are all the great gardeners we’ve talked to who hail from around the USA, Canada and South Korea.
The good news is the next two International Master Gardener Conferences are in the East. So mark your calendars. The 2019 conference will be June 18-21 in Valley Forge, PA and the 2021 conference will be in the fall of 2021 in Coastal Virginia.
Smithsonian Community of Gardens
The Smithsonian Institution is asking for your stories about gardens, greenspaces, and gardening history. Community of Gardens (communityofgardens.si.edu) is the Smithsonian’s digital home for preserving stories of gardens and the gardeners who make them grow. Stories can be anecdotes or interviews, about the past or present, about a particular plant, about a particularly memorable moment spent in a garden or greenspace, about garden traditions or practices, and so much more!
By contributing images, videos, and stories to this website, your participation will help others to better understand the meaning and value of gardens to American life – today and in the future. Share your garden and gardening stories at https://communityofgardens.si.edu/contribution. Email us at communityofgardens@si.edu.
American Community Gardening Association - 38th Annual Conference
July 27-30, 2017
Capital Community College
Hartford, CT
WORKSHOPS, TOURS (CT & MA), FILMS, GALA EVENT
www.communitygarden.org/conference
877-ASK-ACGA
Continuing Education Offerings This Summer
July Continuing Education Classes
URI Agronomy Farm Tour: Vegetable Research, Soil, Pest Mgt
July 26th, 5-6:30 pm
Agronomy Farm, URI Kingston Campus
Andy Radin, URI Cooperative Extension
Join URI Agricultural Extension Agent Andy Radin for a tour of the URI Agronomy Farm. The URI Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology manages this Agricultural Experiment Station Farm for teaching, research, and outreach. Attendees will learn about several vegetable crops research projects in progress, and there will be open discussion about soil health, pest management and other topics of interest.
Please register in Volgistics.
August Continuing Education Classes
Pollinator Meadow Walk
Location (To be determined)
August 17th, 5:00-7:00 pm
Join Natural Resources Conservation Services Biologist Gary Casabona exploring a pollinator meadow in Rhode Island.
The lecture will include all of the key topics for establishing quality pollinator habitat:
- The many different options for site preparation — which is perhaps the most important step toward success of a pollinator seeding !
- Recommendations on the best woody and herbaceous plants, and the reasons why they are valuable to both pollinators and migratory birds, will be discussed in detail.
- Ongoing mowing and maintenance practices to maintain a large percentage of native wildflowers with relatively few invasives.
Please register in Volgistics.
Invasive Plant Management: Late Season Strategies and Methods for Restoring Habitat
August 31st, 9-12 pm
Canonchet Farm, Narragansett
Join Thomas Fortier, for session 2 of a guided field study at Canonchet Farm Habitat Restoration. While participants are not required to attend both sessions, the effective strategies for invasive plant removal and habitat restoration in the late season vary significantly from those used in the early season. We’ll look at the methods for restoring the native plant complexes and delve into plant identification. Each participant will have the chance to try out a range of tools for invasive removal. Dress for field work. Space is limited.
Please register in Volgistics.
