URI MGP Newsletter, June 1: Summer Classes, New Leaders

Not to be Missed: Enhancing Wild Bees in Home and Community Garden

enhancingwildbeesYou may have heard your fellow Master Gardeners raving about the phenomenal classes on pollinators in April.  Click here to watch a recording of Scott MacIvor’s presentation on “Enhancing Wild Bees in Cities: Practical Approaches for Home and Community Gardeners.”  Time spent watching counts as continuing education hours if you complete the survey at the bottom of the page. 🙂

New Leaders in the North

Northern Region Coordinator

NorthLeaderWe are pleased to announce that Betsy Polhemus, URIMG Class of 2011,  has been selected as Northern Region Coordinator to serve on the URI Master Gardener Program Council.  She officially begins on July 1 and will be training in the meantime.  Betsy, a retired Nurse Educator, is an excellent teacher and organizer, who serves as one of our top public presenters teaching the public about research-based gardening techniques.  She also has experience as a vegetable gardener, soil testers and seed sorter!  Please welcome Betsy as she visits projects, school gardens and events this growing season!  Remember, your Region’s Coordinator serves as your representative, providing local context as we make decisions and sharing concerns, ideas and success stories to inform the folks in leadership positions.  Welcome Betsy, we look forward to working with you!

Note from Betsy Polhemus, Northern Region Coordinator

I am so pleased to be appointed the Northern Coordinator, as of July 1, 2017. I look forward to meeting all of you and becoming familiar with your projects. I hope I can continue in Theresa Melvin’s very capable shoes and that I I will be able to help you make this current garden season a success.

Northern School Garden Mentor Manager

It is also my pleasure to announce that Linda Carlow will be serving in the role of Northern RI School Garden Mentor Manager.  This important position supports our school garden mentors in the area, intaking new school requests, matching up volunteers with schools and more!  Thank you to Linda for your leadership!

-Vanessa Venturini, State Program Leader

Help Wanted: Docents for Garden Tour June 24 & 25

Would you like to help welcome the public to our garden locations during the Gardening with the Masters Tour?  Garden tour docents will be trained by the hosts to teach the lessons of the garden. We have 2 shifts for garden tour docents from 10am-1pm and 1pm -4pm on both days of the tour, June 24 and 25.  Sign up for one or both shifts to get a nice chunk of  volunteer hours!  All volunteer hours are entered under “Garden Tour – DIRECT EDUCATION SERVICE” in Volgistics. 

To sign up:

Shifts are available in Cranston, Cumberland, East Greenwich, North Kingstown Richmond, Saunderstown and Tiverton.  Please sign up for a shift in Volgistics by clicking on “my schedule” and then selecting “June”.  Deadline to sign up for a shift is Monday, June 12, 2017.

Summer is the perfect time to learn in the field!

All Continuing Education Offerings This Summer!

June Continuing Education Classes

pollinator health

SGM Training: The Garden Classroom
June 5th, 2017 at 6pm
URI Pharmacy 170

What’s better than bringing lessons alive in an outdoor garden classroom!? This workshop for School Garden Mentors and school partners, will provide all with an opportunity to discuss, investigate and engage in activities aligned with curriculum standards with emphasis on NGSS. URI Youth STE[A]M Education Coordinator, Amy Cabaniss, PhD, will lead this workshop. You’re encouraged to bring along a favorite sample lesson if you wish to share.

School Garden Mentors are encouraged to bring a teacher or member of their school garden team. Please register in Volgistics.

pollinator healthSpeaking Skills Training Session
June 6th, 2017 at 6pm
URI Pharmacy 240

Learn the skills you need to teach others as a Master Gardener volunteer.  We’ll hear from some of our MG public presentation speakers about the best way to deliver information to the general public. If you like learning about a topic in-depth and sharing that knowledge with your community, this class is for you! Please register in Volgistics.

July Continuing Education Classes

AgronomyFarmURI Agronomy Farm Tour
July 19th, 10-11:30 am
Agronomy Farm, URI Kingston campus
Dr. Rebecca Brown, URI Plant Sciences

Join Professor Rebecca Brown for a tour of the URI Agronomy Farm. The URI Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology manages over 50 acres of turfgrass, horticulture, and agronomy farms for teaching, research, and outreach. Attendees would be able to see various cover cropping strategies, vegetable production and season extension techniques.
Please register in Volgistics.

NormanBirdHabitat Restoration Walk at Norman Bird Sanctuary
Norman Bird Sanctuary, Middletown
July 20th, 3-5 pm
Hope Leeson, RI Natural History Survey

Learn about how to increase habitat resiliency on a landscape level with RI’s premier botanist. Coastal forests provide habitat for migratory nesting birds; a critical function which is at risk due to changes in the plant community. In this walk you learn how removing invasive species from the forest and replanting with diverse local ecotypes of native species play an important role for wildlife. We’ll also gain a greater understanding of the influence white-tailed deer exert on forest regeneration at the Sanctuary.
Please register in Volgistics.

AgronomyFarm2URI Agronomy Farm Tour
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

eastfarmDiagnostics Skill-Building Series: Vegetables
URI East Farm Demo Garden 
August 8th, 5:30-8:00 pm

We will meet at East Farm MG Field House and will study in the Demonstration Vegetable Garden. Our walkabout through the garden will highlight common symptoms and organic controls and techniques to share with clients. Because the garden is so well tended we may not find a lot of problems, so bring a photo or sample of a vegetable problem you may be having. August and September are the peak months of harvest and all the resources we have throughout the state will be at full strength.
Please register in Volgistics.

pollinatorbeePollinator 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.

PollinatorInvasive 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.

Exuberant and Sustainable

ExuberantAlice Cross URIMG 2011

When Jean Frisbie began work on her garden in 2007, she already had her bona fides, having earned a certificate in landscape design from George Washington University, which she would later turn into a Masters degree in the same subject. Then she completed the URIMG course to become a Master Gardener.

Her home in Newport has been the lucky recipient of all this expertise. She used some of the plants present from the duplex’s previous life as rental units—mostly hydrangeas and a temperate hibiscus—but her main focus was using Claudia West and Thomas Rainer’s vision of matrix planting to replicate natural growth patterns, and using ground covers as mulch. Vines grow up the wooden fence surrounding the garden; herbs and tropicals dominate the warm roof of her basement-entry shed, the one strongly sunny area in this 15’ x 50’ lot. Jean says that “visitors are surprised by the exuberance of the growth.” She has added natives, but keeps “well-behaved imports.”

To see Jean’s wonderful work and glean from her store of knowledge, you need only go online to web.uri.edu/mastergardener, look for the RegOnline link, and order your ticket to the Gardening with the Masters Tour. $20 will provide you with two days of gardening sightseeing at 26 different homes, plus 5 continuing ed hours.

A Message from Lee Menard

Greeting Master Gardeners,

It was great to see so many at our Master Gardener meeting last week. For those of you who were unable to attend, I did note that this meeting would be the last one at which I would be greeting you. I will be stepping down as Volunteer Engagement Coordinator at the end of June. This will give me a chance to spend more time with my grandkids and get back to deciding which MG projects

Thank you for the refreshments and for your donation of 130 pounds of non- perishable food. The food collected was delivered to St. Patrick Church in Burrillville. The lady who received the food noted they are now collecting items needed for personal use. Things like toothpaste, brushes, shampoo, soaps, lotions, and the like are examples. We might consider thinking about this at a meeting next year.

You were asked to do some creative thinking so that this newsletter will have a name that reflects gardening in some way. Some of you who have been MG for a long time may remember getting “The Hoedown” by snail mail many moons ago. One MG sent an email the day after the meeting. Remember – we are brain- storming and no answer is wrong. Here are the ideas we have so far.

Potential Newsletter Names
The Garden GnomeGreen Talk
In the GardenWorld of Green
GROWSpreading Green
Green ThumbThe Inspired Garden
Dirty HandsPatch of Green
CULTIVATEThe Garden and Beyond
Plant LoveDreams of Green
Garden TalkSoil. Seeds. Plants.
The Garden ViewNature at Work
The Garden PathThe Dirt


How about putting on your thinking caps and come up with some more ideas? Email me (leemenard2582@gmail.com) with your creative names. MG volunteers will help decide the final title.

Since May was the last meeting I’ll be greeting you, I’d like to say that it was a pleasure to work with so many of you over the years since I began volunteering as a Master Gardener. I sort of feel like an Intern again – it’s time to figure out what project to help with! Looking forward to meeting new Master Gardeners and continuing to volunteer with you all.

Be well and I hope you will have a successful growing season.
Lee Menard

URI MGP Newsletter, June 1: Summer Classes, New Leaders

Hot Topics from the URI Consumer Horticulture Educator

rosanneThe following science-based articles may help you answer questions from the community.  Rosanne Sherry, URI Consumer Horticulture Educator, recommends you read them to help sharpen your own gardening and educator skills! Please send comments or suggestions for articles to rsherry@uri.edu.

From UCONN Home and Garden newsletter June 2017
June Gardening Tips:

  1. a) Control and reduce aphid numbers on vegetables, roses, perennial flowers, shrubs and trees with a hard spray from your garden hose or two applications of insecticidal soap.
  2. b) White grub preventative control should be applied prior to egg hatch and a target date of June 15th is recommended although it can be done up to July 15th.
  3. c) If you must overhead water, do so early in the day to allow the foliage to dry. Using soaker hoses or drip lines will decrease the risk of disease problems.
  4. d) Plant seeds of bush beans every three weeks through the season for continuous harvests.
  5. e) Check container plants daily during hot or windy weather, they will need water often.
  6. f) Overgrown, multi-stemmed shrubs like spirea, lilac, and forsythia, can be renovated by removing 1/3 of stems down to ground level each year for 3 years, allowing some new young growth to replace these older stems.
  7. g) Pick pea pods regularly before the pods over-mature and the peas become starchy.
  8. h) A spray of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) will control emerging tent and Gypsy Moth caterpillars but is not toxic to insects, birds, or humans.

From Eco-RI May 2, 2017
Runoff, Drugs and Chemicals Stressing Narragansett Bay
It Takes a Family to Turn Good Compost; At Earth Care Farm, a Legacy Lives on
Dozens Assessing Environmental Literacy in Rhode Island

From Eco-RI May 9, 2017
Return of Gypsy Moths Likely to Impact Water Quality

From APHIS May 9, 2017
USDA News Release: Eradication Program Announces 2017 Plans for Fighting the Asian Longhorned Beetle in New York, Massachusetts, and Ohio
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAPHIS/bulletins/19971a9

From UMASS Landscape Message May 12, 2017
*New Pollinator Protection Resource Online: The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources has developed a Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan. It is a set of voluntary guidelines that discuss best management practices for stakeholders seeking to promote the health of the European honeybee and other pollinators. This document includes information for beekeepers, pesticide applicators, land managers and farmers, nurseries and landscapers, and homeowners and gardeners. Please locate the MA Pollinator Protection Plan for more information here:
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/agr/farmproducts/apiary/pollinator-plan.pdf