URI MGP Newsletter, Mar 2: Get your CE before planting time, bees, natives and the urban landscape

March Master Gardener Meeting

Thursday, March 23, 6pm – 9pm
Swan Hall, Upper College Road

meeting Our March MG meeting is a great time to get together with your fellow MG’s, catch up on the latest MG news and meet our brand new URI Plant Sciences Department faculty member, Dr. John Taylor. Dr. Taylor will speak on Resilient Landscapes as we continue to delve into our “Land Stewardship” focus area. He’ll talk about his plans for urban gardening research here in Rhode Island, and ways that URI Master Gardeners can get involved!

Rosanne Sherry will provide timely Master Gardener Quick Tips to help you answer questions as we ramp up the kiosk and soil testing. Vanessa Venturini will continue to explain our new “focus area”of getting folks excited about improving the environment from their back yard. Please REGISTER IN VOLGISTICS so we may send you relevant information.

We will award pins as well! MG merchandise and garden tour tickets will be on sale. If you haven’t completed your volunteer renewal, you can do so at this meeting. Feel free to bring potluck food items to share with your fellow MG’s!

Powerpoint Skills (2 Sessions)

Monday, March 20, 1:00pm – 2:30pm or 5:30-7:00pm
Chaffee 208

Learn how to use a powerpoint template and best practices to design a powerpoint presentation. This sessions is designed for our public presenters to gain more skills developing gardening talks to give to the public. Sign up for one session only, space is limited.

Registration is required in Volgistics.

Catch the Buzz…Learn the Benefits of Beekeeping

Wednesday, March 22, 2017, 2:00PM
Beechwood Center, 44 Beach Street, North Kingstown

buzz URI Master Gardener, Jaime Nash, is the project leader for the Edible Forest Garden located in Roger Williams Park, Providence, RI. He has given several presentations and workshops related to beekeeping, attracting pollinators and forest gardening including the many permaculture concepts typically featured within them. He is also a beekeeper and helps maintain two honeybee hives located within the Community Garden at Roger Williams Park.

This lecture will focus on illustrating and teaching the benefits of beekeeping and will highlight how tending beehives gives the gardener a new appreciation for these special pollinating insects. Gardening would never be the same without them. Protect and encourage these tireless tiny farmers!

If interested in attending, please contact Rayna Wilcox, Volunteer/Program Coordinator, at The Beechwood Center for Life Enrichment at 401-268-1594; or email her at: RWilcox@northkingstown.org. These programs are offered to members and the public at no charge. Master Gardeners receive education credits for attending.

Back to Our Roots: Being Wild About Wild Plants

Saturday, March 25, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
URI, Pharmacy 170

In Celebration of RIWPS 30th Anniversary, Lisa Lofland Gould, founding member and first president of RIWPS will address the question, Why should anyone care about plants, and especially about that seemingly obscure and often subtle flora we Wild Folks so enjoy? Lisa will consider the pivotal role that plants play in our lives, some history of human knowledge of the plant world, and how we seek to understand plants today.

http://riwps.org/event/annual-meeting-lisa-gould-guest-speaker/

Passionate about water quality issues?

water Interested in lawn care management and how those decisions affect our water quality? Researchers at the University of Rhode Island are conducting a short online survey on lawn care and water quality. These survey responses will provide us with vital information for this research funded by the National Science Foundation.

We’re counting on participation from residents like you. You can receive $2 in Amazon credit for your participation. Please take the time to fill out the survey before March 31^st.

Type this in your browser: goo.gl/Jr5hBm
This research has been approved by URI’s IRB.

URI Master Gardener Program