URI MGP Newsletter, May 18: June Classes, Congrats Class of 2017!

May Master Gardener Meeting This Tuesday at 6pm

We’ll have talks on pollinators, Smithsonian’s Community of Gardens, upcoming events for the year, pin awards and more!  Click here for more information about the meeting’s speakers and what to bring.  Please log into Volgistics to register.

URI MGP Newsletter, May 18: June Classes, Congrats Class of 2017!

Frequently Asked Question: Logging in to MG Website

How do I log in to the internal Master Gardener Program Website?
Go to our website: web.uri.edu/mastergardener
Click on “Master Gardener Login” button
Enter password = seeds
You’re in!

Invasive Plant/ Habitat Restoration Field Class This Thursday

May 25, 9am-12pm at Canonchet Farm

pollinator healthJoin Thomas Fortier, Naturalist at the Canonchet Farm habitat restoration project on a guided field study.  This class will look at early season strategies and methods for restoring habitat in a range of Southern New England Ecosystems. We will be looking at early season plant species and habitats which have been invaded by common non-native species over the course of the past century.  We’ll look at the strategies and methods for restoring the native plant complexes.  Each participant will have the chance to try out a range of tools for invasive removal and sharpen their plant identification skills. Dress for field work.  A follow-up session in August will address later season control methods.  Please log into Volgistics to register, space is limited.

June Continued Education Classes

pollinator healthSGM 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!

pollinator healthDiagnostics Skill-Building Series: Part 3: Wildflower ID Walk
June 10th, 2017 at 9am -11:30 am

URI East Farm Building 75
Class is currently full

Join Dr. Carl D. Sawyer, a former research associate from the URI Department of Plant Sciences on a stroll at URI East Farm identifying wildflowers and other plants using the Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide.

Old Garden, New Garden

Alice Cross URIMG 2011

pollinator healthSo you’ve  thought  about  going on the  garden tour, but, hmm, haven’t  some  of these  folks  been on it before? So, what’s to see?  Well, just  as  your own garden is  different  in July than it  is  in early May, so, too,  the  sites  you visited in 2015 have  evolved over the  last  two years.

Take  Ramona  Silk’s  Barrington property. She  has been on the  Gardening  With the  Masters  tour several  times  now. But  over the  course  of the  last  year, she and her husband  purchased an adjoining lot.

The  first  thing they did was  to remove  part  of the  fencing—after all, this  was  now  their yard, and they needed access, and Ramona  wanted to create  an organic  flow  from  what  she  had already cultivated. But  those  fences  do more  than form  boundaries.  They are  also dramatic  backdrops  to beds, and suddenly, the arrangements no longer looked complete or well designed.

So, shrubs  and perennials  were  moved or re-arranged, and she  created a  design plan for the  new lot. Her goal  is  to make  it  a  native  plant  garden.  Although there  are  some  hydrangeas  bridging the  old with the  new, what  you’ll  find in this  shadier garden are  blueberries, clethra, Juniperus  virginiana, native elderberry, and Solomon’s Seal.

And John  Allen’s  name  may ring a  bell  from  2013. His  secret  garden was  on a  shady side  street  in Bristol.  Visit  him  again next  month, still  in Bristol. But  you won’t  be  seeing the  same  old, same  old.  His garden is  so different  it  is  actually a  different  property on a  different  side  street  in Bristol.  But, as  before, John’s garden shows some of the ways one can design large in a small space.

There  is  still  time  to purchase  your ticket. Go to  web.uri.edu/mastergardener  and look for the registration link.  You can purchase your booklet, which will then be mailed to you.  There  are 26 properties to see on June 24 and 25, many of them neveron the tour before, but all  of them offering new pleasures and ideas to take home to your own garden.

RIWPS Programs for Master Gardeners through June 17

All of the following programs are eligible for URIMG continuing education hours.

Plants & Their Places: Boston Hollow
May 20 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Ashford, CT
No Charge

This walk is the first the 2017 series of Plants & Their Places. Boston Hollow is part of the Yale-Myers Forest in Ashford. It’s a ravine about 100ft deep that extends 1.3 miles in nearly a straight line. A dirt road runs the length of it and has for nearly 200 years.

Despite its long use the area appears unspoiled and quite scenic. Most of the Hollow is Conifer-hardwood Forest with a disposition of a more northern climate. The dominant trees include hemlock, sugar maple and red oak. Smaller woody species include mountain and striped maple, hobblebush, American honeysuckle, red elderberry, and American yew.

The display of spring wildflowers is impressive including foam-flower, lance-leaved twistedstalk, red and painted trillium, bunchberry, Hepatica, Clintonia, and blue cohosh.  This walk is being done in conjunction with the Connecticut Botanical Society.

More details including directions http://riwps.org/event/plants-places-boston-hollow/

Plants & Their Places: Black Spruce Bog
May 27 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Exeter, RI
No charge

This second walk in our series, Plant & Their Places, is in a section of the Arcadia Management Area.  Bogs form in kettle holes, or depressions, that have poorly-drained soils. Unlike swamps and fens, bogs lack flowing water. The groundwater and rain that does collect becomes acidic and low in oxygen, slowing decomposition.

Sphagnum moss thrives in this environment and will gradually fill a kettle hole, creating a spongy mat of peat. Black spruce is another species that is typical of bogs, although rare in southern New England. In this bog, shrubs are abundant. At times we’ll be pushing through chest-high leatherleaf, blueberry, rhodora and mountain holly, hopefully in bloom!

More details including directions http://riwps.org/event/plants-places-black-spruce-bog/

First Thursday Botanizing Walk at Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy
June 1 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Providence, RI
No Charge

Join Joe Jamroz, environmental enthusiast and advisory board member for the Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy, (and Master Gardener!) to enjoy spectacular views of Providence at Neutaconkanut Hill Park. Rising nearly 300 feet above Narragansett Bay, this naturally forested park is situated in the heart of the most densely populated area of Providence. The park’s 88 acres include a well-maintained trail system, brooks, ravines, meadows, glacial boulders and a thick forest of oaks and hickory. Wild plants we may spot along the way are jack-in-the-pulpit, shinleaf, columbine, daisies, violets and choke cherry.

More details including directions  http://riwps.org/event/first-thursday-botanizing-walk-neutaconkanut-hill-conservancy/

An Introduction to Wildflower Identification Using Newcomb’s Field Guide
June 17 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Kingston, RI
$15.00

Want to improve your plant identification skills?  This workshop will begin in the classroom with a one hour review of plant identification terms and getting familiar with the unique key devised by Newcomb.  We will then proceed outside to use this key to identify live specimens. Advance registration required.

More details http://riwps.org/event/introduction-wildflower-identification-using-newcombs-field-guide

URI MGP Newsletter, May 18: June Classes, Congrats Class of 2017!
URI MGP Newsletter, May 18: June Classes, Congrats Class of 2017!

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 New Terrain May 1, 2017

  1. Science battles misinformation about gardening
    From Rosie, This info is from Cooperative Extension based professors and scientists.
    The Garden Professors Blog is co-founding an effort to fight gardening misinformation.
    The Garden Professors Blog began when four plant scientists began confronting gardening myths and even conventional wisdom with scientific findings. In print, the professors authored award-winning, game-changing books with titles like The Truth about Organic Gardening and The Informed Gardener. A Garden Professors Facebook Group soon followed with more than 11,000 members.
  2. With learners increasingly turning to video, next came Good Gardening Videos.org, a campaign to aggregate accurate, reliable videos and steer gardeners away from the ones that are misleading or confusing.
    The Nature of Americans National Report: Disconnection and Recommendations for Reconnection reveals important insights from a study of nearly 12,000 adults, children (8 to 12 years old), and parents, and provides actionable recommendations to open the outdoors for all.
  3. The Nature of Americans is led by DJ Case & Associates. It builds on the late Dr. Stephen R. Kellert’s research on the importance of contact with nature to human well-being. This unique public–private collaborative is sponsored by the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Disney Conservation Fund, Morrison Family Foundation, Wildlife Management Institute, and Yale University.
  4. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has released a new report, Gardening in a Changing Climate, written in collaboration with researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University of Reading on how climate change will alter British gardens. It summarizes an extensive survey of home gardeners and industry professionals and updates the groundbreaking 2002 RHS report, “Gardening in a Global Greenhouse.”

Worth reading from New Terrain

9 Garden Trends for 2017 in American Nurseryman.
The problems facing green infrastructure by Beth Hyatt in Total Landscape Care.
Seeing the forest for the trees: What one oak tells us about climate change by Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times.
Escape of the invasives: Top six invasive plant species in the United States by Emily Grebenstein on Smithsonian Insider.