The Dirt for March 8: Volunteer Fair, MG Meeting Next Week

You’re Invited to the Volunteer Fair!

Join us Wednesday, March 14th on the first floor of the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (CBLS) for our annual Volunteer Fair! Learn about the many Master Gardener projects across the state that need your help! From habitat restoration projects, to community gardens, to helping preserve historic sites, there are endless ways to get involved.

Project leaders will be available to answer any questions you may have. We’ll also have a table for special projects from home and leadership opportunities. The fair is designed to introduce our Core Training interns to volunteer opportunities, but it is open to all URI Master Gardeners!

The fair will run from 5:30pm – 6:45pm. We encourage you to park in lot 9 and walk through the Pharmacy Building to access CBLS https://web.uri.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/904/URI-KingstonCampusMap-Web-FINAL.pdf

Last Call for Volunteer Renewals

Thank you to the 522 people who completed your volunteer renewal, you should have received a confirmation email this week. If you plan to volunteer with us in 2018, we must have a form on file for you. Please complete the form and mail it in at your earliest convenience. Renewal Questions? Contact Judy Arruda at auggiejude@hotmail.com

March Master Gardener Meeting: Communicating Science to the Public (URI Swan Hall Auditorium)
Monday, March 12 | 6-8:30pm

Our March MG meeting is a great way to gain 3 continuing education hours! Please join us for fellowship and learning (and pins!). Potluck begins at 5:30pm in Swan Auditorium.

As an Extension Educator, you may find yourself answering tough questions from the public, explaining why a client should adopt sustainable gardening practices. ‘What should I spray for:_____?” is a common question. Our March MG meeting keynote speaker is Sunshine Menezes, Ph.D. who will provide practical strategies for communicating complex concepts. How do we effectively encourage public audiences to become stewards of the land? As executive director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting at URI, Menezes frequently gives lectures about the importance of effective communication, working with the news media, and how to become a more effective science communicator. Please register in Volgistics.

HELP WANTED: NEW LEADERSHIP POSITION OPEN

Are you passionate about the Master Gardener Program? We are seeking candidates for the new Operations Planning Coordinator position on the MGP Council. This position will support coordination and planning of fundraising events (Spring Plant Sale, Gardening with the Master’s Tour), and serve as liaison to the East Farm greenhouses, East Farm maintenance team (Rudi’s Rangers), and MG-supported URI faculty and staff research projects. Click here to see a position description. This is a great opportunity to work with well-established and talented teams of MGs while contributing to discussions about the future of the MGP!

All Master Gardener volunteers are eligible and encouraged to apply for open positions. If you’d like more information about either position, please contact Bill Baddeley (wrbaddeley@gmail.com).

If you’d like to apply, please submit a letter of interest to Vanessa Venturini via email (vanessa@uri.edu). All candidates will be interviewed by a committee comprised of Master Gardeners and URI staff in early spring.

Volunteer Opportunities

Join Project Timberdoodle!

Do you love birds and the great outdoors? Have you ever wished you could participate in scientific research, but aren’t sure how to get involved? Well, now’s your chance to participate in a citizen science study on a unique forest bird—the American Woodcock!

Come meet and chat with URI scientists at our orientations on Tuesday, April 3rd or Friday, April 6th from 6pm to 8pm in Weaver Auditorium at the Coastal Institute, Kingston campus. At this orientation, you will learn about:

The decline of the American woodcock population
Woodcock breeding behavior (aka “sky dances”)
How to look and listen for woodcock
How to become a citizen scientist for the project

Learn more and register.

Plant a Row Program

To help support our local food pantries and soup kitchens all certified URI Master Gardeners are welcome to plant a row of vegetables, and/or fruits, and donate them to a charity of your choice. Please keep track of the pounds of vegetables donated for reporting purposes. Note: the RI Community Food Bank in Cranston will weigh your donations at time of delivery.

Please honestly estimate hour-for-hour tending donation plots in a given season and enter in Volgistics under “Plant a Row for the Hungry”. You may include delivery time for donating food crops. Note: you will be contacted for special public education opportunities related to vegetable gardening. We hope you’ll share your knowledge!

Requirements:

Inform Eleanor Silva, Plant a Row Coordinator, by May 1 if you intend to volunteer for Plant a Row, mgelliemay@gmail.com
Review “Five Steps to Food Safe Fruit and Vegetable Home Gardening” booklet annually and take all steps to ensure food safety:
Inform Plant a Row Coordinator by October 1 of #lbs donated and where food was donated. This data will be used in local and federal reporting efforts.

Plant a Row Coordinator: Eleanor Silva, mgelliemay@gmail.com

HELP WANTED: OUR LONGEST RUNNING SERVICE NEEDS VOLUNTEERS!

The URI Gardening and Environmental Hotline at the Mallon Center on the Kingston campus is growing, and we need volunteers to support this important and valued statewide service! The hotline is a great way to accumulate volunteer hours and gain new skills!

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Anyone and everyone! Interns, blue pin and veteran MGs looking for a fun way to earn volunteer hours are encouraged to join the ranks. Hotline volunteers need not be experts in a particular subject, computer whiz’s or experienced on the phone. All that is required is an open mind and curiosity!

WHAT IS THE HOTLINE LIKE?

Hotline team members collaborate to field questions from emails, phone calls and walk-in visitors. The resources needed to answer questions are at your fingertips, and include internet-based Cooperative Extension websites, an extensive library of reference books and direct access to Cooperative Extension faculty and staff. The URI Mallon Center is open to the public, so walk-in visitors present with any number of interesting garden issues and questions. If you enjoy a good gardening detective work, than the hotline is a great place to practice your sleuthing! The hotline is a friendly, congenial space in which Master Gardeners share their knowledge with the public, and learn from each others special skills and knowledge. Several volunteers have extensive expertise and years of experience with the public, so there are ample opportunities to gain new knowledge in a fun, non-threatening atmosphere.

WHEN WOULD I VOLUNTEER?

The hotline is open from early March through October. Hours are Monday-Thursday from 9-2PM. A typical day will see 3 or more volunteers staffing the phones and email. Each day has one or more experienced day leaders on site for support. Volunteers are asked to be available a minimum of 2 days per month and can select a dedicated day or float to different days as the need or their individual schedule requires.

Want to come in and see what it’s like? Hotline Orientation is scheduled for either Tuesday, March 27 at 9 am -or- Thursday, April 5 at 9 am. Sign up in Volgistics.

Questions? Contact Sejal Lanterman at sejal@uri.edu or 401-874-4453, our new staff liaison.

We look forward to meeting you!
Cheryl Smith, URI Master Gardener Class of 2015, Tuesday Hotline Day Leader

Volunteer at the RI Home & Garden Show
April 5 – 8, 2018

Master Gardeners, come and enjoy the Home & Garden Show in Providence, RI at the Convention Center and serve a shift at our Kiosk or Soil Testing table. You can visit the gardens and other displays, take advantage of the unique retail opportunities available, visit the booths either before or after your shift.

Master Gardener Information Kiosk volunteers can be Blue Pin, Project Leaders and Community Garden Leaders and one intern per shift are welcome to help at the Kiosk. Soil Testing are Blue Pin and Interns. If you have never worked at soil testing you are welcome to come, learn, observe and help the soil tester. This is a great opportunity to learn a new project and see the show free.

KIOSK HOURS: require 2 Blue Pin, 1 Intern per shift

Thurs/Fri:	11:30 am to 3:00 pm
	3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
	6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Saturday:	9:30 am to 1:30 pm
	1:30 pm to 5:30 pm
	5:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Sunday:	11:30 am to 2:30 pm
	2:30 pm to 5:00 pm

SOIL TESTING: 7 Blue Pins & 4 Interns per day

Thursday – Sunday:

11:30 am to 4:00 pm

Sign up in Volgistics. Don’t forget, the Kiosk is Blue Pin and one Intern per shift, can be a Project Leader or Community Garden Leader. For soil testing each day, we require four experienced testers. Helpers can be Blue Pin Master Gardeners and/or Interns. All volunteers will be verified for current dues except for new interns.

You must wear your Master Gardener Pin or MG Name Tag to enter free.

Good fun, good friends, and community service, free show entry all at once! It doesn’t get any better!

Mary Malouin, URI MGP 1993
Home & Garden Show Coordinator

Continuing Education Opportunities - March/April

Composting: Reducing Waste and Bringing Goodness to our Gardens (BEECHWOOD: A Center for Life Enrichment, 44 Beach Street; North Kingstown)
Wednesday, March 21 | 2:00PM

URI Master Gardener, Nan Quinlan, will explain the benefits and basics of Composting. Composting is a component of our lifestyle. The amount of time and energy we put into composting our kitchen, garden and yard waste will vary and so will the results. The fact that we choose to make composting one of our lifestyle habits is wonderful given the goodness it brings to our gardens and that it reduces material that will end up in a mounting landfill. In this talk you will learn everything you need to do to start composting, a bit of history, how composting happens, types of composting from the casual to the obsessive, how to use compost, the tools, the rules and the glorious results.

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.

RI Wild Plant Society invites MG’s to learn: Plants are better than mulch! (URI Pharmacy Building, Kingston RI)
Sunday, March 25 | 2:00-3:30pm

No charge, this is part of the RIWPS annual meeting

We have a strange relationship with mulch in America. Landscaping often means a sea of red mulch dotted with a few over-pruned arborvitae shrubs. But how many gardeners got into the hobby for a love of mulch? There are good reasons to use mulch, it helps to control weeds, prevents soil erosion and maintains soil nutrients. Yet for every advantage that mulch offers well-chosen plants work even better. From groundcovers to larger mat-forming species there is a plant for every area in the garden. Join Dan Jaffe, author of Native Plants for New England Gardens to learn about the myriad of plants that can take the place of mulch on your landscape.

THIS EVENT IS FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For more details, including directions and parking see www.RIWPS.org

Learn about Fruit and Vegetable Growing in April

New! Advanced Vegetable Gardening Techniques: Season Extension and Square Foot Gardening (URI Pharmacy Building room 170 | Kingston, RI)
April 5 | 5:30 to 7:30 pm

Are you looking to improve production in your vegetable garden this year? This is a great class for MGs who volunteer on vegetable donation gardens, school gardens and those who answer questions from the public.

Dr. Rebecca Brown will teach about techniques to protect your plants and enhance their environment including plastic mulches, floating rowcovers, insect netting, low tunnels, and small high tunnels. Sandra Cook will discuss the method of square foot gardening to increase productivity in a small space. Please register in Volgistics.

NEW! Fruit Culture, Pruning, Pest Management (East Farm Building 75)
April 13, 2018 | 9am-12pm

Home fruit production is on the rise! Dr Steve Alm and Heather Faubert of URI will discuss cultivating fruit in a residential setting. Responding to FAQ’s from the Hotline, they’ll review cultural methods, pruning and pest management of commonly grown fruits. Bring your pruning shears for a pruning exercise using the orchards at East Farm. Please register in Volgistics.

The Perennial Planters Present: “Washington Chops Down a Cherry Tree—Fake News” Trees at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, 238 Years of Cultivation and Preservation and Into the 21^st Century (Roger Williams Park Casino)
Thursday, April 26 | 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Dean Norton’s “job as the horticulturist is to apply the latest horticultural technology to an 18th century setting. Our mission is to preserve, protect, and represent the landscape and gardens at Mount Vernon as accurately as possible to the life and times of George and Martha Washington. This requires a great deal of research and collaboration with our team of archaeologists. I am blessed and honored to be the current caretaker of Washington’s Mount Vernon, and I do believe it is one of the most accurately restored historic properties in the country.”

Since Washington’s time trees have been an integral and important part of the landscape. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association cared so much for the estate’s trees that they secured the services of renowned tree expert Charles Sprague Sargent who wrote in his 1926 tree report, “no trees planted by man have the human interest of the Mount Vernon trees. They belong to the nation and are one of its precious possessions. No care should be spared to preserve them.”

H. A. Miller Endowed Lecture Series | Free and Open to the Public | Further Information and to rsvp www.perennialplanters.org

Core Training: Classes Open to MGs for Continuing Ed

The URI Master Gardener Program Core Training is in session. Classes are held on Wednesday evenings from 6 – 8:30 at the URI Kingston Campus in Avedesian Hall (Pharmacy Building) room 170. All Master Gardeners are invited to attend these sessions to brush up on their knowledge, learn the latest research, and to earn continuing education hours. The 2018 Course Schedule (topics subject to change) follows.

3/14	Volunteer Opportunity Fair / Volunteerism and Communications Class
3/21	Site Assessment & Regenerative Landscape Design
3/28	Establishment & Maintenance of Home Lawns / Turf Pests & Pollinators
4/4	Diagnosing Plant Problems / Group Challenge
4/11	Invasive Plants / Native Plants
4/18	Ornamentals: Woody Plants and Perennials

MG Quick Tip: Crabgrass

Most common lawn weed. Grows annually from seed each year. This is key to control.
Best time to treat is with a seed killer in late April and early May.
MUST be cautious about products used if seeding a new lawn.
Actively growing by summer. Sets seeds, turns purplish and dies by the first cold nights in the fall.
Indicates a thin turf needing fertilizer, better seed and irrigation. Renovation may be easier.

Check this fact sheet for more details about crabgrass.

http://www.agry.purdue.edu/turfnew/pubs/AY-10.pdf

Upcoming Events

March 12 6pm-9pm	Master Gardener Meeting URI Swan Hall Auditorium
March 14 5:30-6:45pm	Volunteer Opportunity Fair URI CBLS Bldg Atrium
April 25 6-8:30pm	Core Training ends URI Pharmacy Bldg, Room 170
May 5 9am-1pm	URIMGP Spring Plant Sale URI Botanical Gardens
May 21 6pm-9pm	Master Gardener Meeting URI Swan Hall Auditorium
June 23 9am-1pm	Project Open House Project locations, statewide