Alabama Master Gardeners'
Vol Opps
April 2020
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Earth Day
Earth Day is a day of awareness. On this day, each year, people show how they can help the environment. Not only is it a day for helping the earth but it's also a day for community and gathering. With event cancellations and store closings this spring, it is easy to miss feeling part of the community. So let's look at the bright spots!
Did you know? Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, the amount of air pollution has dramatically decreased.
What can we do since travel is cancelled? Find a virtual garden tour online. Go outside and relax with a good book, or just listen to nature. Why not use this time to learn more about gardening! Webinars, videos, blogs, books, and more. Visit with your Extension Agent about a new program ideas. How can we teach more people about gardening?
Gardening is good for the body as exercise, good for relaxing the mind and spirit, and good for nutritious food. Gardening also tends the earth supporting native wildlife and habitats. For gardeners, every day is Earth Day!
Madison Burgess, Auburn University Student Worker
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Lessons From the Learning Garden
If you step into a grocery store today, you notice that the rice is gone.... and the flour.... and canned soup. You know that people are concerned about food security. As Master Gardeners, this a great time to encourage folks to plant WWII-style victory gardens, and raised beds are a great way to bring that concept into a beginner's backyard.
In our Learning Garden, at the Elmore County Extension Office, we have used raised beds for about 14 years now. These are the benefits we promote:
- You can completely manage your soil. Start out with anything from compost to professionally mixed “super soil”. Add leaves in the fall, composted materials from your kitchen, etc.
- It’s easier to manage the weeds when you have a defined space.
- The bed walls provide a barrier against intrusion by your canine pets and even help with slugs and snails.
- Four-inch lag screws are awesome for keeping the corners tight (in our garden, over a decade). Drill pilot holes first!
Modern treated wood uses micronized-copper which has been shown in University studies to have very little migration into garden soil. And small amounts of copper, unlike arsenic, are beneficial to plants.
The general design is 2-inch thick treated lumber, screwed together into a box shape. For a low-cost design, use 2x6’s. Pick a length that fits your yard's space, but the width should be no more than 4-feet so you can easily reach to the middle without stepping into the bed. For a bed with only one side (like against a fence) the width should be no more than 3-feet.
Our Learning Garden has three bed styles:
- 2x12’s - This has more room for good soil, but the planks are heavier to maneuver. Adding a trellis down the middle, maximizes the space, and supports veggies like tomatoes, beans and cucumbers.
- Double stacked 2x12 frames - A 4x4 attached in the corner, gives added strength. This height requires less bending to work the bed, and is a good height to sit while you plant, weed or harvest.
- Double stacked Hugelkulture - The bed has the bottom half filled with large branches and small tree trunks. Two benefits – it saves money on soil – and the decaying wood feeds the soil and roots above it. That’s a win/win by any gardener’s calculation!
(submitted by Mary McCroan, Central Alabama MGA)
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While we had a lengthy list of Plant Sale dates from several MG associations, the Covid-19 restrictions on group gatherings changed all that. Please contact each local MG association, or Extension Agent, for information on alternative sale dates or alternate sales methods. (contact Sondra Henley-AC Chair, find Agents in the Extension Directory, or email Kerry Smith via email, smithkp@auburn.edu)
We are all disappointed about these changes, but it's the responsible thing to do. Everyone, please remember and follow all CDC guidelines at this time - both for social distancing and consistent personal hygiene.
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News to Share |
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Throughout February and early March, Baldwin County Master Gardeners were busy with Arbor Day celebrations, on various days, in seven communities: Bay Minette, Daphne, Fairhope, Foley, Gulf Shores, Magnolia Springs and Silverhill. Armed with teachings from ACES Arborists, Beau Brodbeck and Jack Rowe, they were ready to share the proper planting and care of trees and provide other important information; especially about native trees.
Our other spring activities have been greatly impacted by the cancellations necessitated by the coronavirus precautions:
- In March, the last two Tuesday Nights with MGs, cancelled.
- Our display at Mobile's Festival of Flowers. Luanne Matson and Brenda Montgomery made major preparations for their Zen Garden. They spent many months working on our display, sponsored jointly with the Mobile MGs. Hopefully, their efforts can become a program in the future.
- The AMGA Conference cancellation in Mobile was a big disappointment for our members, for those planning to help Mobile MGs who were hosting, and those planning to attend.
- Our annual Spring Plant Sale schedules the first weekend in April has been cancelled. A big disappointment since this is always a great opportunity to encourage the planting of native plants and offer insights about the challenges of planting in our area. When the virus situation changes, we might be able to have a smaller scale Plant Sale in May. We will just have to see.
We celebrate our successful programs in early spring, enjoy our own personal gardens today, and look forward to future days when we will get back to sharing what we love to share - ALL things gardening!
(pictured: Linda Crowell (left) and Kay Smith (right) - two of 20 some Baldwin County MGs who participated in Daphne’s Arbor Day, March 7. Photo by Julian Walthall)
(submitted by Julian W. Walthall, BCMG President )
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Gardening has been extremely challenging this year. We are experiencing the wettest winter on record and the spongy ground is certainly evidence. It is time to be working our beds for their yearly displays, and it is quite difficult to do any work.
February was a busy month. St. Clair MGs met at the Extension Office to prepare the St Clair Co Extension newsletter for mailing. Many hands make light work and Lee Ann is always so supportive of us too. We held our first Lunch and Learn for the year, Composting Feeds the Soil. And we pruned numerous roses around the Pell City Civic Center.
(submitted by Pam Garrison, St. Clair County MGA)
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Interns from both Morgan County Master Gardeners' and Lawrence County Master Gardeners' classes joined forces with volunteers of The Jackson House Foundation, and members of the Morgan County Master Gardeners Association. We pulled privet, dug saw briars and chopped poison ivy vines this spring! The rain soaked soil made pulling privet the easiest of the three to remove. The saw briars, like handling razor wire, proved to be the biggest challenge, and chainsaws were used to cut the poison ivy vines growing 20 feet up the pine trees.
The Jackson House Foundation is a 501c3, non-profit organization, dedicated to their ongoing mission to restore and preserve one of Moulton's most important historic homes, The Jackson House. This project began with their request to the Morgan County Master Gardeners Association to help develop a plan for a shade garden on the west side of the Jackson House. We enlisted the help of Allyson Shabel, Urban Regional Extension Agent, who helped to evaluate the site with the interns, Master Gardeners and Foundation volunteers. In January, she presented a design, installation plan, and an annual maintenance schedule. Interns then took the soil test and sent to Auburn University's Soil Testing Lab. The clearing of the area was the next step before marking the perimeter of the planting beds. The next step will be locating weed free soil and soil amendments. https://www.thejacksonhousefoundation.org
(pictured: Bud and Shirle Rogers - Lawrence County Interns; Brenda Dodd, Lawrence County Intern; Kristi Robinson, Morgan County Intern)
(submitted by Vicki Morese, Morgan County Master Gardener Association)
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Montevallo's Alabama First 4K class learns in the Seed-to-Table Community Garden. I have read to this class once a week during the school year since I retired as a school librarian 15 years ago.
The class is housed at University Baptist Church in the community garden on church property. The Shelby MGs read about anything plants and gardening, and spend a good deal of time in the garden with children. We were planning to start gardening in March, until schools were cancelled. We will go ahead and plant the beds for them, hoping for their happy faces to soon return.
Shelby County MGA also has four beds in the Seed-to-Table Community Garden, growing and donating the produce to Shelby Emergency Assistance which is also on church. (www.shelbyemergencyassistance.com)
(submitted by Kate Vogel, Shelby County MGA)
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