November 6th Meeting of the Jamestown Garden Group
Mary Maxwell
Jamestown Garden Group meeting
Wednesday, November 6th at 12:30
Jamestown Renaissance Center.
Cibo in downtown Jamestown served lunch.
See their menu at: https://www.grubhub.com/buffalo/cibo-jamestown/?mkwid=s4aHWrj7j&pcrid=17287152518&pdv=c&gclid=COnr0NCxgLsCFS8OOgod4RkA3Q
Betsy Burgeson was our speaker. Among many other things, she is the Master Gardener Coordinator for Chautauqua County. She gave us a brief overview of the Master Gardener program and some upcoming events that are planned through their program.
The main goal for the Master Gardener program is educational in nature and getting the public engaged and involved.
https://www.facebook.com/ChautauquaCountyMasterGardeners?ref=br_tf
Four Master Gardener core training classes have been held in Chautauqua County since 2009.
Core training is a 12 – 15 week training period.
Averaging 20 students per class
The next planned instruction will be in 2015. (There will be no Master Gardener class held in 2014.)
There are 66 Chautauqua County Master Gardeners.
There is a 83% retention rate.
A minimum of 50 hours of volunteer time is given back to the community per Master Gardener per year.
In 2013 - 2,800 Master Gardener (MG) volunteer hours
Valued at $78,000.00
Since 2009 – 12,300 Master Gardener (MG) volunteer hours
Valued at $350,000.00
MG will come to talk to any group on a wide range of gardening topics.
Some projects the MG have done:
Stream bank planting
Installed rain gardens
Trowel talks
GROW Jamestown Think Spring Garden Fair
Audubon
Snowflake Festival
Monarch Butterfly Festival
The MG has partnerships with many local community based programs:
JRC, JCC, RSVP, St. Susan’s, RTPI, Watershed Conservancy, Audubon, East Side YMCA, Local Food pantries
Evening at the Ag center demonstration garden is on the third Wednesday night each month starting in June.
Different experiments, techniques and methods are tried in the demonstration garden:
2013 – Trellises, heirloom tomatoes
2014 – Different kinds of Garlic
2014 – The MG will continue to help green houses and nurseries flag native plants.
Master Gardener themes in past years:
2012 - Composting
2013 - Beneficial insects
2014 – Polyculture - inter-planting/companion planting
Dates to remember:
February 12th, 2014, 12:30 p.m. The Jamestown Garden Group will meet at the Lillian Ney Renaissance building on the corner of 3rd and Washington. Agenda TBA.
March 1st, 2014 – Garden and Landscape Day at JCC sponsored by the Master Gardeners.
March 29th, 2014 - The GROW Jamestown Think Spring Garden Fair will be held at the Lillian Ney Renaissance building on the corner of 3rd and Washington.