March 6, 2003
Master Gardener Training Begins

March 11, 2003
Monthly Meeting
12:00 - 1:00
Extension Office

March 15th
Yard & Patio Show
9:00 - 5:00
AG Center

March 15th
Hummingbird migration begins!
Put out your feeders!

April 8th
Monthly Meeting
12:00 - 1:00
Extension Office

April 15th 
Cottage Garden Day Trip
w/Ben Arthur Davis Club
Contact: Bebe Gianakos

 April 25th
Prepare for Plant Sale
9:00 - 12:00

April 26th
ANNUAL EMMG PLANT SALE
7:00am-Sold Out
Amtrak Depot 

May 1-2
MG State Conference

EMMG Co-HostingYard & Patio Show
Master Gardeners needed to answer questions

March 15th master gardeners are urged to come down to the new Ag Center just past Bonita Lakes and join the fun! Several members will be giving talks about gardening topics, MCC will have an exhibit of hardy plants for our landscape, master gardeners will have a booth with free giveaways: pamphlets and written material about gardening from the extension office, free seeds (call Eloise Etheridge if you have any to donate) and plants if we can get them potted up in time.

We will be selling antique roses and some blooming hanging baskets from MCC Hort Club. Please call Barbara at 485-8096 if you plan to help all day, morning or afternoon.

Plant Sale 2003 Will Be Biggest Ever - April 26th 

Master Gardener Takes Charge at Okatibbee
Dorothy Phillips showed photographs of a garden she planted at the entrance to the Okatibbee. Lake Dam area. All zinnias? It was truly beautiful. The Okatibbee. water staff brought water to keep them happy. Her secret: Soil preparation.

Greenhouse Workday Huge Success
Thursday February 27 from 9:00 until 1:00 master gardeners Coralie Richardson, Sharron Hedgepath, Frances Rush, Barbara Wells, Rita Watkins and Tom Walters worked hard preparing for our Spring Plant Sale.

Rita brought two clumps of stokesia which were divided into 30 two-gallon containers for the sale. Tom and Rita worked on repairing the water line which burst during a hard freeze. Barbara with Tom's help built a small cold frame on the side of the greenhouse to begin moving some of the plants-outside. Our greenhouse is quickly filling up.

We also planted confederate rose Eloise brought over in the fall and some angel trumpet which has been sitting all winter in a bucket. That's how Eloise told us to keep them and-sure enough-most had roots on them (despite the nasty smell of the water!) Steve loaned us a hearing mat for seedlings and small cuttings. Sharron will test it out by bringing some night blooming cyereus to root.

Steve talked about the March I5th Yard & Patio show: We notified master gardeners by e-mail and a few by phone who were at the last meeting and said they wanted to help. If you did not get word of this event, please make an effort to call some of your fellow master gardeners about this event. We will have a booth with MCC Horticulture Club and have some antique roses and blooming plants for sale. We need master gardeners to help out at our booth handing out materials from the extension office. The show runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Let us know if you can help out in the morning, over lunch, or in the afternoon.

The following have signed up thus far:
Bea Snowden, Eloise Etheridge,, Barbara Wells, Tom Walters, Coralie Richardson, Diane Reynolds, Dorothy Phillips, Frances Rush, and Sharron Hedgepath

NEW!! Master Gardener Lending Library
Special thanks to Charlene Windemeyer who has donated several books to the extension office and master gardeners. They are horticulture books, some well worn because of the timely material -- nothing can beat the old tried and trues! Of the few I borrowed, the Better Homes and Gardens "Easiest Plants You Can Grow" was especially appreciated. It is simply written and illustrated. Charlene is an early trained master gardener who used to spend more time with the group--particularly at Merrehope when she would bring her husband (who is in a wheelchair), her daughter Candy and two grandteens. Her yard is small in front and usually in full bloom from spring through late fall, an eclectic cottage garden. She loves to try unusual plants. 

Please sign the list next to the books if you take any and return at the next meeting. One month should be long enough to get the material you need! Thank you!