2015 WV Master Gardener Conference

Snapshots from the 2015 WV Master Gardener Conference held on March 27-29 at Pipestem State Park & Resort are below:

Volunteer Hours Award Program Pins

The WV Master Gardener Association is promoting awards pins for volunteer hours and years of membership.  Preliminary information on this program is available in a brochure.

WV State Conservation Camp scholarship opportunity

The Beverly Hills Garden Club Conservation Committee is interesting in identifying a youth who is interested in learning more about our natural resources and their economic and social importance. Each year BHGC provides a scholarship to the WV State Conservation Camp so that may this young person have the opportunity to attend.

The student must be between 14-18 years old as of Jan. 1, 2015.  The Beverly Hills Garden Club will assume financial responsibility of $185.00 for one student to attend camp. This cost covers food, lodging, and insurance. The camp is Camp Caesar in Webster County, Rt. 20, between Cowen and Webster Springs, WV. The date for the camp is June 15-20, 2015. All applications for the camp must be completed (physical required) and money received by May 15th, 2015.

If you are aware of a potential candidate, you may contact either Marcia Lightner (lightners@zoominternet.net).

2015 WSAZ Home & Garden Show

Thanks to the hard work of many of our members, the 2015 WSAZ Home and Garden Show was a huge success. Jane & Debbie arranged for a slate of interesting and informative speakers and Connie's organizational skills made everything run smoothly. Along with the Boyd and Putnam County Master Gardeners, the booth was well staffed and many visitors were assisted. We also had many visitors to the booth make inquiries into becoming a Master Gardener and are interested in joining the 2016 class. Our resident "shutterbug in chief", Victor Simpson, took a lot of photographs of our booth, the speakers and other gardening related displays at the Home and Garden Show.   

Orders for Mills Magic Mix

Orders for Mills Magic Mix, Mills Easy Feed, and other Beaty Fertilizer Company products will be taken by calling Gary Rankin or Monica Valentovic (304-697-0321). You can also send your order by email to Valentov@marshall.edu or Rankin@marshall.edu. Mills Magic Mix is an excellent organic fertilizer. The components of Mills Magic Mix include: alfalfa meal, bone meal, fish meal, sewer sludge and cottonseed meal. One 20-pound bag will feed either 30 large roses or 60 miniatures one time. It is best to feed your roses Mills Magic Mix in the spring and give another feeding in mid-July. Feeding two times adds organic matter to the soil and provides a slow, non-burning feeding of your roses. Mills Magic Mix when applied in the spring helps increase microbial activity in the soil. Each bag will cost $18.00, if he can get an order of 50 bags. This is a big savings from the normal retail price of $29 for one 20# bag. That is a savings of $11/bag and our cost includes shipping provided you order through the rose society!!

He also will take orders for Mills Easy Feed liquid. This is a complete formula that can be used to fertilize your roses and contains magnesium and fish emulsion components. The cost of Mills Easy Feed half gallon is $14.20 for 1/2 gallon (feeds 128 roses at a level of 1 TBSP/gallon water) and $25.40 for a gallon. Rosemania.com is selling a gallon for $39.99. He will try to get the Mills Magic Mix and Easy Feed delivered by April.

Other products that are also available include:

• Alfalfa meal (50#, $25.60)
• Blood Meal (50# $65.00)
• Bone Meal (50#, $35.00)
• Fish Meal (50#, $65.00)
• Green Sand (50# $35.00)
• Worm Castings (40#, $19.00)
• Fish emulsion (1 gal, $13.40)
• Humic Acid (1 gal, $13.40)
• Liquid Seaweed (1 gal, $22.40)
• Super Thrive (1 pint, $30.00)

A time release product being offered by Beaty Fertilizer Company is BloomKote. BloomKote is a 16-18-14 time release fertilizer plus minors formulated to specifically feed roses for four (4) months. A 20# tub is $39.00 (1 cup/rose, feeds 35 roses). A 40# tub is $70.00. Another product is Rose Starter Fertilizer (11-40-6 with minors). A 40# bag is $30.60.

Gary and Monica will need your order by the end of March but may have some remaining products that they can bring to our June meeting to sell.

March Update

WSAZ Home and Garden Show

First on everyone’s mind is the WSAZ Home and Garden Show on March 13-15.  A great lineup of speakers will be on hand throughout the weekend who will be sharing gardening information and useful tips.  This is a great opportunity to gain hours of education or service for renewal of your MG certification. If you would like to volunteer and have not already signed up, please contact Connie Berk (berkc@marshall.edu, (304) 696-7341 (W) or (304) 429-7318 (H)).  She is especially looking for volunteers to help with the speakers, handing out and collecting evaluations, calendars and other tasks.  She is also looking for volunteers to assist visitors at our booth, especially on Saturday the 14^th.  Of course, there will be a hospitality room for our group so feel free to bring a snack to share if you would like.  Victor Simpson has made arrangements for the purchase of a beautiful quilt that will be auctioned off at our booth.  This is always a great fundraiser for us.

WV Master Gardener Conference

The 2015 WV Master Gardener Conference is coming up on March 27-29 at Pipestem Resort.  If you cannot attend the conference but have items to donate to the fundraising auction, please bring them to the Home and Garden Show and we will see that they are entered into the items for auction.

Dues

Our treasurer, Greg Norris, asks me to remind you that 2015 CCMGA dues ($16) can be mailed to PO Box 7661, Huntington, WV 25578-7661. 

Perennial Exchange and Plant Sale

This year the Perennial Exchange and Plant Sale will be held in conjunction with the Tri-State Sustainability Fair on May 16 at Heritage Station.  The Perennial Exchange and Plant Sale will run from 10 am until noon.  This is a great opportunity for Master Gardeners or MGITs to earn volunteer hours.  All of your time spent planting, tending and preparing plants for the exchange and sale counts toward volunteer hours for renewal or certification.  You will also have an opportunity to swap perennials with others from the group so you can delight another gardener with your excess perennials while adding variety to your own garden. All proceeds from the plant sale go to CCMGA so the value of your plant donations can be fully tax deductable since we are a 501c3 organization.  Following the Perennial Exchange and Plant Sale, volunteers from our club can staff our booth until 5 pm to give out information on our group, when we meet and how to become a Master Gardener.  Please contact Connie Berk (berkc@marshall.edu, (304) 696-7341 (W) or (304) 429-7318 (H)) to sign up for a time to work the Perennial Exchange and Plant Sale (10 am – noon) or the informational booth (noon – 5 pm) on May 16 at Heritage Station.

Lapsed Membership Reactivation

When I met with our advisor, Rich Sherman, earlier this week he communicated that he is very interested in assisting members who have gone inactive in regaining active membership.  He is willing to be as flexible as he can possibly be in getting members back with us.  More information on his “amnesty plan” will be available at our Tuesday, April 14 meeting.

Refreshment Committee

Joan Firth, Anne Ray, Mary Beckelhimer and others in the group have expressed an interest in forming a refreshment committee to bring snacks for sharing at monthly meetings.  If you are interested in being involved in the refreshment committee, please contact Joan (jmfirth@live.com) who is chairing the committee.

CCMGA Website

In meetings with the CCMGA officers we are really attempting to cut down on the number of email messages that we send out.  No one wants to fill your inbox with a ton of mail.  To that end we are trying to be post notices and events to our group’s website (http://cabellcountymastergardeners.com or http://cabellcountymg.blogspot.com/) and to keep the calendar on the right side of the page current.  If you click on an event on the calendar you can learn more details and even a map to the event location is provided for many entries. Just recently we have updated the webpage with information on speakers for the WSAZ Home and Garden Show.  If you look on the “About CCMGA” tab of the website, you will find links to our updated bylaws, maps to meeting locations, the slate of upcoming speakers for our monthly education sessions as well as notes from previous sessions, meeting minutes, treasurer’s reports and other pertinent information.  In addition, all prior posts are archived on the website to you can look up previous events easily. If you scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link that says “Older Posts” you will see information from previous posts.  At this time, our website has had nearly 1200 visitors.  We hope to make that the primary method of communication for our group.  Even this email will be posted to the website!

I hope to see everyone at the WSAZ Home and Garden Show in a couple of weeks.  Please feel free to contact me at beckelhimer@gmail.com at any time.

Steve Beckelhimer, President

Cabell County Master Gardener Association

2015 WSAZ Home & Garden Show Speakers

Friday March 13

5 pm	Dr. Chuck Talbot	School Gardens & Food Safety
6 pm	Jeff Moore	Backyard Chickens

Saturday March 14

12 pm	Jeff Bishop	Home & Garden Pesticide Safety
1 pm	Gary Selby	Container Gardening & Raised Beds
2 pm	Brenda Porter	Food Preservation
3 pm	Lyndall Harned	Organic Gardening
4 pm	John Porter	Wild, Wonderful & Wacky Fruits & Vegetables
5 pm	Lori Bowling	Straw Bale Gardening
6 pm	Rich Sherman	Cover Crops