Butterfly Sanctuary at Kinetic Park

The project by HMDA to build a butterfly sanctuary is moving forward thanks to efforts of CCMGA and other groups.  CCMGA Treasurer, Tom Bell has coordinated the involvement of a number of agencies to kick off the first phase of work at the Donald Avenue site.
The video below provides a great overview of the project:

2016 CCMGA Winter Party

The 2016 CCMGA Winter Party was quite a success. The new officers for 2017-18 were installed, Master Gardeners In-Training were certified as full Master Gardeners, our host, Lori Bowling, guided us in making wreaths and we enjoyed a lot of great food. Our attendance was over 20 and everyone had a great time. Our group photographer, Victor Simpson, got some great shots of the event.

Thanks to CCMGA Photographer Victor Simpson.  More of his photos of the 2016 Winter Party are available HERE - https://goo.gl/photos/GXoF5jxLrnTaWAiX9

2016 CCMGA Winter Party - December 3 - Boyd County Extension Office

The CCMGA Winter Party will be held on December 3 at the Boyd County Extension Office. We will caravan or car pool leaving Enslow Park Presbyterian Church at 10:15 am. If you are planning to drive, you can find the Boyd County Extension Office at 2420 Center Street, Catlettsburg KY. The festivities begin at 11 am, Ham will be provided but members are asked to bring a side or dessert to share. Please give Jane Wilson a call or email (jackjanewilson@gmail.com or 304-416-1840) by Monday, November 28th to let her know how many will be coming, what side dish you plan to bring and whether you wish to make one or more wreaths. CCMGA members can bring one adult guest if desired.

Our host, Lori Bowling will be doing the education segment of our meeting showing us how to make beautiful wreaths that are suitable for holiday displays and make great gifts. Members and guests can make wreaths for $10 each.

The business portion of the meeting will be very brief. The primary agenda items are to welcome the new CCMGA officers:President – Dr. Kevin Smith
Vice President – Lisa Bell
Recording Secretary – Dr. Judy Silver
Corresponding Secretary – Nancy Prino
Treasurer – Tom Bell

Please remember that dues ($16) can now be paid for 2017. You can give your dues to Treasurer, Debbie Martin at the December 3 meeting or mail the dues to:

CCMGA

PO Box 7661

Huntington, WV 25578-7661

Kinetic Woods Butterfly Sanctuary Pollinator Gardens

Kinetic Woods

Butterfly Sanctuary

Pollinator Gardens

Please join us this Saturday (October 29, 2016) at 9:00am for a historic event. We will be planting the first plants for this very important project. We expect to have many volunteers (all are welcome) helping with this planting and would expect it to go very quickly. We will have about 400 plugs to plant. We will be planting common milkweed, (Asclepias syriaca), swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), and butterfly milkweed (A. tuberosa). We will also be planting some Purple Conflowers (Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’) perennials. I have attached a proposed layout of the planting areas.

Directions to planting site: Cross little silver bridge (near Baskins-Robbins) into Enslow Park, go straight on Enslow Blvd., continue straight ahead, Enslow Blvd. changes to Donald Avenue, continue on Donald Avenue to 2150 Donald Avenue. Parking will be on left. Park in lot or on street, walk East thru back of lot and follow signs.

CCMGA Meeting - November 1

The Cabell County Master Gardener Association's November meeting will be held 6:30 pm on November 1 in the Fellowship Hall of Enslow Park Presbyterian Church.  The education speaker will be John Porter, WVU Extension Agent for Kanawha County.  Those of us who know John will tell you that he is an interesting and engaging speaker.  This time will be a topic of interest to all of us, Pawpaws!  Although Appalachia's native fruit has been well know among the rural people of the area for generations, the fruit is currently experiencing a surge of interest right now.

After John's program, our normal business meeting will be held at which time officers for 2017-18 will be elected by the CCMGA membership.  The slate of nominees is included on the October 12 post to this blog.

Upcoming election of CCMGA officers - November 1

The CCMGA nominating committee's slate of officers for 2017-18 are:

President – Dr. Kevin Smith
Vice President – Lisa Bell
Recording Secretary – Dr. Judy Silver
Corresponding Secretary – Nancy Prino
Treasurer – Tom Bell

Although our bylaws stipulate that the election of officers take place at the December meeting, a unanimous vote by the members present at the October meeting permits a waiver to the bylaws permitting the election to take place at the November 1 meeting rather than the December meeting. A slate will be prepared for the November 1 meeting that includes the nominees although additional nominations will be accepted from the floor at the meeting to be held on November 1 at 6:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall of Enslow Park Presbyterian Church. All CCMGA members are urged to attend the November 1 meeting to take part in the election of officers.

Milkweed planing at Kinetic Woods

Longtime CCMGA member, Tom Bell, announced a planting day at the Kinetic Woods area on Saturday, October 29 at 9 am.  This area will be a waystation for breeding monarch butterflies as well as many other pollinators.  Tom has obtained plugs and seeds for at least three species of milkweed as well as other pollinator friendly native plants.
This area will become a showplace along the Paul Ambrose Trail to Health and will provide a destination for school groups, out of town visitors and local residents alike.  This project will make everyone proud of what we can do to turn this area into a place of sustainable beauty.

If you are available to work at the planting on October 29 please come through the Enslow Park neighborhood to Donald Avenue.  Enslow Park is directly across from Enslow Park Presbyterian Church, our normal meeting location.  Plenty of parking is available on the west side of Donald Avenue in the grassy area that that will ultimately become the parking lot for school buses.

October 11 CCMGA Meeting

The October meeting of the Cabell County Master Gardener Association will be held in the Fellowship Hall of Enslow Park Presbyterian Church at 6:30 pm on October 11.  The featured speaker will be the WVU Cooperative Extension Agent, Dr. Chuck Talbott.  Dr. Talbott's topic will be "The Positive Impact of School Gardens on Children" as well as tips for working in school garden education settings.

Huntington in Bloom Fall Planting & Decorating

HIB volunteers will be meeting on Monday, September 26th and Tuesday, September 27th at 6:00 p.m. at the covered shelter at Pullman Square facing 3rd Avenue.

We will be planting mums and pansies as well as decorating the downtown with fodder, straw, pumpkins and mums.

Everyone is invited to attend and help. We especially need men (and trucks).



Lisa Riley
Associate Executive Director
Huntington Municipal Development Authority
P.O. Box 1268
Huntington, WV 25714
304.696.5509

June Meeting at HMA

The June 7 meeting of CCMGA was a field trip to the Huntington Museum of Art where Dr. Mike Beck gave our group a great tour of the conservatory.  While he took us through the range of plants being grown in the conservatory, his talk focused on tropical epiphytes such as the many species of orchids in the collection.  Approximately 25 members were in attendance and everyone reported that they enjoyed the visit and came away with increased knowledge of tropical plants.

Fundraiser at Wyngate

Members of CCMGA turned out this spring to do some gardening at Wyngate to raise money for the group.

May 10, 2016 Field Trip to Mallory's farm

The May 10 meeting of CCMGA was quite a success with our field trip to Mallory’s farm.  R.L. and Linda were gracious hosts to the 29 members in attendance for the day.  Everyone was glad to see that R.L. is mending well from his accident.  Linda had a challenging identification course set up for our education segment. During our brief meeting while a storm threatened we honored Tom Bell for his 20 years of service as a Master Gardener.  Following our meeting Linda even had some delicious snacks for us. 

Many thanks to Linda and R.L. for hosting us again this year.

2016 Perennial Exchange & Plant Sale

The CCMGA Perennial Exchange & Plant Sale will be in conjunction with the local Sustainability Fair at the Wild Ramp.

CCMGA Honored at State MG Conference

Cabell County Master Gardener Association has been honored at the West Virginia Master Gardener Conference in Lewisburg, WV.  The award for Team Project Excellence in the Community Service Category has been awarded to CCMGA for the WSAZ Home & Garden Show.
Thumbs up to all who worked so hard to get our service recognized at the state level.

MG Class Field Trip

The current Master Gardener class has just completed their certification exam and is planning their field trip for Thursday, April 21.  Not only are members of the class invited but any Master Gardener is invited to join them.  This is a great way to get to know the members of the current class of Master Gardeners.
They are meeting with Putnam County Extension Agent, Dr. Chuck Talbott at West Teays Elementary at 4 pm to tour the school garden.  From there, the group will go to Dr. Talbott's farm around 5 pm.
If you need additional information, see Park Ferguson at the April 12 CCMGA meeting.

West Virginia Urban Ag Conference - April 30

Registration is now open for the
2016 WV Urban Ag Conference

The 3rd Annual WV Urban Ag Conference is scheduled for April 30 on the campus of WV State University. Our illustrious spokes-bird Chicken Stu is once again a spring chicken, and he's back leaner and meaner than ever. He's planned a jam-packed (mmmm....jam) ONE DAY conference. Register today before it is too late!  

2016 WSAZ Home & Garden Show Wrap-up

As usual, the WSAZ Home & Garden Show was a success.  Many interested gardeners and prospective gardeners came by the booth that we shared with Putnam County and the three Kentucky counties with Master Gardener groups.  It is especially fulfilling when families come to the booth looking to involve their children in gardening.  In total. We had at least 31 CCMGA members staffing the booth, answering questions, making “beanie babies” or seed tape with the young gardeners.  The list that I have includes the following members, please let me know if I have left anyone off the list:

Ed Barnett, Linda Beaty, Steve Beckelhimer, Lisa Bell, Connie Berk, Maralie Boyd, Butch Carrico, Meredith Cornell, Lacy Davidson, Debbie DeBruin, Park Ferguson, Pat Gebhart, Cheryl Hodge, David Howells, Marilyn Howells, Beth Lichty, Donna Love, Linda Mallory, R. L. Mallory, Molly McClennon, Nancy Prino, Ted Salem, Carla Seamonds, Don Silver, Judy Silver, Victor Simpson, Kevin Smith, Sam Stubblefield, Brenda Weidensall, Jane Wilson and Wendy Wilson. 

In addition to handling most of the logistics for the event, Connie Berk was working the booth nearly the entire time that we were there hardly even stopping to get a bite for meals.  Jane Wilson arranged an excellent slate of speakers whose sessions were well attended.  Victor Simpson took tons of photos showing our people working the booth and assisting area gardeners.  The event closed out with the beautiful garden quilt that was donated to us by Mary Morton of PieceMakers Quilters being raffled off.  We were shared Nancy Prino’s joy at being the winner of the drawing for the rain barrel that Boyd County raffled off.

Now that the event is over and everything is put away, we have many of our stalwart members who are already looking ahead to next year and increasing the impact of CCMGA and continuing our connecting with the community and other area Master Gardener groups.

The snapshots below are courtesy of our official photographer, Victor Simpson.

Huntington in Bloom Planting Days

For each of the planting dates (April 26, 28, May 3, 5), we will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Pullman Square Parking Garage on the 10^th Street side.

These dates are subject to change due to bad weather.

We will be planting the big pots, Harris Riverfront and the Civic Center and the CVB.

We will start with the big pots and the Civic Arena first, due to visitors for Marshall’s graduation. Once those are complete, we will move on to the other areas.

2016 WSAZ Home & Garden Show Speakers

Friday March 11th
5 PM	Dr. Chuck Talbott	Growing Farmers & Carrots In Putnam Co
6 PM	Dr. Monica Valentovic	Helpful Hints on Growing Roses

Saturday March 12th
12 PM	Grant Bishop	Home & Garden Pesticide Safety
1 PM	Archie & Linda Snedegar	Growing Roses Successfully
2 PM	Northeastern Beekeepers Assoc	Spring Bee Care
3 PM	John Porter	Avoiding Common Garden Myths
4 PM	Lyndall Harned	Composting
5 PM	Boyd Co Master Gardeners	Rain Barrel Construction
6 PM	Boyd Co Master Gardeners	How To Paint Your Rain Barrel

Working with Children

The WVU Extension Office now has a policy that Master Gardeners who will be working with children must complete a certification quiz and background check.  In communications with the WVU Volunteer Leadership Development Specialist that there is no cost to CCMGA or to members for these.  This certification and background check only applies to members who plan to work with children.

• Handbook on working with minors
• Online certification quiz - open book
• Background check request - must be done by a supervisor

At this time, the details are still being sorted out.  The certification quiz appears to work fine and the certificate can be saved and printed.  It appears that someone at WVU needs to enter information for the background check.  The Extension Office has requested that everyone enter their legal name in the database rather than a nickname to assure a more reliable background check.
Time that you spend reading the handbook and taking the quiz counts as volunteer hours.
As we learn more about this process, information will be shared at a CCMGA meeting.

2016 Master Gardener Classes Continue

The 2016 class for new Master Gardeners is going along very smoothly.  Debbie Martin, Jane Wilson and Connie Berk have made the class run smoothly with a group of engaging speakers.  Debbie, Jane and Connie are pleased to report that 17 new Master Gardeners are in the class and are moving through the content well.  In addition, many of our current CCMGA members have been coming to assist, earning volunteer service credits or to engage in the lesson, earning education hours.  It is wonderful to see our experienced Master Gardeners forming bonds with the new group.  I know that everyone is excited to see this many new Master Gardeners for our group.  Any current CCMGA members are invited to come meet the new members and join in any of the upcoming classes.  The class schedule is available on the Education tab of our website.
At the January 26 session on Basic Botany our group's photographer, Victor Simpson, took some shots of the class learning about the structures of plants.  Many thanks to Victor!

2016 Master Gardener Class

The first meeting of the 2016 Master Gardener class met last night at Enslow Park Presbyterian Church.  Debbie, Jane & Connie have done great work in assembling an interesting and informative slate of classes to move the MGITs toward completing the requirements for certification.  The 14 members of the class are eager to get started in the process and have a varied set of gardening interests.

If you are available on one or more of the class nights, please consider coming to the church and joining the group.  The class on Tuesday, January 12 promises to be an excellent class with Myra Simmons sharing her wealth of knowledge on perennials.  Myra is always a very engaging presenter.

You can use the Master Gardener classes to earn either education or volunteer service credits.  Having current CCMGA members available can be an important show of support for them in as they are in the process of certification.  Please make certain to invite them to come to our first meeting of 2016 at 11 am on February 20 (weather permitting) at Enslow Park Presbyterian Church where Lori Bowling will share more information on deer and drought resistant gardening.