2017 WSAZ Home & Garden Show Speakers Announced

The featured speakers for the 2017 WSAZ Home and Garden Show at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena have been announced.

  

FRIDAY MARCH 10th

5 PM	Dr. Chuck Talbott	Soils and Soil Fertility
6 PM	Lyndall Harned	Organic Gardening

                                                                                                        

SATURDAY MARCH 11^th

12 PM	Jessica Strickland	Reading Pesticide Labels & Personal Protective Equipment
1 PM	Tim Sayre	Home Canning
2 PM	Tom Bell	Butterfly/Pollinator Garden
3 PM	Lori Bowling	New Plants for 2017
4 PM	Dr. Paul Vincelli	GMOs
5 PM	Steve Beckelhimer	WV Native Bees
6 PM	Lacy Davidson & Park Ferguson	Grow Yourself Healthy:  Why You Can’t Afford NOT to Grow, Shop, and Eat WV Raised Food

4th Annual WV Urban Agriculture Conference

Mark your calendars, the date and location of the 4th annual WV Urban Agriculture Conference have been announced.
This year the conference will be held at Camp Virgil Tate (see map and directions below) on April 28 & 29.  This conference is one of the most interesting and relevant conferences for home gardeners that you may ever attend.
The website for the conference is http://urbanagwv.com/.  Full details of speakers and sessions are not yet available as of this posting on February 1 but is expected to be updated soon.

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.