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

February 2015 CCMGA Newsletter

Cabell County Master Gardener Newsletter

Please keep this newsletter as it will contain information that will be useful throughout the entire year.

The meetings are scheduled for:

• Saturday 14 Feb at 11 AM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church (Snow date will be Sat 21 Feb at 11 AM.)
• Tuesday 14 April at 6:30 PM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church
• Tuesday 12 May at 6: 30 PM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church
• Tuesday 9 June at 6:30 PM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church
• Saturday 29 Aug at 3 PM at shelter #1 at the Barboursville City Park – speaker Brian Cordle on “Geocaching” – this is our annual picnic – bring friends or family PLUS a potluck dish to feed 6 -8 people
• Tuesday 13 Oct at 6:30 PM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church – speaker will be Mary Beckelhimer on “Botanical Witchcraft”
• Tuesday 10 Nov at 6:30 PM at the Enslow Park Presbyterian Church – speaker Ohio Valley Camera Club on “Photographing our Gardens”
• Saturday 5 Dec at the Boyd County, KY Extension Office in Catlettsburg, KY – Lori Bowling will teach us to make Christmas wreaths and we will be making our own wreaths – there will be a fee for this, the amount to be announced – this is our holiday luncheon – bring a potluck dish to feed 6-8 people

There will be door prizes at each meeting.

The WSAZ Home and Garden Show will be Fri 13 March 4-9 PM, Sat 14 March 10 AM – 9 PM and Sun 15 March 12 – 5 PM.

Set-up for the booth will be Thurs 12 March at 10 AM.

Contact Connie Berk to sign up to work at the MG booth. Work phone # 304) 696-7341, berkc@marshall.edu or home phone # 304) 429-7318. I need people to volunteer at the MG booth in a minimum of 2 hour increments. You may work for longer periods of time. The number of hours you work will count towards your annual volunteer time.  If you wish to listen to a speaker, then that time will count as continuing education, not as volunteer time. No double dipping!

The booth will be located in the same spot that we’ve been in for the last several years, across the aisle and slightly to the left of the WSAZ booth.

We enter the Big Sandy Superstore Arena through the loading dock door on 7^th Street, between Third Ave. and Veteran’s Blvd. Your name will be on a list that the security guard will have. Wear your name badges and/or shirts with logos if you have them. Also, wear comfortable clothes and shoes. We will have rubber mats on the floor in the booth, but the flooring underneath that is concrete and it’s hard! Try not to bring purses or any other valuable items as the only safe place we’ll have to keep them is in the booth with us. Space can get tight! We will have a Hospitality Room behind the stage, where we may eat and rest. We can only bring in outside food into the Hospitality Room, nothing may be taken out onto the floor of the Arena.

You may take some time to look around at the other vendors and shop, but that time does not count towards your volunteer time either.

If you want to work when the Show first opens to the public on any given day, you must arrive at the Arena one hour before the Show opens to the public, as we must be in the booth and ready when the doors open, i.e. on Fri the Show opens to the public at 4 PM but we need to be at the booth at 3 PM.

There is some free parking in a small parking lot on 7^th Street, across from the Arena. There is more parking available in the Pullman Square parking garages, entrances at 8^th Street, 9^th Street and 10^th Street. The cost is $1 for the first 4 hours.

Rich Sherman is the Cabell County Extension agent. He may be reached at Rich.Sherman@mail.wvu.edu or at 304) 743-7151. To leave a message, call Pauline at 304) 743-7131.

On 14 January 2015 Rich said that he would grant amnesty to any and all who wish to return to the Cabell County Master Gardener Association in 2015. Those who return must send him a message that they are returning. If they have not been a part of the organization since he became our Agent, then they may need to reapply and possibly retake the 5 core courses of the training. Simply put, he needs to be certain that everyone is up to date on our procedures.
In Dec 2014, new officers were elected for 2015 and 2016:

President = Steve Beckelhimer beckelhimer@gmail.com or 304 690-1423

V-Pres. = Ted Salem lkstms@suddenlink.net or 304 743-0360

Recording Secretary = Connie Berk berkc@marshall.edu until mid-Sept when I retire! Then it will anolisanolis@yahoo.com. 304) 696-7341 (W) or 304 429-7318 (H)

Corresponding Secretary = Jane Wilson jackjanewilson@gmail.com or 304 416-1840

Treasurer = Greg Norris wvframer@intelos.net or 304 522-2870 until June 2015 then Debbie Martin will take over MartinPTA@aol.com or 304 733-5588

Dues should have been paid by 1 Jan 2015. Make out checks for $16 per person, payable to CCMGA, Inc. and mail them to Cabell County Master Gardener Association, Inc., PO Box 7661, Huntington, WV  25578-7661. Or, bring them to the next meeting and save on postage!

There is a Small Farm Conference on Feb 26-28, 2015, to be held at the Charleston Civic Center. Bring in samples of heirloom seeds for the seed swap on Fri afternoon, 27 Feb. Contact Rich for further info.

The next Master Gardener Conference is scheduled for March 27-29 2015 at Pipestem Resort, WV. For more info, contact Rich or check our webpage.

020315 Connie Berk