This program, led by Allan Amioka, Glenn MacWilliams, and Frank Wertheim, is part of the Four-Season Gardening series brought to the Wells Reserve at Laudholm by York County Master Gardeners.  Cost: $7, or for Laudholm Trust members, only $5; fee is payable at the time of the workshop.  To register online, see Home Composting Registration. Questions?  Please call 207-324-2814 or 800-287-1535 (in-state).

From all reports our MG project day was great in all three locations. We got the shelves built for the Root Cellar at York County Shelter, which we will likely fill with potatoes later on, we planted 1800 strawberry plants at Spiller Farm, and we got a large chunk of the sheet mulching for the garden expansion at Laudholm done! Well done Class of 2013 and all those others who came and helped!

Field Trip this coming Wednesday, May 15: 

Wildflower and Forest Tree ID.

Class will meet at Berry Best Farm in Lebanon at 9:00 AM. Please dress for the outdoors and walking in the woods. BRING your Forest Trees of Maine books, already given to this year’s class during Mike Murphy’s Class. We will be handing out Newcomb’s Wildflower Guides to the class of 2013.

Continuing MGs who are joining us, please bring your copies of both guides.

Directions to Berry Best Farm

Homework – Review the Forest Trees of Maine Guide including the winter and summer keys, the glossary and the leaf shapes and structures.

Quiz

Quiz 11 (word)

Quiz 11 (pdf)

See you Wednesday at Berry Best Farm,

Frank

    A wide variety of plants will be sold: annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, some trees and shrubs, and house plants. There will also be an assortment of “gently used” gardening books and a few of those tools that we never seem to have enough of. As always, there will also be a few surprises!  Master Gardener Volunteers will be available to advise and make garden suggestions throughout the event. 

    Maine Harvest for Hunger will hold their 2013 Kick Off at this event, signing up gardeners from all over York County to plant an extra row to donate to the hungry at a local food pantry or soup kitchen.

    A raffle will be held with many garden related prizes. Two grand prizes: a beautiful potting work bench and a raised bed garden complete with soil. Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00 and will be available the day of the sale. Proceeds benefit the Master Gardener Volunteer programs in York County.

    For more information or to request a disability accommodation contact Sue Tkacik at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension at 1-800-287-1535 (in state) or 207-324-2814.

This past class ( 5/1) was on rain gardens and buffers – Thanks Missy Brandt for all the terrific information and ideas.  Missy is not only a MGV, class of 2012, but works in the  York County Soil and Water Conservation District office.  Check out their website for more information   www.yorkswcd.org.

A gift from Frank – no quiz on that class AND no homework for the upcoming class!  

This next class time is our first MGV work day.  We have three sites to choose from, and this is not limited to the class.  Continuing MGVs – feel free to join the fun!  All sites will begin work at 9am, just like class.

1. Laudholm Farm, Wells ( directions ) Garden Expansion – spreading cardboard and topping with compost.  Tools: shovels, wheelbarrows, rakes are all good to consider bringing.  Allan Amioka will be the coordinator.  If you have some cardboard to contribute to this project, let me know.

2. York County Shelter, Alfred (directions ) Root Cellar structures – shelving to be made and installed in an existing root cellar.  There is also the possibility of spending some time cleaning up a large veggie garden on the grounds.  Frank will be coordinating this.

3. Spiller Farm, Wells ( directions ) This is on a tentative basis.  Bill Spiller may have strawberry plants for us to put in for him but we won’t be certain of this until Tuesday morning.  If this site doesn’t need us, we’ll choose one of the others. I will be coordinating for that site.

During class we seemed to be fairly evenly split about which site to choose, but I think it would be good to know who is going where, so I am going to ask  you to let me know (sorry Frank .  If we do cancel the visit to Spiller Farm, watch for an email – but knowing who planned to go there will help me.

Sue

Great class by Amy Witt on the principles of landscape design, and very good ideas the class came up with.

This week’s class will NOT BE A FIELD TRIP – we will meet at the usual time and place in the Nasson Room and our topic this week is:

Rain Gardens and Buffers – with Melissa Brandt, York County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Homework:

Please read:

Adding a Rain Garden to Your Landscape

The Benefits of Native Buffers

Shoreline Landscaping for Lake Protection

 Quiz

Quiz 10 (word)

Quiz 10 (pdf)

See you Wednesday

Frank

I hope you all think of all the awesome MG works that you do to help people and the environment in this difficult crazy time and may you all and all of your loved ones be safe….

Great Annual Meeting – Sue gave an awesome wrap-up on email. The breadth of our programs and the quality leadership and awesome works by all were most impressive to hear about.

Follow Up to this weeks Class

Quiz 9

Quiz (word)

Quiz (pdf)

Homework for April 24 Class on Landscape Design with Amy Witt

Read:

Designing Your Landscape for Maine 

and Landscape Design from the Maryland MG Manual

See those of you who are in class Wednesday…..

Frank

=============

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the annual meeting tomorrow.

Homework for the coming week’s class:

Manual

in the manual Lawn Chapter please read

- Steps to a Low Input Healthy Lawn

- Establishing a Home Lawn in Maine

- Maintaining a Home Lawn in Maine

Review the Videos: 

- How to Establish and Maintain a Home Lawn in Maine

Please also read this new Article on Yardscapping in Maine

No Quiz this week – look for Pestmanagement in next week’s quiz

We had a fabulous class today with Lois Stack on Maine invasive and native plants for the landscape. I was asked to post an article I had written a few years ago on the New England Cottontail Restoration project at Laudholm Farm, and how the habitat is affected by invasive Japanese Barberry.

Bunny Article (Word)

Bunny Article (pdf)

Next week – April 10 the class will be on Garden Insect and Disease Management. Feel free to bring in any plant or insect specimens for ID. Clay Kirby and Bruce Watt from our Pest Management Office at UMaine will be with us to lead the class.

Homework Prep: please go to the the Manual and review the chapter on Pest Management. Note: this part of the manual is password protected for copyright protections. The password in the body of the email telling you about this blog. Read the first 3 links titled: Disease Cycles; Entomology and Plant Pathology. Also review the resources in the rest of the chapter to familiarize yourself with them, but you don’t need to read them in detail.

Quiz on Invasive and Native Plants

Quiz (word)

Quiz (pdf)

See you Wednesday after Maine Garden Day for Insect and Disease Management with Clay Kirby and Bruce Watt….

Wow what a great day to be outside yesterday and the opportunity to prune to our hearts content at Laudholm. Now that you have some experience in pruning, I would suggest you re-read Pruning Woody Landscape Plants

I thought the class and all the native and invasive plants we saw is the perfect lead in to this week’s class on Native and Invasive Species with Lois Stack. To prepare for class please review from the chapter on Plants for the Maine Landscape the following fact sheets:

Gardening to Conserve Maine’s Native Landscape: Plants to Use and Plants to Avoid

Maine Invasive Plants – review the fact sheets, pay special attention the invasive species we saw so much of Asiatic Bittersweet, Japanese Barberry and Shrubby Honeysuckles

Here is a link on How to Use a Weed Wrench — for removing invasive plants. Your classmate, Amy Beth will be bringing one in for demonstration.

Quiz on Pruning: Quiz (Word) | Quiz (PDF)

See you Wednesday!