Spring Helpline Hours

 

 

 

 

As a Master Gardeners we are required to do 10 hours of helpline, 20 hours of community service and 10 hours of education yearly. Usually helpline is done in the office answering phone calls. However, Master Gardeners are invited to attend different events with their displays and handouts and answer people's questions at these functions. So, would we rather be in the office answering the phone or at Earth Day celebrations in Shrewsbury and at Bayonet Farms? Including our helpline booth at the NJ Flower Show we now have completet our 10 hours. Actually, my fellow Master Gardener, Dorothy, and I have gone above and beyond with 10 and a half hours!
The weather was unseasonably warm this year but everything is blooming now!

My Birthday

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day. The weather was beautiful - sunny and in the sixties. I went to our monthly Master Garden meeting and our guest speaker was a tree whisperer. He claims he has healed many trees by touching them and talking to them. He gave a power point presentation showing various trees around the country he has worked with. The most impressive was a old tree in Santa Barbara. He sensed from talking with this tree that something happened about 80 years ago in a nearby parking lot. He asked people there to research for him. They discovered there had been an earthquake 79 years ago and the toxic waste was dumped in a near by parking lot. The town has put a barrier in the ground. We were given house plants to practice with during 10 minute meditative exercise. Very,very, interesting!

In the afternoon I helped some other master gardeners with a horticultural therapy program at Mana house which is a temporary home to enable single women with children to get on their feet and become self sufficient. They decorated clay flower pots using colorful tissue paper and glue. They then learned about different varieties of house plants and chose one to plant in their pot. We will be going there once a week for five weeks.

For dinner Bill took me to Charlie Browns where we had an excellent meal. Later we went to a restaurant in town, The Riviera, where they now have a jam session upstairs on Wednesday nights. First the house group plays. Musicians sign in as they arrive and are put into groups. They have a small free buffet which is very good. A friend's husband plays the drums and his family was there. We had a real good time.

Bill gave me a game of Sequence which I had requested. We had played this with Leo and Kristen and it's a lot of fun.

New Jersey Flower Show

Friday I volunteered as a Master Gardener at the annual flower show in Edison. Our booth was near the front this time so we had our usual garden questions plus we were kept busy answering questions about where things were and also about the ballot and raffle box which was at our booth. Plus we helped Rutgers do a survery on people's perception of what plants are considered invasive. Spring is in the air!

Whitesbog

 

 

 

 

The Master Gardeners watched as cranberrys were reaped in the historic company town of Whitesbog located in the pine barrens of southern New Jersey. On our bus tour we learned some interesting history of this area. Our tour guide was proud to let us know that she was a 6th generation cranberry farmer and also that her uncle was the Jersey Devil. This area also is known for its blueberries.

Bugs, Birds and Beyond

 

Today the Master Gardeners put together a day of fun and learning for kids. Dorothy and I had our bat display. Dorothy made a great poster and she had paper bats for the kids to make or color and a colection of children's books on bats. I had a fabulous bat cave made by Bill the Handyman. We used bat Beanie Babies to toss into the cave. The kids loved it. Thank you Katie Rose for letting us use your "Batty" Beanie Baby. Batty had a ball flying around with his other bat friends but he is a little tired and resting now.

Different craft projects included making bird houses out of orange juice containers, cardboard ladybugs, fancy hats and colorful butterflies. There was a greatl insect desplay and also a table about vermi composting. We even had a costumed master gardener transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly to the accompaniment of harp music! Tours were given of the children's garden, and the PAR (plant a row) garden from which vegetables are given to a local food bank and of a rain garden which was planted by master gardeners last year. Water from the parking lot now flows into this rain garden rather than into the sewer.

It was a very successful day.

Master Garden Picnic

 
Today was a beautiful summer day, just perfect for our annual picnic. Dorothy volunteered to host this year. Thank you Dorothy! Her yard is beautiful, the food was delicious, the company was good and the auction of our unwanted stuff was both profitable and very entertaining.

A New Master Composter

It's official! I am now a Master Composter. In this photo I am holding my new pitchfork and certificate. Don't miss my new Compost Happens t-shirt. And oh yes, I am wearing my silver badge. I am ready to go out and educate the world about rot!

Hands on Compost Training

 

We began our 2nd Master Composter training meeting at Tatum Park with Rutger's Prof. Stephanie Murphy giving a power point presentation on Soil & Organic Matter. We learned about the components of soil, soil texture and structure, density, porosity, and porespace. We covered water conductance, aeration, soil fertility & plant nutrition, Liebig's concept of the limiting factor, soil testing, fertilizers, release of nutrients and more. Hope there's no exam next week!

After lunch we went across the street to Deep Cut Park where we were given composting pitch forks to keep and then were put to work at the park's compost display.

Monmouth County Reclamation Center

Today was very interesting. I have signed up to become a Master Composter. We must attend three training dates. Today was our first and we had a very interesting tour of our county landfill. We saw the garbage dumped just this morning. The dumping area was about the size of two football fields and about a third of it was piled high with garbage. It is then bailed and put into the landfill very neatly. Pipes in the ground allow gas from the decomposing garbage to be turned into electricity and used here for their operations.

We had a bus tour of the landfill area and it was truly a beautiful scenic area. We were told years in the future this area could become a wildlife refuge. The photo shows us on top of a landfill. There was no oder. The bales of garbage are covered each day. The new garbage in the dumping area did smell. Realizing the expense of handling garbage and all that is involved makes composting seem all the more important today.

Earth Day

 

Yesterday many places celebrated Earth Day. The weather was cold and damp but we were fortunate to spend the morning inside St. Mary's Church in Colts Neck. My friend and fellow Master Gardener, Dorothy, had made a very impressive butterfly activity display board for children which can be seen in the picture. We also helped answer garden questions.

Being dedicated Master Gardeners we went to Bayonet Farms for a second Earth Day event. There we made many people happy by giving away free Liriope (Lilyturf) plants which we had potted earlier. Again we did our best to answer garden questions and handed out various fact sheets on garden issues. Here we were outside under a canopy and hoping it would get warmer. Papers were blowing and our display board blew over once. After being outside a couple of hours it felt wonderful to get home and inside.

Volunteers in Park

 

A very large part of the Master Garden program is volunteering. When I got an e-mail asking for volunteers to help a 4-H club, composed of children with autism, plant a flower garden in our local park, I knew this project was for me. The day was beautiful and rewarding for everyone.