What a year! So many exciting things have happened in our program. This year we opened an administrative office for the Master Gardener Program, helped kids in the west suburbs to learn about and grow vegetables (some of which they are still harvesting), participated in farmers markets, provided talks at libraries and community centers, answered hundreds of phone calls at the Friendship Park Conservatory, offered a horticulture education series to the general public, received several state awards for the volunteer efforts and so much more! None of this can happen without the support we receive from so many of you who have the time to give back to the community. It has been a pleasure to see you grow and deliver so many excellent programs. I look forward to 2004 and know that we are going to do so much more.

On October 8, Master Gardeners Mary Hurst and Linda Hawver (center and right, respectively, in the photo at left) met with adults with physical or visual impairments from the Northwest Special Recreation Association for a fall planting. To see the lovely results, go to the raised beds located at Friendship Park Conservatory. The weather was perfect, the planting was fun and and the smiles on the participants' faces assured us that everyone had a great time. We look forward to future planting programs in the spring.

What did you learn from the Composting Class by Joan Jeske? I posed the above question to those in attendance at the Composting Class. Some of the responses are printed below. Sounds like the class was time well spent!

"I learned it's okay to use horse and cow manure, but not dog and cat droppings. It was interesting to hear about the different types of composts." -- Margaret Brod, Class of 2000

"What I'm doing works great! I do a lot of Lasagna Gardening." -- Evelyn Arendt, Class of 2000

"I should have my compost tumbler in the sun. It needs more heat."-- Dorothy Halvorsen, Class of 1994

"Be patient and listen to the speaker. Recycle your newspapers in the garden." --Tony Lysek, Class of 1999

"I learned that I shouldn't have put 'bean bag beads' in the garden. Tee Hee. Sterilize the soil indoors or outdoors at 160ºF for three hours". -- Judy Tobin, Class of 1994

"I learned it's not wise to put bean bushes with mold on them in the compost pile. Good technique. Use a turkey pan for sterilizing soil at 160ºF in the oven for 3 hours." -- Mary Moisand, Class of 2002

Educator Ellen Phillips' Composting Class held at the home of Luci Barnas was well attended, and lots of valuable information was shared. Assessing Soil Quality Class An eager audience was on hand for Educator Ellen Phillips' Assessing Soil Quality class held recently at Friendship Park Conservatory. Master Gardeners had classroom training along with soil testing in our vegetable garden. It was a great hands-on learning experience and Ellen agreed to more classes early in the Spring.

To most of us, pumpkins (actually a type of winter squash) are a symbol of fall and the arrival of Halloween and Thanksgiving. They have many more uses than as traditional jack-o-lanterns or filling for pies. Varying in color from white to yellow to orange, pumpkins were important as a food source throughout the Americas long before the colonists arrived on our shores. They have been cultivated in Central America for at least nine centuries, and they are part of the diet of almost every country in the world, providing edible flesh, seeds and flowers. Pumpkins are full of good nutrition. They are low in calories, cholesterol, fat, and sodium. These are usually added when we use whole eggs or milk, extra fat or oil, and salt, baking powder or baking soda to our recipes. To improve the nutritional quality of many recipes, a few modifications suggested by the American Heart Association can help. Skim milk has 60 percent fewer calories than whole milk. Take advantage of this in your cooking. To reduce fat and calories, try replacing one whole egg with two whites or with egg substitute products made from egg whites. Egg whites can be used to replace whole eggs or just the yolks in many recipes without any detriment in taste or texture. This holds true as well when you reduce the amount of sugar and fat/oil in a recipe. For most recipes, a reduction of one-third the sugar and fat/oil will not substantially change the taste or texture. With the exception of yeast breads, salt can be eliminated from recipes without affecting the outcome. Its purpose is primarily to boost flavor.

Like all orange colored vegetables, pumpkins are loaded with beta-carotene, the plant form of Vitamin A. One half cup of pumpkin provides over 450 percent of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for Vitamin A as well as over 15 percent of the RDA for Vitamin C. A study published in the June 1997 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that high blood concentrations of beta-carotene and Vitamin A were associated with better memory performance. Pumpkins are also an excellent source of potassium, a mineral which facilitates many body reactions including fluid balance, nerve transmission, and contraction of muscles. If pumpkin seeds are one of your favorites, pat yourself on the back. When you enjoy them, you are adding to your intake of fiber, a natural exerciser for the muscles of the digestive tract.

If, in a nod to the season, you find you have a pumpkin or two around you want to make best use of, here are some sources of information to help you in your quest:

www.pumpkinnook.com
Bills itself as the internet shrine and library for pumpkins. Has recipes galore, including directions for making homemade pumpkin puree (or pulp) which you can use in their numerous pumpkin recipes.

www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/pumpkins
Our own Master Gardener resource has a great website with good information on pumpkin history, varieties, nutrition, recipes, education, pumpkin facts/farms/festivals, selection and use as well as Halloween links for those who want to get into the season.

www.AskJeeves.com
Provides over 20 pages of pumpkin sites – although several of them lead to links for the group Smashing Pumpkins. And finally, if none of this spikes your interest, try placing a floral arrangement inside your hollowed out pumpkin – which you can set on your front step as a seasonal greeting to all who enter your door.

- Mary Moisand

This time of year, every bug wants to be our roommate – lady bugs, boxelder bugs, elmleaf beetles, and even flies. I'm sure I saw a couple of spiders eyeballing my backdoor, too. And, if all the buggy creatures weren't enough, we also get mice nestling into the garage. They are looking for a warm spot to spend the winter. In addition over the past couple of years, we have seen an increase in the numbers of an imported ladybug called the Asian multicolored lady beetle. As fall approaches, most of the insects make their way into our homes through cracks and crevices usually around windows or they may fly through doors as people go in and out. Insects may be brought indoors on houseplants after a summer vacation outdoors. Particularly on warm sunny days, insects may be seen crawling or flying around windows.

The Asian lady beetles are one-fourth inch long and are the VW bug dome shape. They usually have orange wing-covers with 19 black spots. No need to count the spots. Their multicolored name comes from the variety of color possibilities ranging from tan to red and the spots may be very small to absent to large and obvious.

In their native areas in Japan, the lady bugs spend the winter in cracks and crevices of cliffs. Cliffs are tough to find in central Illinois so what is the next best upright thing around – our homes of course. In the spring, they will return to the outside to lay eggs. Lady bugs are actually good bugs. Repeat this over and over to yourself as you are scooping them up from your window sills. Both the young larva and the young caterpillars. According to Phil Nixon, U of I entomologist, they also feed heavily on soft scale insects which is why they were imported into this country from Japan.

The larvae are quite science fiction looking. They look like tiny black alligators with an orange stripe. In the aphid size would they probably seem just as fierce. Elm leaf beetles may act the same indoors as lady beetles, but outdoors they are not good guys. They feed heavily on the leaves of Siberian and American elm trees.

Elm leaf beetles are one-fourth inch long and are yellowish with a black stripe along the edge of each wing cover. Boxelder bugs are black with red stripes. They feed on the developing leaves, flowers and fruits of boxelders and other maples. In the fall, they crowd together on the south sides of trees or buildings exposed to the sun, then fly to nearby buildings to hibernate.

The good news is elm leaf beetles, boxelder bugs and ladybugs don't reproduce or feed while they are indoors but are a nuisance with their presence. Controlling these insects indoors consists of vacuuming or your best scoop-and-toss-outside method.

According to Phil Nixon, Extension entomologist, insecticide sprays are likely to have little effect on hard shelled insects that are not feeding. Caulking cracks and crevices around windows, along the foundation and around doors will help reduce the numbers indoors.

- Sandra Mason Unit Educator, Horticulture & Environment University of Illinois Extension

If the ground is not frozen you can still plant spring flowering bulbs. If you must use a pick to dig the holes, you have waited too long.

Mulch-mow your leaves instead of raking and bagging. The leaf fragments will provide mulch for the grass plants and will decompose providing organic matter for the soil.

Before the ground freezes, water your trees and shrubs, especially new ones, one last time. The roots of these plants are never dormant and need soil moisture all winter.

Protect sensitive evergreens with an antidesiccant spray before the cold, dry winter winds damage them.

After the ground has frozen, apply about 12 inches of mulch or compost around your roses to protect them from being damaged by repeated freezing and thawing.

After they have become dormant and insects are gone for the season, it should be safe to prune oak trees. Pruning them earlier leaves them vulnerable to oak wilt disease.

Winterize your garden pond. Bring plants that are not winter hardy indoors to spend the winter in tanks or tubs.

Set up burlap screens to protect azaleas, rhododendrons and star magnolias to prevent damage from cold, dry winter winds.

Spread manure or compost on your garden with a bit extra on the rhubarb and asparagus beds. It will still be there in spring when it can be spaded in.