We are in the midst of recruiting our 2007 Master Gardener class. On Sept 5^th, the application packets were mailed to 102 candidates, and beginning the first week of October, interviews will take place.

Our Interview Team is ready, and I would like to thank those taking on this responsibility. We could not do this without them.

Our plan is to have all interviews completed by the end of October and the new class roster announced Nov 1^st.

Monica David, our State MG Coordinator, requested and received approval for our MG Reporting Database program to be installed in every county statewide. In addition to my duties here and my duties as the regional MG Coordinator, I have received a statewide appointment. As the Visiting Project Coordinator for the database, I will be facilitating development, installation and training for all the county MG programs. This program will bring the benefit of MG contributions to the forefront. It is my hope that funders and stakeholders will now be able to receive more detailed information regarding the programs that affect them most.

- Susan Grupp

Thanks to all who have been Help Line Volunteers. We had a huge increase in our call volume in the past few months, but have been able to keep things under control because of our great volunteers. You have all done a wonderful job arriving on time and taking care of your own schedule changes when needed. Give yourselves a pat on the back!

2007 MG Re-certification
An invitation to return in 2007 will be sent to you soon. Be sure to have all your volunteer time and continuing education time (veterans) submitted. We hope ALL of you will return!!

MG Graduation and Fall Wrap-up Potluck Luncheon
Please join us for our 15^th Annual MG Graduation and Fall Wrap-up on Thursday, November 2^nd, 11:30am-1:30pm. We are excited to announce our MG On-line Interns will graduate as certified MGs. Since so many of you mentioned you would like to have a potluck, we decided to go ahead with this suggestion. Invitations are included with this newsletter. The time will count towards continuing education. We hope everyone can come!

Help Needed
We need a team of volunteers to help us with set-up and clean-up for the MG Graduation and Fall Wrap-up Potluck. Set-up time is 10-11:30am and clean-up time is 1:30-2:30pm. Also, 1-2 MGs are needed to pickup supplies and materials from our office, and transport them to the Wheaton Park District site the morning of Nov 2^nd and then return these items to our office afterwards. If you would like to volunteer, please call the office or email us at dupage_co@mail.extension.uiuc.edu.

MG Mentor Program
Once again, we would like to have a veteran MG serve as a Mentor to a MG trainee. This really does not take too much time. If you would enjoy meeting our new class and helping a new trainee understand the program and feel more comfortable, please sign up! The Mentor Program is listed in our next volunteer opportunity sign up.

MG Reporting Database
At this time, over 55 MGs are trained on our MG reporting database program. Thank you for your enthusiasm and interest in learning how to do this. Many of you have emailed us and we feel it is going well. The continuing education portion still needs a little "tweaking", so please be patient. Beginning Nov 1^st, we will be converting to this database completely, so if you haven't started practicing, please do so now.

MG Reporting Database Training Sessions
For those of you unable to attend the previous sessions, our training will be repeated two more times.
Wednesday Nov. 8^th 9:30-11am
Wednesday Nov. 15^th 7-8:30pm

Please call the office or email us at dupage_co@mail.extension.uiuc.edu to reserve your spot.

Celebrate Gardening in the Natural State!
May 2-5, 2007
Little Rock, Arkansas

Consider signing up for the International MG conference. MGs and MG Coordinators from across the country and Canada attend this informative and enjoyable event.

The conference will be hosted at the Peabody Hotel/Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock from May 2 to 5, 2007.

Registration and Accommodations
Registration packets will be available in October. Rates and details about other area hotels will be provided at that time.

IMGC Website
Official website of the 2007 International Master Gardener Conference: http://mg2007.uaex.edu/

- Mary Horek

Theme: New Ideas in Gardening

The spirit of friendship and camaraderie was alive and well at the 2006 IL Master Gardener conference held in Moline Sept. 7-9. It was sponsored by the MGs of Rock Island, Ogle, Henry-Stark and Jo Daviess-Carroll counties. More than 20 DuPage MGs and family members attended the festivities.

The conference began with tours of sites such as the Quad Cities Botanical Center, a rain garden project being worked on by local MGs, and historical homes in the area. Dinner was held aboard the Celebration Belle Riverboat as we cruised the Mississippi River at sunset.

Six different class sessions were held between Friday and Saturday. Topics included learning about Monarch Butterflies and Peonies, building birdhouses and making leaf castings. All sessions count as educational time.

Additional activities included a live auction of creative container gardens submitted by counties all over the state. There was also a silent auction of books, sculptures, plants and other items. Money raised from these events is used to support the State Master Gardener Office. It goes toward items such as the Imagine Newsletter, educational programs, and awards. Door prizes donated by local merchants and MGs were also raffled off at both lunches.

Dinner on Friday night was dedicated to recognizing personal and team efforts to the program on a state level. Award winners are nominated by their local Extension personnel and approved by the state office. The Outstanding Master Gardener Award is given to MGs who have completed at least 120 hours of service beyond Internship*. The Sustained Excellence award is given to MGs who have received the Outstanding Master Gardener Award and have completed at least 300 hours of service beyond that required for the previous award*. An award for team projects is also given*. DuPage County was well-represented this year. Recipients of the Outstanding Master Gardner Award included Sue Crady, Lou Horton, Stu Vogel, and Bill Sheahan. Recipients of the Sustained Excellence Award were Pat Pieper and Elaine Weil. The Graue Mill Historical Garden Project received a Teamwork Award. Congratulations to all of our award winners!

If you think we have a great time when we get together, imagine what happens when you bring over 400 Master Gardeners from all over the state to one place. A good time is had by all.

Mark your calendars for next year's conference to be held September 6-8, 2007 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield.

Editor's note: Additional criteria for selection:

Outstanding Master Gardener Award

1. Participates and plays a leadership role in more than one project in the unit
2. Shows strong leadership skills and an ability to carry through with responsibilities
3. Directly or indirectly educates others in a positive manner
4. Shows initiative in generating new educational project ideas, significant improvements to previous projects or increased service to the public
5. Nominee is a positive influence on co-workers and it willing to go the extra mile
6. May play an active role in the management of other volunteers

Sustained Excellence Master Gardener Award

In addition to the 6 criteria listed above,

1. Has taken on new responsibilities to develop or implement new projects or programs since receiving the State Outstanding award.

Master Gardener Teamwork Award

1. Project should be innovative, focusing on a team approach rather than on individual efforts.
2. Project should be either a new approach to a problem or a different and improved way to deliver an existing project. If the project has been previously submitted for an award, show how the project has been restructured, demonstrate new or different goals or impacts, a different audience or a new role in the community.
3. Project directly or indirectly educates others in a positive manner.
4. Project has gone through these stages:

• Planning and goals implementation
• Goals achieved
• Impact on community or to the Master Gardener program

- Pat Kosmach

My curiosity always drives me to travel; but it has to be with a purpose, and what better purpose than to learn something about gardening! That's why I traveled to Moline and what I did at this year's MG State Conference. The bonus is that Moline is in zone 5, like we are, and I can apply what I learned directly to my garden and any advice I might give to others.

This is the second time I've been to the conference in the Quad Cities area, but little of it was the same. Like the many conferences I've attended, there is always something new and exciting. If I were to pick one item from the agenda that I enjoyed the best, it would be the tour of the Quad Cities Botanic Center. (I'll tell you why a little later.)

Yet there were many other enjoyable and rewarding experiences. One of the other tours was to recently installed rain gardens. The city of Rock Island has instituted a program to reward those who do a better job of managing storm water: the homeowner who installs a rain garden is given a credit on his water bill based on the size of the garden. The program is monitored by the local Master Gardeners. (I wonder if some of DuPage's municipalities would consider a similar program? Maybe I'll ask.)

I also had the pleasure of trying "leaf casting". It took all of about 10 minutes to daub some cement on a rhubarb leaf–and four days to dry before pealing off the leaf. It turned out pretty good, so I now have another feature to add somewhere in my flower gardens.

Those of us who cruised the "mighty" Mississippi had a relaxing and enjoyable dinner and conversation afterwards. Only those who were there know about the birthday serenade and the Iowa "bordello". I'm not sure I should say anything more. ("What happens in Moline stays in Moline.") For concerned spouses, it was all good, clean fun.

What did I so enjoy at the QC Botanic Center? A couple things: Early this Spring I planted a Seven Son Flower (Heptacodium). It has grown at least a foot this year and the white flowers recently began to show. I can't wait for the red sepals to put on their display next month. At the Botanic Center I saw a mature Heptacodium that was only about five years in the ground. I'm hoping mine looks as great five years from now. I also got some great pictures of some insects at the Center. One of the gardeners showed me a katydid that he "rescued" from the lawn area. As we looked closer, we saw it laying eggs on the branch where he had moved it. He also showed me monarch caterpillars and a chrysalis on a milkweed. That's the first time I've seen one in nature.

Monarchs were a common thread in the conference, with at least two occasions for demonstration of someone marking and tracking the butterflies. Maybe my curiosity will next lead me to Mexico where the monarchs migrate, and maybe I'll find one of the tags on a butterfly from Moline.

- Ron Ory

Autumn – a beautiful and, frequently, warm season in our area. Growth is slowing in anticipation of cold weather. The garden chores that also slowed in the dog days of August are now picking up their pace again as we ready our gardens for winter. So instead of focusing on a particular herb for this issue, I thought I'd talk a little about putting our herb patches to bed.

Many of our perennial herbs – thyme, oregano, and sage, for example – are native to sun-drenched, rocky Mediterranean slopes. These plants don't own galoshes, and they can rot away with wet feet. They should be sited in as high a location as possible; a raised bed is ideal. To enhance drainage for them, lightly mulch with fine gravel (I found some in the fish department of the pet store). Last winter was particularly tough on these plants. We had a very cold December, the soil froze, and then in January there came lots of rain, which collected on top of the frozen soil, in the plants' crowns. It's not surprising that many of us lost otherwise hardy specimens.

Another favorite Mediterranean plant is, of course, rosemary. Every time I claim that there are no rosemary cultivars that are reliably hardy here, someone reports that they've had one in the same spot for years. My rosemary is presently in its pot, sunk to the rim in a sunny area in my vegetable garden. I don't trust our winters, though, so mid-September I'll lift it, pot and all, hose off the plant thoroughly, prune it – it's woody enough that I may try to prune it to a standard on one central stem – and bring it inside.

Not only do I not trust our winter weather, I don't believe that herbs can be grown on a "sunny windowsill" either. We are far enough north that winter sunlight is much too low and short-lived for healthy growth. The rosemary, and a bay plant given the same treatment, go into the basement under fluorescent lights on a 16-hour timer. This can be a successful way to winter these over.

I've had no success rooting cuttings of softer annual herbs such as basil. To have this herb fresh in the winter, start a few seeds, and then grow the little plants close under the same lights.

Finally, resist the temptation to take the pruners to your overgrown woody perennial herbs such as hyssop and lavender. Pruning this late in the growing season encourages soft new growth which is easily winterkilled. Wait 'til spring; you'll be able to see what may have died back and where the new growth is so you can prune your plant into a pleasing shape.

- Sandy Lentz

The Speakers Bureau Program

One of the ways the University of Illinois Extension office gets information out to the community is through the Speakers Bureau.

The Speakers Bureau is made up of a group of eleven Master Gardeners who have developed talks on various topics that they then present to groups in DuPage County. Any group of 15 or more can request a speaker; groups attending the talks are as diverse as teachers, garden clubs, retirement communities and libraries.

Mary Horek is the coordinator of the Speakers Bureau. When a group contacts the Extension office looking for a speaker, they speak to Mary. She gives them the list of topics and asks them for their first, second, third and fourth choices. Then she finds a Master Gardener available to speak on one of those topics.

These Master Gardeners are a talkative bunch! This past year they gave 48 talks in 24 different communities in DuPage County–that's almost one every week. Topics range from composting and starting seed to botanical Latin and how to protect your landscape from contractors.

Susan Renwick, one of the Master Gardeners in the Speakers Bureau, says that she was interested in this project because she likes to speak and likes to research and learn about topics she's interested in. Although many talks are already prepared, with a script and slides, Master Gardeners can develop a new lecture based on University of Illinois research; the lecture is then reviewed by Susan and Mary and added to the list of available topics. Although film slides have been used in the past, Mary is in the process of converting all of the slides to PowerPoint presentations, which will allow the speakers to be much more flexible in their talks. It's a lot easier to mark a PowerPoint slide as unused for a presentation than to physically remove a slide and then move all those little slides up a notch!

Beth Corrigan, another Master Gardener in the Speakers Bureau, enjoys speaking to people before her talk to see what interests them and gauge their level of expertise. In fact, all the Master Gardeners I talked to in the Speakers Bureau love getting to meet the gardeners they talk to. The gardeners are usually enthusiastic about being there and are happy to ask questions, whether on the subject or not.

Anyone interested in joining the Speakers Bureau should contact Mary Horek at the Extension office.

- Debbi Heinze

www.midwestlandscapeplants.org

Thiswebsite has a wealth of information on landscape plants for zones 3 to 5. It is an interactive guide, by the University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension, that covers more than 600 species and varieties of trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers. I found it extremely easy to use. You can look up specific plants by name or from an index and get growing tips and ornamental value in addition to the standard information like size, zone and growth rate.

Each listing has at least two well-done photos and the thumbnail size images can be enlarged so you can see the detail in the plant structure to make identification and selection easy. Plus there are two really interesting features on the website. A pronunciation play button actually has a voice that speaks the Latin species name. The other is the pruning button. When clicked, this button has information on how and when they recommend you prune along with an animation of the correct pruning techniques for each plant. Now how cool is that?

For easy access to quick information, this website gets 4 stars. If you are adding to your landscape and need to select some plants, this site also has the ability to do a search using any combination of 42 different characterists including size, bark interest, fragrance, bloom time, landscape applications and even fall color.

www.organicgardening.com

I think it is always nice to reduce the stacks of magazines sitting around my home. So I was delighted when I recently discovered that Organic Gardening magazine's website offers daily tips and articles including some from their most current issue.

Yes, this is a commercial web site and you will find ads for products. But the volume of diverse information you can find on this site makes it worth a look every month just to keep up with what is happening in the area of organic gardening and maybe even pick up as few new ideas.

- Debbye Simpson

"The Garden Thymes" is the official newsletter for DuPage area MG's. If you misplace your copy, it can be found at our DuPage County Extension website. From time to time, you may have something you would like to share with fellow MG's or perhaps include an article of your own. We would love to hear from you!! As always, your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Please note the change in issue numbers to reflect our program year.

· Issue #1 (for the next program year) - November 30, 2006

October 2, 3, 4, 16 & 17
2007 Master Gardener Program Interviews

October 26
"How Miticides and Insecticides Work"
Telenet class
6:45 – 8:30 pm

November 2
Graduation & Fall Wrap-up Potluck
11:30 am – 1:30 pm

November 8
MG Reporting Database Training
9:30 – 11 am

November 15
MG Reporting Database Training
7 – 8:30 pm

Every Wednesday, January 10 – March 28
2007 Master Gardener Classes
9 am – 3:30 pm