From the Desk of . . . Sarah
If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.
~Author Unknown
So, let's look for the butterflies!
1. Even though Mary has left her Master Gardener duties and is now Regional Environmental Associate, her desk is still in the DuPage
office suite!
2. I will be working more hours and am available 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Monday – Friday!
3. Master Gardeners will no longer be volunteering at Marianjoy, but there are many new opportunities for Therapeutic Hort projects!
4. A few of our veterans have decided not to recertify (and they will be missed), but we have a new group of 28 trainees!
5. The volunteers at Kline Creek will move back to Wednesdays and don't have to wear costumes!
I look forward to an exciting year of new opportunities to make the DuPage County Master Gardener program even better. Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about any how we can improve your volunteer experience or increase our impact on DuPage County. Let's all keep our nets handy and keep looking for more butterflies!
Welcome to our new Master Gardener Trainees! We are pleased to start training on January 7th for a class of 27 students and 1 online trainee. Our new group comes from all over DuPage County with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests.
Welcome back to all the Veteran Master Gardeners! I was so pleased to see so many of you show interest in some of the new volunteer opportunities while continuing our ongoing projects. Your continued enthusiasm and level of commitment to your Master Gardener program is amazing!
I wish you all Happy Holidays and a very Happy 2009!
Sarah
Notes from the Office:
Don't Forget Our Picnic!
Please try to attend our December 4th Picnic Potluck/Wrap Up, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. We are excited to have Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune Gardening Reporter, present "Where Plants Come From". Her presentation covers how plants are bred, produced and packaged, and the environmental costs of the whole process. Following her presentation, we will award the certificates and some "special" awards. Please call the office to RSVP!
New Year's Resolutions?
We have heard a few of you are planning to make some Master Gardener New Year's resolutions and thought everyone would be interested in them:
1. I will report my volunteer and continuing education hours in a timely fashion.
2. If I don't report in a timely fashion, I will at least report once every quarter.
3. I will not put off completing my continuing education requirement.
Joan and Sarah think these are excellent goals!
Local Farmer's Markets
We hope to offer MG Help Desks at several local Farmer's Markets next year. If you have a favorite market in your neighborhood that you think would welcome Master Gardeners, please contact Sarah.
Lunch Lessons
We hope that you can attend our Lunch Lessons, scheduled once a month January – April. This is a great opportunity to visit with your fellow MGs, enjoy your own bag or deli lunch, listen to a Speakers' Bureau presentation AND receive continuing education hours! Check the menu and call for a reservation.
The volunteer opportunities listed below came too late to be included in the first quarter signup. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please call or email the office ASAP!
Winter's Farmer's Market - St. Mary of Gostyn, Downers Grove
Sunday, February 15th, 2 shifts, 2 MGs at each shift
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
They want info to be available on vegetable gardening. What a great idea for a cold February day!
For the Worm Team
Field School Science Olympiad Night, Elmhurst
Thursday, January 22:
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. – 4 volunteers needed
This will be 3 modified ½ hour lessons for Kindergarten and 1st grade
Elmer Franzen Elementary School, Itasca
Tuesday, February 10:
8:35 – 9:50 a.m. – 3 volunteers needed
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – 3 volunteers needed
Wednesday, February 11:
8:35 – 9:50 a.m. – 2 volunteers needed
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. – 2 volunteers needed
12:00 – 1:10 p.m. – 3 volunteers needed
Continuing Education Opportunities
There are only a few seats left for Veterans in the MG Training Classes.
Class 6: Fruits – February 11th – 1 seat available
Class 10: Pesticide Safety – March 11th – ½ Day AM – 3 seats available
Check with Joan if you would like to attend.
Keep an eye out for the new "Ready Set Grow!" flyer which will be coming out soon! We're excited to have a new "crop" of telenets for you. Remember, these count as Continuing Education time! You'll be able to choose from:
Cool Season Vegetables
Jan. 27 – 12:30 p.m. or Jan. 29 – 6:30 p.m.
Spring Flowering Shrubs for the Home Landscape
Feb. 10 – 12:30 p.m. or Feb. 12 – 6:30 p.m.
Ornamental Grasses
Feb. 24 – 12:30 p.m. or Feb. 26 – 6:30 p.m.
Registration is open, so start now on your 10 hours of continuing education!
Thanks to all of you who volunteered to facilitate the Winter 2009 telenets. We only need one person for each telenet, but there will be more opportunities throughout the year. Look for these topics in upcoming signups:
Spring 2009
Warm Season Vegetable Gardening
Buy Local, Eat Healthy
Building a Basic Water Garden
Summer 2009
Turf Diseases
Don't Blame the Plant – Abiotic Disorders
Landscaping on the Wild Side
Fall 2009
Poisonous Plants
Bonsai
Tree Maintenance
ECO-FRIENDLY–IT'S EVERYWHERE
Green goes greener--increased focus on environmentally sound options is sweeping across the landscape industry. The quest for perfect turf and exotic tropicals may have led us astray, but we are being drawn back to a more nature friendly approach to nature. Our Illinois State Master Gardener Conference, "Pathways to a Greener Illinois", reflected this awakening. Here are a few more resources that you might find interesting…
Ball Horticultural Company is a world-wide leader in all aspects of floriculture. But that isn't enough—they are determined to take the lead in making the industry more ecologically responsible as well. The Central Park area of the Ball Gardens in West Chicago, for example, contains drifts of native perennials and grasses that invoke a natural prairie or meadow ecosystem. Plants are chosen with butterflies, birds, and beneficial insects in mind. Within this garden is a leading edge prototype for sustainability—the Circle of Life Garden which features plants grown locally, using eco-friendly production methods in biodegradable compostable pots. Maintenance is chemical free, using organically based fertilizers and compost tea. For more information on this program, visit www.circleoflifeplants.com.
Beyond commercial efforts, Ball has undertaken an ecological restoration project returning 28 acres of property to original native prairie and wetland ecosystems. This area and the ornamental gardens are generally closed to the public. But as a Master Gardener, you are welcome—call ahead to arrange your visit at 888-800-0027.
The educational programs at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle have gone more "eco" as well. I recently attended "Eco-Friendly Choices for the Well-Designed Garden", taught by Karla Lynch (Course H955). The class introduces an intriguing and practical approach to landscape design—providing a "bridge between Traditional Gardenesque Design and Eco-Friendly Design". This class doesn't require a vow of commitment to dig up all of your favorite "alien" ornamentals and go pure native! But it does offer some very interesting new perspectives that will inform more environmentally sustainable choices. For example—
· The life of the soil is as important as its chemical properties. Focus less on NPK and more on a healthy soil food web.
· Native insects (the primary food source of native birds) have evolved with plant life in a shared ecosystem—most cannot adapt to the non-native plants that we introduce.
And this year's Midwest Gardening Symposium, March 13-15 at the Arboretum, is themed "Sustainable with Style". Among the programs, 6 local landscape professionals have been paired with homeowners for "sustainability rehabs" on their yards. (www.mortonarb.org)
Already hibernating? Check out Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas W. Tallamy (Timber Press, 2007). He discusses how gardeners can significantly contribute to sustaining biodiversity, slowing the rate of wildlife extinction, by favoring native plants.
- KC Swininoga
SPOTLIGHT ON SPEAKERS BUREAU
As we all know, the Master Gardener motto is "Helping Others Learn to Grow". And one of the most visible examples of this is the Speakers Bureau.
Our Master Gardeners present programs for the community using research from the University of Illinois. Some programs are prepared by University Educators. Others are conceived by the Master Gardeners themselves using research provided by the University. These programs are presented for libraries, park districts, garden clubs, and other venues. There are lectures, PowerPoints, demonstrations, and slide shows.
Topics are varied. They include Annuals, Perennials, IPM, Seed Starting, Shade Gardening, and many other subjects related to the various aspects of gardening. Suggestions for new topics are always welcome. A complete list of presentations is available at Speakers Bureau\2009\2009 Topic Listing for Web.pdf.
If you have a group that is interested in a program, please contact Sarah or submit a request at http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/county/survey.cfm?sID=412.
- Pat Kosmach
The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place
Claire E. Sawyers (Timber Press 2007)
ISBN# 978-0881928310 $34.95
Claire Sawyers has developed five principles to aid gardeners in creating outdoor spaces that reflect our local surroundings and American culture rather than trying to replicate European or Asian gardens. This is a book of ideas that focuses on how to best use a garden site's unique characteristics and derive beauty from function, rather than focusing on specific plants. Sawyers' very earth-friendly philosophy includes suggestions for functional areas in the garden with hardscape features such as walks, fences and walls that are attractive while often using indigenous or recycled materials. This is a great read, full of interesting facts and supported by photographs of gardens that illustrate her ideas.
Plant-Driven Design
Scott Ogden & Lauren Springer Ogden (Timber Press 2008)
ISBN# 978-0881928778 $34.95
The Ogden's subtitle "Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Spirit and Place" describes their philosophy of creating gardens that use the right plants for the site while working with the visual aspects of the plants to create a richly textures landscape that is both satisfying to look at and still give us pleasure when gardening. This is a great big book glossy book full of ideas you can use with extensive lists of plants for specific purposes, habits and select characteristics.
400 Trees and Shrubs for Small Spaces
Diana M. Miller (Timber Press 2008)
ISBN# 978-0881928754 $29.95
In a small space, size does matter. Diana Miller has created a practical reference guide for choosing trees and shrubs that excel in smaller gardens. She focuses on woodies to help maximize space that are either smaller in nature or provide less shade to allow for layering underplantings as well as larger ones that can be kept small but still look good with pruning. The only drawback to the book is that since it was written in England, you may be frustrated that many of her recommendation are not hardy in our zone. But still worth a read as you may find a gem of a plant you had never considered before.
- Debbye Simpson
Betony
The plant commonly known as betony is a member of the genus Stachys, also home to S. byzantium, the fuzzy-leafed, spreading perennial known as lambs' ears. The species, S. officianalis, or common betony, creates a dense mound of leaves, from which rise stiff stems thickly filled with whorls of small white or rose lobed flowers. Stachys comes from the Greek "stachus", meaning "spike", in reference to its pointed flower forms, which look like bright cylindrical lollipops. The plants' stems may reach two feet in height. Betony prefers full sun and well-drained soil. Hairy, square stems (mint family) bear tapered, round-lobed leaves which have a quilted or wrinkled texture. Betony blooms from late spring well into summer, holding its flowers even longer in very light shade. The plant is essentially pest-free and hardy to zone 3, needing no winter protection. Dividing every few years will result in a number of new plants which develop on the perimeter of the parent: these are not aggressive spreaders.
Medieval herbalists called it "woundwort", considering it something of a cure-all, especially for staunching bleeding and healing wounds and sores. It can be poisonous so should not be taken internally.
And then there is S. grandiflora, called "big betony", though actually smaller than the species, at 18" tall. The "big" reference may be to the stems, which bear many more and fuller flowers than the species. Named cultivars include "Alba", "Rosea", Violacea" and one variously called "Robusta" or Superba", all, obviously, describing the flower color. Steven M. Still's respected reference, "Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants", is the only one I found to call big betony S. macrantha, with S. grandiflora as a secondary name. Bill Neal's "Gardeners' Latin" defines "macranthus" as "producing large flowers"; will the taxonomists please try to agree? These quibbles mostly seem to matter only to the purists, but just try to add a plant to your garden which your friend who grows it calls "grandiflora", when all the ones you can find in the nursery are labeled "macranthus"….
This spring I added a betony plant to my garden, over the objections of my friend who saw that it was a Stachys and warned that it would take over, just as some ill-advised lambs' ears I had planted a few years back as a border edging (now gone, replaced by a swath of blue leadwort.) Unlike its fuzzy-leafed cousin, it made a well-behaved addition. This one was labeled "Stachys monieri 'Hummelo'". It produced rose pink flowers for most of the summer from a mound of very attractive, textured bright green leaves. Its growth habit resembles that of Heuchera, with several separate plants now appearing in the cluster. Perhaps next spring won't be too early to divide it – I'd like several more!
Department of: Things Learned at the Master Gardener Conference
For a long time I have wondered why a surprising number of plants not in the citrus family have "lemon" In their names and a citrusy, lemony scent in flowers or leaves. Turns out it is not a lemon element somehow transferred into the DNA of the other plants, but a distinctive scent found in many plants, but described as "lemon" because that is a familiar, easily- recognized term. Thanks, Dan Heims.
- Sandy Lentz
DuPage County Extension Office
1100 E Warrenville RD – Suite 170
Naperville, IL 60563
Telephone: 630-955-1123
FAX: 630-955-1180
http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/dupage
The Extension Service of the University of Illinois provides educational programs and unbiased research-based information to help Illinois residents improve their quality of life, develop skills and solve problems, by helping you put knowledge to work.
The Illinois Extension Service provides equal opportunities in programs and employment.
Links in this newsletter are for the enjoyment of the readers and should not be considered endorsements.
|
