Date: Wednesday, October 15

Time: 5:30pm Potluck • 6:00pm Meeting • 7:00pm Guest Speaker

Place: Extension Office

Topic: Bring a potluck to share for this evening meeting, and as usual, your

spouse, family member and or significant other are encouraged to attend this evening

meeting. After our potluck and short business meeting, Peoria MG Melanie Martin will

give a talk entitled "Gourds 101". She will give a breif history of gourds, explain

various uses with basic utilitarian examples, as well as showing several examples that

she has done and others she owns, using various decorating techniques. If you have any

gourds that you have collected in your travels, or have decorated yourself (don't be shy),

bring them along. There will also be a computer slide show running of various gourds

other artists have done and pictures of a couple gourd festivals she has attended, that

will run before and after the discussion.

I think that I speak for all that attended the ICC Landscape and Garden Day September

6th, when we express our enjoyment with the event and thanks for those that

devoted time to helping prepare the Demonstration Garden and staffing the MG

infomation booth that day. Also, thanks to Don and Cynthia Glover for hosting

Peoria Master Gardeners for a tour of their gardens following our Sept. meeting. It

was very informative and enjoyable. Please join us for our fall "Potluck" on October

15 for a social gathering followed by dinner and our October general meeting.

Election of our officers is coming up very soon, and we have to come up with a

nominating committee right now to find members to fill all the postitons. Please give me

your thoughts in this area, or better yet, let me know which office you'd like to hold. It

takes all of us to make this group function. If you have never held an office, or if you're

a new member just out of internship, now is a good time for you to give back to your

MG group. Thank you, up front.

- Ray Ellington, President

Six Peoria County Master Gardeners received awards at the

2008 Illinois Master Gardener Conference on September 12,

2008 in Lombard, Illinois. Peoria County was honored to have

three Outstanding Master Gardener Award recipients out of

thirty nine statewide, and three Sustained Excellence Award

recipients out of thirteen.

Outstanding Recipients:

Kathy Hasselberg was recognized for co-chairing the Bel-

Wood Nursing Home Therapy Garden project. Kathy and her

team have reworked four courtyard gardens and started a

monthly garden club with the residents. Kathy has also served as

Vice President and Coordinator for the Peoria Master Gardeners.

Bonnie Hunt has volunteered at the local farmers market, the

Plant A Row garden, Spring Plant Sales, and co-chaired the

ticket sale for the PBS "Garden Walk." For the past two years

she has held the office of Recording Secretary of the Peoria

County Master Gardeners.

Patsy Spitz participated at the Plant A Row garden, Alpha Park

Garden, Spring Plant Sales, 4-H Fairs and the Help-Line. She

has had a leadership role with the membership committee, the

PAR project and the Extension Council.

Sustained Excellence Recipients:

Melanie Martin received the Outstanding Award in 2005 and

has reported 835.5 volunteer hours since joining in 2002. She is

an active volunteer with Luthy Botanical Garden as a garden

assistant. Melanie is the editor of the Peoria County MG

Newsletter and helped to organize the WTVP "Garden Walk."

Judy Ziemba received the Outstanding Award in 2000 with a

total of 519 hours recorded since 1999 and has focused her

efforts with the Speakers Bureau, co-chairing this project for five

years. She has also volunteered on the "In the Garden" radio

show, Help-Line, and 4-H judging.

Angela Zimmerman was recognized for the Outstanding Award

in 2000 and has volunteered 535.5 hours since 1998. She

initiated the PARC project which gardens with the local workshop

for mentally handicapped adults. The team has several

gardens, planters and containers at the facility and presents

regular garden themed classes for the clients. Angela has

volunteered with the Spring Plant Sale, Speakers Bureau and

ICC Demonstration Garden's Garden Day.

The leadership and dedication of these Peoria Master Gardeners

is greatly appreciated. They are "Helping Others Learn to Grow"

in Peoria County.

- Lynn Webb, MG

This years State Master Gardener Conference was held September

11-13 in Lombard, Illinois. The theme of the conference was

"Pathways to a Greener Illinois." Many of the tours and classes

had an environmental theme. The keynote speaker, Melinda

Myers, spoke about Growing Green Environmentally Friendly

Landscapes. Melinda reminded us about growing more garden

and less lawn. She suggested we try to grow healthier lawns by

mowing regularly and leaving the clippings to compost on the

lawn. This saves one cycle of fertilizer per season. We were also

reminded to sweep or blow the clippings back into the yard and

never into the storm sewer, which end up in our waterways.

Watering should also be done carefully as to not cause runoff

again going into the storm sewer.

These conferences are always a great way to meet folks with a

common interest in gardening and a time for sharing, and

gathering information on what is going on around the state.

There is always time to visit with Master Gardeners you have

met on previous trips, tours and committees. I also love meeting

garden authors, who are just like the Master Gardener and want

one of everything in their garden. My signed collection of their

books just keeps growing.

The attendance at this year's conference was near 450 gardeners.

The Peoria Master Gardeners in attendance were Patsy Spitz,

Patrice Swanson, Erma Wieland, Pat Knoblock, Phyllis Baylor,

Stan Stricklen, Bonnie Hunt, Bonnie Williams and Lynn Webb.

The highlights of the conference that follow come from these

attendees.

Patrice Swanson said her favorite part of the conference was the

tour to Trudi Temple's garden. Trudi's garden is not only incredibly

beautiful but so is Trudi. What a lovely woman. After

walking around and enjoying her many garden rooms I found

myself simply following Trudi around and listening to her

charming anecdotes and absorbing her many useful gardening

tips. One of my favorites is her method of composting. Rather

than have a large and unattractive compost heap Trudi digs pits

large and small in her garden beds, piles in her compost makings

and covers them with soil. So as not to disturb the compost

making by accidental digging, she places a rock or some other

marker on these "Trudi's Pits". I've already started some small

pits of my own--can't wait to make more!

I truly enjoyed the whole conference (my first) says Stan

Strickler, but I would have to say my tour to the Green Technology

Center, the Smart House at the Museum of Science and

Industry and Lurie Gardens were true highlights. I was impressed

by how "green" Chicago seems to be (or at least moving

in that direction). I would hope that some of their ideas could be

adopted here in central Illinois. I had always thought of Chicago

as this giant city with huge buildings and cool places to go. But

now I have a different opinion. They sell backyard composers

and rain barrels to their residents below cost. Thus they truly try

to encourage green thinking. Also meeting Master Gardeners

from Chicago at the Smart House and Lurie Gardens gave me

new insights into urban gardening. I truly enjoyed the entire

conference and was impressed with the offerings of classes and

the emphasis on greening of America (one garden at a time).

Phyllis Baylor said she enjoyed the class on insects. "Good, Bad

and Ugly Insects", that was presented by Donna Danielson, who

works at the Plant Clinic at the Morton Arboretum. She stated

that the two worst insects in Illinois right now are the Emerald

Ash Borer and the Gypsy Moth. Only 1% of insects are pests--

the others are beneficial. She recommended "Garden Insects of

North America" by Whitney Cranshaw (available at Amazon) as

a good reference book, as well as the website: insectimages.org.

Pat Knoblock selected two seminars as her favorites. The first

was by Ellen Ogden from Vermont. The seminar "From a

Kitchen Garden" was fantastic. She took us to her garden and

showed us how she created it in an artistic design, not only

useful but beautiful as well. She shared how her husband and

children together created a family business of seed sales mostly

including 150 different types of lettuces, which grow so well in

the Vermont climate. This has grown into a sizable business

reaching all over the globe and has now been purchased by

Burpee Seed to provide better service to their customers. Ellen

shared that she usually does cooking classes that take fresh

garden produce from the garden to your table, cooked and ready

to eat. Ellen has written at least five books and is currently

working on another. She includes organics of gardening, planting

technique, choices of vegetables, and recipes for the fresh

produce. Her most recent project is a book on garden design,

with a grid for layout and planning a garden. Pat's second choice

was a class by Dan Heim. It was fantastic and took us all over

the world finding new and unique flowers to propagate. His

travels were from the rain forests of South America to Japanese

mountains, Ireland and even the deserts around the world. His

photos were WOW, as were the plants he found to bring home

and propagate.

Bonnie Hunt was one of this year's Outstanding Award winners

and her comments follow: Thanks to the Board and others who

recommended me for an Outstanding Master Gardener award for

2007 activities. Because of that, my husband and I attended the

State Conference in Lombard, IL and had a marvelous time. The

tours, classes, and other activities are a great opportunity to get

new project ideas, see gardening from perspectives other than

my private weed plot, and meet gardeners from other parts of

Illinois who share our passion. The focus this year was on ways

to green our environment. I really enjoyed tours of the Green

Technology Center, the Smart Home at Field Museum and the

Lurie Gardens. If you like grasses, I suggest that you never say

no to a chance to go to Lurie. Many of the breakout sessions had

information on rain gardens, water conservation and green roofs.

Since this was the weekend of the big rains, it was certainly easy

to see the low areas in my gardens when I returned home. Some

should be converted to "planned" rain gardens, I believe. I'm

looking forward to the Conference next year in Effingham.

Think about attending next year in Effingham, Illinois. It's a

wonderful way to grow your knowledge of gardening.

- Lynn Webb, MG