St Charles County Master Gardeners

St Charles County Master Gardener Meeting Minutes

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23 May 2019 Call to Order: President Kevin Minard called the Master Gardener’s meeting to order at 6:30 PM.

Attendance: 47

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Speaker: Leslie Limberg: “Attracting Hummingbirds to Your Yard” Leslie spoke about the amazing hummingbird and showed lots of slides. It was a wonderful and informative program.

 

Secretary’s Report: The Secretary’s report for 25 April was approved.

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Treasurer’s Report: The financial report for 23 May was provided. It showed the net monthly change from April. It showed the end of April cash in bank as compared to May 2018 cash in bank. The estimated plant sale revenue minus estimated plant sale expenses provided a 2019 estimated plant sale net revenue increase over the 5 year average plant sale net revenue. Gross revenue was much better than the 5 year average.

 

Committee Reports: Membership: Waneta Parmenter and Bonnie Winkeler: Emeritus badges were awarded to Joan Wagner and Vicki Barnard.

 

Horticulturalist: Justin Keay has requested a list of all community gardens in St Charles County. A list was circulated for members to list sites maintained by members. If not certain of the qualification of the garden, it was requested to list it and the list will be reviewed later.

 

The 2019 State Master Gardener Conference is the 4th and 5th of June.

 

Speakers Bureau: Valerie Mertz: All is ok. Education:

 

Mary Medina: Three regular continuing education classes will be given in June and July. Classes will cost $10 and be 2 hours each. They will meet in classroom C from 6 to 8 PM. Dates are June 24—Fall Vegetables; July 16—How to use herbs in teas and dips taught by Victoria Gally and the herb girls; and July 17- Cover Crops taught by Justin Keay. See newsletter for more details.

 

Demo Gardens: Cindy Platzer: On June 1 at 9 AM, Leslie Limberg will show how to make a miniature rain garden at the end of a down spout.

June 5th from 6 – 7:30 PM, we will have a Meet and Greet with ice cream to welcome the new 2019 Master Gardener Class graduates. At 7:30, Waneta will teach how to record hours. On June 15th Demo garden area is closed to workers due to facility rental for a wedding party.

June 8th will be a workday to get demo gardens looking good. Leaf mulch is in for any Leads who need it in their beds. It is also available for any MG’s to take it home for personal use. Del Moeller requests help harvesting pantry gardens on Wednesdays. No harvesting will be done on Saturdays due to there are no storage facilities for holding harvest over the weekends. Del asked MG’s to call him if they have produce from their own garden to donate to St J & A. He also gave guide-lines about the materials and size of materials to be used for compost. V

 

ictoria Gally announced that garden leads are now able to spend 100% of their budgets. She would also like garden leads to submit a short paragraph about their garden to the newsletter. And, please look at the signs that Jill Zupec has begun to install.

 

Hortline: Patti Kolek: Hortline is in full swing now with some new contacts. Main question has been how to keep rabbits out. She does need some volunteers for the Farmer’s Markets. Garden leads are requested to do photos with write-ups showing activity in Demo Gardens. Please send them to Patti.

 

Greenhouse: Cindy and Marsha asked that you leave used pots in front of the greenhouse, or, wash them in a 10% bleach solution and put them on the back table in the greenhouse. Keep cleaned pots separate from uncleaned pots. Donna will have a bin available for the larger pots.

 

Plant Sale: Laura Steimel and Marsha Brown thanked all workers for a very successful plant sale. They did an outstanding job and the results showed it.

 

New Business: Long range planning survey is being prepared and will be sent to members in the newsletter. Please bring the completed survey to the meeting next month. Our vision is Education. We need to develop social media in the future.

 

Missouri “Roots and Blossoms” afternoon tea at the Governor’s Mansion with the Governor’s wife was attended by Kevin Minard on April 23rd, 2019. It was the 1st annual event with representatives from all Missouri’s Master Gardener Chapters . Photos were shown of the event.

 

Old Business: Three Rivers Beekeepers have cleaned up area around their hives and the bees are no longer leaving the hives toward the back of the building.

 

Good of the Order: Joe Walker announced that the Boys & Girls Club in O’Fallon will start in 2 weeks with 18 kids. It runs June 3 through August 9th. He recognized 6 MG’s working with him and would accept more.

 

Maureen Walmsley announced The Forest Keeling Fall Field Day on September 12. It is a free event with speakers and workshops for an all-day event. M

 

ary Fuller has raffle tickets for the Troy Federated Garden Club. They are $1, or 6 tickets for $5 for various prizes.

 

Mark Krebs announced that there are free tomato plants on the porch.

 

Thank you to this month’s facilitators, Mary Fuller and Cathy Holloway. Meeting was adjourned.

 

Respectively submitted, David Prince