St Charles County Master Gardeners

St Charles County Master Gardener Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

 

Friday 12 July, 2019

Attendees: Kevin Minard, Joe Walker, David Prince, Victoria Gally, Cindy Platzer, Del Moeller, Marsha Brown, Patti Kolek, Justin Keay, Del Moeller.

 

Call to order: Kevin called the meeting to order at 9:04 AM

 

Steering Committee Meeting Minutes June 14, were prepared by Victoria Gally. Cindy made a motion for approval of minutes as written. Marsha seconded the motion. Minutes were approved as written.

 

Treasurer’s report: Joe reported net monthly changes for June . End of June 2019 cash in Bank for 2019 was identified. Unallocated dollars were shown. Cindy: Cindy asked to be shown dollar changes for each demo garden. Joe produced the spread sheet identifying each garden lead and expenditures to date as paid out by the office for each demo garden.

 

MU Horticultual Specialist: Justin showed effects of herbicide damage to tomato plant leaves (curling). Possible causes of contamination can come from drift of spray, animal waste from livestock grazing on vegetation after spraying, contamination of compost being utilized, etc. Report of plants in raised beds showing effects were discussed.

Justin wants to run a green bean test. The green bean plant is very sensitive to herbicides. He plans to plant green bean seeds in a pot of the raised bed mixture, some seeds in a mixture of raised bed soil and potting soil, and some in just garden soil for a comparison. He stated that when the soil is contaminated with certain herbicides it can take 2 to3 years for it to breakdown. Justin will write it up for the newsletter.

 

A class is being given at the University of MO on 30 July “Turf and Ornamental Field Day” (landscape). Class fee is $45. Cindy recommended that we pay the fee for two persons to go. Discussions about sending two people from the hort line group and paying their fee was made and approved. Amendment via e-mail: 02-August-2019- Proposed motion change- "... we pay the fee for three persons to go."..."Class fee is $40 per Master Gardener"- is approved.

Justin: Justin talked about a kit available: Soil Your Underpants. The idea is to bury cotton underpants in the soil for about 2 months and then dig them up to see the effects of the soil bacteria etc. on them.

Justin: Justin presented a form that would be used for approval of “Master Gardener Chapter Volunteer Activity” sites. This would qualify master gardeners to count volunteer hours done off site. We discussed what are approved sites for volunteer hours done outside of the demo gardens. Joe read our previous guidelines which were much briefer. Kevin and Justin will approve future offsite volunteer requests.

 

Extension Council Report: Emily Barbee requested master gardeners to have a booth at Day of Play in O’Day Park on Sept 7th from 10 AM till 2 PM. Patti Kolek and Karen Klearman have volunteered.

 

Membership: Waneta Parmenter will not be at July and August MG meeting and requested someone to pick up new badges. Joe volunteered to pick them up when they are available.

 

Demo Gardens: Cindy and Victoria passed out a summary of the survey results. The survey contained the questions below:

1. As a group, what do we do well?

2. As a group, what do we need to improve?

3. As a chapter, what can we do better to make members feel more included and encourage participation?

4. How can we improve our presence on social media?

5. How can we improve participation in maintaining the gardens? 6. How can we use the demonstration gardens, and knowledge within chapter membership to further our mission of training and educating the public?

Discussions were held about finding two members to work on social media. Cindy requested a 1 hour time slot at the Oct meeting to discuss survey results.

 

Greenhouse: Marsha presented plans to build a holding chamber for plants which are infected with insects. (This is for greenhouse plants when we are growing them in preparation for the plant sale.) It will be about 2 ft by 4 ft and 6 ft high and attached outside to the SW corner of the greenhouse. Some materials are already available. Paul Hendricks is the designer. Marsha also requested approval for obtaining a 2 ft by 4 ft by 5 ft shed from Lowe’s to hold plant sale potting containers. It would be placed outside at the NW corner of the greenhouse. Funding for both items is about $650. Joe recommended that the funds come out of the greenhouse capital improvements. Plans were approved.

 

Plant Sale: See Greenhouse above.

 

Speakers: no report.

 

Hortline: no report.

 

Old Business: Joe announced that there 3 more classes left for Boys and Girls Club meetings. Last class is 8 September.

 

Kevin: Kevin will ask Chuck Baur about repairing the blown down sign at the entrance. The two posts were rotted and broke off in the wind.

Del: Del would like to see a spread sheet showing hours donated to demo gardens. For example: Tracked hours would be:

1. Volunteer hours devoted to each demo garden annually, (separated to each bed if applicable i.e. raised beds).

2. Hours of volunteer time provided and number of volunteers to each demo garden.

3. Hours/volunteer/garden. His diary shows what is being done in pantry gardens.

 

Joe: Joe made a motion to adjourn at 11:35 AM. Motion was approved.

David Prince 12 July 2019