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Master Gardeners of Saint Charles County

General Meeting Minutes

May 22, 2014

 

Scott Killpack Presented some of the situations from the Hortline. He also showed a new extension website – Tree Pests http://extension.missouri.edu/treepests/home.aspx.

 

Scott gave a presentation on the 100  years of University Extensions.

 

Meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by President Dave Barylski.

Credits earned for the Hortline presentation = 45 minutes. Extension 100 years = 50 minutes.

 

Pondarama –

June 21 – 22. Sponsored by the St Louis Water Garden Society.

 

There will be an area wide celebration of the extensions anniversary on August 23 from 11- 4 at Faust Park. St Charles, St Louis, Jefferson counties are participating. Scott is asking for volunteers to man a Plant Doctor desk at this event.

 

Looks like there will be several people completing 1000+ volunteer hours this year. Pam Yankey has already accomplished this.

 

We are in need of meeting hosts for August, September and October.

 

Joe Walker - treasurer:

Balance as of April 30 (Contact the treasurer for this amount).

See Plant sale in these minutes for details.

 

Spring Plant Sale –Evelyn Franks stepped in for Mary Medina

Dates:                                                 Revenue

Saturday, April 26                          (Contact the treasurer for this amount)  (includes MG purchases the evening before at $1200)

Saturday, May 3                (Contact the treasurer for this amount)

Expenses:                                           (Contact the treasurer for this amount) (seeds, soil and pots)

Total profit $7698

Number of plants available: 

*  Paul - 2,566 included fruits, vegetables, annuals, perennials and house plants

*  Other growers and contributors (Pam, Micha, Evelyn, David, Mary, and others) 3,728

Grand Plant Total: 6,394 + 148 (6 packs)

Logistics:

Three sites with seasoned "experts" in each area along with 4 members to tally purchases and direct people to the holding area and other shopping areas.

Greenhouse:  Vegetables and herbs.  Entrance in back of greenhouse, shop through to the front where tallies waited and instructed patrons to the holding area and other shopping areas. 

C room:  Housed annuals, bulbs, cashiers AND Ask the Master Gardener

Canopies (2) were set up for shopping the natives and perennials

Holding area away from other shopping sites also supported 4 - 6 volunteers.

Traffic Control aided the public to available parking spots and kept congestion at a minimum

Advertising and Signage

1. Carol created full and half page flyers, placed information in area publications and maintained the Extension website, which this year included a list of items available.    A few weeks before the sale a mass email was sent to over 850 Extension contacts.

 New this year was a listing of specific plants available.  Shoppers were noted to have downloaded this list and had it ready as a shopping list.

2.  Street signage the day of the sale was placed by Marsha and Mary C.  With no date, these signs are reusable each year.

3.  Additional signage instructing people to various areas are maintained from year to year.

4.  The huge job of creating signs specific to plants we offer, was created and maintained by Mary C.  A huge Job - and she made it look easy.  These are now kept from sale to sale!

Printing:

1. A grower’s guide, created as an optional teaching tool, was offered at the cashier table

2. Color coded tally sheets helped shoppers buy more and kept the spillage down by the cashiers.

3.  Specific plant signs (Printed by Mary C)

Suggestions for 2015:

Make pot size and shape be the price 

Lines to cashiers

More singles for change

Greenhouse – Evelyn Franks

 Mary gave us an outline of what has taken place throughout the last year in order to have a great plant sale.

November – Growers met to discuss what seeds need to be ordered and who will grow them.

December – Seeds are started.

January – Watering, feeding, transplanting.

February - Watering, feeding, transplanting.

March – Watering, feeding, transplanting and started moving some plants to the greenhouse.

April - Watering, feeding, transplanting and started moving more plants to the greenhouse. We spent some time each day looking for bugs.

As of April 24 Evelyn announced that we had approximately 4176 plants in the greenhouse plus perennials and natives outside.

 

Set up for the plant sale will start at 12:00 on Friday, April 23. Master Gardeners will be able to buy plants from 4 – 7 p.m.

 

Plant sale workers are asked to park their cars at the Brown Road Park. Joe Medina will shuttle workers to and from the extension.

 

 

 

Greenhouse – Evelyn Franks

  • Evelyn thanked the day leads who watered and inspected each day. Volunteer hours recorded in the greenhouse log was 276 hours (525% less than last year).

  • A pH monitoring system was used which included a second water barrel.

  • Cuttings and peppers were grown offsite. Last year we had problems with pests from theses.

  • All incoming plants were transplant size with good root systems.

  • Problem plants were moved to Mary Medina’s home or outside the greenhouse.

  • Go over Best Practices at the November growers meeting .

  • Goals

    • Replace defective thermostats in greenhouse.

    • Add three additional cold frames (thanks to Dave Barylski for building the first three) in October.

The Steering Committee has authorized Evelyn to attend the Hummert’s greenhouse class.

 

Demo Gardens – Kevin Menard

  • Demo garden sign-up sheet is at the table by the door. We still need two new leads for Turf grass and Propagation bed.

  • We need better (less weeds) surrounding the gardens. We need to do something between now and September. NEED A LEAD

The St Peters Earth Center has mulch and compost that may be purchased at a discount for Master Gardeners. An identity card for MGs was suggested.

The compost we get from St Peters has human waste bio-solids in it. We need a breakdown as to exactly what is in the compost.

 

We have two new leads – Enabling garden – Ken Piney, Day Lilies – Cindy Platzer and Donna Lindsey.

 

Pantry Garden – Paul Hendricks

Already started harvesting and volunteers are needed to keep up with the expected increase in vegetables to harvest. Help is needed on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday @8: a.m.

The first pantry garden was built in 2008 . Fresh produce donated to St Joachim and Anns’s food pantry has exceeded 6,000 lbs.

 

Demo Garden site visit – Jane Timmons

On Friday, June 20 from 10:00 to 11:30, a group of 33 people from Indianapolis Master Gardens will be touring our site. Volunteers are needed. Contact Jane.

 

Missouri Master Gardeners Association (MOMGA) - Elaine Fix

Board meeting will be held on Columbia on June 6. We are allowed two voting members. Mary Carey has agreed to attend.

 

We are in need of a speaker for the July meeting. Ideas should be sent to Val Mertz.

 

It was suggested that we try a MG to MG “For Sale” page on our website. See website.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

 

Submitted by Mary Carey

 

 

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