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Master Gardener Volunteer Program year in review

The Master Gardener Volunteer (MGV) program has accomplished so much in the past year, bolstered by the addition of a newly trained cohort last fall. Together with the veteran MGVs, they devoted over 1,000 hours to serving their community, strengthening the program, and increasing their knowledge. 570 of these hours were in direct service – teaching classes, writing articles, tabling, and answering questions from gardeners across the county. This group is tearing it up!

In May CCE held a Grow and Preserve Open House at the Extension Learning Farm to kick off the growing season and highlight the MGV and Master Food Preserver programs. Dozens came out to the high tunnel to plant seeds to take home and consult with Master Gardener Volunteers.

Classes
Two new MGVs jumped right in to facilitate the Seed to Supper course for beginning gardeners, which we offered in Morristown this year. In addition to these 5 classes, MGVs taught or assisted at nine other classes throughout the year, including several in our Grow and Preserve Series where we paired growing classes with preservation classes in the Harvest Kitchen. New MGV Brad and Linda led classes on Tree Identification, and Annie taught about Planning for Year Round Blooms. Loni brought samples to a high school session on Edible Wild Plants, and several MGV co-presented about growing their favorite fresh herbs.

Linda C teaches about growing fresh herbs
Linda C teaches about growing fresh herbs at littleGrasse Community Farm.

Blog posts
Master Gardener Volunteers wrote a total of 15 Fruition posts, plus another five that I contributed. From testing garden soil to growing tomatoes to getting great blooms on indoor plants, these posts cover a lot of ground. In case you missed any,  click the Gardening and Homesteading topic under “Posts” to find them all.

Growline
The moderators of our garden hotline ”the Growline” spent 80 hours answering 135 inquiries, often undertaking research on a new topic and occasionally visiting a site to gather more information. Though this is likely an undercount, it’s valuable to have a record of so many of the topics of interest to area gardeners and homeowners.

Field trips
The Master gardeners loves to learn and really enjoys visiting farms and gardens as a group in addition to our monthly planning meetings. The veteran MGVs met the new cohort in December for a wreath making session at the Extension Learning Farm where the group also helped with maintaining the ornamental beds in the spring and Nick Hamilton-Honey guided us through an enlightening Diversity training. MGV make wreaths together in December 2022

In May, Janet Lomastro led a hands-on small-batch composting workshop in Potsdam, a technique many in the group are now experimenting with at home. Master Gardener Volunteers learn about Janet's composting technique Read more Master Gardener Volunteer Program year in review

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Welcoming kids to the Daun Martin-Poole memorial pollinator garden

Arial view of the pollinator garden at CCE
Arial view of the 740 sq ft garden

It’s been a joy this week to host 50 Farm Day Camp youth (5-12 years old) in our pollinator garden for a scavenger hunt and a lesson about protecting and supporting our native pollinators like this eight-spotted forester moth (Alypia octomaculata) we found…scavenger hunt and the eight-spotted forester mothand this hummingbird clear wing (Hemaris thysbe).hummingbird clear wing (Hemaris thysbe)

A scavenger hunt is a way to guide and motivate each child to closely observe the details of their surroundings. Once they’ve put in a good effort, they can start to help each other find the flowers, leaves, seed pods, and insects.kids doing scavenger hunt in pollinator garden

Being able to use this vibrant garden as an outdoor teaching space is the culmination of nearly two years of work from our dedicated Master Gardener Volunteers to plan the layout, prepare the site, and plant and maintain the garden.Nancy Alessi weeds the garden in April.Nancy Alessi weeded the garden in April, and several times since! Read more Welcoming kids to the Daun Martin-Poole memorial pollinator garden

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In the presence of plants

The county’s Master Gardener Volunteers and several others with an interest in foraging wild plants recently met at a local trail to learn from Tusha Yakovleva. Tusha brings a lifetime of learning about local plants to her educational events, from her childhood in Russia and Scotland to her time spent exploring ethnobotany with native youth in the Adirondacks.

She started by guiding the group to use all of our senses when learning about a new plant. Though we used a plant known to most of us for this exercise, rather than skipping right to how it looks and what it’s called, we started with feeling the presence of the plant, noticing the sounds in the plant’s environment, the hairiness of the stem, the smell of the crushed leaves. We even considered what name we might give the plant based on our observations. Lastly, we landed on the common name, goldenrod, and its use as an immunity boosting tea. This guided exercise primed us for what Tusha called “slow and present observation” throughout our 2+ hour walk on St. Lawrence University’s Kipp trail.

A stand of black locusts in full bloom
A stand of black locusts in full bloom attracts pollinators. The flowers are edible.

Of the many plants we encountered, some I most enjoyed learning about (and tasting) included black locust flowers – which taste like alfalfa sprouts – and wood nettle, our native nettle with tasty leaves that can be dried for tea, eaten raw or cooked, or even dried and rehydrated.

A beautiful stand of native wood nettle
A beautiful stand of native wood nettle

I also tried the broccoli-like unopened flower buds of common milkweed – the only nontoxic species of milkweed. In addition to the flower buds, the young shoots are edible before the leaves unfurl in spring, and the aromatic flowers can be used to flavor drinks and baked goods. Read more In the presence of plants