Posted on

Meet Matthew Carney, Master Gardener Volunteer

With a new cohort of Master Gardener Volunteers beginning to serve their community, we’d like to introduce them (AND YOU!) to the group of MGVs who have sustained this program for the last several years. Meet Matthew Carney!

What sparked your interest in gardening, and what has sustained it?

Inspired by my father, I began gardening from a very young age and continued to do so as a college student and a Peace Corp Volunteer. While agriculture was not my main focus, my vegetable garden in Tonga became a source of interest for many and an inspiration for some during my years as a Peace Corp Volunteer. My Tongan friends and neighbors were surprised that luxuries such as tomatoes, peppers and squash etc. could be grown locally.

More recently, my wife Linda and I began the Peacock & Pony Farm where we sell and share our produce and flowers. We have also created and nurtured several perennial gardens at the Baker Woods Preserve (BWP) in Natural Bridge where we are the primary stewards.

Matt at the Baker Woods Preserve
The Baker Woods Preserve includes extensive river and wetland habitats, a red pine plantation in transition, and native coniferous and hardwood forests.

What benefits do you gain from gardening?

We enjoy the fruits of our labor. Nothing tastes as satisfying as home grown veggies and nothing satisfies my sense of aesthetics and environmental ethics more than our many perennial pollinator gardens. As a Master Gardener Volunteer, I continue to learn and to share knowledge and insight with fellow gardeners and conservationists.

How do you serve as a MGV?

Most significantly, I interact almost daily with visitors to the Baker Woods Preserve and enjoy sharing my knowledge of trees, shrubs, plants and perennials, both wild and cultivated, with individuals and groups of all ages.  Read more Meet Matthew Carney, Master Gardener Volunteer

Posted on

Time To Order Your Seeds!

Winter is a quiet time for most gardeners. Time to review the past year’s garden successes (and failures), and to begin planning for next year’s garden… and of course to order new seeds. Many gardeners eagerly anticipate getting the first garden seed catalogs, and by now many have arrived in my mailbox. 

Seed catalogs are much more than just pretty pictures of great fruits and vegetables or a source of garden tools and supplies. Within their pages can be found a whole host of information on each plant variety. The descriptions cover many useful topics, from disease resistance, to how to match particular vegetables to the soils of your garden, to the size of the fruit and the plant’s growth habit, and much, much more. A couple of examples from my own garden will explain what I mean.  

I love winter squash, particularly butternut squash, but for years my success with it was hit-and-miss. What I observed from years of gardening is that if powdery mildew got into my squash and pumpkins early, I would go on to have a very poor crop, whereas if the powdery mildew showed up later in the summer, I ended up with a much better crop. Looking through a Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog, I noticed they were offering a hybrid butternut squash called Metro PMR (F1) Butternut Squash – PMR standing for Powdery Mildew Resistant. Since switching to this seed three years ago, I’ve had consistently good crops. This past growing season my pumpkins and acorn squash were hit hard by powdery mildew, but my PMR butternut squash plants growing right next to the pumpkins continued to flourish and produced a nice crop.

Carrots are also a mainstay in my garden. Gardeners with clay-ey soils like mine will have a hard time growing most carrots, but reviewing seed catalog information helped me match varieties to the particular soil type in my garden – in this case Chantenays and Nantes, which do well in heavy soils.  

If you don’t like to grow carrots because of the small seed size and the need to thin them during the summer, seed producers have made a simple innovation that you should try. Pelleted carrot seed, is covered with a clay like substance that dissolves when planted. The little round seed pellets are easier to handle and space accurately, even by children, eliminating the need to thin the carrots later. Read more Time To Order Your Seeds!

Posted on

Meet Carolyn Filippi, Master Gardener Volunteer

With a new cohort of Master Gardener Volunteers ready to begin, we’d like to introduce them (AND YOU!) to the group of MGVs who have sustained this program for the last several years. Meet Carolyn Filippi!

What was your path to gardening?

I grew up in a mid-sized city with virtually no understanding of growing plants. In my high school years my mother had a small garden with tomatoes and peppers each summer but I paid little attention except to pick the fruit. In the early ‘70s I moved from the city to the country to get “back to the land” like many others of my generation. I began farming immediately to provide as much of our food as possible. I remember standing in the garden that first spring holding Rodales’ Organic Gardening book, hoe in hand, reading about how to plant potatoes. I used that book a LOT that first season!

Carolyn preserves tomatoes

What benefits do you gain from gardening?

There are so many benefits! I love working outdoors. Gardening is great exercise, not just physically but mentally. It’s stimulating to brainstorm and plan new projects, then execute those ideas and solve all the issues that invariably arise throughout the growing season. The unique nature of each season and the sheer number of plants and living creatures in the ecosystem means there’s an endless opportunity for learning.  

Gardening also provides a time to be present and contemplative. It’s an opportunity to stop and smell the roses- and then check them for insects, new buds, adequate water, etc.! The garden brings me peace. And the icing on the cake is enjoying the increased wildlife, especially the birds and butterflies. 

Why did you want to become a Master Gardener Volunteer?

I was looking for a new way to connect with my community. By becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer I could help others learn to garden or find answers to perplexing problems and I was eager to learn from the experience of other volunteers.     Read more Meet Carolyn Filippi, Master Gardener Volunteer