Master Gardeners services include youth to enrich community naturally

[February 23, 2018]   LINCOLN - Horticulture Educator Jennifer Fishburn said, "University of Illinois Extension Logan County Master Gardener volunteers had a busy year in 2017. Volunteers continued several projects including Logan County Fairgrounds flower beds, a perennial plant identification garden on the south side of the Extension building, gardening programs at the Oasis Senior Center, Russel Allen Garden Day, and a plant sale."

Master Gardener volunteers held their annual plant sale on the second Saturday in May. Fishburn said, "the public was able to purchase from a wide variety of native plants, houseplants, sun and shade perennials." This year’s plant sale will also offer a wide variety of plants and will be held in May.

For the third year, Master Gardener volunteers offered gardening classes at the Oasis Senior Center in Lincoln. Classes are open to the public. Designing a Flower Bed for Seasonal Interest will be offered on Monday, February 26 at 1 p.m. and will be taught by Master Gardener volunteer Jim Streubing.

Deb Aper arranges the speakers for these programs at the Oasis. The classes are taught by various Extension volunteers and appeal to different interests. Aper said there are five or six classes offered each year and some, like the pruning demonstrations, are hands on.

Classes last year included a demonstration with houseplants showing how to divide them and what soils to use. Those attending then repotted all the plants at the Oasis. Another class last year was a cooking class taught by Aper that was tied to vegetable gardening and what produce one can use.

Aper said classes are participatory with open discussion time and class sizes generally range from around six to 20.

Aper said they also installed a native plant bed as a project at the Oasis. In 2015, Master Gardener volunteers along with garden class participants installed a native pollinator pocket garden around the Oasis Center sign. In its third year, this garden leaped in 2017, attracting butterflies and several species of bees. The more than 20 different species of garden plants are visible from Woodlawn Road.

Fishburn said one new project was a shrub garden on the west side of the Extension building. The focus of this garden is to provide shrubs grown in the home landscape for pruning demonstration purposes. The shrubs that were planted in 2017 include: green velvet boxwood, limelight hydrangea, incredibly hydrangea, forsythia, French lilac and red twig dogwood.

Long-time Master Gardener Lisa Wrage helped plan the shrub garden and said it is based on good quality plants that are common in a landscape. Wrage said it will be a pruning demonstration garden as many home owners struggle with pruning. She gets lots of questions on how to prune lilacs.

In addition to the other projects, the Master Gardener volunteers continue working with the Lincoln Junior High Builders Club, a service club sponsored by the local Kiwanis club and led by school sponsor Ann Podbelsek. In 2016, volunteers assisted with installing a cement pad with benches and planted shade perennials including hosta and columbine. In 2017, students and volunteers added a few more plants and mulched the planting bed. Last fall, students with the assistance of volunteers planted 100 red tulips bulbs, which will bloom this spring. Carol Mills, who has been a Master Gardener for 15 years said the students have worked very hard on this project.

At January's Master Gardener meeting, several members were recognized for their years of service. Those in attendance that were recognized for five or more years of service were (Seated L to R) Kay Furman, Carol Mills, Lisa Wrage, (standing L to R) Kathy Blaum, Nina Gleason, Julie Osborn, Marilyn Kirby, Debra Aper, and Therese Urish.

One of their upcoming events is this year’s Russel Allan Garden Day on Saturday, March 10, 2018 from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm at Lincoln College. As in past years, the format includes a keynote speaker and six break-out sessions. Pre-registration is encouraged, http://web.extension. illinois.edu/lms/ 

The University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener volunteer program is a great learning opportunity for adult gardening enthusiast and beginners. Training classes are offered in late winter. For more information about the program or if you have gardening questions call [phone].

[Angela Reiners]