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SCMGA_Newsletter@hotmail.com

May 2018 Newsletter May 21, 7 pm Program: Mike Witt, Field Agronomist, ISU Extension – “Soil Testing - How to and then what!” (at Reiman Gardens) Hospitality: Brenda Kruse, Marty Colony-Smith,

NOTE: Please wear your nametags to the meetings. NOTE 2: Dues of $10 are now due. You may pay at the meeting or send your payment to SCMGA, P.O. Box 164, Ames, IA 50010 The President’s Row

With the plant sale just ending I am truly in awe with the incredible talents and skills that

the Master Gardeners possess. The members spent countless hours meeting and developing the game plan, working out the logistics with our partner Reimen Gardens, opened up their homes to babysitting the plant stock, answered the call and filled the tables with tons of plants, labeled them with precise and very informative tags, organized the holding table to ensure plants stayed together, staffed the sale floor with wicked smart members, quickly moved customers through the checkout line, provided nourishing snacks to all the volunteers, and overcame the challenges from Mother Nature on this cold and stormy weekend.

I continually heard from customers saying “how beautiful the plants were,” how well organized the sale was, and “how helpful everyone was.” A huge SHOUT OUT also to Reimen Gardens, EEOB, and ISU Horticulture Students for all their knowledgeable staff during the plant sale which added to the success.

Please join us for our next meeting so we can continue to celebrate our success! Susan Stocker 2018 SCMGA President SCMGA Minutes, April 16, 2018 @ Reiman Gardens

Mike Cox of Story County Conservation told us about the Tedesco Environmental Learning Corridor and the Carroll Prairie, wonderful projects that are not only good for the environment they also bring people closer to nature. (1 hr CE credits) General Meeting Minutes 16APR18

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President Susan Stocker called the meeting to order at 8:20 and introduced new graduates and interns including Nora Nelson. The minutes from the last meeting were approved as published. Treasurer Brenda Kruse reported that after paying for the symposium sponsorships and collecting some more dues the balance in our treasury is $8801.93. Donald Lewis asked what our anticipated expenses are for the year. Brenda referred to the published budget and the membership discussed where we will be donating monies. Library books, Story County Fair, Scholarships, Reiman Gardens and the Iowa Arboretum donations were mentioned. Donald Lewis made a motion to donate $250 to Story County Conservation for the use of the facility and speaker tonight. Lynette Spicer seconded the motion and the motion was approved. Susan shared with the membership some emails she received from the interns at Iowa Arboretum that thanked the association and shared some of what they learned at the symposium. Some form of these will be shared in the next newsletter. Don Draper mentioned that the interns told him they were very appreciative of the sponsorships. Lisa Hein shared that the May presenter will be Mike Witt, ISU Extension Agronomist. He’ll be speaking about soil testing. Donald Lewis shared that he had printed notepads with the old MG logo and handed them out to those present. Tom Jordan reported that he will be volunteering at Hickory Park in May to help decorate around the flagpole. They will need help lying out the bed and rock and later with planting. Andrea Dorn mentioned that she always likes photos from MG volunteering for the newsletter. It was mentioned that exactly one year ago Tom mowed his lawn for the first time. It was interesting to note that it has not been needed yet this year. Susan asked for volunteers to help with the Extension office yard work. They will be raking leaves, a lot of leaves. Anyone willing and able to help should let Susan and/or Joan Peterson know by April 21.

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Plant sale report by Michelle Boswell:

• Gabbi Edwards will do the labels again this year making sure they are on the Dropbox account and on Facebook. If anyone needs help printing labels they should contact Ann Wilbur. Gabbi has a new email address: gfrerichs76@gmail.com

• Bronwyn has listed about 450 plants that will be donated to the sale. We normally have 800 or so. We NEED MORE.

• At least 15 pots of Rhubarb are planned. Jacklyn Hill said that she had some and Judy Coverdale also has some.

• Candy Bostrom is organizing the snacks for the sale. She sent a sign-up list around. • Members were encouraged to bring plastic shopping bags to the sale. • We also need 6-pack carriers and cardboard flats for customers to carry their plants in. They can

be left at the maintenance building during regular hours Brenda mentioned that she had 30 dozen but we still need more. Susan Jensen will go to the new Fareway to ask for some.

• Bronwyn and Michelle still have pots to distribute, they even brought some to the meeting. • Darla Ewalt mentioned that paper grocery bags are also good. • Jane Tomesch said that we needed more people to sign-up to work on Saturday. • Ann Wilbur and Sue Draper are in charge of Thursday set-up including pricing, moving plants,

etc. The hours will be from 2pm to approximately 6pm. • The volunteer sheet will be emailed to all volunteers soon.

The Next meeting of the SCMGA will be May 21st at Reiman Gardens. The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm Respectfully submitted Andrea Dorn 2018 SCMGA Secretary

From the Plant Sale Committee

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The 2018 Master Gardener Plant Sale is a wrap! Another successful sale due to the hard work of the Plant Sale Committee and all the association members that dug and potted plants, set up, worked the sale and helped clean up afterwards.

Even though the weather for the sale was not optimal, it looks like the preliminary numbers have the net sales ahead of last year! By the next meeting we will have final numbers on sales, plants sold and net profit. Given the late spring, the quality and quantity of plants provided for the sale was wonderful. Thank you again for all your work! Your 2018 SCMGA Plant Sale Planning Committee Announcements I. A Summary of the emails Susan Stocker received from the Iowa Arboretum interns:

Emily Stoffel – thanked us for the sponsorship and related that she loved hearing the insights about rock gardening. She can’t wait to start incorporating all the new plants she learned about into a garden.

Ellen Sattler – thanked us for the sponsorship. She appreciated all the information about rock and shade gardening and can’t wait to share that information from her copious notes. She also bought some plants at the sale and is looking forward to planting them this spring.

Lori Croghan – thanked us for allowing her to attend the symposium. She felt that the classes broadened her horizons in horticulture to areas that may not be covered in her classes at the university. She plans to start a small rock garden this summer.

II. The 2019 Hosta of the Year, "Lakeside Paisley Print," is now available at $8 per plant, and we would like to know who wants to purchase one or more of these at this great price.

Orders for plants will need to be received no later than May 19th so that the plants can be picked up and planted soon instead of being kept in the small pots in which they were shipped. Please email Jackie Runyan (jackierunyan.ames@gmail.com) to place an order. Payment by check, rather than in cash, would be greatly appreciated for the sake of simpler record keeping. You may either bring a check (made out to SCMGA) to our meeting next week or send it to SCMGA, P.O. Box 164, Ames, IA 50010 III. We receive a hardcopy of the Iowa Arboretum newsletter but by the time we have a meeting much of that information is outdated. Therefore we thought you might like the link to the online version: https://iowaarboretum.org/newsletters/

Opportunities for Service and Education Service

| Volunteer to give a presentation at the SCMGA meetings | The Nevada Historical Society is looking for help in Nevada at Evergreen Lane

and the Dyer Dowell House. They are open to working with you on what you are comfortable with. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to Jenny Helland – 515-382-4510.

Education

SCMGA 2018 Program Calendar

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| May 21 – Mike Witt, Field Agronomist, ISU Extension - topic: Soil Testing - How to and then what!

| June 18 – TBA | July 16 – TBA

Please contact your 2018 SCMGA Board of Directors, if you have questions or concerns:

President Susan Stocker 515- 401-2349 scstocker2@yahoo.com Vice President Lisa Hein 515.249-3182 ldsage@msn.com Secretary Andrea Dorn 515.382-5604 SCMGA_Newsletter@hotmail.com Treasurer Brenda Kruse 515.291-1355 bkruse@mcfarlandclinic.com Directors at Large Michelle Boswell 515.268-0925 shell688@aol.com

Tom Jordan 515-233-4103 tjdljordan@yahoo.com Jane Tomesch 515- jaztomesch@mchsi.com