St Charles County Master Gardeners

St. Charles County Master Gardeners July 23, 2015 General meeting

 

St. Charles County Master Gardeners July 23, 2015 General meeting Meeting was called to order at 6:45 by Vice President, Sharon Hedges with 37 members in attendance. Thank you to Joe Walker for hosting the ice cream social and those who brought toppings and helped serve.

 

Awards - Membership Chairperson, Waneta Parmenter, presented MG badge and certificate to Ken Waterman on completing his volunteer hours. Further certificates of completion were presented to interns completing their Level I training.

 

Minutes - Minutes of the June meeting were published in Monday News. No corrections were issued.

 

Treasurer's report - Joe Walker reports a balance of $13,147.61 after June expenses of $1,268.60. Furthermore, a decision to set aside $1500 for possible emergencies is in the works. The steering committee is working on a month by month budget to give clear directions for group planning.

 

Hortline - Patti Kolek reports that concerns have been coming into the hortline about brown spots in area lawns. She passed out information issued from extension indicating that this fungus kills the lawn area, but the roots are unaffected and the area will regrow. Over the counter fungicides are useless with lawn companies possessing a more effective product. Warning: Do not fertilized your lawn during this time.

 

Demo garden - Mary Medina thanked those who have come and worked the rainy, hot work days and encourages others to come early and help out with weeds, watering and any other care needed in the gardens.

 

Dave Wilson, pantry garden lead, reports total donations to the food pantry of 447 pounds to date, even with poor performance by big weight vegetables.

 

Donna Lindsey invited anyone to come help in the iris and daylilies on Saturday. Weeding in the iris beds and cutting back daylily spent blooms are on the agenda for the day.

 

Del expressed concern as to pathway maintenance and an additional load of woodchips maybe needed before our Fall Extension celebration.

 

Other:

Plant Sale - Cool season crops will be available on Saturday, August 8th. See the list of available vegetables.

Volunteers will be needed to work the public sale. Marty Boothman volunteered to help that day. Others will be needed.

Lawn Chair Tuesday - specifics will be discussed at next meeting.

100th Anniversary of Extension and Fall plant sale - Oct. 17th will be discussed at next meeting.

Tours - Del Moeller informed the group of mix ups in the dates for the Monsanto tours in Chesterfield Valley, Revised dates are Friday, August 21st or 28th. A sign up sheet was sent around.

Cover crop seeds - Del dispersed seeds for Fall cover crops to members interested in trying this mix. An inoculants is needed also. Contact Del if you need this.

State MG conference in Columbia, Sept. 11 - 13 - don't forget to sign up.

Note: Mead's Milkweed - prized milkweed rarely found. If anyone has a stand, please contact Bob Lee for possible seed collection.