Friday, February 26, 2010

Newcomers Master Gardener Course, Master Gardener Winter School & 1st Annual Lawn and Garden Show

From In the Garden

*****PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT*****

The Montgomery County Master Gardener Association (MCMGA) will be sponsoring a newcomers mini master gardener course beginning March 2. Lectures include such diverse subjects as composting, container gardening, perennials and herbs. All classes will meet each Tuesday at 7:00 pm downtown Clarksville in the United Methodist Church. The cost is only $40; which equates to about $5 per speaker-a steal! All lecturers will be local master gardeners who are volunteering to share their expertise and knowledge with you. Door prizes will be available each evening so come, make some friends. learn something new about gardening and have fun! Call Karla Kean at: (931)648-5725 for more information and to sign up. These lectures are open to everyone. There are no tests or volunteer hours involved. Even if you don't live within the local community come and sign up if you are interested in the lectures and can drive to the meetings. All gardeners and wanna be gardeners are welcomed.

From In the Garden

Speaking of meetings and master gardeners, I am only going to briefly mention the Master Gardener Winter School I attended in Murfreesboro. The hosts (Rutherford County) were most gracious and organized. The whole community pulled together to make the school fun, healthy, and wonderful for the 100+ master gardeners who showed up for the event. There were five attendees from my county (Montgomery County). Three of us are pictured above, from left to right: Terri, Julie, and myself.
There were three parts of the school and not all master gardeners attended all three parts so that is why the other two master gardeners are not shown. Julie and I attended the Tennessee Yards and Neighborhoods Done Right workshop and the educational track. We missed the leadership part of the school but I bet it was fun too. We all got lots of tips and lessons for providing service to our communities as master gardeners. It was really fun. I must say talking with the other gardeners and meeting Tennessee master gardeners from across the state (from Chattanooga to Kingsport to Memphis and everything in between) was probably the best part of the whole conference for me.

One more thing. The Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring its first Annual Lawn, Farm and Garden Show. The show will be held in Austin Peay's Red Barn located at 256 Marion Street in Clarksville from 10-8 pm on Saturday, 27 February, and from 12-8 pm on Sunday, 28 February 2010. General admission is $5 and children under 12 get in free. There will be lots of give a ways and several vendors showcasing new things....

in the garden....

We had some grackles come visit us recently. They are really pretty and unique looking birds and didn't bother the normal songbirds at the feeders. They loved those sunflower seeds.


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

20 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting pictures of grackles! They may be common but they are one of my favorite birds. They certainly make the bushes of dull parking lots more lively. :)

    Good luck with your area Master Gardener courses!

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  2. Definitely a good value for that course! Glad you had a good time in Murfreesboro!

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  3. The grackles up here have a purple tone to their feathers instead of blue, how interesting....
    My power was out during the night and just came back on. Believe it or not everyone around us has a school snowday, except us. My kids were not impressed to go with out showers, HA!

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  4. Great photo of you Tina! Not a fan of grackles here ~ I'm always happy when they leave in the fall. Luckily they haven't shown up yet but I expect anytime...
    The garden courses sound like a fantastic deal. I would take some if they were available in my area.
    A big thank you (again) for all the help with the clivias. You are so awesome to write me such a detailed comment. Very appreciated. :-)

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  5. Sounds like you have a very active Master Gardener organization in Tennessee, Tina. I'm lucky that our county chapter is also so active. So many activities and workshops available, I could be busy every week! And I agree--you can't beat the price!

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  6. Morning all, yet another sunny but cold and windy day in GA Burrr...

    That is a great picture of you Tina and Look, you are smiling too! hee hee...

    What fun you must have had and yes, a bargain price for sure!

    Is this Clarksville’s first Garden type show ever? If so, I find it amazing that a city that size has never had a garden show before, so behind the times…

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  7. It sounds wonderful Tina, I wish I already was a MG so I could take advantage of the cool continuing ed experiences and garden visiting. ~WHINE alert! I want to want to take this training, and would if the classes were not across town late at night in the middle of winter. gail

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  8. Sounds like you had some interesting classes and a good time at your conference. I'm looking into the MG program here and thinking about starting it next year.

    The only place I ever see Grackles are in a Target parking lot, never in my yard or anywhere else :)

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  9. Sounds like a lot of fun. I'm glad your town has things like this.

    46ยบ here but sunny. Got one of my beds fixed yesterday. More to do.

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  10. Eliza, Hello and welcome. The grackles are pretty birds no doubt.

    Dave, It was fun!

    Dawn, It might just be the picture but their colors do change. Gotta hate no water and no electricity. That being said they were lucky to not get a snow day. Our kids here are having their school days extended by 30 minutes for the next month to make up for lost days here. It's not a good thing.

    Kathleen, I think most folks don't care for the grackles but I was pleasantly surprised they behaved themselves and got along with the other birds. Now that mockingbird here can learn some lessons from them. My pleasure on the clivia. Not my thing but I knew I could help there with that new book. It caught my attention since I didn't grow mine right either:(

    Rose, You are going to love the organization. Such a fun place and great resource those master gardeners. I'm glad you are taking it.

    Skeeter, I'm smiling because I'm heading home. Ha! As fun as it was I missed my family and house. This is indeed Clarksville's first show. I am curious to see what it is like because I don't think the focus will be on gardening based on the list of vendors. We'll see as I plan to go. But that Nashville Show is Thursday and I'm going with a few friends so if I don't get my garden ideas this weekend I know I will in Nashville. Can you tell I'm excited?

    Gail, The after dark times are sometimes a downer for people but there's really no other way to do it. Bummer you can't do them. Bummer I can't either since I have school Tuesdays. Darn!

    Catherine, You will love it! Sign up when you can. Rose has recently signed up and I think Dave also did them fairly recently. Good training and networking for gardeners in your community. Grackles, yes that is odd they are all in parking lots. Here I only see them in my garden.

    Lola, So glad you can get in the garden. It is MOST nice here too and I need to be in mine but have a landscape design and other things:(

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  11. Sounds like besides learning it was also enjoyable for you. I think this always helps. I'd love to take a class but just don't seem to retain very well anymore. Oh gee, did I ever? LOL Guess I'll just keep doing it the old Trial and Error way. I'm having a hard time as it is with other projects going on and still trying to blog and visit. I'm not sure if we've had Grackles up here or not.

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  12. I love the birds....I have not heard of Grackles before, but wouldn't mind a visit from them :^)

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  13. Hello, tina.

    WOW! I saw grackles for the first time!! Thank you for posting photos of them! And you look really GREAT! Sounds like wonderful classes and lots of fun! I look forward to hearing more about the Master Gardener Winter School from you!!

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  14. Sounds like lotsa learning all around.

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  15. Mom, Glad you got your power on! There was a picture in today's paper of a car in Saco that got inundated with waves. Bad storm!

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  16. Hey, another "Terri," only mine's with a "y." Coolio name there Ms. Terri! I know a "Julie" here Julie, that's a nice name too. And "Tina" begins with the same letter as "Terry" so that makes "Tina" a most worthy name too Ms. Tina! By the way, I'm a Master Gardener too (Class of 03). We're startin to pick up with talks and seminars with spring just around the corner. (Look for "Spring" to arrive early in your inbox real soon Ms. Tina.)

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  17. I would love to take a gardening course! How fun! I have a hard time finding one around us that fits into my schedule, but I'm going to keep looking.

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  18. Tina, have fun at your master gardener course. I love the photo.

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  19. Some fun events, for sure! I just joined our local gardening club - hoping to get to know and learn from some master gardeners, even though I don't have time to take classes these days.

    I love grackles - they don't come to our feeders. We are getting starlings now, though, which is unusual.

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  20. Hey Tina, check out the bottle trees.
    http://cackleberrycottage.blogspot.com/2010/02/enjoying-sunshine.html

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