Author: audrey

Steve McAnally

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Steve McAnally has given service and dedication as a volunteer to CCMGA by developing, creating and overseeing the organization’s website. Steve certified with the Chilton County Master Gardeners in 2012. Having limitations that keep him from working with the more physical side of the MG program, he was quickly drawn to his interest and niche’.

In 2009, the Chilton County Master Garden Association needed a new webmaster. Leo Phillips started and managed the website since 2009 but was ready to move on to managing the First United Methodist‘s webpage and to his other interests.

Enter Steve McAnally, a Master Gardener intern enrolled in the 2012 Master Gardener Program sponsored by the Auburn Extension Service. Steve had plenty of experience with computers and web pages in his past working history. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and has a professional career spanning 40 years in the computer field.

In 2012 Steve certified as a Chilton County Master Gardener. He worked with Leo Phillips, Sondra Henley and Audrey Giles, to develop a new web site for the Chilton County Master Gardeners Association. In 2013, Trisha Williams joined the Web Team staff. The development started in September 2009 and went live on December 2012. The aim of the web site is to promote Master Gardeners and gardening knowledge. Steve has met these web site goals constantly as he has sought to improve and provide interest and information to the CCMGA as well as to the public audience. The site is hosted by Auburn University and can be accessed at http://www.aces.edu/counties/Chilton/mg/.

Not only has Steve served as CCMGA Webmaster, he has been a member of the 2013 CCMGA Board, meeting monthly to manage decisions and activities of the organization and a member of the 2013 Finance Committee. His value to CCMGA….priceless!

Jimmy and Mildred Knowles

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They have assumed one of most difficult chairmanships possible, besides fund raising.

The army is said to travel on its stomach, so do Master Gardeners.

Each month the Knowles make sure that enough volunteers have been assigned KP duty and remember the assignments via emails and reminder cards.

They insure that there is plenty of food and drink – picking up the slack when a lapse occurs.

They share their wealth of home grown fruits, etc with all of us.

The refreshment table is a pleasure to visit during each monthly meeting.

The Knowles embody the best of Master Gardeners – sharing their knowledge of plants, their enthusiasm, and they their enjoyment of Master Gardening.

Website Team

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The Web Team met the criteria of a Service Project. This project provides a window of opportunity for the Chilton County Master Gardeners and the Cyberspace audience to sit in the comfort of their homes. There they can attend workshops and presentations, and read about community service through the many articles we offer along with other resource links. The Web team also met the criteria of Innovative Projects by establishing the newer technology of a web page to become our association’s newsletter. General Master Gardener accomplishments were met as we researched other informative links that would compliment Master Gardener skills and interests.

In 2009 Leo Phillips started the website giving us the springboard for the CCMGA website today. In 2011, a web team started discussing what else we wanted the site to be and become. Today the web team consists of, Steve McAnally, webmaster and site manager, Audrey Giles, writer, photos and designer, Trisha Williams, editor, Sondra Henley, writer and Barbara McAnally, Facebook Page manager. We wanted Master Gardeners to learn about each other and other people important to the MG Program so we chose to provide articles featuring selected people each month. We provide links to AU Webinars on specialty topics, such as the extreme Fire Ant problem Alabama has faced this year. We wanted research based information at the click of a button for MG to easily link to, so we added Gardening Research, along with Master Gardeners in Alabama and State Master Gardeners. We keep our CCMGA informed of daily weather forecasts and volunteer opportunities on our calendar of events. Categories of articles are Community Workshops, Recipes, Musings, Community Assistance, Speaker Bureau, Plant Sales, Extension Activities, Education Outreach, Group Tours, Timely Garden Tips and others.

Anyone who views our site may use the information provided there. We encourage, educate and share, who we are, what we are involved in and hopefully encourage others to join us  @ http://www.aces.edu/counties/Chilton/mg/.

Fig and Vine Cutting Team

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This project meets the criteria of Demonstration Garden, Hands On Program, Community Service and benefitted CCMGA Plant Sales.

The group learned how to prune fig trees and muscadine vines. Agent, Jim Pitts, represented Auburn oversaw the pruning. The hands on activity and what was learned can now be implemented in the participant’s yards, and communities. All Master Gardener Interns and Chilton County Master Gardeners were given the opportunity to participate in the project.

The Fig and Vine Cutting Team included Ed Simmons, coordinator, Alan Reed, Jimmy and Mildred Knowles, Lamar Giles, Rick Miller, Wayne Short, Bob Bates, Lee and Wally Walters, Bettye Glass, Harriett Jackson, Belita Fowler, Margie Robertson, and John Sanders.

As coordinator, Ed contacted his team by email to inform them of meeting dates and what to bring. He made sure the team was properly informed about pruning techniques, ways to keep limbs separated and identified, disinfecting tools, and rooting practices.

Through this team’s efforts the Chilton County Master Gardeners had plenty of identified fig limbs to take home and root for upcoming sales. Fig tree plants are sold every year at the Expo in August, which features fruits grown on the site.

This team’s efforts begin in cold, wet weather in January and ended at the Expo on one of the hottest days of the year. From this team’s efforts, approximately 68 fig trees and 8 vines were propagated. Growing Figs informational handout was given with each sale.

 

An additional benefit of the trimmings was the waste which was made into vine wreaths. Several other Master Gardeners collected and rolled the vines into wreaths from the cuttings and sold them at CCMGA Plant sales.

2013 Awards Presented

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Friends of Master Gardeners Awards are presented to persons or groups that have donated monies, services or materials to CCMGA during the year or have been supportive of the mission and purpose of the Alabama Master Gardener Program.  The Friends of Master Gardeners awards for 2013 were presented to:

Mayor Eddie Reed and the City of Jemison.

Hosts for the Christmas Home Tour:  Bobby and Judy Martin, Joe and Adrianne Dennis, and Melvin and Dot Hartley

ACES Secretarial Staff:  Elaine Densmore, Elaine Statin, Sandra Steverson

Emily Beckett, Clanton Advertiser

Marty Martin, Landscape Consultant

Alice Broome

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I met Alice in the Master Gardener Class of 2012. She is a petite blond, with a lovely smile and a quick wit. She took the class while recovering from cancer. Her attitude and fortitude in taking care of herself was and is today admirable.

She lives with her husband, Norris, in Clanton. He is retired from chemical sales. He now sells church furnishings part-time. Norris is a degreed choral director and enjoys serving area churches on a part-time basis.
Between them, they have 3 adult children. Matt lives in Knoxville, TN, and has two daughters. Trina lives in Helena and has two daughters and one son. Alan lives in Southside (near Gadsden) and has two daughters and one son.

Alice has been volunteering with MG for a year and a half. She completed the MG course in March of 2012 and was certified early that summer. Currently, she is serving as Purchasing Agent for Chilton MG. She is responsible for researching logo and promotional merchandise. This includes identifying items based on quality and price. Once approved by the Board, she orders the items and offers them to the membership for sale.

Alice says that MG is synonymous with improvement. She believes we can offer Chilton county correct information on planting and caring for flowers, vegetables, lawns, and other horticulture related topics. MG also offers both men and women an opportunity to get to know others who share the interest of gardening.

She continued to say, MG is already an association in action. We advertise through word of mouth, local newspapers, and our website. The County is shown the knowledge the members of MG have obtained and the comradery we share through the community projects, such as plant sales and filling city flower baskets and pots.

She would like to encourage more participation from the membership when input is requested. Collecting a variety of ideas and suggestions helps her present new and improved ideas to the Board. Everyone’s request cannot be met, but she feels the group is more unified if diverse suggestions are considered.

When Alice first became a homeowner, in her late twenties, she became interested in gardening. She found that because her yard was an extension of the house, she wanted the yard to look good too. It didn’t hurt that she had always had a love for nature, so she was able to expand on that love.

What she likes most about gardening is the absolute beauty of plants, and the response they show to care and attention. She enjoys the creativity and therapeutic aspects of gardening. Mixing colors and textures and shaping plants and shrubbery is great fun.

Her yard is designed to be eye catching, well maintained, and a small sample of God’s handy work. She uses evergreen shrubs and vines for year round appeal. The yard really comes alive in the spring and summer with various annuals, roses, azaleas, and gardenias. The lawns are Zoysia grass and Bermuda grass. Variegated monkey grass outlines several flower beds and both variegated and solid English ivy cover the fence poles of the back yard. Large clumps of black and green elephant ears are focal points throughout the yard. Colors of purple, pink and yellow are most prevalent. And then there is the focal point of the back lot, her beloved gazebo. Surrounded by purple Lorapetalum, potted azaleas, Indian Hawthorn, and elephant ears, it is always there to offer a relaxing swing.

Alice spends about 20 hours per week during three seasons. She prefers the more formal flowers and shrubs versus the wild flower look. She likes the look and the maintenance of such plants as azaleas, roses, elephant ears and evergreen shrubs in large pots. She enjoys having large shrubs, for instance gardenia and Cleyera, for formal shaping.

Alice does not grow vegetables or fruits. Her gardening skills are limited to flowers, shrubs, and lawns. However, she says she certainly enjoys eating home grown fruits and vegetables!

Besides gardening, her other hobby interests include, interior decorating and pet sitting for family and neighbors. She also enjoys theater, movies, plays and musicals.

When asked about the words to live by, hers are: “Do not criticize anyone unless you have walked in that person’s shoes. I’m afraid we are all guilty of judging others without knowing the whole story.”

Alice’s favorite thing about Chilton County Master Gardeners is  meeting people with similar interest as hers and the contributions they bring to Chilton County.

Awards

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Chilton County Master Gardeners will present awards in December for Outstanding Service and Dedication, Top Hours, Top Recruiter and to Friends of Master Gardeners. Deadline for nominations is the November CCMGA meeting.  Nomination forms are available on this website.

Musings From Miss Sam

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The Look of Incredulity! You cannot imagine the look of incredulity on Mr. O.J. McGriff’s face when I declared that Privet is a wonderful plant which benefits all sorts of animals and the landscape if properly managed. I had just opened Bits and Bobs in January of 1993 and I had been tending the privet when O.J. and Martha came to visit the shop. With pruners in hand, I extolled the virtues of Chinese privet as a hedge, small tree and source of bird feed and switches for naughty children. Goodness, I had even seen darling bird houses built from the wood. During the spring, honeybees and people swoon over the heavenly fragrance of privet flowers. If you happen to know a beekeeper, he will welcome a bundle of rooted plants to placate his hungry bees. I have heard that an excellent honey is produced from the flowers of the privet. My 1993 attitude towards the cultivation of privet was colored by my experience with it as a little girl growing up in Bessemer, AL. My Mother had a beautiful hedge in front of the front porch. As far as I knew, she was able to keep it trimmed into a nice boxy structure which bordered the porch quite easily. There were never any problems with the privet hedge mentioned in my presence. Do you know that we should thank the Augusta National Golf Course for the privet bushes? When the course was built, the need for a wind screen arose. Experts decided that Chinese privet would be perfect and ordered ten bushes. The bushes were a perfect wind screen and perfectly covered the South with offspring. The other fond memory of that front porch was the kudzu trained on strings to form a privacy screen behind the privet hedge. Many a summer afternoon was spent in the front –porch swing enjoying the coolness that the kudzu screen provided. The tender spring leaves provided livestock with food and the deep roots and fast growing vines kept the fields from eroding. When I came back to Alabama as an adult, I could see that kudzu growth had gotten out of bounds. We had plenty of it encroaching on the Bits and Bobs’ building—and all around. My Dad made clearing it out of the old house I use as a shop interesting. He said, “You better watch; snakes love kudzu.” Every time I heard a rustle, I jumped to the ceiling until I had the walls, floors, and ceilings clean of the trailing vines. My British friend and helper took one look at the pliable vines and said, “In England, we take such vines and make wreaths and baskets. Such was the beginning of a great part of our stock for sale during the next few years. What a great way to rid the place of kudzu. In fact, there were times I asked Dick not to cut the grass until I reaped the vines. In other parts of the world, kudzu roots are used to make a thickener similar to arrowroot; the leaves are used for tea; the flowers which resemble wisteria clusters and smell like Grapico cola make jellies. Bamboo is also one of the blessings found on the property. At first, bamboo was a novelty for us; we had never seen so much growing so tall. We put some of the stalks to immediate use. Dick cut a few of the 20-footers and built a scaffold which we covered with fabric. This structure was erected just inside the front door of the shop to keep the plaster from falling on customers’ heads as they entered. Twenty years later, the bamboo scaffold is still standing. So is the bamboo patch. This year, the copious rainfall has enabled the bamboo to spread into new territory rapidly—faster than we can cut. I have encouraged anyone needing poles for any purpose to come and cut. So far, bamboo growth is outpacing the need for bean poles, fishing poles, plants, and all other possible uses including culinary. When the bamboo first sprouts from the soil, the heart can be cut out, steamed and eaten. I read this spring that sweet potato vines were toxic to bamboo plants. I have planted sweet potatoes that were blessed with eyes a-plenty; I have planted sweet potato vines purchased from LeCroy’s Greenhouse. I am waiting for the bamboo glade to diminish! If one could keep just a nice border of bamboo, I would relish having the supply. I have plans for wall-covering, sculptures, furniture, picture frames, etc. I read recently that bicycles were being built of bamboo in south Alabama. I have saved the address; I want to offer them a great crop free. On the days when I am out pulling up out-of-place plants (weeds to some), I see that almost any plant can be classed as invasive. Oaks sprout here as if they were willows. Winged elms wing their way into every grouping of shrubs. Virginia Creeper is trying to outdo the kudzu. Beauty Berry grows in the most inconvenient places—next to narrow walkways and entrances. Blue Rug Juniper is actually crawling over and covering an arbor without benefit of soil. Red buds and dogwoods are vying to see which will have the most seedlings. With enough time, pots, and soil for the pots, I could furnish several landscape businesses with plant stock. HELP! Editors note: Privet, Kudzu, and some Bamboos are on the list of Nonnative Invasive Plants Of Southern Forests.

Nelson Wynn, Regional Extension Agent

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The first time I met Nelson, I was a little intimidated. He’s a big guy! I did not know him outside of the MG classroom and had no other dealings with him. Now after 4 years of working with him, I can truly say, he is a joy to work with. He is one of my greatest encouragers. As I interviewed him for this article,  I found the joy behind that big smile of his; his enjoyment of people and love of family. I hope you will enjoy getting to know Nelson a little better, I certainly have

Nelson grew up in Jefferson County, in a family of 4 brothers and one sister. His fondest memories are around the kitchen table at meal time; eating together, talking, joking, playing games and spending time together.

He now resides in Shelby County with his wife of 16 years, Stephanie who is a Loan Mortgage Specialist. Between them they have 5 girls, Erica, a teacher and graduate of Montevallo University, Belicia who is a Student at UAB working on her BS degree in Marketing, Simone at Jeff State with plans to enter the Navy, Sonya who is in middle school and is active in girl scouts, volleyball, gymnastics and piano and Patricia who is in elementary school and likes singing, dancing, and gymnastics.

Nelson started with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System as a County Agent in Shelby County in 1993 and then became a Regional Extension Agent in 2004 covering 10.5 Counties and part of his duties included coordinating 6 Master Gardener Programs. Currently, he is a Regional Extension Agent for Bibb, Chilton, Fayette, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Shelby and Tuscaloosa counties and oversees 4 Master Gardener Programs. These are in Chilton, Shelby, Tuscaloosa and the combined Lamar, Marion and Fayette programs. Nelson is an expert in Home Grounds; Gardening, and Pest Management.

He first became interested in agriculture in the 7th grade when his brother, Lee, who is 5 years older, gave him a list of future needs. Lee told him to pick one and to prepare and educate himself. Nelson picked Agriculture. He received his B.S. in Soil Science, and his Masters in Horticulture, both from Alabama A & M University. In the horticultural world he likes the study of lawn grasses the best. He says of his career choice “ This is not the kind of job where you will make a lot of money but if you like people and the type of work you are doing, you will enjoy it. “

Because he spends so much time in the office dealing with homeowners’ problems, when asked how many hours do you spend gardening? He said, “All day long in the office.” He doesn’t do a lot of  gardening, but his wife enjoys container gardening. He is happy if he can get home before dark to mow his grass! Stephanie raises tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelons, and greens in containers. Nelson’s favorite vegetable is a cucumber and his favorite fruit is a banana.

Nelson prefers roses, Rose of Sharon, sweet shrub and trees that aren’t messy and give good shade. He likes the Tulip Popular and Sycamore Trees but says he is seeing fewer and fewer of them.

He likes to read Sci-fi and action novels and watch TV. He works out by walking and jogging. While in school he ran track and played basketball. His family  prefer fish to having dogs and cats.

A few things you might not know about Nelson, he was a county agent in Georgia in the 1980’s, and has traveled Route 66 going to a family reunion in Las Vega in 2010. Along the way he saw the Grand Canyon. He has worked for a pipe company, a respiratory company, he has been a librarian, a lab assistant, a mechanic, a carpenter, worked in pulpwood and for a bottling company.

Words to live by are words his mother taught him, “Treat people like you want to be treated. “

His favorite thing about Chilton County Master Gardeners is: “They are hard workers, they step up when ask to do something, and have helped me to keep the Master Gardener Program going and growing in Chilton County.”