Awards Day

Collage of photos 2-2020 meeting

Our Chilton County Master Gardener February meeting is our Awards Meeting. Our Master Gardener of 2019 went to the duo of Wally and Lee Walters, two very active MGs who rarely say no to any Master Gardener event. The Demo Garden addition of reused monkey bars for growing climbing plants was selected as the Project of 2019. Top hours volunteer was Sondra Henley (1155), second place was Alice Broome (549.5) and third place was Pat Farmer (538). Top Continuing Education Hours were earned by Betsy Smith (100.7). Stars * for hours were presented and badge earners were announced. Helpline pins were awarded to Lyn Webb and Benita Cahalane for working 3 or more days.

Gary Gray, Regional Commercial Horticulture Agent, presented a program on the easiest fruits we can grow as home gardeners. He discussed several varieties of fruits, their culture and pest problems. Some of the easiest fruits for home gardens are muscadines, blueberries, figs, apples, blackberries, and Japanese persimmons. Several unusual native fruits were discussed such as pawpaws, mulberries and passion fruit (Maypops).

*Stars and Badges
Bronze Star (100-299): Joan Barber, Clem Clapp, Cheryl Herbster, Ron Herbster, John Higginbotham, Sarah Justiss, Karen Mims
Silver Star (300-499): Debbie Housner, Betsy Smith
Gold Star (500-999): Lyn Webb, Elizabeth York
Gold Badge (1000-1999): Treasia Bennett, Susan Cleckler, Linda Hand, Jane Mason
Platinum Badge (2000-3999): Alice Broome, Jerry Farmer
Ruby Star (4000-5999): Audrey Giles
Diamond Star (8000-9999) Sondra Henley

Click Here for a slideshow of photos from the awards program.

Certifications and Dirty Santa!

December was a big month! We had the Christmas Home Tour on Dec. 10th, then our Christmas Luncheon on Dec. 12th. Three more of our 2017 class interns received their certification in December 2017. Lola Patterson received hers on December 10th at the Chilton Extension office. James Talley and Daniel Castleberry received theirs at the  Christmas Luncheon meeting which was held at Petals from the Past. We had a fun Christmas meeting with a short business meeting, lots of good food, and many stayed and played Dirty Santa. I think everyone enjoyed having it back at the “Barn”! Go to Smilebox for a slideshow of photos of the meeting.

Lola Patterson gets certificateInterns receive certificates

Planting Downtown Clanton

Some of the Chilton County Master Gardeners helped plant all the large planters in downtown Clanton on November 15th. This is always a fun event that we look forward to every year. The city buys the plants, the workers place them in the planters where they want them, we plant them and give them our loving touch, then the workers come back and water them in. This year we planted pansies and ornamental kale, so keep an eye on downtown  Clanton, it’s going to be pretty!