Christmas Party Fun

Chilton County Master Gardeners celebrated Christmas with a covered dish dinner held at the Clanton Recreation Center. After time for fellowship, a short meeting, a wonderful lunch and great desserts, we played a rousing round of Dirty Santa. Stealing was definitely the name of the game this year! We appreciated being able to enjoy the company of our Master Garden friends. Photos by Diane Clapp and Audrey Giles.

Members serving Christmas luncheon
Lanell Baker and Patty Frye serving salads for Christmas luncheon.
Clem Clapp & Rick Miller leading Pledge of Allegiance
Member receiving certification
Pat Farmer & Trisha Williams presenting Intern Victoria Brady with MG certification.
Trisha Williams presenting President Pat Farmer with gift.
Members having fun before the meeting.

Members enjoying Christmas luncheon
Intern Victoria Brady and husband.
Retired ACES Gay West visiting meeting
Retired ACES Coordinator Gay West(left) visiting meeting.
We were glad to see ACES Office manager Elaine Densmore at the Christmas luncheon!
Members enjoying Christmas luncheon
V. Pres. Charla Doucet and Lanell Baker.
The Dirty Santa presents waiting!
Member playing Dirty Santa
Clem Clapp admiring a Dirty Santa gift.
Member playing Dirty Santa
Cheryl Herbster likes her’s!
Member playing Dirty Santa
Sharon Hosch looks stumped!

Fall in Love with Your Garden

The Fall AMGA Master Gardener Seminar, Fall in Love with Your Garden, was hosted by the Autauga County Master Gardeners Association. Fudd Graham, PhD, discussed Identifying and Encouraging Native Insects in Your Garden. He was followed by Desmond Layne,PhD, who told us about the Transformation Garden being developed at Auburn University with fundraising in progress. This garden is designed as a green space and a teaching garden for students. The garden will include row crops, hydroponics, invasive plants, perennials, annuals, pollinator garden and more. What a real treat to hear Leila Scott Kelly, PhD, talk about Color in the Fall and Winter Landscape; she was informative as well as humorous. The last program was presented by hummingbird expert Fred Bassett. He taught us about the Fall Hummingbird Migration and discussed our ruby throated hummingbirds as well as many others that may visit during the winter. Following the seminar ACMGA hosted tours of their public gardens including Prattvillage, Prattville-Autauga Demonstration Garden and Wilderness Park. Several Chilton Master Gardeners attended and one that has dual membership was a volunteer for the program. We really enjoyed the programs and fellowship with Master Gardeners from around Alabama. Photos by Diane Clapp, Trisha Williams and Audrey Giles. Article by Trisha Williams.

Master Gardeners from Chilton County

Straw Bale Gardening

Straw bale gardening was the program for our September meeting. Eric Schavey, ACES Regional Extension Agent in Commercial Horticulture, taught us the 10 day process to prepare a straw bale for growing vegetables, herbs and even annuals. The items needed are the straw bale, ammonium sulfate, water, fertilizer (8-8-8) and lime. Transplants work best for this type of gardening. Eric was a great speaker and we really enjoyed his presentation. He even left all the items used in his presentation for door prizes!
Photos by Diane Clapp and Audrey Giles

September program speaker Eric Schavey
Members enjoying fellowship at Sept. meeting
Top- Mildred Knowles and Trisha Williams
Bottom- Jimmy Knowles, Jerry Farmer, and Alan Reed

Learning about Olmsted Design

Chilton County Master Gardeners enjoyed a program about landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted presented by Charlene LeBleu from Auburn University. Olmsted was a journalist, social critic, public administrator and architect. He is known as the father of American architecture and well known for designing Central Park with partner Calvert Vaux as well as other public parks. Another design he is known for is the grounds of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. His planning and landscape consultancy was carried on by his sons and include plans for many parks and public spaces including many universities. Check our August 2021 meeting minutes for more details of the program found under the About CCMGA tab. April 2022 will be an Olmsted Celebrate Parks month. For information: https://olmsted200.org/

Thanks go to Lynn Webb and Jane Rabey for our beautiful decorations and the fun snacks. What could be better than chocolate chip cookies and ice cream! Photos by Trisha Williams and Lyn Webb.

January birthdays

The first month of this year, 2021, is off to a slow start for Chilton County Master Gardeners. We chose not to have a meeting this month, because of COVID-19. But we will have a meeting in February at the Alabama National Guard Armory on Airport Road. And we can’t wait for spring to get back to work in the Demo Garden and the project at Jemison Middle School. In the meantime, we do want to wish all our members born in January a very Happy Birthday!

Photo with Jan birthdays