Washington County Master Gardeners Newsletter • December 2024
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DECEMBER MEETING
Holiday Potluck and Place Setting Competition
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We ho-ho-hope to see you at our annual holiday potluck on Tuesday, December 3, at 6:30 p.m. at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1371 W. Altheimer Drive in Fayetteville. (It's just east of the Washington County Extension Office.) You are welcome to bring one guest; please bring your own place setting(s).
And speaking of place setting, this year our potluck includes a place setting competition! Annabelle Service, a 4-H member and 2024 Washington County Fair youth winner of the place setting division, will serve as judge. Annabelle has been honing her table setting skills since she first entered the Washington County Fair at age five. Now eleven years old, Annabelle has six years of fair competition under her belt. She will also share insights on proper place-setting etiquette, just in time for your own holiday entertaining!
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We will vote on these items at our monthly business meeting. | |
JANUARY MEETING
Garden Planning
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Go ahead and mark your calendar for our January 7 meeting at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences at 6:30 p.m. The guest speaker will be Susan Esche, a Benton County Master Gardener (BCMG class of 2019) who has been gardening since age 5. She grew up in central Arkansas and gardened in Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina before moving to Northwest Arkansas in 2003. Susan works on the BCMG Helping Hands Vegetable Garden project and is the lead volunteer for the Vegetable Garden at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
Our January 7 meeting will also include the installation of new officers for 2025.
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From Your President
LIZ HALE
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Looking Back
As 2024 starts receding into the rear-view mirror, I am awed and humbled by your passion, commitment, and service to the Washington County Master Gardeners. WCMGs are dedicated to the mission, goals and objectives of the program, as evidenced by the many reported hours dedicated to serving and bettering Washington County. Most WCMGs also faithfully serve the community through other organizations to make Washington County one of the top living destinations in the country. Each of you contributes to our consistently high rankings. Kudos to you!
You helped us navigate challenging new requirements enacted in the Arkansas Master Gardener program this year, thoughtfully asking questions and offering pointed feedback. Change can be difficult and you handled the new hoops well and were patient with several updates and honest missteps.
A hearty thank you to each of you who faithfully entered hours as achieved rather than waiting until the end of this year. The County Extension Service (CES) has three different milestone deadlines and your reported hours are responsible for helping ensure CES and the Master Gardeners achieve funding from the Washington County Quorum Court, the Arkansas Legislators and federal USDA grants. Through October 2024, 174 of you had reported 16,454 volunteer work hours x $33.49 per hour = $551.044.46—that’s well over a half-million dollars!
Dues Extension Until December 3 Meeting
WCMG treasurer Marilyn Misenhimer suggested we extend the $20 regular dues price through the December 3rd meeting since our November meeting was cancelled. The Executive Committee voted unanimously to accept Marilyn’s great suggestion. Beginning December 4, the 2025 will rise to $25.
2025 Meeting Space is Unconfirmed
After a thorough two-year search for potential sites and a membership vote, we thought all was settled on the primary 2025 meeting site, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s Alton Center.
Alas, the handshake agreement usage policy I was told about a few months ago was changed. On the evening of November 11th, I was sent a facilities usage policy and usage agreement which requires signatures. Therefore, in accordance with the Financial Guidelines for Management of 4-H Club & Master Gardener Group Funds (revised February 2024) the agreement will need to be approved by the Senior Associate VP for Agriculture-Extension or the Associate VP for Finance and Administration, as stated on page 14.
It may take several months before we get a response, so as a back-up plan, the Extension Office has been reserved for the 2025 meetings, with these exceptions:
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February 4 membership meeting, WCMG Class of 2024 graduation celebration and 2024 WCMG Awards celebration — Waldrip Hall at the Don Tyson Center
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March 4 membership meeting and sanctioned projects & committees fair —Thompson Hall in the Horticulture Building on the Washington County Fairgrounds
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June 3 membership meeting and potluck picnic — sanctioned project site to be determined
The Central United Methodist Church location is not a viable option because a deposit is required and the UADA never pre-pays estimates, invoices or deposits.
Thompson Hall at the Washington County Fairgrounds is not a viable year-round location. Other large events rent the space for $1,200 per day, but the Fairgrounds provides us free space in March as a thank you for all the work WCMGs do managing the Horticulture Building activities for the Washington County Fair. We are very grateful to Doris Cassidy for helping obtain this gift.
Waldrip Hall at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences is not a viable year-round location for several reasons, including bookings getting bumped for a statewide agriculture meeting. The financial guidelines also prohibit a Master Gardener from underwriting the rental costs (it was offered by a generous WCMG) because of the accounting processes: we cannot earmark/restrict gifts for a specific purpose that is not education-related. We do not wish to trigger an audit.
Leadership will keep you posted as we find out more. Thank you for your patience.
Updated Volunteer Agreement & Expectations Documents Need Signatures
Revised "Volunteer Agreement & Expectations" documents must be signed, dated, and filed either in person or electronically with the Washington County Extension Office by February 4, 2025, a requirement to remain a Master Gardener in good standing. According to Randy Forst, Arkansas extension educator–consumer horticulture/Master Gardener coordinator, these filed, updated documents are mandated UADA policy. Some of you signed volunteer agreement documents in the past, yet you need to sign the current two-page version on each page.
Historical background, courtesy of Patsy Louk and Jan Lefler: Around 2015, the first documents were created when Janet Carson was statewide Master Gardener coordinator. A subsequent change regarding accepting the statewide Constant Contact emails was added in the 2020s when Berni Kurz was statewide Master Gardener coordinator. Please refer to your own records to compare changes through the years.
The most current Volunteer Agreement document was revised in October 2022.
As a service to members, we will have two-sided copies of the updated documents available now at the Extension Office and at the December 2024 and January 2025 membership meeting check-in station.
Please use the "State MG Volunteer Agreement" form located in the Member Resource Guide section of our WCMG website.
Reach out to a tech-savvy friend if you are having issues with getting to the Extension Office to sign a paper copy or if you are unable to download and print the documents at home. We wish to keep each of you on our membership rolls!
Thank You for Electing the 2024 and 2025 Executive Committee Members
In conclusion, let me thank the membership for electing the 2024 Executive Committee. Each member has worked tirelessly this year—listening to and championing your wants and desires—to reflect the majority’s wishes.
Thank you, also, for electing the 2025 Executive Committee, which is already hard at work and actively engaged to ensure a wonderful and smoothly operating 2025.
Please join us at the December 3 membership meeting and potluck at the Don Tyson Center. Please remember to bring a dish to share with serving utensils, your own dishes, cutlery, cups, napkins, etc., so we may minimize our waste footprint. Let’s have a festive year-end celebration to mark 2024!
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All WCMGs are cordially invited to the Washington County Extension Office's holiday open house on Wednesday, December 11. Drop by anytime from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. | |
Expect the Unexpected
KATHYRN BIRKHEAD
WCMG Membership Committee Co-Chair
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I have a friend whose motto is “Expect the Unexpected.” You just never can tell when something that you’ve planned on doing at a certain time will get derailed. Maybe your internet service provider gets held for ransom by some nefarious schemers and you’re without internet for a week; or your computer crashes; or your phone falls out of your shopping cart and shatters and won’t turn on. You get the idea. You just never can tell when things won’t go as you’ve anticipated.
So, now that most activities at our sanctioned projects are over, maybe this is a good time to go ahead and make sure all the hours you’ve worked this year and all the hours you’ve spent listening to podcasts and attending meetings have been recorded. You’ll be able to rest secure in the knowledge that the task of entering your hours has been checked off your list and you can move on to other (perhaps more fun?) things.
Annette and I are here to help if you have questions. Get in touch with Annette at annettepianalto@gmail.com (text or call 479-409-7874) or Kathryn at kathrynbirkhead@gmail.com (text or call 479-445-2163).
Thank you for all you do to make our projects beautiful! It’s a joy to get to work alongside you, and we look forward to continuing to work together in 2025.
P.S. You know the website shuts down at midnight on December 15, right? That means that beginning at 12:01 a.m. on December 16, you will have ZERO opportunities to enter hours for 2024. Annette and I don’t have access to help you either. Please, please, please don’t wait too long.
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Before the busy holiday season is in full swing, please hop to it and pay your dues now. This will prevent WCMG treasurer Marilyn Misenhimer from having any more sleepless nights and it will also will prevent you from having to endure any more tiresome (and increasingly cranky) email reminders from your communications team.
WCMG dues are due no later than December 3. The amount is $20 through December 3, and $25 after December 4.
We encourage you to take advantage of our new online method of paying dues. It's safe, easy, and makes bookkeeping a lot easier for the good folks in the Extension Office.
- Go to the WCMG website and click on the "Member Portal" button.
- When prompted, enter the top-secret password. If you can't remember the password, message Susan Young at 479-442-6117 and she will share it with you.
- Once you successfully enter the password, you will arrive at the Member Portal page. Scroll down to the mint-green box that says "Pay Your Dues."
- In the "Pay Your Dues" mint-green box, click on the cleverly named "Click Here" button. You will then be whisked away to the "How to Pay Your Dues" page.
- On the "How to Pay Your Dues" page, find the sentence in green that says, "Click here to access the online form." Click on those green words. You will then be whisked away to the "Washington County Master Gardeners Membership Dues Payment Form."
- Fill out the form and pay your dues right then and there using a credit card.
If you want to bypass this process, you can scan the QR code below using the camera app on your phone and you will be whisked directly to the "Washington County Master Gardeners Membership Dues Payment Form."
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We encourage you to use this new online method for paying dues—it's safe, easy, and will make life a lot easier for the good folks in the Extension Office. However, you will still have the following options for paying dues by cash or a check made payable to WCMG:
- in person at the December 3 WCMG meeting
- in person at the Extension Office during regular business hours (Mon–Fri, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
- by mail to Washington County Extension Office, 2536 N. McConnell Avenue, Fayetteville, AR 72704-5521
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Compost Corner
MARIETTE SPIDEL
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Beginning in 2025, Master Composters will publish a quarterly newsletter, Compost Happens, via Constant Contact (the same email service that brings you Garden Thyme) with helpful information on how and where to reduce, reuse, and recycle household waste. Watch your email for an opportunity to sign up for Compost Happens in early 2025.
DID YOU KNOW? In 2023, the amount of waste Arkansas sent to a landfill was only 32% solid waste and 68% recyclables that could have been recycled at the household level.
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Botanical Christmas Cookies
TALYA TATE BOERNER
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Photo by Talya Tate Boerner | |
I baked six dozen sugar cookies for a garden club luncheon last week. Since we are all rather fond of plants, I went with a semi-botanical theme using fresh violas and fennel from our garden. I also used dried herbs and other nuts, fruits, and candies from my pantry.
My goal was to create simple, delicious cookies that looked like those I imagined Marmee might have baked for Jo, Amy, Beth, and Meg. She would have used whatever goodness had been put up from the March orchard and garden, along with sprinkles of sugar and spices valued like gold dust.
What an entertaining baking project this turned out to be. And the best part—I foraged the decorations from my own pantry and garden. Click HERE for inspiration and details. (This link will take you to Talya's blog on her Grace, Grits, and Gardening website.)
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Congratulations to our October 2024 Busy Bee Award recipients:
Danna Grear
Joanne Olszewski
Alan Ostner
Bruce Redinger
Judi Sartwell
Kenneth Sartwell
Martha Sparkman
Patty Stith
(A photo of the October Busy Bees was unavailable at press time.)
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November Photo of the Month Contest:
"Colorful Trees in the Garden"
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FIRST PLACE
"Up Close and Personal" by Sarah Teague
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SECOND PLACE
"Technicolor Fall" by Mary McCully
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THIRD PLACE
"Ready for Christmas" by Judy Smith
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The December Photo of the Month Contest theme is "Trellises in the Garden." Deadline for submission is December 15. Contest details are available on the WCMG website. | |
From Garden Thyme editor Judy Smith: This column features commentary from your fellow MGs about garden-related books. Feel free to submit your recommendations and reviews for future issues of the Garden Thyme. | |
Book Review
ANITA BUKEY
Bloom and Blossom: The Reader's Guide to Gardening
Edited by Mary Swander (Ecco Press, 1997)
Bloom and Blossom is a structured anthology of four sections, each with eight essays. By calling on thirty-two authors with different interests and experiences, editor Mary Swander takes the reader through horticultural history. She juxtaposes stories from early American settlers with nineteenth and twentieth perspectives on the agricultural problems faced today. Readers encounter ideas on saving seeds, building a root cellar, choosing which weeds and flowers to safely eat and creating a garden without annoying the neighbors. Humor abounds and poetry and recipes are interspersed.
Section One delves into why people become gardeners. The author goes into the early days of horticulture with essays by Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ward Beecher, Michael Pollan, Lee May, and Garrison Keillor (who sings a song to corn—a gift of the Wahneenee Indians.) They trace their love of gardening to their childhood experiences with parents and grandparents. (This reminds me of time with my father in his WW two victory garden where I grew gourds.) Eleanor Perenyi suggests that women have always been the main gardeners in families, although that may be changing. Kathy Pollet’s poem muses that the tomato is a female fruit—soft, smooth of skin, curvaceous.
Section Two is about seeds and saving seeds. Gerald Stern contemplates a dandelion scattering seeds in the wind. What are the benefits of letting a yard go to seed? Why do we admire a lush green lawn and spend money on maintaining it? How important is saving seeds to safeguard endangered plant varieties? Boyce Rensberger relates that in 1942–43, as Hitler’s armies blockaded Leningrad, people were starving. A small band of Soviet botanists hid tons of potatoes, rice, corn, and beans in a seed bank to preserve plant genetic diversity. These men died of starvation as they refused to eat any of the seeds.
Section Three asks about the boundary between gardens and wilderness. Gene Logsdon laments that to sever the garden from nature is futile—possibly a catastrophe. Another concern is megafarms. He argues that the future should be with smaller, more numerous farms. Financially, it is cheaper and healthier to grow our own fruits and vegetables as people prefer pesticide-free produce. It is folly to try to separate ourselves from nature. Under the soil are thousands of bugs, worms and microbes that help soil stay healthy. Logsdon doesn’t mow his lawn—neighbors can’t tell where the lawn ends and woods begin. Bluebirds, bobolinks, and luna moths are his neighbors. Judith Lowry urges that the careful choosing of plants will assure birds have the right food at the right time.
In Section Four Allen Lacy includes lists of edible flowers and Wendell Berry reminds readers of the pleasure of eating healthy foods.
I highly recommend this book. I will even lend it to you.
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Book Recommendations
The Backyard Bird Chronicles, written and illustrated by Amy Tan, with a foreword by David Allen Sibley and reviewed and recommended in Living Bird magazine published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Latin for Gardeners: Over 3000 Plant Names Explained and Explored by Lorraine Harrison, reviewed and recommended in American Gardener magazine published by the American Horticultural Society.
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First Place
royal goldenrod
wave your yellow plumed scepter
decreeing Autumn
—Sarah Teague
Second Place
Longer, cooler nights
Bursts of color in the woods
Fill my eyes - Ahh...tumn!
—Delcina Cunico
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Gardening and Community Events
PAM BUTLER
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This calendar features events close to home. To stay in the know about MG and UADA gardening-related activities across Arkansas, sign up for the state calendar of events sent by the Extension Service headquarters in Little Rock.
DECEMBER 1, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. TREESCAPE REALITY LANDSCAPING POP UP PLANT SALE. 3980 W. Wedington Dr., Fayetteville. For more information.
DECEMBER 1, 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. WINTER BIRD FEEDING TABLETOP. Hobbs State Park. Free. No registration.
DECEMBER 1, 2:00–4:30 p.m. WORDS OF WARMTH: HOLIDAY CARDS FOR CLEAR CREEK MEMORY CARE. Fayetteville Public Library, Support: Level 3 Lobby. Free. No registration.
DECEMBER 1, 4:00–5:30 p.m. WINE AND DESIGN: WINTER WREATH. Hosted by Samantha’s Garden at Hail Fellow Well Met, 5519 Hackett Rd., Suite 101, Springdale. $95. Registration information.
DECEMBER 5, 6:00–8:00 p.m. NATURE ART EXHIBIT. Sequoyah Hall on Mount Sequoyah, featuring artist Donna Mulhollan. Free. For more information.
DECEMBER 7, 9:00–11:00 a.m. OZARKS EXPLORATIONS. Hosted by Ozark Natural Science Center, Main Campus, 1905 Madison 1305, Huntsville. Free. For more information.
DECEMBER 7, 10:30 a.m. FOREST CONSERVATION CLUB WITH WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED. Suitable for all ages. Springdale Public Library. Free. For more information.
DECEMBER 7, 6:00–8:00 p.m. SUCCULENT CHRISTMAS TREE CLASS. Common Dwellings, 1401 SE Walton Blvd. Suite 205, Bentonville. $68. Registration information.
DECEMBER 8, 1:00–3:00 p.m. WREATH MAKING WORKSHOP. White River Nursery, taught by Trace Branch Gardens. $50. Registration information.
DECEMBER 12, 6:00 p.m. NEONICS AND ADVOCACY: PROTECTING POLLINATORS AND INFLUENCING POLICY. Hosted by Wild Ones, featuring Lucas Rhoads. Zoom. Link provided with registration. Donations accepted. Registration information.
DECEMBER 15. FAYETTEVILLE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT (CBC). Free. Email CBC coordinator Mitchell Pruitt if you are interested in joining.
DECEMBER 21, 8:45 a.m. COSMIC CAVERNS CAVE TOUR AND RAILWAY WINERY. 3803 NW Wishing Spring Drive, Bentonville. $89. Registration information.
DECEMBER 21, 9:00–11:00 a.m. LAKE FAYETTEVILLE EXPLORATIONS WITH OZARKS NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER. 599 E. Lakeview Dr., Springdale. Pay what you want. For more information.
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The Garden Thyme email address is wcmgnewsletter@gmail.com. Please use this address for submissions and for questions and comments specific to the newsletter. For other needs, please contact the appropriate officer or chairperson listed in your WCMG Member Resource Guide.
NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE
Judy Smith, managing editor/submissions; Mary McCully, editor/submissions and videos; Pam Butler, reporter; Olivia Harrington, reporter; Lynette Terrell, reporter; Susan Young, production assistant.
Send all newsletter submissions to Judy Smith or Mary McCully.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Liz Hale, president; Alfi Anderson, vice president; Kathy Launder, secretary; Marilyn Misenhimer, treasurer; Julie Murray, assistant treasurer. Members at large: Carole Ball, Marty Powers, Mariette Spidel. Ex officio: Joanne Olszewski, past president; Colin Massey, Washington County extension agent for agriculture and horticulture.
Banner photo of thyme courtesy Lucy Meskill/flickr
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WCMG Facebook Page
(public)
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Washington County
Extension Service website
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