CMGA General Info

Species tulips planted in fall. These appear in early spring. Olivia White Hospice Garden.
Photo by Loni Shapiro.

Welcome to the Coconino County Master Gardeners Association blog. The mission of the Master Gardener Program is to create a corps of well-informed volunteers, and to deliver quality horticultural education programs adapted to our regional high elevation environment. The purpose of the association is to provide support for those volunteers and Master Gardener graduates, continuing education, and opportunities to participate in community programs that increase the visibility and participation in the Master Gardener Program.
The Coconino Master Gardener Association (2009) began in 2009. This blog contains information on:
-How to become a member
-Volunteer and Education hours reporting
-Calendar of Events
-General gardening information articles
-Master Gardener Association Documents and forms
-References and Resources
-Interesting Websites and Blogs
-Old Gardening Etcetera columns
-Recipes
-Book Reviews
-How to contact Board or Committee Members
Meetings are held monthly on the 2nd Thursday from 600pm - 8;30pm. We meet at the Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church at 1601 N. San Francisco. This includes continuing education and a business meeting.

Reporting Master Gardener Hours

All master gardener trainees and certified master gardeners need to report their hours.
Beginning in 2010 certified master gardeners need to have 6 Education hours and 12 Volunteer hours in order to maintain certification.The on line reporting system allows you to report Education or Volunteer hours. You can sign in to record hours in the right hand column under Recording Volunteer and Education Hours. Just click on the U. of A.
If you have any questions or concerns about the new reporting system, please contact Brenda Smith (A - M) or Sue Madden (N - Z). Their contacts are listed at the bottom of the blog under
Contacts.



Ideas for hours------
--Attend monthly meetings
--Work on an association committee
--Work at an informational booth for the Master Gardeners
--Be a speaker about gardening topics at a variety of venues

--Host a garden tour
--Work at a fundraising event (Plant Sale - Garden Tour).
--Work at a MG site (Olivia White Hospice, the Arboretum, Riordan Mansion, or school gardens (many others)). Check out the Assoc. Doc. & Forms under Volunteer Sites.
--Work in the Extension office
--Write an article for the newspaper column -Gardening Etcetera
-Volunteer with the Seed Library
Be creative! There are many ways to fulfill your hours. Just remember for volunteering it needs to be a non-profit endeavor or an approved for profit site.

Change in Contact Information

Have you moved or changed your e-mail address, but would still like to be contacted about high elevation gardening information from the Extension? The Coconino County Extension Master Gardener Program has a site that will let you change your information on-line.

Click here to change your contact information!

Event Calendar

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Kim Costian's Healthy Soil Secrets

On Thursday at our meeting our speaker, Kim Costian, came all the way from Snowflake to talk about creating "Healthy Soil" using lasagna gardening and Soil Secret products. We had one of our largest audiences for Kim who has always been popular with local gardeners. In addition to maintaining her own large garden (Ashokola) and greenhouse, she and her husband (Joseph) recently travelled to Guatamala to bring organic gardening, and water conservation ideas to the people there. Kim will  be teaching again at Northland Pioneer College. She will be teaching a gardening certificate program for the community college. With the changes in her workload the CSA she has long done for gardeners in her area, is on hold this year.

Kim not only brought "Soil Secret" products to demonstrate but donated some for our monthly raffle. I am attaching a link to information about the products that she provided.  I have scanned the first page of the document. If you want more info go to the Soil Secret web site. LINK . Each year they do a series of talks at their nursery in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Check it out!
Several of our local nurseries now carry these products.

Thanks again to Kim for the fun and informative talk.

Loni Shapiro
Education Chair CMGA

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