Flagstaff Garden Starts CSA 2013

Again, Flagstaff Foodlink and Flagstaff Native Plant and Seed are partnering to grow and distribute high quality vegetable seedlings for your garden. We hope to offer more heirloom varieties this year, and to support small seed companies as much as we can. And like always, we will be offering a combination of cold and warm season crops, and seeds for direct sowing. We are in the process of ordering seeds right now and we will be sending out the variety list and pick-up dates soon. We are also going to send out a planting guide well in advance to assist you in planning your garden.

2013 Sonoran Desert Master Gardener Conference

YOU'RE INVITED TO ATTEND

The 2013 Sonoran Desert Master Gardener Conference

Monday, March 11, 2013 from 8:15am-3:30pm
in the Student Union Memorial Center South Ballroom
The University of Arizona, 1303 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721

Presented by:

The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program

University of Arizona Offers Fruit Tree Pruning Demonstrations

http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/pruning/

It's fruit tree pruning season and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County is offering two free deciduous fruit tree pruning demonstrations conducted by Extension Agent, Jeff Schalau. Come and learn why, when, and how to prune your backyard fruit trees. Demonstrations will cover apples, pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, and more. Fertilization, irrigation and fruit thinning will also be discussed.

Two pruning demonstrations are scheduled. The first will be held on Saturday February 9 at 10 AM at the McLandress Orchard, 850 S. Maricopa St in Chino Valley. The second will be held on Saturday February 23 at 10 AM at the Marmaduke Orchard, 3435 S Silver Rd, Camp Verde. It is not necessary to register – just come and learn!

Maps and directions to these workshops are also available on the Yavapai County Cooperative Extension web site: cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/pruning/.Signs will also be posted prior to the workshops to help participants find the locations. Follow Extension Agent, Jeff Schalau on Twitter (jeffschalau) to receive information of cancellations due to inclement weather.

Master Gardener Meeting Minutes 1/10/2013

Master Gardener Meeting Minutes 1/10/2013

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church

1601 N. San Francisco

President Debi Stalvey recognized and presented gifts to Ed Skiba, Jim Mast and Loni Shapiro for their many contributions to the Master Gardener Association.

Debi also reminded everyone that 2013 membership dues are $10. Linda Guarino began accepting dues immediately.

Hattie Braun announced that over 30 new master gardeners earned their certification.  She was able to hand out several badges at the meeting.

Continuing Education

Paul Gazda, Maintaining Landscapes without Herbicides

Paul Gazda works at Northern Arizona University, is the leader of the Sustainable Landscape Maintenance project at NAU, and is the founder of HOPE (Healthy Outdoor Public Environments).  HOPE is an organization that advocates for effective, non-toxic methods for creating and maintaining public spaces. His interest in non-toxic alternatives to herbicides began when his wife became ill after herbicide mist drifted into her workplace.  He discovered how toxic many herbicides are and now advocates integrated pest management (IPM).

IPM is based on prevention, natural controls and as a last resort, using the least toxic herbicide available. One way to prevent weeds is to use double layers of weed barrier material.  Another method is to use corn gluten to prevent weeds from germinating. To view a similar presentation by Paul Gazda, go to http://www.hopesedona.org and click on the video.  You can get to the handouts by clicking on the titles - Clean and Easy Landscapes Maintenance and Maintaining Landscapes Resources.

Workshop on SEINet and The Flora Project

Steve Buckley, botanist for the National Park Service’s Southwest Network Collaborative (SWNC) will be in Flagstaff on Tuesday, January 22 from 12-2 pm to present a workshop on both SEINet (the Southwest Environmental Information Network, first hour) and The Flora Project (second hour). The workshop will be in the Southwest Forest Science Complex (Forestry building) on the NAU campus in room 133. Feel free to bring your lunch to the workshop and please forward this message to anyone you know who might be interested in attending.

For more information on SEINet and The Flora Project :

http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/

http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/sodn/inventory/FloraProject.cfm

Steve Buckley is the botanist for the National Park Service’s Southwest Network Collaborative (SWNC) and is based in Tucson, Arizona. His research focuses on the systematics and floristic biogeography of the 29 National Park Service units and 15 Fish and Wildlife Service refuges in the desert southwestern United States. Steve is especially interested in how the technologies of floristic information systems generate novel solutions for the distribution of information and develop critical data sets to address the challenges of botanical conservation on Department of Interior lands. 

Steve will be speaking about The Flora Project, which is a developing collaboration between the SWNC and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts Inventory and Monitoring Zone of the Fish and Wildlife Service. He will be discussing the methodologies and technologies that are used to advance this work across broad spatial scales, as well as detailing the efforts to expand the work to all of the refuges in Region Two of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Flora Project focuses on providing comprehensive field guides for each park or refuge, as well as building a cross-platform floristic information system that will ultimately be available for use by resource managers, researchers, and the public. Products range from online databases and printed field guides, to apps for mobile and handheld digital devices, to a range of other digital and print educational tools and resources. The Flora Project includes a broad coalition of collaborators including the Sonoran Desert Network, Chihuahan Desert Network, and Southern Plains Network of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program; the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts Inventory and Monitoring Zone of the Fish and Wildlife Service; the vegetation program at Grand Canyon National Park; and the developers of the Southwestern Environmental Information Network (SEINet). The Flora Project is setting the standard for floristic research and information dissemination about floristic biodiversity on federal lands in the desert southwest.

 For more information, please contact:

Judy Springer, Research Specialist, Sr.

Ecological Restoration Institute

Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 15017, Flagstaff AZ 86011-5017

Phone: (928) 523-7751 Fax (928) 523-0296  http://www.eri.nau.edu/

Master Gardener Spring Class

The spring Master Gardener will start February 6.  It will be held at the Flagstaff Aquaplex Community Room Wednesday afternoons 12:30-4:00.  I’ve attached the brochure.  Please spread the word.  Thanks - Hattie

Hattie Braun

University of Arizona

Master Gardener Program Coordinator

Coconino County Cooperative Extension

2304 N. 3rd St.

Flagstaff, AZ  86004

Phone:  928-774-1868  x 170

FAX:  928-774-1860

Seeds, Plants, and Tool Catalogs for 2013

In January I begin planning my garden and the work I do at Olivia White by looking through the new seed/plant & tool catalogs. Many have arrived already and I have updated my list to share with anyone who wants it. It is lengthy (5 pages), but pretty complete. The most notable change this year was the loss of High Country Gardens/Santa Fe Nursery which will definitely be missed by me. Plants of the Southwest in Santa Fe has a great catalog of seed, but if you want plants you have to go there. The same is true of Agua Fria Nursery in Santa Fe. They have tons of plants in all sizes, especially vegetables, and drought tolerant high elevation plants. They have the largest collection of southwestern peppers I have ever seen, but again they don't do mail order. Our local nurseries are doing a great job of high elevation, drought tolerant plants and veggies, so support them. There is also the annual Arboretum Plant sale in July.
The only other changes I found were phone numbers and a few moved to other cities. I added AZ gardens this year as they all have plant sales. If you find anything missing or incorrect let me know. If I have any changes I will update in February.

Here is the link:

Loni Shapiro
cnslds@q.com