CMGA General Info

Christmas Amaryllis with Orchid to the right. Below Ruth Benson's holiday bears.
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

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Sunday Wild Edible Plant Walk

From left to right, Melissa Amberson, Mr. and Mrs. Steve Grayson, Pat Forester,
Katarina Karjala, Christine Orr, Sheila Murray, and Amy Caldwell
On Sunday, Sheila Murray, who is a research botanist from the Arboretum let a walk from Willow Bend to the Rio de Flag to review wild edible natives in the Flagstaff area. This was a follow-up to last weeks CMGA talk on the topic. We found many plants on our short walk. A variety of sumac, pines, cheeseweed, lamb's quarters, amaranth, dandelion, purslane, wax current, juniper, Oregon grape, curley dock, roses, oaks, monarda, to name a few that have edible properties.  It was amazing to see how many wild and native plants are in a place so close to downtown Flagstaff. We didn't have time but a walk around Willow Bend's building is also fun. If you do a walk be sure you watch for poison ivy - we saw many large plants.

Here are a couple of resources mentioned on the walk. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West by Michael Moore (I bought my copy at the Arboretum but I think MNA also has it.) Laura Davis has also established a Michael Moore Native Medicinal garden at the gardens at Olivia White Hospice. It runs along Switzer just past the corner at Turquoise. Many plants are marked. It is done in sections depending on regions. You should see this before it is moved. The city is putting in a circle next year and most of the garden will have to be moved to NAU near the forestry building,  Sheila also mentioned a new book from John Slattery https://www.amazon.com/Southwest-Foraging-Flavorful-Edibles-Regional/dp/1604696508.


Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)