MNA - Living Room Lecture Series

LIVING ROOM LECTURE SERIES - MEMBER EXCLUSIVE 

Wednesday, October 19 | 6-8 pm  Secrets in the Soil: Volcanic Landscapes of Northern Arizona MEMBER EXCLUSIVE $10 per person Join the Museum's geoarchaeologist Dr. Kirk Anderson for a fascinating discussion of northern Arizona's volcanic landscapes. How have they changed? How did pre-contact people adapt their activities to differently aged volcanoes? How old is SP Crater? What are the secrets in the soil that connect all of these disparate questions together?  RSVP required. Call 928.774.5211, ext. 219, or email membership@musnaz.org

Preservation of AZ Joshua Tree Forest

Plateau Conservation Committee – Sierra Club Meeting

Discussion Topic

 

Speakers: Friends of AZ Joshua Tree Forest Board Members

Chuck & Pam Steffen along with Vern & Char Farris

Joshuatreeforest.org Est. 2007

Where: JCM Adult Center Thorpe Park - Flagstaff

When; May 12th 6-7:30 pm

Why: Fun to learn about these biodiversity gems in AZ

Questions: Contact Joe Shannon jshannon278@gmail.com

Native Plant Society Monthly Meeting April

Wendy McBride is a graduate student working on a M.S. degree at Northern Arizona University studying under Dr. Tina Ayers.  Her studies focus on West Clear Creek, a major tributary of the Verde River that harbors numerous native plant species.  West Clear Creek Wilderness covers approximately 13,600 acres and includes 25 miles of West Clear Creek's total 36 mile length.  This flora encompasses the entirety of West Clear Creek Wilderness.  At this talk, Wendy will present what she has learned about the wilderness and it's plants.

We will be meeting at the Shepherd of the Hills Church at 7 PM, on Tues. April 12. The church is planning on remodeling the hall, so in the future the meeting place might be changed.  We will keep all members informed of any changes.

Posted by: westerndogviolet@yahoo.com

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Pollination Station Lecture in Prescott

Grass Presentations 8/13

The CMGA would like to thank Kirstin Phillips and Susan Lamb Bean for their wonderful presentations on grasses at our monthly meeting. They were very timely. At this time of year the grasses are so plentiful in our yards and on our walks . Flagstaff gardeners are lucky to have such talent with an interest in grasses. They are difficult for all of us to identify. The more we hear the better. Kirstin talked about the botany of grasses and reviewed grasses of the pinyon juniper forests. Susan reviewed the grasses of the ponderosa pine forest and the  many reasons they are important as well as their beauty.  We thank Kirstin for making the botany and identification more understandable for us, and Susan for the usual beautiful words/descriptions/comparisons along with Tom's extraordinary photos. 

The handout from Susan's talk is 18 pages including the photos/drawings of the ponderosa grasses. If you would like a copy email and it is here. The handout for Kirstin's grasses of the Pinyon Juniper forest is 15 pages and can be accessed here.

Sincere thanks,

Loni Shapiro
CMGA Education Chair

CMGA Lecture/Fifty Shades of Blue: Colorful Flowers of Flagstaff

The CMGA would like to thank our fearless leader Hattie Braun for presenting our educational program for our June meeting. "Fifty Shades of Blue: Colorful Flowers for Flagstaff" For those who haven't been around as long as I have (17 years as a master gardener), this lecture has evolved over the years. I first heard Hattie present to my master gardener class in 1998 on the Flowers of Flagstaff. At that time it included many of her favorites from Pennsylvania that work here. It has evolved to include more native to the west plants, and many more draught tolerant ideas. More than half were blue or shades of blue/purple (also red, yellow and white), and were from gardens in Flagstaff. Hattie had time to share the benefits besides beauty and how and why they work. Thanks for making us love gardening here, with all of it's problems. Here is a copy of Hattie's list:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2HWdnh89Cb6U1dxNXdfYjM3NkU/view?usp=sharing
Two of the books recommended were "Waterwise Plants for Stainable Gardens" by Lauren Springer Ogden and Scott Ogden, Timber Press, 2011 ($18 Amazon).

"Durable Plants for the Garden: A Plant Select Guide", edited by James E. Henrich, 2009, Fulcrum Publishing ($27 Amazon).

Next month we will be talking about the planned Seed Library/Grow Flagstaff. Jackie Alston, Nicole Gregory, and myself will talk about the Seed Library, different kinds of seeds, and seed saving. Come join us on July 9th.

Loni Shapiro
CMGA Education Chair

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

Viola's Flower Garden

Tomato Fest 2014

 



The vegetable season has arrived! For our grand kick-off to the season, Viola’s will once again be celebrating our remarkable Tomato Fest on Saturday, May 3^rd and Sunday, May 4^th. Both days will be loaded with free gardening seminars for all high country gardeners. We will also have over 75 different tomato varieties In-stock, from husky cherries to short-season producers, this means that everyone can pick out a new tomato type to try.

Both days we will be giving away a FREE Topsy Turvy upside down tomato planter to the first 75 customers with purchases. Join us in celebrating another great vegetable planting season at Tomato Fest. For the full schedule and description of each class visit our website here.

The Schedule for both Saturday and Sunday are as follows:

Upcoming From the Monthly MNA Newsletter/ 4FRI Lecture

Future of the Colorado Plateau:
4FRI* and the Future of our Forests

*Four Forests Restoration Initiative

Wednesday, April 30, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Free to the public

Branigar-Chase Auditorium - - Registration for this event is full! See below for more information.

 

The *Four Forests Restoration Initiative is bringing together historically embattled interests in a cooperative effort to restore forest health and protect communities from catastrophic wildfire. This forum is an opportunity for those concerned with the future of our forests to share their ideas and perspectives with the 4FRI stakeholder community.

forum's host and moderator. Joining Friederici to help tell the 4FRI story and facilitate the evening's discussion will be Ethan Aumack from Grand Canyon Trust, Dick Fleishman with the Coconino National Forest, Erik Nielson from Northern Arizona University, Steve Horner representing Campbell Global LLC, Rob Davis of Forest Energy Systems Inc., and Amy Waltz with the Ecological Restoration Institute.

4FRI and the Future of our Forests is the third in a series of community forums exploring the future of the Colorado Plateau. These events enable citizens to contribute their ideas and perspectives on important issues, including forest health, water resources, wildlife conservation, energy production, and economic sustainability.

We have received a high response rate for this forum event and are considering hosting a second forum of the same topic at a later date. We ask that you contact us via email to express your interest in this topic to mnafutureforum@gmail.com.

Willow Bend Talk at Ponderosa High School

BRAD LANCASTER

Author of “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond”
presenting:

 

Integrated Local Harvests 
"Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World"
 

Saturday, May 17, 7:00-9:00 pm
Ponderosa High School, Flagstaff, Arizona

• Proceeds from this fundraising event will support Willow Bend’s K-12 environmental education programs in Coconino County.
• ‘Early bird’ ticket price is $15 each and will increase to $20 May 1st.
• Tickets for Members of Willow Bend are $15 each.
• Purchase tickets online, or by mail at:

Willow Bend Environmental Education Center
703 East Sawmill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(928) 779-1745   |   www.willowbendcenter.org
Willow Bend is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization

 

Thank you to our Green Level Sponsors:

 

Native Plant Society Monthly Meeting

Greetings, All,

Here is information on our next AZNPS chapter meeting and talk: 

 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014: Amy Prince, Northern Arizona University, “Flora of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument”


 

Amy Prince has been lover of plants since she purportedly ate grass and picked every last prize tulip from her neighbor's yard as a 2 year old in Texas. She has supported her plant habit  by working as a nurse for 23 years. During that time she has volunteered and been occasionally paid for her work on the side as a field botanist, herbarium assistant's assistant, research flunky, and plant press mule. Most recently, she quit her full time nursing job to become a graduate student in botany at Northern Arizona University. With the help of a grant obtained by the Grand Canyon Trust, she is working on a flora of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. When not peering at cacti through a hand lens, she can be found traveling for medical mission work, mushroom hunting, eating sushi, or rehabilitating her ragtag collection of plants procured from dumpsters, clearance sales, and last year's garden gone wrong.

 

Dorothy Lamm

Lecture in Camp Verde

"Pre-Columbian Agaves in Southwestern United States: A New Way of Looking at Species and Their Cultural Landscapes"
Tues., November 19, 7pm
Camp Verde Community Center Rooms 206/207 (behind the Historical Society) by Wendy Hodgson, Research Botanist, Herbarium Curator, and Botanical Illustrator, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix

Wendy has been with the Desert Botanical Garden for nearly 40 years and has lived in the desert for 44 years.  Her areas of interest include southwest United States and northern Mexico floristics, rare and endemic plants, and taxonomy and systematics of Agave and Yucca, including the study of pre-Columbian agave cultivars. Other current projects include the study and documentation of the flora of the Grand Canyon region, including the evolution and distribution of certain plant groups as affected by the unique factors characteristic of this area. Ms. Hodgson is studying and documenting southwest United States cacti and is a co-coordinator for the Cactus Family of Arizona project by Desert Botanical Garden research staff and research associates. She was also the coordinator for the Cactus family treatment for the Intermountain Flora project, the preeminent botanical initiative documenting plant diversity between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, published in 2012 by the New York Botanical Garden Press. She is the author of numerous scientific papers and the illustrated book, Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert, published by the University of Arizona Press and winner of the 2002 Klinger Book Award by the Society for Economic Botany. She is an avid plant collector, particularly those pesky, difficult to press plants of the Agave and Cactus families.

From Linda Guarino

Medicinal Plant Talk

Hi, Flagstaff Folks,

We are hosting a free medicinal plant talk at Native Plant & Seed this Thursday evening at 5:00pm.

Thursday, September 26, 5:00pm (to 6:00ish)

Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed Nursery

400 E. Butler Ave.

(928) 773-9406

 

Local herbalist, Mike Masek, of The Forager's Path School of Botanic Medicine, specializes in the traditional uses of Southwest plants for both food and medicine. Mike will give a free talk on many of our native medicinal and edible plants. I have taken classes from him in the past and the information he shares is really wonderful. Bring pen and paper to take lots of great notes, and be sure to bring warm clothes as this will be outdoors. Extra parking on Elden side street if lot is full. Happy Fall Equinox!!

  

 

Jen

Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed

(928) 773-9406

Native Plant Society Monthly Walk & Talk

Saturday, May 18, 2013: Field Trip with Patty West to Tavasci Marsh - 8:00 am to 3:00 pm

 
This is the Saturday BEFORE the regular Tuesday meeting.  

Patty West, who has an MA in Sustainable Communities from NAU, will lead us on a plant walk to Tavasci March next to Tuzigoot National Monument in the Verde Valley. The marsh has been manipulated in many ways but nevertheless has a high diversity of species in floating islands of vegetation. Patty spent two years completing a flora of the area that is incorporated into the Tuzigoot plant list on Seinet. 

It will be hot so bring lots of water, a sunhat, and sunscreen, and be prepared to get your feet wet. Bring a lunch and snacks, too. Don't forget money for carpooling. 

Meet at 8:00 am, at the Arizona State Credit Union at the corner of Butler and South Beaver.  The drive to the Tavasci Marsh trailhead in Deadhorse State Park will take about 1 1/2 hours.  Each car will will be charged $7.00.  

 

Folks could also just meet at the trailhead at 9:30 am, if they prefer to drive alone or are coming from the Verde Valley area. 

 

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 7:00 pm at the Shepherd of the Hill Lutheran Church, 1601 N. San Francisco Street:

 

Sue Smith “A Celebration of Grapevine Botanical Area”

 

Sue Smith, a Budding Botanist and naturalist from Prescott, will talk about the Plant Atlas Project of Arizona (PAPAZ) project in the Grapevine Canyon near Poland Junction.

 

This area is a Prescott National Forest Botanical Protected Area. It lies on the eastern flank of lava capped Big Bug Mesa. The plant communities range from chaparral, oak woodlands to montane conifer forest. A perennial stream cascades down the canyon providing home to riparian species.

 

The Prescott Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society started collecting for PAPAZ in this Botanical Area in September 2010. There will be a discussion of the project to date, different plant communities, and an overview of the species collected in the area. 

 

Posted by D. Lamm 

Native Plant Society Monthly Lecture and Field Trip

Here are two excellent upcoming April events presented by the AZNPS (Flagstaff Chapter).     Hope to see you at the Tuesday presentation and/or at the Sundayfield trip. 

 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 Presentation: Susan Lamb Bean and Dan Stewart

“Habitat Profiles - A Project Under Development for The Arboretum at Flagstaff”

Every site in Flagstaff offers its gardener unique opportunities and challenges. Each has its own combination of high and low temperatures, degree of slope, aspect toward the sun, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and soil. The Arboretum at Flagstaff and the National Weather Service at Bellemont are creating tools for a gardener to use in evaluating the potential of a site. Based on new climate maps illustrating microclimates in the greater Flagstaff area, Habitat Profiles will provide basic how-tos and worksheets for mapping and planning local gardens. The evening’s program will present preliminary versions of the maps and worksheets and invite suggestions to improve them.

 

Presenters: Susan Lamb has been gardening in the Flagstaff area for twenty years and would love to have had a resource like “Habitat Profiles” from the beginning. A local naturalist, she writes books on the natural and human history of the American West and keeps an almanac of close to 200 species of Flagstaff area wildflowers. Susan is a member of the Arizona Native Plant Society and serves on the Board of The Arboretum at Flagstaff.

 

Dan Stewart has held an interest in weather and climate since childhood in the wind-beaten plains of Oklahoma, making the chance to work on “Habitat Profiles” a fun (if sometimes challenging) project. He is currently interning at the National Weather Center in Bellemont and will be starting his graduate career at Northern Arizona University this fall.

Sunday, April 21, 2013 Field Trip: Susan Lamb Bean and Dan Stewart

Field trip to a recently-completed LEED gold certified home where we will test Habitat Profiles on-site. Meet in the Arizona State Credit Union parking lot, 321 South Beaver Street (corner of South Beaver and Butler) at9:00 am to carpool to the site.  Plan on spending about two hours.  Directions to the home will be provided at that time. 

 

Posted by

D. Lamm

Native Plant & Seed Veggie Lecture

Saturday, April 13 10am - 11:30ish
Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed Nursery 
400 E. Butler Ave.
(928) 773-9406

Learn all about gardening in Flagstaff! Todd Cislo will fill you in on all the secret tips to successful vegetable and herb gardening in Northern Arizona. He will go over which plants you can sow now and which plants you need to start indoors - and give instruction on how to do both. He will also talk about season extensions to maximize our short season and even grow through the winter! It's time to get your garden beds ready!

Bee Talk at MNA

MNA’s Science Cafe

Wednesday, December 12th., 7-830pm  FREE! The Buzz on Native Bees Dr. Kristen Potter, insect physiologist and MNA volunteer Our approximately 4000 native bee species come in a wide array of sizes, shapes, and colors. These efficient bees are typically non-aggressive and have pollinated our continent’s flowering plants since long before the arrival of honey bees. Unfortunately, our native bee species are declining, but there are many ways we can help them. We will discuss the importance of native bees in our ecosystems, identify simple (and fun) ways you can help native bees, and learn how they will improve the health of your yard and garden. Join us for a short presentation followed by lively discussion and Q&A.

Documents from Container Gardening Class

Last Tuesday, I did a lecture for the Flagstaff Community Agricultural Project on Container Gardening. You will find the handouts linked below.

Tips on Container Gardening Outline
Container Depths for Vegetables
Best Vegetables for Containers in Flagstaff
Companion Plants and Edible Flowers

Loni Shapiro
(cnslds@q.com)

Free Garden Lecture

I'm writing in hopes of spreading the word about our first free
lecture of the growing season at Native Plant & Seed. The subject this
week is Vermiculture: Composting with Red Wigglers at 10am on Saturday
morning 4/14. Our talks are very informal, and questions are welcomed
and encouraged. Talks usually last an hour or so.

Location: Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed Nursery, 400 E. Butler Ave.
Time: Sat 4/14 10am
Cost: Free

Thanks so much!
Jen

Flagstaff Home & Garden Show

Flagstaff Home and Garden Show
March 23-25, 2012
NAU Sky Dome

Watch your local paper and other advertising for the upcoming yearly home and garden show. The Master Gardener Program and the Coconino Master Gardener Association will be manning a large booth with information and providing speakers for all 3 days.

This is the tentative agenda so far:

Friday, March 23
11am - 12pm Season Extenders - An Eagan
1pm - 2pm Benefit & Tips on Growing House Plants - Loni Shapiro
3pm - 4pm Tomatoes - Jim Mast
4pm - 5pm Passive Solar - Paul Lambert

Saturday, March 24
11am- 12pm Herbs - Sue Collins
1pm - 2pm 4H - Rabbits & Chickens - Connie Lipinski
2pm - 3pm Sprouts - Nick Lipinski
3pm - 4pm Noxious Weeds - Dorothy Lamm

Sunday, March 25
11am - 12pm Composting - Tess Wymore
1pm - 2pm Raised Beds - Faith Brittain & Juanita
2pm - 3pm Plant Propagation - Linda Guarino

Come support and learn from other Master Gardeners. If you need continuing education hours for 2012 this is a great opportunity to get them. Each year there are changes in this agenda so watch for updates and more details.

Loni Shapiro
Co-secretary CMGA