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Barbara Low

Jul 01

The JCMGA Board Needs YOU!

By Beet 2025 07 July

We are looking for new, and experienced, members of Master Gardeners to serve on our Jackson County Master Gardener Board of Directors for 2026.  Could that be YOU, or someone you can recommend?

Please consider becoming a member of the board – the governing body of the association. The board adopts the budget, sets policy, and generally oversees the present and future direction of JCMGA.  Meetings are held the second Friday of each month.  Most board members also sit on one or more of the association’s working groups.  Your input is important, and fresh perspectives on how we move forward are the key to our success.

The following positions are to be elected this fall:

  • Vice-President/President-Elect
  • Membership Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Assistant Treasurer
  • Recording Secretary
  • Archivist
  • Oregon Master Gardener Association Representative
  • Five Members-at-Large

 

Contact Linda Millus, President-Elect, at lmillus@outlook.com  if you want to nominate yourself or someone else.

Please submit any nominations by September 1st.

Jun 01

JCMGA Announcements June 2025

By Beet 2025 06 June

 

June

  • JCMGA Annual Membership Meeting – June 13th from 9:00-9:30 a.m. You are welcome to stay for our regular June Board meeting which will be from 9:30-11:15 a.m.
  • JCMGA Monthly Board Meeting – June 13th from 9:30-11:15 a.m.
  • JCMGA Annual Picnic and Awards Ceremony – Saturday, June 28th from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. We will have a guest speaker, Robert Coffan. He is with the Monarch Advocacy. (check the article in this Garden Beet about Robert Coffan)

July

  • OMGA Joy of Gardening Conference at OSU on July 11-12.
  • We will start collecting produce (fruit and vegetables) donations on Wednesday, July 24th, from 11-12 p.m. – which will be given to Access. Please bring your produce to the Gather Place at the SOREC Extension.

 

October 17, 18 , 24, and 25 — Winter Dreams Summer Gardens  – Save the Date 

 

Jun 01

President’s Corner

By Beet 2025 06 June

It has been a very busy month for the Jackson County Master Gardener Association! Our organization is built on providing gardening education to our community members. As part of this goal, we offer a variety of volunteer opportunities. Below, I will talk about a few of these opportunities.

The month of May started off with our 2025 Spring Garden Fair which was held again at the Jackson County Expo in the Mace Building. Our Practicum mentors and students worked hard to plant, grow, and transplant the many, many vegetable plants, annual ornamentals, and native plants for this event.  Countless hours were spent on organizing, moving, setting up for the event, selling plants, and then taking down after the event to return items back to the SOREC Extension. With over 100 special volunteers, who worked hard with a smile, we were able to host this event.

The 2025 Spring Garden Fair was a tremendous success! A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the 2025 Spring Garden Fair, with special thanks to Marcie Katz and Lucy Pylkki for organizing this event. They have already started planning for the 2026 Spring Garden Fair.

Our JCMGA Demonstration Gardens are another of our projects of which we are very proud, as they provide an educational opportunity for our students and other community members. Each Demonstration Garden has a mentor who leads the volunteers for that garden. The main work in these gardens has started and will continue through October. Janine Salvatti is the chair of the Gardens Working Group and Marcie Katz oversees the Demonstration Gardens. Our gardens are listed on our JCMGA website https://jacksoncountymga.org/demonstration-gardens/. If you are interested in working in one of our Demonstration Gardens, please contact them.

June is going to be another busy month for JCMGA

  • Our Annual Membership Meeting will be held on Friday, June 13, from 9-9:30 a.m. in the auditorium at the SOREC Extension at 569 Hanley Road, Central Point. The JCMGA will give an overview of what JCMGA has accomplished for the past year. Board members will be there to answer any of your questions. This is a time for you to share your viewpoints concerning JCMGA. We hope that you will consider attending. Following this meeting, the JCMGA Board will hold its June Board meeting. You are welcome to stay for that meeting as well.
  • Our Annual Picnic will be held Saturday, June 28, from 5-8 p.m. in the auditorium at the SOREC Extension at 569 Hanley Road, Central Point. This will be a wonderful educational and social event as well as a time to recognize some of our members for all their hard work.

As you can see, JCMGA has numerous volunteer and/or educational opportunities available. Other opportunities include the Friends of the Gardens program, Plant Clinic, Plant A Row project, Demonstration Work Parties, and much more.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at barbaralow@msn.com.

Jun 01

JCMGA Annual Member Meeting – June 13th

By Beet 2025 06 June

JCMGA Annual Member Meeting

June 13th

9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

You are welcome to stay for the regular JCMGA Board meeting.

SOREC Auditorium, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point

 

Each year JCMGA has its Annual Member Meeting in June.

During this meeting we will

  • Talk about JCMGA’s accomplishments during the past year
  • Talk about issues that we are currently working on that involve the JCMGA
  • Answer any questions concerning the JCMGA
  • We welcome your input and/or suggestions

We hope that you will join us.

 

 

Apr 29

JCMGA May 2025 Announcements

By Beet 2025 05 May

 

May

  • Spring Garden Fair – May 3 and 4 at the Mace Building at the Expo.
    • Save the Date – Mark your calendars!
  • May JCMGA Board Meeting – May 9th at 9:00 a.m. at SOREC
  • Spring JCMGA Board Retreat – May 23rd at 9:00 a.m. at SOREC
  • Medford Open Streets Event – May 31st
    • JCMGA will have an information table at this event. If you are interested in working at the table that afternoon, contact Barbara Low barbaralow@msn.com

 

June

  • JCMGA Annual Membership Meeting – June 13th at 9:00 a.m. at SOREC
  • JCMGA June Board Meeting – June 13th at 10:00 a.m. at SOREC
  • JCMGA Annual Membership Picnic – June 28th from 5-8 p.m. at SOREC
Apr 29

President’s Corner

By Beet 2025 05 May

The Spring Garden Fair is upon us!

Our Annual Jackson County Spring Garden Fair is just around the corner – May 3rd and 4th! This year we will be at the Jackson County Expo, in the Mace Building, in Central Point.

The Spring Garden Fair is the JCMGA’s main fundraiser. It enables us to provide so many services throughout the year, such as Community Garden Grants, School Garden Grants, and the Master Gardener Practicum, to name a few.

As usual, our current Practicum class has helped in using research-based, effective techniques to grow our vegetables, ornamentals and native plants to sell at the fair. There will be hundreds of plants of many varieties available for purchase, including:

  • 17 varieties of tomatoes
  • 2 varieties of tomatillos
  • Many varieties of peppers, squash, melons, pumpkins, beans, eggplant, cucumbers
  • Green Globe Artichokes
  • Great selection of herbs
  • Many annual ornamentals – including alyssum, calendula, 4 o-clocks, cosmos, echinacea, gaillardia, marigolds, sunflowers and zinnias
  • And many, many native plants

Over 100 volunteers are involved in all aspects of developing and supporting this event.  Thank you to all the volunteers who are taking time to support our Spring Garden Fair.

Hope to see you at the Spring Garden Fair on May 3 or 4!

(I encourage you to read the article in this issue of The Garden Beet about our Practicum. You will be surprised at all that the students and mentors accomplish.)

 

Apr 29

JCMGA Practicum – “What Is It? What Is Involved?”

By Beet 2025 05 May

 

After many years of meaningful leadership for the Jackson County Master Gardeners Association Practicum, Jane Moyer and Virginia Brown passed the baton to Nicole Smith and myself. Nicole and I have been truly thankful for all of their support and advice during this transition.

I have been asked to write about our JCMGA Practicum, which is an interactive learning space for JCMGA students. This article is to update everyone about what the groundwork of Practicum involves, and why we provide this program.

The JCMGA Practicum is an educational, hands-on lab environment, focused on research-based knowledge and practices for home gardening.  Currently we have seven practicum sessions which each meet weekly for three hours.  The practicums are led by 2-3 mentors who are Master Gardeners.  The mentors meet every Wednesday for 2 ½ hours for training and feedback.

Each practicum can have as many as eight students. This year we experienced a lower number of students so we’ve had about 4-5 students per practicum.

In addition to teaching one of our practicum sessions, the mentors also serve on one our practicum teams – Seed Team, Curriculum Team, Greenhouse Maintenance Team, and the Native Plants Team. Each team meets monthly for approximately one hour.

  • The Seed Team decides on what seeds we will be planting and when to plant them.
  • The Curriculum Team takes feedback from the Practicum students and mentors to update and revise the weekly lessons for the next year. They make sure that the homework, videos, and articles are current. They also lay out the lessons schedule for the year and try to coordinate with Grace Florjancic’s curriculum for the Master Gardener Class. Lessons cover such topics as Tool Care, Analysis of Fertilizers, Analysis of Potting Soils, and Raised Bed Gardening.
  • The Greenhouse Maintenance Team makes sure that both of our greenhouses are well maintained and functioning correctly.
  • The Native Plants Team propagates, maintains, and sells the native plants growing in our Native Plant Nursery.

While the JCMGA Practicum is designed to be an optional learning experience for the current Master Gardener Class students, there is usually room for Master Gardeners who would like to attend also.  If you are interested in joining, please contact Nicole Smith at ncarbone88@gmail.com or myself at barbaralow@msn.com by mid-January.

Practicum starts in February and ends mid-May each year.

If you are interested in being one of our practicum mentors for next year, please let us know by mid-August. New mentors are always paired with an experienced mentor.

We have a great time learning from each other and growing many, many plants for the Spring Garden Fair. Come join the fun!