Coordinator’s Column 

Hello Gardeners!

As we enter 2025, it’s a good time to celebrate the successes of the past year and focus on the goals for the upcoming year. We have awesome highlights from the Jackson County MG Program of 2024. Thank you all for making this great work happen!

In 2024 the Master Gardener Volunteers….

• have a total of 9,300.1 volunteer hours!

• have 1,009.75 hours of learning for Continuing Education Credits!

• have donated 1,082 pounds of produce from the Plant a Row Campaign and MGs bringing produce to their local pantries!

• have 39 graduates from the 2024 MG Volunteer Training Class!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year a success. I am proud and amazed at all the hard work you have done for each other and the community.

Some other successes I want to highlight from the past year include, but by no means are limited to….

Cultivating Companions: Growing Together Through Plants

This program was a 7 week series we ran in some of the rural libraries around the county. Participants and instructors learned a lot and we had fun bringing people together. We reached 6 libraries and 48 program participants. The librarians were very helpful and enjoyed hosting us in their libraries. We are looking forward to running this program again in the libraries next year. I have reached out to their lead programming coordinator to get us set for a few more libraries. I have also reached out to the Jackson County Disability Services to set up a series with their audiences. Stay tuned for more information as we work out dates!

 

Jackson County Community Garden Network

One of the MG Programing priorities is local foods. In addition to financially supporting community gardens, we have meetups with community garden leaders around the county. Now we even have a Facebook group for keeping our gardens connected and easily sharing information. Check out what’s happening by searching “Jackson County Community Garden Network” on Facebook!

Demonstration Garden Events

Our demonstration gardens may not be in a busy public park, but that doesn’t stop us from spreading education with them! There have been many garden groups from across the valley who have toured our gardens. This has been a great opportunity for us to connect with more gardeners in our area as well as share what we each know. In the summer we invited artists to a plein air to paint, draw, and take photos of the flowers. Many artists were happy to read the informational signs scattered through the gardens to learn more about their muses. More formal educational opportunities like pruning classes continue to be a popular way for education to be shared in our demonstration gardens.

I cannot say it enough. Thank you to all you wonderful volunteers for making these things happen. As an organization we have our fingers dipped into many different pies and do a wide variety of education outreach. From the seemingly small jobs to the more dauntingly large tasks, it all helps and makes a difference. I can’t wait to have a great 2025 with you all!