President’s Corner

Spring has arrived!

We had a brief false-spring teaser, but soon we will start warming up and our plants will begin growing, getting ready for summer.

Our Jackson County Master Gardeners Association Practicum students, Class of 2025 have been busy planting a wide variety of seeds, both vegetables and ornamentals. They have also started transplanting seedlings in preparation for our JCMGA Spring Garden Fair on the first weekend of May.

Students and their mentors are monitoring the growth of these plants – watering, fertilizing, cataloging growth rate, and employing integrated pest management – to ensure that we have healthy plants to sell. We are very fortunate to have a great bunch of mentors and students who are working well together and learning from each other in order to become better home gardeners. We all enjoy sharing our gardening knowledge and are open to learning from each other.

In preparation for the Spring Garden Fair, we have started to recruit volunteers to work in various aspects of the event. Some of these workstations involve minimal to medium physical activity. Most of the shifts will be 4-hours in length.  Besides the Practicum plants, there will be many vendors as well as a Children’s Activity area.

Volunteer opportunities will include:

• Entry Table – putting on wrist bracelets
• Children’s Activity Area – helping children with a variety of activities
• JCMGA Raffle Table – monitoring the raffle baskets and raffle ticket cans
• JCMGA Fundraising Table – monitoring the items on the table
• JCMGA Information Table – passing out free information sheets/brochures and answering general gardening questions
• Roaming the Spring Garden Fair areas to answer general questions about the event
• Directing traffic to have vendors leave on Sunday
• Gate Keeper – making sure that people have a wrist band when entering

It takes many people pulling together to make this event successful.  Marcie Katz and Lucy Pylkki are the chairs for the Spring Garden Fair and have done a terrific job organizing this event.

This year our Spring Garden Fair will be held at the Jackson County Expo in the Mace Building on May 3^rd and 4^th. Mark your calendars and make sure to visit our Practicum plant area for a great variety of vegetables and ornamentals.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Barbara Low at barbaralow@msn.com.