This year I had the pleasure of attending the Oregon Master Gardeners Association’s Joy of Gardening Conference on the Oregon State University Campus in Corvallis. There were four of us from JCMGA – Colet Allen, Grace Florjancic, Lori Ross, and myself who attended.
The conference was a two-day event which included twenty-six classes on a wide variety of topics. Two of these classes were actually tours. Each day started with Dr. Leslie Madsen and OMGA President Chris Rusch welcoming us to the day’s learning opportunities. Dr. Madsen is the OSU Master Gardener Coordinator, whom I found to be an innovative speaker. Many of her ideas would have us challenge ourselves to consider different perspectives.
We then had keynote speakers for each day. The first day, Sherry Sheng and Dr. Gail Langellota presented “Ten Cool Things We Learned from Garden Research” – great information. On the second day, Dr. Silvia Rondon provided a presentation on the Oregon Integrated Pest Management Center and its website. This is a wonderful resource for getting information on solving and preventing pest problems.
The rest of each day was spent attending classes of our choosing. I was impressed with all six classes that I attended. I either acquired new gardening information or was validated in what I already knew. One of the class presenters was Lucretia Weems, a JCMGA member.
Besides the great educational opportunities, I met fellow Master Gardeners from other counties. We had several good discussions and each had an opportunity to share how our groups function.
The OMGA Joy of Gardening Conference was well worth the time, and the information that I gathered from the speakers and classes will no doubt help me to be a better gardener.
If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to seriously consider attending next year’s conference. There are scholarships available through JCMGA and OMGA to attend.