2008 State Master Gardener Conference Updates

DATES:   OCTOBER 3 &4, 2008

LOCATION:

Friday:  Avalon Inn, Howland, OH

Saturday:  Kent State University Trumbull Campus,  Champion, OH

2008 STATE MASTER GARDENER CONFERENCE  STEERING COMMITTEE

  Sue Schleder                                                                                                               schleder.1@osu.edu                                        440-350-2206

 Carol Powers                                                                                                               ccpowers@roadrunner.com                           440-350-0696

 MAHONING

 David Goerig                                                                                                              goerig.1@osu.edu                                           330-533-5538

Hugh Earnhart                                                                                                           gowie55@aol.com                                          330-757-4727

Bessie Anderson                                                                                                       libertyr@onecom.com                                     330-718-0258

Lynn Zocolo                                                                                                              lzocolo@cboss.com                                        330-740-7116 x211

Bill Snyder                                                                                                                 snyder.892@osu.edu                                      330-533-5538

  NEWS RELEASES      JUNE 23, 2008      

 By KATHLEEN EVANOFF

Trumbull County Master Gardener volunteer

Are you saving the date?

By now you’ve likely received your post card reminding you to mark your calendars for Oct. 3 and 4 for the Ohio State Master Gardener Conference.

The northeast region and Trumbull County, who are hosting this year’s event, have promised a conference filled with innovative and fun-filled classes and tours. You won’t want to miss this exciting event. It is likely your only regret will be which tours and classes to choose.

Registration will be available next month and those attending may be surprised to find that higher fuel costs has not affected the savings the conference committee has been able to secure this year.

Ohio Master Gardeners will be able to choose from one of three tours through beautiful northeast Ohio. You can choose to visit the amazing garden spots along the Lake Erie shore, which presents a perfect climate for optimal growing. This garden center tour will take you to scenic Madison and lakeside, Perry, Ohio where you will visit some of the growers who not only provide plants worldwide, but who cultivate some of the new plants we see each year.

Or, you can choose to visit some of the areas premier wine growers, tour northeast Ohio’s award winning wineries and see how grape research has allowed growers to produce the sweetest fruit for their trade.

Or, you can tour locally and visit one of the area’s best kept secrets, a private estate garden consisting of acres of gardens within gardens, including meandering streams and water features, rockeries and award winning sculpture, not to mention a real secret garden. This tour also takes us to public gardens as well, visits a wetland area, and includes more than five additional stops, ensuring a tour that you will be talking about for a long while.

On Oct. 4, workshops at Kent State University’s Trumbull Campus will include featured speakers, author and garden teacher, Janet Macuovich and world-renown landscape designer, Paul Seck. But that’s not all. You asked, and the committee listened. Breakout sessions will also include topics on rain gardens, winter gardening, landscape design and other classes requested by state Master Gardeners who attended previous conferences.

Accommodations are pending at the fabulous Avalon Inn and Resort at a special rate for Ohio Master Gardeners. Within a few miles of the resort is the amazing Eastwood Mall complex, which was recently ranked as larger than the Mall of America.

Keep looking for your registration form as this is one conference you won’t want to miss.

May 2008

  Save the date for the 2008 state Master Gardener Conference

Master Gardener volunteers throughout the state of Ohio will want to mark Oct. 3 and 4 on their calendars for the 2008 state Master Gardener conference to be held in Trumbull County in Northeast Ohio.

Extension educators and Master Gardener volunteers from six regional counties, making up the Northeast Region in Ohio have been meeting regularly since November to plan the conference, which is expected to not only be exciting but uniquely educational.

Taking cues from evaluations and recommendations from Master Gardener volunteers throughout Ohio, educational sessions at the 2008 conference could include such topics as: sustainable landscapes; shade gardening; wildlife concerns, including problems with honeybees; native plants; turf and lawn management, insects and diseases; garden color coordination; rain gardens; and much, much more. Familiar Extension educators also will be on hand to present diagnostics, integrated pest management, perennial gardening including new and exciting topics as well as updates on what we already know.

The conference will begin the morning of Oct. 3 with a selection of four tours that include local gardens and areas of interest that are of great pride to the citizens of Northeast Ohio. Tour selections include a visit to a winery and vineyard; Lake County nurseries, including Klyn’s Nursery, with a personal tour by grower and lecturer Bill Hendricks, who also will be presenting at the conference educational sessions; perennial gardens by award-winning hybridizers and growers of Iris and Hosta; as well as public and private gardens that feature landscaping, sculpture and architecture. Participants may also choose a tour that includes a visit to Ohio’s northeastern Amish country.

Educational sessions, Oct. 4, will feature two renowned speakers; Janet Macunovich and Paul Seck.

Macunovich is the author of eight books including “Caring for Perennials” “Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes,” and “Eight Months of Color.” Macunovich is co-founder of the Michigan School of Gardening as well as the online gardening community, “The Practical Gardening Institute.” In addition to her presentations, Macunovich will be available to sign copies of her books.

Paul Seck is a world renown landscape architect who has traveled extensively studying the design and dynamics of gardens in New York City, Boston, Europe, Egypt, Japan and South America. His experience includes his encounters with challenging sites that include rooftops, piers and contaminated soils where he has attempted to interact the various landscapes of the natural world to include plants, soil, water, wind and pests. Seck will explore the idea of how we translate our personal landscape experience into the practice of landscape architecture.

Hotel accommodations will be at the fabulous Avalon Inn and Resort at a special reduced rate for Ohio’s Master Gardeners. The Inn’s architecturally fascinating ballroom will be the location for the annual state Master Gardener Award’s Banquet with a catered dinner created by the Inn’s personal chefs. View the Inn and request a brochure of the facility at http://www.avaloninn.com.

Educational sessions will be held at nearby Kent State University Trumbull Campus with its numerous classrooms, technical equipment, lecture halls, cafeteria facilities and student commons. Explore the campus online at: http://www.trumbull.kent.edu/.

Be sure to check the Trumbull County Web site:  http://trumbull.osu.edu  regularly for updates on the conference including registration deadlines, costs and additional information.

You won’t want to miss what is in store of Ohio’s Master Gardener volunteers this year!

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