Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

*Position available:* Family Program Coordinator
*Organization:* Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
*Position description:*
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is now accepting applications for
Family Programs Coordinator. This is a full time, year-round
position, Tuesdays-Saturdays, annual salary range 28,995 to 36,400.
Deadline for applications is August 20th; proposed start date is mid
September.
This position includes developing and delivering educational
programs & activities for families and school groups. The full
description is available at:
https://employment.umn.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1185312822766

Interested applicants must complete the U of M online application
and submit a resume and cover letter (online) to be considered for
this position. The requisition # is 149422.

Sandy Tanck
Manager Youth, Family & Teacher Education
MN Landscape Arboretum
3675 Arboretum Drive
Chaska MN 55318
952 443-1451
Fax 952 443-2823

Food Citizen column

Written for the Albany Times Union by Jennifer Wilkins a Food and Society Policy Fellow at Cornell University.

*Make food part of curriculum*
First published: Sunday, June 3, 2007

*Learn which fish to buy, eat for life *
First published: Sunday, July 1, 2007

From Frank S. Rossi, Cornell University
Organic Turf Management: An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed the development of Organic Lawn Care. The article can be viewed online.

The accompanying video to the article is very entertaining and highlights the need to renovate an existing lawn as a means of reducing weed invasions and then keeping up with weeds through physical removal. An additional sidebar reviews some six steps to an organic lawn. This is a typical main stream press review with little input from turfgrass professionals but does outline the issue very well.
For more information on managing turf without pesticides you can check out the revised Cornell Publication Lawn Care without Pesticides

Here’s an example of a county’s online newsletter for Master Gardener Volunteers:

YOUR AUGUST NEWSLETTER is ready at: http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/monroe/horticulture/insidemg.htm

Do other county’s have volunteer newsletter online?

Might you be interested in offering an on-line gardening course in the future to bring in additional funds? Check this out…

The CCE Online Instructor Certification Program is a hybrid, online In-service that will provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to conduct successful online courses which meet the high standards we have established for our existing distance learning courses and content. This new program will provide you with techniques and best practices, as well as hands-on experience, for planning and conducting an online course using the existing CCE distance learning infrastructure. The certification course begins online on September 4, 2007 and will culminate with the in-service on October 9 and 10, 2007 (preceding the CCE System Conference).

To learn more visit: http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/dl/staff/certification.html

You can request more information by filling out the online form at the bottom of the certification page, or emailing pt36@cornell.edu

September 12-14 – Reaching Not Just Teaching
Location: TBD (Ithaca, NY off campus)
This is a facilitation skills training workshop which will address group facilitation to encourage learner involvement, honor learning styles and sharpen presentation techniques. It will also provide an introduction to adult learning principles and group facilitation skills with guided practice. This training is intended for any interested CCE staff member with responsibility for public presentations/trainings and is designed for extension staff with experience presenting/training groups of staff, community members, peers. Each participant will be asked to bring curriculum or an outline of a recently presented program to use in designing a teach-back session – a brief presentation to the group utilizing skills and techniques that will be covered. Cost $ 75.

For more information/questions please contact fnec-admin@cornell.edu

The Garden Writers Association Foundation (GWAF) is pleased to announce the release of the 2007 Summer Gardening Trends Research Report with some very interesting insights on consumer gardening attitudes and expectations for the current gardening season.

In early spring, the GWAF asked consumers where they planned to buy most of their spring plants. In a surprising response, more households indicated they planned to shop at garden centers and local stores (47%) as compared to DIY and mass merchants (44%). This change in planned shopping patterns represented a significant shift from prior years.

In a June survey, The GWAF asked consumers where they actually purchased most of their spring plants. Consumers confirmed that garden centers or local gardening stores got most (43%) of their business while mass merchants and DIY stores came in second (39%).

Other findings of the summer gardening trends survey include:

• The most popular method of insect control that American households plan on using this summer is a combination of organic and chemical products (28%). About one-fourth of households plan on using only organic or natural products (24%).

• One in four consumers (23%) want more information about annual vs. perennial flowers, 22% want information on vegetable gardening, 20% on pest control, 19% on weed control, and 19% on organic gardening.

• When comparing 2006 to 2007, more Americans have no plan to save water this year (31% in 2006 vs. 39% in 2007)

• Almost half (47%) do some form of container gardening.

• This summer, about half of consumers will use their garden for relaxation or as a spiritual retreat (48%). More than a quarter of consumers are planning to use their garden or yard for food production or as a children’s area (28% and 26%, respectively).

For more details, get your copy of the 2007 Summer Gardening Trends Research Report today. The summer gardening survey was conducted in June and covers consumer expectations and attitudes for activities and purchases planned for the next few months. The survey was conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a national consumer polling organization, and statistically represents the attitudes of 110 million households with an accuracy of 95% (+/- 3.1 percentage points).

From the National Gardening Association a new newsletter for those gardening in small spaces or urban areas:

Moss in The City

How are CCE county offices recruiting volunteers for your Master Gardener Volunteer programs?

Anyone using these non-for-profit sites?

www.volunteersolutions.org
www.volunteermatch.org

Gardeners:

Almost three months have passed since the International Master Gardener Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. We had such a great time hosting you all and hope you come back to visit!

We had 1315 conference attendees from 45 states and 3 provinces in Canada.

I have already visited with Las Vegas, Nevada-host of the March 22-26, 2009 IMGC and West Virginia-host of the 2011 IMGC. Both groups are hard at work planning outstanding events. So mark your calendar.

If you visit our website at mg2007.uaex.edu and click on speaker and seminar presentations, you can view 46 PowerPoint presentations. They have all been converted to pdf’s to make them easy to view. Some have handouts as well. Please share this site with your local Master Gardeners so even if they couldn’t attend, they can still see the quality presentations made by our presenters. You can also see the Search for Excellence awards, the new national MG logo and the presentations from Las Vegas.

We will leave these up for several months to give you time to see them all.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Have a great summer and come see us!

Sincerely,

Janet B. Carson
Extension Horticulture Specialist

Janet B. Carson
Extension Horticulture Specialist
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service
P.O. Box 391
Little Rock, AR 72203
(501) 671-2174
fax (501)671-2303