Fall Plant Sale Experience

What a fantastic day with the Wiregrass Master Gardeners' Association at their Fall Plant Sale at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens yesterday! And what a mouthful! It was a fantastic learning experience and an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at this mega-successful production.

Some ideas I would like to adopt in my own club include:

1. Creating a resource guide for those working at the sale, containing information sheets on each plant offered, including pictures, mature height and spread, light and water requirements, etc, to better advise our buyers. Hey, not even Master Gardeners are experts on everything.

2. Partnering with local business for advertisements, signage, even manpower.

3. In the advertisements, encourage homeowners to come with their landscaping plans for advice AND plants.

4. Encouraging those working at the sale to wear green aprons (or t-shirt, or some other form of uniform) as a means of identification. For some reason, the green aprons popped in the crowd and blostered my confidence. I felt as if I belonged with this group of plant experts. It was amazing!

Given our size and number of active members, the Pike County Master Gardeners do a fair job at our annual plant sale, which is held during Troy Fest, the last weekend in April. With these few tweaks, we'll be well on our way to even greater success.

Master Gardening School 2010

So, the mighty Auburn University thought they could escape me and my incessant quest for an answer to my rosebush dead stem dilemma. Well, think again AU! I've registered for their annual Master Gardening School workshop next month and plan to take my question and samples and present them to any willing (and unwilling) ear. Don't you just love a determined mama?

I should mention that sometime in May I became an official 'unofficial member of the Pike County Master Gardeners Association'. Try saying that fast three times. What it means is that I attend the monthly meetings and have the option of volunteering hours with their various gardening projects, without paying the annual dues. I don't get a say and that really doesn't bother me. For now anyway. I was inducted (can I use that term if I'm unofficial?) by a local gardener whom I really respect, because I have an insatiable appetite for learning all I can about gardening. And the free plants after each meeting aren't bad either.

So here's to progress and answers and sticking it to AU. Cheers.