Roots & Shoots Master Gardener Society Michigan Summertime Gardening Suggestions from “Month-by-Month Gardening in Michigan” by James A. Fizzell • By now, many spring plantings should be vigorous. Check to see if plants need to be staked, climbing plants trailed up, faded • Water early in the day so plants dry out by evening. Cool season grasses can survive drought for awhile. Water slightly after 2-3 weeks of no rain.. Other plants, trees and shrubs need water frequently, but allow soil to • You should be enjoying some early vegetables: radishes, lettuce and green onions, rhubarb and asparagus. Plant warm weather crops and • Plant pests: check for aphids, mites. July is Japanese beetle season! And . . .. of Oakland County June/July 2006 flowers removed, etc. dry and get good air circulation. pumpkins now for Halloween. • Weed, weed, weed! MGSOOC Contacts Tom Hershberger Ruth Vrbensky Jean Gramlich Sherry Jones President: John P Humphrey Vice Pres: Secretary: Treasurer: Team Adm: Tom Hershberger (586)573-3954 Clay Ottoni (248)454-9800 Sandie Parrott (248)394-1532 (248)328-0557 MSU Extension Oakland County Coordinator Advisor: Carol Lenchek (248)858-0900 lenchekc@co.oakland.mi.us Team Coordinators Bowers Farm: Martha Humphrey babylon6@ameritech.net Communications: John P Humphrey (248)542-8213 Hospitality: Pat Banaszek (586)677-2048 Membership: Project Support: Trips & Tours: Web Site: Sheri Trout sheri@oaklandweb.com Web Site address: www.mgsoc.org Mission Statement It is the Master Gardener Society of Oakland County’s Mission to assist, enable, and encourage its members to use their horticultural knowledge and experience to help the people of their communities, enrich their lives through gardening and good gardening practices. (248)542-8213 (586)573-3954 (248)969-6904 (810)714-2343 (248)442-9866 2 The Cape area of South Africa is one of the most remarkable regions in the world for plant flora. Nearly 70% of the plants are endemic – meaning this is the only place in the world where they exist naturally. Plus, so many have become popular plants – annuals and perennials in our north temperate gardens including pelargonium geraniums, osteospermums, gazanias, red hot pokers, gladiolas and many bulbs. Art and his wife Marlene spent a month in South Africa exploring the native plants and gardens. As avid plant photographers, they found themselves in plant geek heaven. Art will share slides and experiences of this plant trip down under. Mr. Barger is the webmaster for the American and British Conifer Society Web Sites and also the Regional President for the Central Region of the American Conifer Society. He will present information about Conifers, their diversity and uses. He has given this program in the past and will include a slide presentation. Handouts and brochures will be available. Charles Bower Farm, 1219 E. Square Lake Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI Alternative School Building General Meeting ~ 6:30 pm Speaker: Mr. Bill Barger Education: “Conifers” June 7th, 2006 @ 6:30 pm MGSOOC Society Meeting & Location General Meeting ~ 6:30 pm IT Building Auditorium, West Campus of County Buildings County Center Drive West - "Building 49 West on Map" Speaker: Dr. Art Cameron from MSU Map to IT Building Auditorium - "# 49 West" Gardens and Plants of the Cape Area of South Africa July 5th, 2006 @ 6:30 pm MGSOOC Society Meeting & Location 3 For more information about conifers, see Siegrid Stern’s site here: http://conifers.home.att.net/index.htm click on Educational Journey, then click on conifer species. Here is an article on Conifer Species vs. Hybrid/Cultivars: http://conifers.home.att.net/conifer.species_hybrids_cultivars.htm (Note: there are underscores in the open spaces) Check out the Photo site: http://conifers.home.att.net/Photos.htm Here are some fantastic conifer photos from around the world, including some from Hidden Lake Gardens in Tipton.. All the Arboretums and nurseries listed on the index page have world-class conifer collections. The site includes information and photographs of Adrian Bloom's famous garden 'Foggy Bottom' Bressingham, Norfolk. *Take a look at these sites prior to the meeting on July 3, in order to have a better understanding of conifers! HOT WEATHER SAFETY Here are some heat safety tips from the National Weather Service: 1. Slow down - Strenuous activities should be reduced or rescheduled to the coolest time of the day. 2. Dress for summer - Wear light-weight, and light-colored clothing. 3. Stay hydrated - Your body needs water to stay cool. Even if you don't feel thirsty, 4. Don't get too much sun - Wear a hat and sun block for protection from the sun’s 5. Spend more time in air-conditioned places - Doing so makes the body's job of 6. Do not drink alcoholic beverages - The intake of alcohol only leads to further continue to drink water. rays. Sunburn makes the job of heat dissipation that much more difficult. staying cool that much easier. dehydration.. 4 April Guest Speaker, Marsha La Marca By Diane Opria This month we were able to witness a person of incredible vitality: Marsha La Marca. Being a dance instructor for 25 years has put a snap in her step as well as in her ambition. Marsha’s current passion is working with people who have special needs. Whether it is stroke or heart failure, old age or arthritis, Marsha’s goal is to help raise their quality of life in some small way. She gave us different ideas she uses to make it possible for these people to enjoy the tranquility of gardening. First, evaluate the person’s ability. How strong are they, how far can they bend or reach? Things like this help determine what is possible, and what adjustments have to be made. Adjustments can be longer handled tools to do the reaching, or light weight tools if strength is lacking. Also, roller seats for mobility, or kneeling pads for comfort. Gardening with allergies can be a challenge. First you must identify what someone is allergic to. Next, stay away from those plants! Check the list Marsha has supplied for “Sneeze Free” plants. Remember that pollen counts are lower in the afternoon so breathing will be easier. Container gardens can be grown when traditional gardens are not possible. A pot of herbs outside the door can be convenient to the kitchen, or a water garden with a pump and aquatic flowers can give soothing results. Suggestions such as eliminating large lawns by adding more concrete or stepping stones will help cut back on maintenance. One tip to remember this season is to vary gardening chores. Spend part of the day standing up, doing pruning or raking, then follow by kneeling down to weed or plant. This way, different hand and body movements are required and one set of muscles doesn’t become over fatigued. These basic ideas were well presented. As the evening went on, it became evident that these suggestions are not only for the elderly confined to nursing homes, but also important for aging Master Gardeners. 5 MAY MEMBERSHIP MEETING Cindy LaFerle spoke on the topic “Things I Learned From My Garden.” Cindy is a freelance writer and newspaper columnist who just published a compilation of her writings titled Writing Home. She began her talk with quotes from several famous gardeners. Henry David Thoreau said, “Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.” James Russell Lowell wrote, “A weed is no more than a flower in disguise.” Our famous presidential gardener, Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it only for posterity.” In a philosophical mood, May Sarton wrote, “A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.” A garden is a metaphor for change with promise and opportunity. Cindy told the story of losing a number of large trees in her back yard and turning that loss into the opportunity to create a Japanese garden complete with a little bridge. Plants are like scrapbooks, they trigger memory though color and scent. We get some of our best ideas while working in the garden. All writers have fallow times which are like a long Michigan winter. When it seems as if spring will never come, we get our first balmy day, and ideas start flowing again like the sap in the trees. Gardens need lots of pruning and so does writing. Cindy highly recommended two books to us: The Magic Land by Julie Messervy, and Cultivating Delight by Diane Ackerman. Most gardeners and nature lovers have felt that “nature has the mysterious power to console us when words cannot.” Jean Gramlich 6 Carol’s Corner The Master Gardener Volunteer Recognition Banquet was held on April 20. It was well attended with 138 people coming to share in the festivities. Everyone had a good time as they caught up with people they may not have seen since class ended. I heard a lot of laughter throughout the evening! I’d like to give a pat on the back to the Banquet Committee members: Kay Kisell, Jan Stephens, Ellie Ledbetter, Carla Spradlin, and John Olsen. They did an outstanding job taking care of all the details that go into making a banquet. Master Gardeners are just so talented! I’m continuously impressed with your skill sets! I was very pleased to give Ruth Parulis the Master Gardener of the Year award. She takes on the huge task of scheduling for the Farmers Markets. It’s a rough decision to make because there are so many of you who deserve the title. Now that winter has loosened its grip on us (though we had frost last night), the volunteer opportunities are abundant. Those of you who haven’t signed up for the weekly e-newsletter, The Oakland Gardener, might want to consider it. This is the best way to find out who needs volunteer help. All you have to do is email Cathy Morris at morrisc@co.oakland.mi.us with your name and email address and she will subscribe you. Ask a Master Gardener…Helping People Grow season is upon us. This is the first volunteer experience for many of our winter class Candidates, so we wish them well as they get their feet muddy. I hope that each of you will put in some time at a local Plant-A-Row (PAR) garden. They always need help. Wishing you a good growing season filled with beautiful flowers and plentiful vegetables. 7 invites you to participate in our 6th Annual Summer Trip to TORONTO !!! Friday, June 16 through Sunday, June 18, 2006 The trip includes a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Shakespeare Gardens, Toronto Island’s private gardens, the Toronto Music Garden, Quai du Vin Winery, Richters’s Herb Specialists and more! Space is limited, so sign up soon. For information visit the Master Gardener Society website at http://www.mgsoc.org You’re Invited! The Master Gardener Society of Oakland County 8 June 2006 Notes from Nutcase Nursery Last summer, instead of having a speaker at one of our Master Gardener Society meetings, we entertained ourselves with a question and answer session. One of the topics was the “friend versus foe” relationships between plants, as in the symbiotic pairings referred to as companion plants. For decades, the success stories associated with the subject of companion planting were considered more folklore, whimsy or wishful thinking than science. As the dangers of chemicals have become known, more botanical sources have been studied and research has been substantiating many of the claims heard along the way. I always smile when some suspicion I had gets the stamp of credibility from a reputable university study. When I read somewhere that beans and potatoes are good companions because, it seems, potatoes repel bean beetles and beans repel potato beetles (say that five times fast), I grinned from ear to ear. I felt so wise. I had pictured it more as the two kinds of beetles duking it out, but I can accept the plant science of it all. It’s a temporary feeling of wisdom I might get to enjoy for about thirty whole seconds off and on through the gardening season. That’s the beautiful thing about gardening. It forces you to learn humility. Whether you want to or not. You know how you can water and water and water and still things just don’t perk up? Seeds refuse to sprout; sprouts won’t grow. All of the flora seem to just be in a state of suspended animation. But after one good rain, everything goes like gangbusters. No matter how you feed and weed, prune and trim, compost and clip, you realize that you are just not really in charge. And yet we believe we have a purpose. We are stewards. We are scientists. We are Master Gardeners who explore and enjoy our environment and we cannot bear not tweaking it. It’s a gift we have been given. It’s what allows us to live through the hectic activities of spring and still look forward to the next year. As I was studying the facets of companion planting and the other side of its coin, repellent planting, I came across this admonition from the Rodale Research Center in Pennsylvania. It was the last line in the section under Repellent Plantings. “The message here is to go at repellent planting in your garden or orchard with a spirit of experimentation.” I’ll bet my hori-hori knife that the phrase applies to companion planting as well. As you experiment, you note what works or what doesn’t. And you drive yourself a little crazier each season. To contribute to that madness, there are times when even the experiment isn’t under your control. After the neighbors had their black walnut tree cut down, I admit that I was happy. Oh yes, at first I danced with glee. My tomatoes were no longer required to dodge blowing leaves from the front yard; I could put the yellow lilac back where it was meant to be. There were many other plants I could now have in the adjacent bed because the juglone was gone. But the next season brought a load of prickly thistle sprouting all through the yew hedge along the property border where the walnut had been growing! You have to be a card- 9 carrying contortionist to get thistle out of a yew hedge. Or any other hedge for that matter. Yet, it amused me to see how inventive Nature is. The thistle was not killed by the juglone from the black walnut, only kept at bay. Once the poison source was gone, the thistle, dating back to when the subdivision was a field in the fifties, decided it was safe to rise again. And not in seedling form, mind you, but in robust stature - hardy enough to rise above the yews and spread its nasty leaves to eight inches! Unfortunately, since Mother Nature had lead responsibility for concocting this experiment, she left me to head the clean up committee. It was an unrequested lesson in allelopathy, the ability of one plant to retard the growth of another. The monarch butterfly is an example of a similar principle from the non-plant world. (The term allelopathy only applies to plants.) It consumes milkweed and stores the heart poison in its tissues.. It is unpalatable to predators and yet wears a stunning outfit that makes it attractive visually. Psychologists call this an approach-avoidance conflict, much like the mixed feelings we have for a hot fudge sundae. It looks so good, but the fat, calories and carbs are so bad. In butterfly land, this combination is so effective for the monarch that the “entirely edible” viceroy butterfly has copied half of it to fool its predators into leaving it alone as well. Unlike the monarch, which is toxic if eaten, some things keep pests at bay just by their scent (or odor, depending on your perspective). Garlic is probably the most widely used repellent plant. Garlic offends most insects, while borage only seems to be useful in repelling one pest, the tomato hornworm. And although garlic serves its purpose well when planted with roses, berries, fruit trees and grapes, beans and asparagus prefer it and onions far away. One companion the asparagus patch enjoys is the tomato plant. Asparagus beetles do not care for the scent of tomato plants, which explains why I haven’t seen any asparagus beetles since I let the tomato volunteers reseed in their patch. The smile is short-lived once again because I allowed a huge amount of garlic to inhabit that same patch to perform its repellent wizardry. Now I have to remove the garlic, which is a whole lot easier than moving asparagus. Yes, I’m feeling humble again. Many repellent plantings are of flora that the nose knows and remembers easily. Besides garlic, the herb tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, has a powerful fragrance and repels a lot of insects. But only this particular type of tansy will work. There are look-alikes and plants with similar common names so don’t try the wrong kind. It’s also not the kind of plant that is welcome everywhere. In good soil it gets carried away. You have to grow it with crops that are sturdy enough to live with it or keep it in a buried container. If you are too wary to let it loose, grow it in an area where you can keep it behaved and harvest the leaves to spread around vulnerable plantings. Borage was already made fun of as being able to repel only one pest. But as a bee attractor it’s at the head of its class for the vegetable garden. Sun flowers also attract bees to the garden, a big boost to the business of pollination. And if you feed the birds, you won’t have to worry about planting sunflowers yourself. There’s old Mother Nature, helping out again. Mint is also a good repellent, but if you cultivate it in the garden you won’t be able to plant much else after a short time. The best way to deal with mint as a tool is to grow it in containers and move them around the garden as needed. Mint is supposedly good for repelling the cabbage moth and cabbage maggots, flea beetles, and even mice, but seems to attract the imported cabbageworm. You have to grow a resistant variety. But that’s a whole other story. 10 Nematodes do not like marigolds, calendulas, salvias or dahlias in their neighborhoods. Or asparagus. The magic is in the roots. So it eventually makes sense that tomatoes won’t have problems with nematodes if you plant them in the asparagus bed and the tomatoes will in turn keep away asparagus beetles in thanksgiving. If you want to preserve the vegetable garden and keep it safe from mints, rue, artemesias and the rest of the runaways, there are always annual flowers to use. Marigolds are reputed to keep away Mexican bean beetles from snap beans, the stinkier the variety the better. There is also magic in their roots. But marigolds do nothing to stop a hungry rabbit or woodchuck. The pyrethrum flower is useful as a commercial insecticide but as a companion plant the painted daisy doesn’t seem to scare anything. Feverfew or matricaria has a repellent scent and can be useful scattered around the border. But you have to keep it on the list of plants that need to be watched. Plant bullies beat up on other plants and should not be allowed to get out of control. Nasturtiums can be considered ambidextrous because they attract some insects and repel others. Spraying with nasturtium tea can be really effective on woolly aphids in apple trees. They repel Colorado potato beetles, cabbage moths, whiteflies, striped pumpkin beetles and squash bugs. And they are just darned adorable planted as a border around the vegetable garden. Try to keep them away from rich soil though, because they can easily take up as much room as a pumpkin plant if conditions are too wonderful. I had to repair a huge patch of lawn a few years back because I planted a nice border of nasturtium on the south side of the vegetable garden and it decided to migrate to Toledo (a small price to pay for enjoying the bright shiny faces of Nasturtium ‘Peach Melba’).. Geraniums can repel and attract as well. White geraniums can serve as a trap for Japanese beetles. They eat it and die. Some people interplant their rose beds with geraniums, usually red, and insist they work well. Geraniums also repel leafhoppers and rose chafers. When our rosarian, George Hartley, was approached with this idea a few years back he said he was not aware of any supporting data but he was enthusiastic about trying it and seeing how it works. I haven’t asked him about the experiment but I would love to know if he tried it and how it went. Since all of the plants mentioned have what might best be described as a pungent aura, I like to make sure their scent is released as often as possible since their essential oils are their source of power. When I’m on my patrol stroll I fluff and pet the plants to make them olfactory orchestras, scenting the paths with songs only the nose knows. And it makes me smile knowing that what’s pleasant to my nose is being effective and environmentally safe in irritating whatever scent-sensing organs the pests have. For about thirty seconds. Then I’m off to butt heads with my next lesson in humility. Whether I need it, or not. 11 Required Hours & How to Get Them This article is a reminder of the speakers we had at out last volunteer class at the end of March. Several speakers have projects we can do to fulfill required hours, so this is a list of people who spoke (and few additions of people who were not there), what projects are available, and who to contact. So far, I have: Farmers’ Markets – This project involves working at a booth at any one of several Farmer’s Markets in the area. There are still openings at many markets. Contact Ruth Parulis at 248- 682-2909 or email ruthparulis@sbcglobal.net Ask a Master Gardener – Saturdays in May at Garden Stores - Denise Jones 586-944- 8543 Tollgate Education Center - Roy Prentice, Farm Manager e-mail prentic1@msu.edu, or call 248-347-3860 ext. 212.. Volunteer for Plant Sales (spring), Open House - mid summer, Fall Fair & Saturday planting/ workdays, and on other days, there is a clipboard with work to be done, just sign in. Tollgate is located at 28115 Meadowbrook Road, Novi, MI. Anything done at Tollgate counts as required. Bittersweet Farm Garden/Plant a Row - This garden is located in Clarkston. Bob McGowan owns and operates this large organic garden - entirely on behalf of the Food Bank of Oakland County. Contact Bob McGowan at bob@smith-winchester.com or 248-640-0111 after 6pm. Bill Pioch – Bill has taken the leadership on growing vegetable starts for the PAR Gardens. His Ph # is 248-259-3086. The PAR at Springfield Oaks is actually worked by people doing court ordered community service. If MGs want to lend a hand, it would be showing them how to hoe, etc. If anyone wants to help they should contact Linda Muiter- Carmean, who is a MG and County Community Corrections employee. Her phone number is 248-451-2321. I think they are at the garden on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays. She was not at our meeting. Call for more info. Another opportunity from someone not at the meeting - John Olsen is the MG to contact for volunteer opportunities at the 4H Fair. I think they still need judges. Call 248-420-1033 John Humphrey – MGSOOC – humphreyjp@comcast.net or 248-542-8213 Anything MGs do for the Society is required hours. They work gardens at Bowers Farm. Martha Humphrey is the contact for that at babylon6@ameritech.net .. They have a new project to landscape - the new Michigan Fallen Heroes Memorial on the north end of the County Complex. Contact Gail Novak to get involved. 248-858-5080 or e-mail novakg@co.oakland.mi.us Tom Hershberger – 586-573-3954 State Fair: There is an information booth at the State Fair. We divvy up the days with Macomb and Wayne MGs but Oakland gets the more slots because we have the most MGs. V olunteering at the Detroit Zoo does NOT count as required hours, but if you want to work there for personal hours contact Sylvia Schult at 586-992-0944 12 Garlic Mustard - ( Alliaria petiolata) By Kim Reeves VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY ~ (Does not count as Required Hours) Note: Garlic Mustard is flowering and going to seed as we speak. Identify now & be ready next time! April/May is the best time to pull garlic mustard - before they seed and the seeds spread! You can still volunteer now by contacting Laurel Malvitz (below). Earlier this spring, I went out to Pinckney State Recreation Area to pull garlic mustard. I thought I would share what I learned with you, and hopefully encourage some of my fellow Master Gardeners to come out, volunteer and learn about this invasive plant. What is garlic mustard and why is it a problem? Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a cool season, biennial and aggressively invasive plant. It competes with native plants for light, moisture, nutrients, soil and space. Wildlife that depend on native plants for food also suffer when garlic mustard replaces native plants. For example, the West Virginia white butterfly (Pieris virginiensis), when it is in the caterpillar stage, eats a similar variety of plant in the mustard family, commonly known as "toothwort" (Dentaria). Garlic mustard invasions destroy toothwort, and chemicals in garlic mustard appear to be toxic to the butterfly eggs. This is only one example of problems caused by garlic mustard! From the website: “Weeds Gone Wild: Alien Plant Invaders of Natural Areas” Retrived April 26, 2006 from http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/alpe1.htm Pamela Rowe, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, Rockville, MD. Jil M. Swearingen, U.S. National Park Service, Washington, DC. What can be done about garlic mustard invasions? Many types of preventive measures are used to control garlic mustard, from pulling to burning to chemical controls. See: http://www.ipm.msu.edu/garlicmustard.htm Eat it – Kalamazoo Nature Center has put out a cookbook From Pest to Pesto: A Culinary Guide. It has recipes for garlic mustard. From the smell of the plant, it certainly seems to be edible. It has a garlic smell that you notice when you pull it and have it in your hands. That is a fun part of pulling garlic mustard as well – the surprising aroma. I didn’t try eating it though. Here is part of the letter from Laurel Malvitz of the DNR regarding the garlic mustard pull and other volunteer opportunities available with the DNR: 13 Hi all, Thank you so much for helping us pull garlic mustard at Pinckney on Sunday. We got a ton accomplished in spite of the rain, and hopefully you had fun and learned something new! Some important things you might not have learned this weekend: * seeds are the sole means of reproduction for garlic mustard. Each plant can produce hundreds of seeds. Think of how many plants you pulled, multiply by 60 people pulling, then multiply by hundreds of seeds per plant. So, collectively we kept roughly 2.5 million seeds from dispersing. Thanks for helping us accomplish this amazing feat!! * garlic mustard and other invasive seeds can easily and unknowingly be spread from place to place by animals (that includes us). What can you do to help? Stay on established roads and trails to prevent invasive seed dispersal. After visiting an area that has garlic mustard or other invasive weeds, clean up before you leave the site (or before you go into another natural area). Make sure your clothes, shoes, pets, and vehicle are free of seed and mud. We are also holding workdays at the following parks and rec. areas that may be closer to your home: Waterloo Rec. Area (between Chelsea and Jackson), Brighton Rec. Area (in Brighton), Island Lake Rec. Area (near Brighton) Highland Rec. Area (on M-59, east of US23), Bald Mountain Rec. Area (in Oakland Co. near Lake Orion/Auburn Hills and the Palace!), Algonac State Park (in St. Clair Co. on the St. Lawrence River), Sterling State Park (in Monroe Co. on Lake Erie) Thanks again for your hard work Sunday. I hope to see at next year's Dances with Alliaria petiolata event...or sooner :) Laurel Workday details are listed at www.michigan.gov/dnrvolunteers , then click on the "Be Part of a Core Volunteer Steward Team" link. In the next month we will be pulling more garlic mustard and planting native plants (at some parks). I would love to see you at upcoming workdays! Other activities throughout the year include cutting invasive shrubs/trees, collecting native seed, etc. If you're interested in getting workday reminders for additional parks, let me know. Laurel Malvitz Natural Resource Steward Stewardship Unit, Parks and Recreation Division Michigan Department of Natural Resources email: malvitzl@michigan.gov phone: 248-685-2187 fax: 248-685-7577 14 Spring Forward, Fall Back (or…I Can’t Believe I Almost Survived Another One) Spring can be the cruelest time. It comes in starts and fits. One day it’s warm and wonderful, Then next day it’s the pits. You plant some seeds, But there’s no rain, So nothing ever sprouts. You plant more seeds And then it pours and Washes them all out. You start your plants And carry them To harden off outside.. You take off on another task And later find them fried. You watch the weather news each night; Know when to bring things in. The station’s forty miles away, Guessing cannot win. Take the mulch off, Put it back, There still could be a frost. The plant you saved since fall last year Got frozen, now it’s lost. And where have all these weeds come from? Some I have never seen. The birds have pooped some monster seeds. How could they be so mean? And over here’s another bed Just loaded with surprises. But wow, it’s changed - the plants have grown And doubled in their sizes! But are they weeds or flowers? I know I should remember. But sometimes I don’t know my name Let alone what went in last September. I swear each year I’ll pare things down. I haven’t as of yet. The hurrieder I go you know, The behinder I just get. Susan Tatus McLarty 15 May 2006 Michigan State University Extension- Oakland County “Bringing Knowledge to Life” Michigan State University Master North Office Building, #26 East Office Hours: 1200 N. Telegraph Road Monday through Friday Pontiac, MI 48341 8:30 a.m to 12:00 noon and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Beverly Terry…248-858-0885 Carol Lenchek…248-858-0900 County Extension Director Master Gardener Program Coordinator E-Mail: terryb@co.oakland.mi.us E-Mail: lenchekc@co.oakland.mi.us Yard & Garden Hotline…248-858-0902 Cathy Morris….248-858-1639 Charlene Molnar, Horticulture Advisor Clerk & Contact for Certification Hours of operation vary with seasonal needs. Of Volunteer & Education Hours E-mail: morrisc@co.oakland.mi.us Food Safety Hotline…248-858-0904 Gardener Program Mary McLellan, State Coordinator Water Quality …248-858-5198 Bindu Bhakta , Extension Educator Robin Danto , Extension Educator 517-355-5191, ext 408 4-H Youth Programs…248-858-0905 Tom Schneider, Extension Educator Lois Thieleke….248-858-0888 Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are available to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status or family status. Children, Youth & Family 248-52-9726 Extension Educator- Food & Nutrition Saneya Hamler, Extension Educator The Oakland Gardener only accepts submissions via e-mail. E-mail needs to include a description of request, contact person’s name, phone number and e-mail address. This info will be “cut and pasted” into this newsletter. Roots & Shoots is a joint publication of MSU Extension-Oakland County and Master Gardener Society of Oakland County. Submit articles for publication by mid-month of the month before publication, ex. July 15 for Aug/Sept issue. Effective January 6, 2006, postal rates are increasing. With this in mind, if you have Internet access we encourage you to read Roots & Shoots online at the Master Gardener Society website www.mgsoc.org.. 16