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November 2009 Mark your calendar – you don’t want to miss the MGM Garden Club’s Plant Sale on Nov. 7, 2009 from 9 a.m. until 12 noon at the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden – 2200 W. 28th St. Tours of the Garden will be available upon request. Master Gardener’s will be available to answer questions or just talk about gardening. Remember when I used to call the Moody Garden a baby garden? My goodness it is no longer a baby. We started planting that empty lot 7 years ago this month my goodness how it has grown. I’m at the Extension Office a couple times a week but don’t always take the time to walk through the garden. I did just that a few days ago and some trimming and pruning is being done and it makes the garden look so different – and so good. I think you will be amazed how it has changed, too. It is a grown-up garden now. Stacey Bealmear who is the Horticulture Agent for the U of A Cooperative Extension office and has been here almost 2 years now. She just bought a house so I think she is planning to stay and we are so glad because she has taken on the responsibility of the Moody Garden with open arms. She also has some exciting plans for the Cultivated Garden area, too, just west of the large gazebo. Stay tuned! * * * The drumming group that meets at the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden will have no more Thursday night session until the days get longer again. Starting Sunday, Nov. 8 we are moving our meeting time to every Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Hope to see you there. Come early and enjoy a stroll through the garden or stay after and take an early evening walk. For more information call me at 343-4020. Welcome to October and now it is time to get out and enjoy gardening. Your own as well as the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden again which is located at 2200 W. 28th St. By the time you read this we should have the new information posters in the 8 kiosks in the garden. (The kiosks are small structures – one in each of the 8 gardens – that contain posters with all kinds of gardening information and they are replaced every 3 months. So take a stroll in the garden (at least 4 times a year) and see what you can learn. Since it is now the beginning of our gardening season, in Yuma, the new posters contain information about the various activities that are available in our area that connect someway with gardening. The Children’s Garden is kiosk # 1 and we offer an idea on how you can nurture a child by giving a suggestion of an activity you can do in the garden with a child or children. There is also a map of the garden in this kiosk, which shows “you are here”, and the location of the 8 kiosks and the gardens in alphabetical order. So you can also practice map reading with a child. All kiosks are located along the cement walk. If you’ve not been to the garden you might want to look at # 1 first but it doesn’t matter in what order you visit them. Currently featured in the other seven kiosks are: Master Gardener program. A new class starts today! It is full but if you are interested call and get on the list for the next class. Call the Extension Office at 726-3904 and ask for Joy or Stacey. The 4-H Clubs are forming now, too, and you can still sign up. Call the same number and ask for Amy or Marlena. The local garden clubs are featured in four of the kiosks: MGM Garden Club, Pecan Grove Garden Club, Yuma Garden Club, Yuma Orchid Society. You can call me for more information and my number is at the bottom of this article. The Vegetable Garden Kiosk by the barn and windmill currently features help for the home gardeners in this area with an enlarged copy of the Plant and Harvest chart for Yuma. If you are new to gardening here you will want to take a look at it. You might want to clip this column out and save it for future use. * * * One more thing that is going on at the Moody Garden is the Community Drumming Group that has been meeting all summer every Thursday evening in the mini amphitheater of the garden. Our starting time is anytime someone is there and starts drumming – usually about 6:30 now that the days are getting shorter. But come when you can and meet other people of all ages who are interested in drumming. It is very informal so just join in and leave when you need to. Come early and enjoy the garden before the drumming begins. September 2009: Another class you might be interested in, too, is the Master Gardener class that will be starting again on October 1st and will meet Thursdays from 8:30 until 12 noon with graduation on Dec. 17. Do call the U of A Cooperative Extension Office 726-3904 for an application or more information. If you are at all interested in gardening in Yuma this class is for you. It is well worth the cost and also there are scholarships available through the MGM Garden Club. August 2009: Last Saturday was the annual AWC Day of Champions – I think this was the third year we’ve received help from them at the Moody Garden. This year we had about 12 young men and women volunteers working with us. The project planned for this year at the garden was to stabilize and finish the handicap accessible brick walkway the rest of the way around the raised beds in the vegetable garden as well as trimming some plants that have grown over the sidewalk during the summer. We do send a big thank you to all who helped us. October 2008 - February 2009 – June 2009 I’m happy to report that the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden is looking good. Those of us who are here all year don’t notice the changes so much as do people who are gone through the summer. It is always thrilling to be at the garden when they return in the fall and are amazed at the changes in the garden. We have been busy – so busy in fact I failed to update this newsletter. Once again I was so pleased to have Peggy Taylor return in the fall of ’08. As Co-President she jumped back into the job. Joining with Vice President, Elizabeth Moody; Treasurer, Marlena Parrott; Recording Secretary, Judy Miller; Corresponding Secretary, Marianne Newton. The MGM Garden Club currently has 21 members. Stacey Bealmear, Horticulture Agent for U of A Cooperative Extension Office has been with us for a year now and she has really taken on the responsibilities for that position. We’ve enjoyed working with her. She currently has a Master Gardener Class meeting on Wednesdays. You, too, are invited to meet in the garden every Tuesday morning. Come when you can, select a project that pleases you and leave when you need to. But most of all enjoy the garden. Our business meeting takes place the last Tuesday of the month – year around – at 9 a.m. We often tour a member’s garden after the meeting. In October of ’07 I reported to you that we had applied for three different grants for the garden and we were so pleased to have received all three. To be involved with three grants plus maintaining the Moody Garden and our regular club activities kept us more than busy. Also the Yuma Federated Garden Clubs help with the Yuma Tree Expo in October, January Home and Garden Show and early April Yuma County Fair. In addition the Arizona Federation of Garden Clubs Convention was in Yuma in April of ’08. The three grants were completed by the summer of ’08 and the garden is very much the better for them. First the Moody Garden Tree Project which was an Urban & Community Forest Challenge Grant, administered through the Arizona State Land Department, Forestry Division, provided funding for the Moody Garden Tree Project. Matching funding was required by this grant. It included funding for a March 1, 2008 Public Tree Information and Planting Workshop; tree identification signage; and the printing of brochures that describe each of the forty-two (42) different kinds of trees growing in the Moody Demonstration Garden. The brochure descriptions include common and botanical names; mature size; description of leaves, bark and flowers; and information such as water requirements, heat tolerance, etc. Second grant was the Kiosk Educational Project through the Yuma Community Foundation Grant provided funding to build eight educational kiosks in the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden. The garden is open 24/7 and residents often visit when no one is available to answer questions. Wooden kiosks have been installed in each of the eight gardens. They contain information about plants and features of the area of placement. Also a telephone number to call with suggestions or for answers to questions. Third was the grant from the North End Rotary Club, which provided a new cement sidewalk across the Vegetable garden area – thus making that area handicapped accessible. This grant also provided a stage platform with podium and seventeen benches for seating in the mini amphitheater area just south of the storage barn. I can’t tell you how thrilled I’ve been with the new brochure for the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden, which was finished in April ’08. It includes the text and pictures from the old brochure by Judy Miller but thanks to Randy Hoeft at The Sun, we were able to add a very detailed map of the garden. Our long awaited flagpole donated by Harold and Marion Elliott and family was installed last fall and a United States Flag donated by Jim and Peggy Taylor were in place for our first plant sale on Nov. 1. The plant sale was a very successful fundraiser for the Moody Garden. In addition to plants Judy Miller demonstrated her self-watering container made from two buckets and they sold for $20 each. The University of Arizona New Faculty Tour dinner was held on Jan. 7 at the Yuma Civic Auditorium. Marianne Newton, MGM Garden Club member was presented with the Volunteer of the Year award. She has been very active with the Moody Garden since she became a Master Gardener in the spring of 2002. On January 16, 17 & 18 all four of the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma were involved with the Yuma Home and Garden Show. The MGM Garden Club had a table at the entrance to the East Wing with a display of past events. Also included a DVD player with continuous show of pictures from the Moody Garden. I’ve been working with Amy Gill, Administrator for the Sturges Charitable Trust, since last fall on a grant for the Moody Garden. We were pleased to have Amy come to the January 27 meeting of the MGM Garden Club so the garden club members could finally meet her and thank her properly for the generous grant we received in November. Mark your calendar for Saturday, February 14, 2009 when you can bring your sweetheart to the flowers instead of taking flowers to your sweetheart. The MGM Garden Club is making it easy for you to be romantic on this important day. A stroll in the garden is just what you need. The garden club is even providing refreshments of coffee/tea and sweets! We are not stopping there – we have entertainment, too. The Yuma Old Time Fiddlers will be on hand to play some of your favorite songs. We have benches where you can sit and enjoy the music now in our mini amphitheatre but you might want to bring lawn chairs and stay awhile. Additional information from the MGM Garden Club and the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden will be available the first Thursday of each month in the Desert Life Section of The Sun – look for the Desert Gardener column. Information about gardening in this area is available every Thursday in the Desert Life Section B of The Sun. --Ellen Gardner, Co-President of the MGM Garden Club. Desert Gardener July 19, 2007 August 2, 2007 August 9, 2007 August 23, 2007 August 30, 2007 September 6, 2007
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