Grand Gardeners' Gazette April 18, 2017

!Grand Strand Master Gardeners Association

Horry and Georgetown Counties, South Carolina

Our April Meeting:

4-25–17 - 6:30 pm - Church of Christ Grand Strand, Glens Bay Road, Surfside. Program: Our program will be on Day Lilies presented by a local expert Kathy Tinus. Refreshments: Dee Braswell and Valerie Moliterno.

Notes from Our Co-Presidents! Jean Floyd and Peggy Sattelmeyer

1. Thoughts on the Rate of Plant Growth…Some of you may have read the article in The Sun News on April 8 entitled “Plants are growing faster as carbon dioxide rises.” This would seem to suggest a future world in which food supplies are more abundant. However, in a new book, Lab Girl (by Hope Jahren, Alfred A Knopf Publishers, 2016), the author, an acclaimed scientist, reports that although plants grown in a CO-2 rich environment indeed do grow faster, they actually contain less nutrition. Or, as she puts it, the plants “were less nutritious, much lower in protein content, no matter how much fertilizer we gave them” (p. 271). Incidentally, Jahren’s book is a really inter-esting memoir not only for the science it contains, but also for what it is like to achieve academic success in male-dominated science labs.

2. Trip to Swan Lake and Iris Garden on May 10…After much planning over the past three months, the day of our trip to Sumter is almost here. We now have four drivers, and there are a couple of open spots. As of now, the plan is for those of us living north of Pawleys to meet in the “gym” parking lot at Inlet Square Mall and carpool (leaving ISM at 7:30 am) to the Publix parking area in Pawleys. We plan to leave Publix at 8:00 am and caravan to Swan Lake, arriving around 10:00 am.

Amanda McNulty has agreed to meet us at Swan Lake and accompany our group through the gardens. We plan to have lunch in Sumter before caravanning back to Paw-leys. Final plans will be discussed at next week’s GSMGA meeting.

3. Marsh Walk/Jetty View Planter Box-es…All four of the boxes that we are spon-soring are coming along quite nicely. Most of the damage from Hurricane Matthew along the Walk has been repaired in antici-pation of the busy summer season, and the boxes add a nice pop of color to the area. In the picture that follows, notice the plant growth evidenced in one of our boxes and take a special look at the label on the side!

If you have a library and a garden, you have everything you need. Author unknown

New Bud - without a “bloom” at the moment ! Our new member SUZANNE ALLEN was born in Nazareth and lived in Bethlehem for over 25 years before moving to the Grand Strand area three years ago. That’s Pennsylva-nia (!) where she was an active Master Garden-er in Leigh/Northampton County 1993-2014. As a Master Gardener, she was a team leader in a variety of projects, including flower judg-ing school, flower shows, and children’s pollina-tor gardens and more.

Suzanne attributes her love and accomplish-ments in gardening to her parents and grand-mother who were excellent gardeners and teachers in the family truck patch and or-chard. Now she is learning about growing in Zone 8 - growing almost everything, annuals, perennials, veggies, woody ornamentals, etc. But, Suzanne’s other interests extend from fishing and oystering to flower arranging, mak-ing jewelry and photography. She has worked in fine jewelry sales and interior design. With all these interests, she is still looking for a

good fit for her volunteer work. Wow, imagine how many agencies would love to hear of her availability!

Mark your calendar: April 22nd 10am -3pm (this coming Saturday!) Faith Presbyterian Church (805 78th Ave. N, Myrtle Beach) will be having a Garden Festival with live music, ven-dors, crafts, educational seminars, giveaways, activities and food.

Community Service at Work :

1. Brookgreen’s Diggin’ It Festival 3-25-17 - Members staffed a table to answer questions about gardening, plant problems, being a Mas-

ter Gardener and related pieces of informa-tion. Peggy Sattelmeyer, Barbara Marshall and Pat Hiter (above) were the morning crew and Dee Braswell and Valerie Moliterno worked the afternoon shift. Check out those guys on the next page!

2. Our Plant Problem Clinics:

We will be staffing three clinics this season - all at well-established sites and with our gar-dening experts.

The Inlet Square Clinic - This clinic started on April 6 and will be held each Thursday from 10am - 2pm through September. While the regular “yellow shirts” love to have any and all MGs join them, there is a known crew, and they are pictured below at their first clinic: (L-R) Cleora Everett, Joan Barnabas, Charlie Pinada, Pat Hiter, and Robin Budd (who is hidden be-

hind the fortunate guest who has the attention of the whole crew addressing his question!).

The Surfside Beach Clinic - The Surfside Beach Farmers Market, which is the site for this clinic, opens on May 2nd and goes through

October 31 on Tuesdays 10 am - 3pm. Jean Floyd, Anne Steele, and Al Ward will be staffing that clinic. Again, all MGs are invited to join at any time.

Georgetown Farmers Market - Dee Braswell reports that “WHERE’S ROBERT?” can be an-swered again this year with Robert Quinn, our well-known MG in the Georgetown area. That clinic starts on Saturday, May 6th in the Georgetown County parking lot, the same as last year. Robert will be sending out a request for all the MGs to join him in the clinic. The Farmers Market runs from 8am - 1pm; the ex-

act hours of the Plant Problem Clinic will be announced at our next meeting.

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