For all of you who enjoying eating fresh fall and winter vegetables, now is a great time to plant your own fall garden. You can plant cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, collards, lettuce, spinach, turnips, and other treats.  Without summer's heat these all do much better in the garden  and don't go to seed before their time as they can do when planted in a spring garden. It is a little too late to plant most of these crops from seed, but many of our local stores carry a wonderful variety of plants. I was at one of the big box home stores and saw lettuces in a wide range of colors. If you don't have space to put these crops into the ground, many of them perform well in container gardens. Raised bed gardens also make good homes to these crops. For more information please consult the web site for the Extension Service: ACES.EDU and look for ANR 63, Planting Guide for Home Gardening in Alabama and Gardening in Alabama ANR 47. 

Growing these vegetables is a healthy and fun experience for the entire family.

Scenes from the Jacksonville Pocket Park

slideshow

I am not sure if this is a Monarch or a Viceroy butterfly as they are very similar in appearance. The Viceroy uses his close appearance to the Monarch as a way to protect himself from predators. Monarchs are poisonous to predators and those same predators leave the Viceroy alone because the two look so much alike. This butterfly is visiting a large patch of lantana. Lantana is a butterfly magnet; they love the tubular shape of the individual flowers. Planting masses of a color helps bring the butterflies to your garden. Plants with tubular flowers provide an inviting place for the butterlies to sip the nectar.

Addendum: One of the very sharp readers to this blog pointed out that this butterfly is a Gulf Fritillary. From the top of the wings these three butterflies look very much alike--especially to an amateur butterfly watcher like myself. However, the underside of the wings is very different. But since I love this photograph I will keep it. 

The Alabama Master Gardener program is 30 years old this year. The first MG class was held in 1981 in Madison County. My how we have grown; there are now 37 local Master Gardener Associations in Alabama. 

By the way there are also MG Associations all over the United States. Can you imagine the plant talk when all these gardeners get together? 

In my brief bio at the inauguration of my blog I mentioned that both Paula and I are Master Gardeners. That means we are members of a Volunteer Program administered by the Calhoun County Office of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. We are trained in the area of horticulture to be be able to educate others. To become certified as a MG an individual must successfully complete the Master Gardener training proram which is about three months of classwork (one day per week)  and then provide a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer service to the community. After being certified as a MG we are asked to complete 25 hours of service to the community and to engage in 10 hours of continuing education  each year.

As a MG I have done all sorts of things from helping the Alabama Baptist Children's home id a truck load of plants they were given to speaking to area clubs in Calhoun County. I have loved every minute of it. 

The next class begins in January; the Extension Office is taking names now of folks who are interested in attending. Join us. The MG program is a way to learn alot about gardening and to be of service to our community. You get to meet the nicest people too!

If you were wondering what to do in September here are a few suggestions.

Rain Barrel/ Rain Garden Workshop (Build your own Rainbarrel)

On September 29^th Hayes Jackson and Jennifer Yates will lead a rain barrel/rain garden workshop. The cost is $40 and includes the barrel, lunch, and starter plants for your rain garden. Preregistration is required by September 15^th thru the Extension Office (your check is your registration). Starts at 10 am.

Recycled Tire Workshop

Lunch and Learn

September 28th at Cane Creek Community Gardens, McClellan at noon. Bring your lunch and join us for a Fall Color and Tree ID tour through the Gardens at Cane Creek with David West. There will be ornamental landscape trees for sale. Lunch and Learn is sponsored by the Calhoun County Commission and The Calhoun County Master Gardeners. This will be the last Lunch and Learn of the 2011 sessions.

Jacksonville Birdwatching Group

This group will meet September 10 at 9 AM at the Jacksonville Community Center. They will be taking some neat field trips throughout the year.

Photography Class

Now that you made your wonderful tire planter and maybe even personalized your rain barrel, learn how to take a better picture. The Anniston Public Library is have a "Point and Shoot Digitial" camera class with Alicia Neeley at noon on September 15th. Bring a brown bag lunch and drinks provided. Free!

On Thursday the 18^th I attended a Water Wise seminar presented by Urban Agent Hayes Jackson and Jay Cummings of Green Way Sprinklers. The purpose of the session was to help us learn to conserve water in our landscape. Most of the suggestions are ones we know and should already be practicing: use irrigation wisely; use proper watering techniques; water thoroughly and less often; water early in the morning to avoid fungus and disease problems; watch the clock, and target the root zone of your plants (Suggestions courtesy of Hayes Jackson). These are pretty common sense ideas and don’t need a lot of explanation. Hayes also talked about the growing trend by homeowners and businesses to harvest rainwater through the use of rain barrels or cisterns.

Needless to say, when trying to conserve water in the garden the best rule of thumb is to plant the right plant in the right place. Proper plant selection and placement helps you and your plant thrive.

When Jay spoke, he talked about the use cycle and soak method where the homeowner waters in three cycles 4 to 6 minutes a cycle (water, soak, water). This allows the water to soak in and there is less run off. Of course, this whole idea was foreign to me; my hand shot up immediately. I often run my sprinkler an hour and a half in one area so that the plants could get a really through soaking. However, in the spirit of adventure and to try out this theory I have programmed my irrigation clock to use the water, soak, water cycle to see if my yard continues to flourish while cutting my water usage considerably. I will keep you posted about the results of this unofficial experiment.

Most gardeners have tried to put the extended drought of 2007 and the watering bans of that year behind us. Although Alabama is considered to be a wet state overall, every year presents a time of extreme heat and little rain. All of us who love to garden (as well as those who do not garden) should remember that water is a precious commodity and to use it as wisely as we possibly can.

Sherry

Getting started in a gardening blog in the summer can be difficult. There are so many distractions: spent blossoms to be deadheaded; grass to be mowed; edges to be trimmed; insects to be battled (in my case, the big black lubber grasshoppers). Nonetheless, a Star editor invited me, as a representative of the Calhoun County Master Gardener Association, to author a blog about gardening. My cohort will be Paula Barnett-Ellis, another MG. As this is my first official blog I would to tell you a bit about myself. I have been gardening for about 35 years and was the daughter of marvelous gardener who passed along her love of flowers to me. I have been a member of the local group since 1998. Each year after completing the initial class work and 50 hours of service MGs complete a minimum amount of 25 hours of volunteer work and 10 hours of continuing education to remain certified. I live in Jacksonville with my husband and a variety of fur babies, including a Golden Retriever, who will be frequently mentioned in my blog. I plan to include gardening tips, my gardening adventures or misadventures, and news about local gardening programs.

A few of the local gardening happenings are as follows:

Hayes Jackson, Urban Agent and mentor to many of the gardeners in this part of the state, will lead a workshop on Water Wise Gardening, i.e., learning how to water smart. There will also be a presentation on drip irrigation. The workshop is from 8 AM until 11 AM Thursday, August 18^th at Longleaf Botanical Gardens (formerly Lenlock Community Center). Part of the program will be a tour of the Museum Gardens. There is no charge; however if you know if are coming please let the folks at the Extension Office (256-237-1621) know.

Wednesday August 24^th is the monthly Lunch and Learn program sponsored by the MGs and the Calhoun County Commission. The program, "Forest Managrment for Sales and Recreational Uses" with Tim Chesnut, Chestnut Forestry, begins at noon and goes until 1 PM. There is no charge; please bring your lunch and join us. The class meets at Cane Creek Community Gardens at McClellan.

The Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County is having a program on bonsai on August 30^th at noon. Grady Woodall is the program presenter. There is no charge; please bring your lunch.

"The Sustainable Backyard: A Home Grown Series": August 23 - September 27, Tuesday nights, 6 to 8 PM at Cane Creek Community Gardens. Call 256-237-1621 for more information.

In the spirit of great gardening tips I am passing along one from good friend Marilyn Blair of Swan Cottage. Crunch up your used plastic water bottles and use them (about a third of your container) to improve the drainage in your container gardens.

Please e-mail if you have gardening tips or questions. If you are a member of local gardening club, please let us know what is going on with your members.