Plant Sale Meeting Reminder!

Just a reminder that we will have a plant sale planning this evening at CUH from 5-6 pm. Hope to see you there. Regular full planning meetings will begin in January!

See you soon!

Jim

Potting Soil for Plant Sale

Below is a copy of an email that was sent out by Susie Thorness that I wanted to make sure and pass on to everyone. Fall is a great time to get out in your yard and divide those overgrown and crowded plants in your garden pot them up for next years sale. Please take advantage of this opportunity. Remember plants that are donated to the sale are 100% profit to the organization and goes a long way to support the fine work we do!

The Master Gardeners at the Ronald McDonald House Demonstration Garden have a 3-way mix that was delivered to us for our new vegetable garden. We would like to share this soil with anyone who is potting plant starts and divisions for the 2009 Plant Sale. Plants that are potted now, for donation or consignment, will look and sell better in May than plants potted in the spring. Please come by the Ronald McDonald House at 5130 40th Av NE, Seattle, on Tuesday mornings, 10 AM to noon, when we will be working there. The soil is on the East side of 'B' house.
Thanks,
Susie Thorness

Thanks for passing on this information Susie! Reminder to all - this is a great place to pass on this kind of information - please feel free to email me with any other information you would like me to pass on.

Have a great Saturday!

Jim

Let me Introduce you to the Herbs/Veggies Department

Hello Fellow Master Gardeners!

Two job descriptions down and several more to go! If you click on the picture of the chairs for the Herbs/Veggies Department in the right column you will find, that with their assistance, I have been able to complete the job description (general description/purpose, duties and time commitment/timeline) for a another department.

I will be in touch with each department chair asking that you complete the job description over the next month or so. Don't feel like you have to wait to hear from me. If you are a chair of a department please feel free to begin documenting the information and send it my way. Please follow the same format as has been used by Herbs/Veggies and the Chair/Co-Chair.

Remember they do not need to be elaborate - keep it simple but with enough information that prospective volunteers will know what your department responsibilities are and with enough detail that in the unfortunate event you are not able to chair the department next year, we have record of your tasks and information to use in recruiting new chairs. I know this will not be the case and everyone will be back for 2010! - Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself!

Go ahead - check out the link by clicking on the Herbs/Veggies Department picture to learn more about this department of our plant sale.

Have a great rest of the weekend - protect those tender plants, it's getting pretty cold out!

Later -

Jim

This is what it is all about!

I thought I would share a recent comment left on the blog -

Anonymous said...

This is a great blog and I'm so glad Elaine brought it to everyone's attention or I never would have known about it! As an MG Emeritus (went through training in the late 80s), I find the blog an exciting example of the enthusiasm behind the sale (bet it generates more volunteer interest) and with the program in general. Keep up the great work!
October 10, 2008 6:17 AM

This is what it is all about! Thanks to everyone who has made comment or sent me an email. I will eventually get back to everyone - I've received a lot of feedback. I would have to say that the comment above sums up my intentions - "bet it generates more volunteer interest in the plant sale and the program in general". Thanks "Anonymous" for your comment.

I will be working over the next several months with the department chairs to get the descriptions completed. Please continue to send me pictures of your garden - past and present and I will post then. I've got a few sitting here to post so if you are one of those that have sent me a picture and you've yet to see it posted - be patient - it's on it's way!

Later -

Jim

The Garden of Master Gardener - Barbara Chilcote

One of the ways to make this site worth visiting and useful - is by sharing pictures from our own gardens. Like I said - this does not have to be all about work! Please continue to send me pictures from your gardens and I'll post them. Send to: jimandkent@comcast.net. Any Master Gardener is welcome to send pictures!

These pictures are from the garden of Barbara Chilcote. Barb has been a Master Gardener since 2002 and is the Chair of the Herbs/Edibles Department. When I asked Barb why she volunteers her time at the Plant Sale she said - "I find the plant sale to be a great place to provide education to gardeners or wanna-be gardeners and also because I love being around the energy and commitment of our "Herbista" volunteers. Herbs are the perfect plants for both new and experienced gardeners. Herbs are part of a sustainable garden being drought tolerant, easy to grow, and edible. Plus, hummingbirds and butterflies like many types of herbs."

Here are some photos from her garden during the September Phinney Ridge Garden Tour. About 200 people toured her garden and seven others.

The first two photos show visitors in the garden; and the photo below is of her friend Linelle (left) and Barb (right) sitting on a garden bench in front of the paper bark maple.

In the foreground you see the bright red blooms of salvia elegans ‘Honey Melon” which our Herbs department sold out of last year at the MG plant sale. Hummingbirds love this plant and visitors to her garden delight in seeing them . The herbs department plan to sell a lot more of this plant in 09.

Finally, with all those photos of my dog Toby (only until we have pictures of all our department chairs) on the blog, Barb wanted to give the feline population a representative…below is her darling boy, Gus, hiding out while people traipsed through his world. What a great picture!

Please join me in thanking Barb for sharing these pictures with us! Please visit Barb's site for more beautiful pictures of her garden and other delights!

http://www.chilcotesworld.shutterfly.com/

Have a good one -

Jim

What do you think?

If you have visited this site before you can see that I've changed the picture in the banner of the site. ( Steve doing a little shopping) I've been thinking and received feedback that it would be nice to change out the picture. Please respond to the poll and let me know what you think!

Also - please note the new slide show from Herbs/Edibles. Thanks for the pictures - please continue to send pictures from your gardens and from the plant sale. I'll post them to our newly formed gardening community!

Thanks,

Jim

Where to Send Pictures....

barbarac said...

Where do we send photos of our gardens Jim? Tried sending photos to your KC email address, but postmaster would have none of it.
October 5, 2008 5:17 PM

Sorry - The best address to send correspondence for posting is jimandkent@comcast.net

I am looking forward to posting your pictures!

Jim

Pictures in Right Column

I managed to get all the links completed for the - 2009 Plant Sale Department Chairs. You will see that the pictures in the right column are now either the actual chair(s) or a picture of my dog "Toby". As I get new pictures of department chairs, I'll replace Toby's picture with theirs!

I thought since this post is basically giving you "directions" - I'd include a picture of our Traffic Chairs - Jim Gaskill and Don Cannon from the 2007 sale! We know Jim will be back - Don.... still waiting to hear from you! Hope you can join us again for the 2009 sale!

You can now click on any of the pictures in the right column under "2009 Plant Sale Department Chairs" and it will take you to contact information and a description of the duties of that department. Filling in the department description and duties will require your help. I'll be contacting each department about this.

As I said in my previous post - please make sure that I have your contact information and your name correct. If you prefer going by your full name and I've abbreviated, spelled it wrong and worse case - if I've got your name wrong all together please let me know, I apologize in advance!

Please let me know if you have feedback on the site or if you would like to see something added.

Have a good one -

Jim

Contact Information and Department Duties

Okay - just to break things up a bit and not simply post one thing after the other without garden pictures I thought it would be fun to share pictures with each other from our own gardens! If you send me pictures from your garden I'll post them! No need to make this all about work!

I really like how this planter turned out this year. This is one of two on each site of the garage doors. I texture and leaves make for a nice display at this time of year.

If you send me a garden picture I will identify who sent it and any comments that you include.

Back to work........

I now have an example of what I was talking about in my earlier post. You can now click on the pictures for the following departments and go to the link with contact information and department duties:

• Display


• Herbs/Vegetables


• Vendors (we changed the original name of this department from Commercial to Vendors since this department will secure both plant and garden art vendors. I need to get a new picture with Kendra included)

I'll keep working on these and by the time the plant sale meeting in January come around we should be in good shape!

I will need your help in completing the department duties. I'll be sending an email to each department asking you to provide the following:

• General Description/Purpose


• Duties
  
• Time Commitment/Timeline of Activities

Also - Please make sure that I have your contact information and your name correct. If you prefer going by your full name and I've abbreviated, spelled it wrong and worse case - if I've got your name wrong all together please let me know and I apologize in advance!

I am enjoying the co-chair responsibilities - Horst gets to do all the hard work and it gives me time to work on getting things organized behind the scenes. I've been wanting to get the department duties done for a number of years! This is the year!

Have a great Saturday!

Jim

New Feature!

I've added a new feature! Click on the picture in the right column of Horst and I. This will take you to a link that I've created with contact information and a description of the duties of the Chair and Co-Chair.

I plan on doing this for each of the departments. I think it will be a great way to let potential volunteers know the responsibilities of each department and provide direct contact information. This is going to take some time but I will continue to work on this so that over time, each department has this same function. Each time I do this I will also add a post to the blog as an overview and introduction to each department.

I have some of the information about duties and responsibilities from various departments but I am going to need your help to write and/or review the information from your department. This will really help in keeping us organized. I think it will also help in the recruitment of chairs for departments that still have openings. Its easier to recruit chairs for open departments if we can refer them to a description of the duties of the department - not to mention the bonus of having the information written down for the continuity from year to year as departments get new chairs.

I may do this in phases - that is - start by adding a link that provides contact information and as the department duties gets completed add the the additional information. (I'll do that with another department and provide an example in an upcoming post.)

Thanks for all your emails and comments about the blog. Like I said - it is in the early stage of development and eventually will serve us well. Continue to send more pictures you have from previous sales and over time I will post them.

Have a good one -

Jim

Welcome!

Hello fellow King County Master Gardeners and friends!

Nancy Davenport and Cisco Morris at the 2007 plant sale. Oh, La, La!

Welcome to our blog! This site was developed for the purpose of keeping us connected, to disseminate information and share ideas in the planning process for the 2009 Master Gardener Plant sale! Most importantly it is intended to entice you to volunteer your time and talents to help us make this the most successful sale ever! Oh - and if we happen to have a little fun and find a few great plant for ourselves along the way - so be it........added bonus!

Xenia Callahan doing a little shopping for herself! Good for you!

The site is new this year and we are experimenting with ways to make it most useful. It is a work in progress so please keep coming back and checking for updates. Some of the functions are not fully operational at this time but by the time January comes around it will be fully up and running! We encourage you to leave comments about how to make this site most functional and for any other ideas you have to help us make the 2009 plant sale the best one ever! If you have found your way here - please share this site with other Master Gardeners!

Steve Walker at the 2007 Plant Sale - "Ask Me"!

This is our biggest fund raiser of the year! There are 30 different departments all in need of various numbers of volunteers. The different departments and pictures of the chairs are listed in the right column of this blog. As we get pictures of all the chairs, we will replace the dog pictures! Eventually you will be able to click on the pictures and get contact information for the chair person(s) and a description of the duties of that department. Like I said - work in progress!

Kathy Lapham waiting for the "damage". Its great being our best customers!

There is a planning calendar for your convenience. Please let us know if you have items that need to be added to the calendar.

The dates for the 2009 event are as follows:

• Pre-Sale Party - Friday - May 1, 2009 - 5:30 - 8:30pm


• Plant Sale - Saturday - May 2, 2009 - 8:00am - 5:00pm


• Plant Sale - Sunday - May 3, 2009 - 10:00am - 3:00pm

Debbie O'Neal and Joyce Harms. Two great people and a lot of fun!

The pictures included in this post are a few random shots from a few years ago. Please feel free to send pictures to the above email address that you may have and I'll be happy to post them! It's going to be a great year and a lot of fun!

Peg Verger - Hands down the BEST display chair we have ever had!

We will be adding notes from our first meeting soon so be on the lookout!

Special thanks to my friend Jennifer Holmes for all her help and talent in developing this blog. If you are a crafter in addition to a gardener - check out her blog, Simple Flourishes.

Now get out and do some fall gardening!

Have a good one -

Jim