News You Can Use !!

May - 2020

Here is the May 2020 issue of News You Can Use! Please grab a cup of your favorite drink and join us here for a few minutes of important news for all Master Gardeners, containing important updates from the Advisory Chair, ANR Educator & key committees; new CE opportunities & much more. Be sure to read all the way to the end! ________________________________________________________________ If you have any questions on information found in News You Can Use - contact Kathy DeJohn at kathy4dj@yahoo.com Help us build our social media presence by following the Master Gardeners of Cuyahoga County Facebook page! If you have information to share in the next News You Can Use contact Tammy L. Currier at currier.37@osu.edu. _______________________________________________________________________

Updates from the Advisory Chair May greetings - hope you are all well and looking forward to or are already working in your gardens during this time of sheltering in place. The Advisory committee met on April 27th via Zoom for the first time and it went well. We discussed many items and will resume this meeting next Monday, May 11th, to continue our project discussions. You'll find project updates below for Plants in the Park, the State Conference, Hotline, Continuing Education events and more.

Please note that Betti Drake has resigned her position as Treasurer of MGCC, Inc. We thank Betti for all her hard work this quarter and look forward to working with her on other Master Gardener projects. During our May 11th meeting, we will elect a new Treasurer and will keep you posted on all Advisory news. Be in touch if you have question - kathy4dj@yahoo.com. ~Kathy DeJohn

Monthly Message from Maggie: An ANR Update What we have done:

• Covid-19 Response - Education: We offered our first public programs on Zoom - Managing Groundhog Damage in Garden and Vegetable Gardening 101

• Community Gardening: Our Dig In Community Garden Program begins online May 5th (The class is full with a waiting list, great response); Community Gardens have been matched with Master Gardener Mentors for 2020 - mentoring will take place observing social distancing measures until further notice.

• Covid-19 response - Summer Sprouts: Carrie Vollentine's ongoing work to keep the community garden program on track includes the dissemination of seeds and arranging tilling for the gardens in need.

• Farmer Training: Market Garden Training Program finished online on April 9th. We quickly transitioned to online classes mid-way through the program (We are now taking names for those interested 2021 class); and, in response to Covid-19, myself, Amanda Osborne and Jacqueline Kowalski (ANR, Summit Co) have been holding bi-weekly urban farmer update events via Zoom to connect, update and share problems and solutions to growing and selling food during the pandemic.

• Master Gardeners: The program is pivoting to educate at a distance; I have trained an MGV Team on Zoom and Tammy is coordinating future requests for meetings and webinars on Zoom; and MGVs are providing ideas for social media posts to ramp up the Master Gardeners of Cuyahoga County's social media presence. For details on how to request a Zoom host and how to submit a social media post, please see the article following the list of Continuing Education Opportunities.

What's coming up:

• More online gardening classes coming soon: for details subscribe to our urban ag newsletter here. • Community Gardening

• Plant Distribution for the Summer Sprout Program will happen, details will be shared soon. • Dig In Community Garden Program begins online May 5th. • Starting in June, we will have virtual check-ins with community gardeners.

• Farmer Training • Our bi-weekly urban farmer update events via Zoom will continue. To be included, sign up for

our Urban Farmer Updates here.

Any questions, contact me at: rivera.482@osu.edu / 330-599-7710

Plants in the Park: An Update Due to new guidelines set by Ohio State University Extension, Master Gardener Volunteers cannot hold face-to-face meetings with the public until after July 6th. Specifically, this will mean that we cannot have Plants in the Park this year as we usually do. Plants in the Park is a busy and hectic few days that result in an intense sense of MG community spirit and is a wonderful opportunity for seeing/meeting others in the CCMG community. We will get back to that next year. While we cannot have PIP this year, we are very anxious

to continue supporting our valuable programs as much as possible. So, we are working on an alternative sale of bulbs for late summer/early fall to bring in some income, as well as provide some volunteer hours. We will send out a survey to gauge interest on that soon. Please watch for the survey and give us your thoughts! In the meantime, if you can hold your plants over another year we will be happy to have them next year for a triumphant PIP return! We would like to thank those of you who may already have begun digging, dividing, potting, etc., in anticipation of of this year's sale, and for all those past volunteers who have worked so hard for so many years. If you still need to dig and divide this year, we suggest you offer your plants to your neighbors or other MGs. Above all, keep gardening, keep sharing, and keep educating whenever possible-and stay healthy! -Melanie Biche and Ruth Connell, co-chairs

State Conference: An Update

2020 State MGV Conference News Dear Cuyahoga MGVs, As you may have guessed, Cuyahoga County will not be hosting the state conference in person on September 11th and 12th this year. Large, in-person events are pretty much off the table for at least this calendar year. As you may know, two years of planning by 60 volunteers has taken place and many of the event’s elements are in the advanced planning stages. We are working diligently with county and state extension leaders to determine when and how the 2020 State Conference might be executed. Stay tuned-we will advise you of the outcome of our discussions soon. We hope you and your families are well and that the blossoming of Spring gives you many opportunities to beautify your home landscape. Warm regards, Kathy DeJohn, Shoshana Wodzisz and Sandy Welches 2020 Conference co-chairs

Hotline Update: Telephone Hotline into the Breech Master gardener volunteers have an excellent opportunity to serve the public over the next few months of uncertainty while the office is closed and activities are postponed or canceled. Experienced Telephone hotline and hotline on the

road volunteers are needed to answer voicemail questions from the public. You will be working from home, using your own computer and reference materials. Signing up for a specific slot will mean you: 1.) Call back to answer questions that have come in since the previous slot. For example, you might get calls from two or three days between slots. So far we have received many voicemails each week and the numbers are increasing. You will need a minimal amount of training to access the audio files by computer. Once you get the phone number you can call the person and answer their question. If they are not home, there might be some phone tag. The calendar has been posted on the VMS for you to sign up. Please consider volunteering for several time slots over the next months. If you have questions or concerns please contact Lois Rose at 216-321-6766 or dlroses@roadrunner.com. Thanks to all for considering this unique opportunity during this unique

time in our county.

Continuing Education: An Update The Continuing Education Committee has made changes to the upcoming CE classes for Cuyahoga County. Several will now be done via Zoom and, hopefully, the classes after mid-July will be done on location. See below for a summary of the seven remaining classes. This information can also be found at: cuyahogamg.org. There are also six upcoming scheduled Zoom classes in May that can be found at: mastergardener.osu.edu (Lunch and Learn and Hort Happy Hour)

Cuyahoga County Master Gardener Current 2020 Continuing Education Schedule Summary May 9 (Sat) 10:00 am – Noon Vegetable Gardening 101 – Christine Harris The presentation will take a gardener through the process of creating and maintaining, and harvesting a vegetable garden Class done online via Zoom in your home: Registration available via an email or online at: cuyahogamg.org This class is open to all MGs, Community Gardeners and the public No Charge CEs: 2 May 16 (Sat) 10:00 am – 11:00 am Container Vegetable Gardening – Christine Harris The presentation is designed to show basic requirements, types and sizes of containers to use for growing vegetables. Class done online via Zoom in your home: Registration available via an email or online at: cuyahogamg.org This class is open to all MGs, Community Gardeners and the public. No Charge CEs: 1 June 16 - Canceled Visit of Two local Farms Class may be rescheduled in August or 2021 July 19 (Sun) 10:00 am – Noon Tour of Cynthia Druckenbrod Gardens, discussing Daylilies and Begonias $6.00 or Bonus Bucks CEs: 2 August 3 (Mon) 9:30 – 3:30 (change of date) Miller Nature Preserve Doug Parkinson will discuss Proven Winners, Maggie Rivers: Interpreting Soli Test Results and a tour of the Miller Nature preserve. Lunch will be provided. $10.00, no Bonus Bucks CEs: 4 August 20 (Thu) Noon – 2 pm Diagnostic Walk at Ben Franklin School Maggie Rivera and Jacqueline Kowalski will diagnose the Perennial, Herb & Vegetable gardens at Ben Franklin with a Hydrangea talk by Kim Hawkins. No Charge CEs: 2 November 7 (Sat) TBD Fall Fun Jacqueline Kowalski will provide materials to prepare a seasonal porch pot, Shawn Murdoch will review his methodology for documenting plants in your garden and there will be a 3rd talk. Charge: TBD CEs: 3 Thanks, Barb Franzen, Committee Chair

We Need Your Help with our Ad Hoc Online Task Force! Would you like to help us figure out how to pivot to an online format to continue getting our valuable horticulture information out to the public? MGCC has a tremendous amount of educational content that we normally share through Speakers

Bureau, Library Talks, Tri-C classes, Hotline on the Road, etc. But for the foreseeable future, we’ll need to devise new ways of doing this. If you’d like to lend your brain to determining what we can put out, to which audiences, and how we develop more of an online strategy, please join an ad hoc task force that Kim Hawkins is leading. We will meet a couple of times over Zoom. If you’re interested, please be in touch with Kim: hawkinsek@gmail.com or 917-453-2593.

Bee Buzz: Help Our Pollinators OSU Entomology professor, Denise Ellsworth is pleased to offer a great opportunity to help our state's bees. Ellsworth's team members, MaLisa Spring and Karen Goodellm, are leading this two-year survey project and they are in need of bee collectors in each Ohio county. If you'd like to take part in setting and collecting bee bowls this year, sign up here. The team hopes to have the survey kits mailed out to their volunteer bee collectors in May with collection to begin thereafter. Em Be sure to let Denise (ellsworth.2@osu.edu) or MaLisa (spring.99@osu.edu) know what questions you have.

Thanks for caring about our pollinators!

CONTINUING EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES:

(Note: Cuyahoga County CE opportunities will always be listed first, followed by CE opportunities available in other Ohio counties, so remember to scroll down.

New listings will be shown first followed by opportunities listed in chronological order.)

* Listing Update: Vegetable Gardening 101 - All You Need to Know - 5/09/2020

This online class in back by popular demand!

Learn how to create a vegetable garden from scratch with Master Gardener volunteer Christine Harris. Topics she'll discuss include site selection, the timing and planting of popular vegetables, cultivation and fertilization techniques, troubleshooting for insects and disease, as well as harvesting and preparation for winter. Christine Harris is an outstanding teacher and was the first Master Gardener from Cuyahoga County to win the award for

Master Gardener of the Year at the state level. She lives on an acre of land filled with fruit trees, flower beds and vegetable plots and has been a Master Gardener Volunteer since 2004. When: Saturday, May 9th, 2020, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Cost: Free Class Limit: 250

Class FULL - Registration is closed. You will receive 2 CE's for this presentation.

* New Listing - Cuyahoga County: Container Vegetable Gardening - - 5/16/2020 This virtual presentation is designed to help apartment and condo dwellers, as well as those downsizing from a home with a regular, in-ground vegetable garden to an apartment or condominium with limited patio or balcony space. The desire to continue growing a few vegetables has made this a popular subject. Topics covered will include the basic requirements, types and sizes of containers, cultural practices and tips for growing popular vegetables. This talk is suitable for beginners as well as more experienced gardeners and will be presented by Christine Harris, MGV 2004.

When: Saturday, May 16th, 2020, 10:00 - 11:00 AM Cost: Free Class Limit: 250

You will receive 1 CE for this presentation.

* New Listing - Cuyahoga County: Train to be a Master Rain Gardener - Wednesdays, May 20 - June 17th, 2020 Learn to design, dig and plant your own rain garden! Share your knowledge and become your community's expert on rain gardens. At the end of this 5-session course offered by county watershed programs, you will become a Master Rain Gardener! Rain gardens capture and soak up rainwater that runs off hard surfaces, like roofs and driveways, and filter pollutants that would otherwise flow into our storm drains, creeks and streams. This Master Rain Gardener Program will teach you how to manage rain water in your own yard. Rain gardens naturally

manage storm water by infiltrating precipitation and allowing it to soak into the ground rather than sending it directly to storm sewers and nearby streams untreated. Experienced instructors will provide customized feedback which will enable you to design and install a rain garden. Topics will include site assessment, soil analysis, design, construction, plant selection, mulching and maintenance. This series is being supported by the Cuyahoga SWCD, Lake County SWCD, Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Euclid Creek Watershed Council, Friends of Euclid Creek and Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Mayfield Village, and the Cleveland Metroparks. When: Wednesdays, May 20th - June 17th, 2020, 12:00 - 1:00 PM Cost: $50.00 *Scholarships and Professional Certification Options Available

REGISTRATION IS OPEN

For more information, contact: 216.524.6580 / ehiser@cuyahogaswcd.org Master Gardeners Volunteers will receive 10 CEs for this program.

* New Listing - Greene County: Guest or Pest - May 15th, 2020

How to Deal with Unwanted Guests The wildlife in your backyard can be a welcome sight for some and a landscape nightmare for others. Join OSU Extension / Greene County Master Gardeners for a look at some of the visitors that make you wonder just whose backyard is it anyhow! Join State Wildlife Officer Matt Hunt as we look at some of the common nuisance animals you might encounter in your own backyard. This presentation will focus on groundhogs, squirrels and moles. We will look at the animals' habits, habitats and discuss ways of dealing with them. When: Friday, May 15th, 2020, 1:00 - 2:00 PM Cost: $3.00, includes educational materials For more information, contact: 937.372.9971 / hupman.5@osu.edu

Master Gardeners Volunteers will receive 1 CE per hour of instruction.

Tour Update: Gardens of Distinction Garden Tour - 6/27/2020

POSTPONED UNTIL 2021 Due to social distancing protocol, the Master Gardeners of Summit County have postponed their garden tour for 2020. They are hoping to reschedule it for 2021. For event updates, visit the Summit County Master

Gardeners website.

Zoom Meeting & FB Project Protocol: While the tulips and daffodils have been getting on with the business of blooming, we've been working behind the scenes to get work rolling and have come up with a Zoom Meeting Protocol, as well as a fun Facebook project to expand the MGCC social media presence. Read on for more information. A. ) Zoom Protocol: To get us meeting, planning and educating (at a distance of course), I have worked with your Volunteer Coordinator and the MGV Leadership to develop a protocol you can use to request a zoom meeting for MGV purposes. * Please note that you should NOT use Zoom to hold meetings with the public without going through the following process. Zoom Meeting Request and Dispatch **Do not use zoom to hold meetings with the public without going through the following process** The one and only exception is MGV Community Garden Mentors with community gardeners they are mentoring. To request a Zoom meeting for MGV purposes please follow these steps: Contact Tammy Currier via email (currier.37@osu.edu) to request a Zoom meeting; title the email “_(your name)__ Requesting Zoom Meeting” and submit the following information.

1. Meeting type: For the Public OR MGV Internal Meeting 2. What MGV Committee is this meeting on behalf of? 3. Title of Meeting, Date & Time 4. Tammy will then take that request and send it to our Zoom Team. Once Tammy has

confirmed the assignment, she will connect you (the requester) with the Zoom Team Member via email.

5. You will work with the Zoom Team Member to schedule the meeting and receive meeting information that you can share with your meeting attendees. The Zoom Team Member will also be present during your meeting to help with any technical issues that may arise.

Please allow two weeks for the Zoom meeting to be dispatched and created. Keep in mind Tammy’s part-time hours, Monday 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM; Tuesday – 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Wednesday – 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM; & Thursday – 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM.

B.) ANR Educator Facebook Project: Write up a small garden project - think mini, bite-sized project for beginners, like how to start seeds, press a flower, get rid of a certain weed, etc. Describe the process in 200 words or less. You can include links to other websites, but remember that all MGV research rules apply; sources must be .edu or other credible and non-biased sources. You can include photos or images if you have them. After you create your write-up, send it to Tammy Currier at currier.37@osu.edu. You will receive volunteer hours for any time spent researching and writing the mini garden project. You can log these hours under "Community Service" with the description: Facebook Mini Garden Project. Tammy will copy-edit your submissions and post each one once I have approved them for publication, which includes reviewing each prospective post for proper horticultural content.

Any questions, contact me at: rivera.482@osu.edu / 330-599-7710

The Hort Lunch & Learn & Hort Happy Hour Webinars Continue... If you have been unable to participate in OSU Extension's Horticulture Lunch and Learn and Happy Hour programming in a timely sense, don't despair. Each of the sessions has been recorded and are available at this link. The series began mid-March and will continue as long as we are all sheltered in place!

Recent topics include: • Can You Spot the Spot? Spotted Lanternfly Update • Bees in Your Backyard • Microgreens: Tasty, Tiny and Timely

Each of these sessions provide you with one hour of Continuing Education credit and will continue as long as we are all sheltering in place

Thanks for your participation in these webinars! See you at the next one.

Gardening Books for You! Whether we use them for growing food, creating wildlife habitat, or providing sanctuary, our gardens can keep us—as well as the planet—happy and healthy, through good times and bad. During the COVID-19 crisis, the folks at Workman Publishers know that more people are heading outside to try their hand at gardening—many for the very first time—and they'd like to remind you that Master Gardeners can find resources they may need at Timber Press, Storey Publishing, and the entire Workman family of publishers. By using the discount code BOOKS, Master Gardeners can SAVE 20% off all books with FREE shipping on orders of $25 or more. Their 2020 Garden Catalog offers a curated selection of their best gardening books and the following are just a few of their favorites particularly suited to this moment:

• The New Gardener's Handbook is from Daryl Beyers, an instructor at the New York Botanic Garden. It is everything a new gardener needs in one go-to guide.

• Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that support pollinators and provide wildlife habitats.

• The Vegetable Gardener's Bible shares Ed Smith’s legendary high-yield gardening method that emphasizes wide rows, organic methods, raised beds, and deep soil.

• Grow Your Soil presents the science of soil health in an engaging, entertaining voice geared for the backyard grower.

SAVE 20% ON ALL BOOKS FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $25 OR MORE USE DISCOUNT CODE: BOOKS

Digital Learning: Basic Zoom Instructions & Best Practices As our Master Gardener / Extension programming shifts to the virtual realm for the time being, please review the following instructions on how to use the Zoom software. 1. If it is your first time using Zoom, you will be prompted to download the software. Enter your first name, last name, email

address, and county. Once you have entered the data, hit the Register button and a screen will return informing you your registration has been approved.

2. Click on the Join a Meeting button and input the Webinar ID or meeting code of the lecture you've registered for and click Join. Once you've clicked on Join you will be ready to view your chosen webinar.

3. If for some reason this procedure doesn't work, you can return to the original link and click it again. Once the software has been downloaded, it should take you where you need to go.

4. Remember to pay attention to the date and time of the webinar or meeting you register for, as you will not be allowed to join the meeting until the start time. You can register ahead of time, but not join until the designated time, typically 30 minutes ahead of the start time.

5. If the host has not muted participants' sound / microphone, please do so before the meeting goes live, as the background noise is very disruptive to the speaker and your fellow listeners.

6. Since you are utilizing teleconferencing software, make sure to set yourself up in an appropriate location with good lighting away from items you wouldn't want anyone to see, like a pile of laundry or dirty dishes or an unmade bed or you get the picture.

Good Luck and Happy Zooming!

2020 Advisory Committee Members:

Chair – Kathy DeJohn

Vice Chair – Kim Hawkins Secretary – Mary Jo Rawlins

Treasurer –

Other members of the Advisory Committee for 2020 are:

Melanie Biche Mary Clink

Carol Anne Cohen Ruth Connell Barb Franzen

Heidi Giordano Dave Gilronan

Christine Harris Nadalene Joseph

Patricia Koch Ed Levine

Beth Murphy Rita Politzer

Kathleen Quinn Sandy Welches

Shoshana Wodzisz Jennifer Young

MGVs are invited to attend all AC meetings from 4:30 – 6:30 at the Fairhill - office, 12200 Fairhill Road in Cleveland. If you plan to attend to observe and listen, or if you'd like to be placed on the agenda (time permitting) please contact Kathy DeJohn at (440) 725-2700 or kathy4dj@yahoo.com.