- Author: Judy McClure
It can be challenging for a serious gardener to pass a shredding machine and not stop and use it to transform ‘paperwork’ into worm compost bedding. Sorry, your Master Gardener papers are no longer potential bedding material. Since the Statewide Office staff has embraced making the volunteer time submission and the annual recertification process as paper free as possible you’ll need to locate another source of worm bedding. Entering your volunteer experiences, completing the three recertification forms and submitting the insurance payment is now fast, easy and paperless.
Gardening tasks, family obligations and professional obligations fill our June days, leaving just a few precious moments for completing...
- Contact: Pamela M. Geisel
- Author: Sam Foushee
In this post I want to point out more of the improvements to our program that have resulted from the work of our Statewide Master Gardener office. I can personally attest to what a difference these improvements have made in Alameda County. We had none of the following when I became a Master gardener in 2001, and we were constantly making things up as we went along.
1. Master Gardener Program Administrative handbook, June 2008: defines policies and procedures for MG programs all over the state. Provides guidance, helps to ensure consistency, and helps to avoid duplication of effort.
2. Along the same lines as the handbook, the Statewide Office has...
- Contact: Pamela M. Geisel
- Author: Sam Foushee
This is the second in a series of short articles on the benefits we receive from the Statewide Master Gardener Office. The Office coordinates a Statewide Master Gardener conference every few years, with the last one being in Santa Rosa in 2011. Conferences have previously been held at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, San Jose, and Sacramento. They are always stimulating, informative, and enjoyable. They also are a tremendous amount of work, and the state office is essential in making it happen.
The next conference will be in 2014. The results of a statewide poll are now in, and the preference for location was heavily in favor of the Tenaya Lodge near the south entrance of Yosemite National Park. The Tenaya is...
- Author: Sam Foushee
This is the first of a series of short articles about the benefits Alameda County Master Gardeners have received from the establishment of a statewide office and the hiring of a statewide coordinator in 2006. We were very fortunate to be able to hire Pam Geisel, a longtime farm advisor and local MG coordinator in Fresno County for this role. She has been excellent-- knowledgeable, politically savvy, forward-thinking and very competent. I have had the privilege of serving on a state advisory committee to Pam the past four years and have been able to see from the inside just how she and her office work to support and improve all county programs.
Of the many benefits that can be credited to the state office and...
- Author: Pamela M. Geisel
- Author: Janet Hartin
As a long-term UCCE environmental horticulture advisor, I would like to express my appreciation to Master Gardener Program Director Pam Geisel and her staff for providing outstanding statewide leadership.
In a mere six short years under Pam’s direction, the UC ANR Master Gardener program has received $ 300,000 in grants that provided support to the CA Garden Web; updates to the Backyard Orchard; the FAQ system; outreach materials such as posters and tips; sustainable landscape ‘train the trainer’ workshops and PowerPoint presentations; ‘Your Sustainable Backyard Training’ (in collaboration with CCUH); a SARE grant to support further sustainable landscape training; and, a recent ANR competitive grant to develop and extend...
