President’s Message

Northeastern Wisconsin Master Gardener Association

August 2019

Inside this issue:

President’s Message 1

2019 NEWMG Board of Directors

2

NEWMG Board Meeting Minutes - July 10, 2019

2

New Extension Offices 3

Small Spaces at GBBG 4

Mongin Garden Update 4

Neville Museum Garden 5

Children’s Edible Garden 5

Recording Your Hours 6

2019 MG Volunteer Opportunities

7

Garden Clippings

I’ll keep this short like our July Board Meeting (attendance was light, but

then again it is summer and people have lots of other activities going on).

We did get nice tours of the remodeled school and the gardens on the

grounds.

Thanks to Laurie Krawczyk, Jim Radey, Mark Sprague and Diane Warpinski

for volunteering for the unplanned Wellness Fair at the Boys and Girls

Club.

Thanks to Eileen Rueden for organizing the food at our July Board

Meeting.

The wheels are beginning to turn in regards to finding a replacement for

Vijai. Hopefully someone will be hired by fall.

Jim Radey will be retiring from his position as Volunteer Coordinator at the

end of this year, but will remain a Master Gardener. We will definitely

miss him, he has done so much for us. The Extension will be looking to fill

his position, so if you are interested, stay tuned.

The Extension Staff will be moving into their new offices on the UWGB

Campus at the end of September. See page * for my synopsis on our

recent walk-through.

We need your help - we are beginning to look for new board members to

replace those who will retire at year’s end. We will also need to fill the

secretary’s and vice president’s positions.

Hopefully you have started to use the Online Reporting System (ORS) to

record your hours.

Enjoy the rest of the summer. Thanks for all of your volunteering.

Al Nass

Page 2 August 2019

Held at the Former UW Extension Office (Head Start School)

1150 Bellevue St., Green Bay, WI

Present: Al Nass, Julie Cole, Barb Brumm, Nancy Fictum, Steve Herro, Steve Beerntsen, Melinda Ward,

Crystal Brown, Joanne Kondro, and Eileen Rueden. Others Present: Jim Radey, Rob Dreher, Dave

Bonham, Lee Richardson, Shirley Maenner, Doris Magyar, and Patricia Kazik.

Absent: Trisha Linssen, Linda Gustske, Kyle Gigot, Tim Freeman, Melissa Schmitz and Birdie Shantz.

President’s Welcome -Al Nass Meeting was called to order at 6:00pm following a potluck social

gathering.

Secretary’s Minutes – Julie Cole The minutes from the March 13, 2019, meeting had been sent

electronically for review by board members

Treasurer’s Report – Nancy Fictum Nancy gave a brief report. Income from the Plant Sale was

$1960.

Volunteer Coordinator Report – Jim Radey (Report will be included in printed minutes) Jim will

be leaving us at the end of the year to pursue other endeavors.

• MG Volunteer hours “report online” system is up and running. Jim will send more info out to

everyone.

• Continued with general work of sending out messages to MG Volunteers when needed, answering

questions from MG Volunteers and others, and providing support where needed.

• Continue to develop monthly schedule of volunteers to work at the Horticulture Help Desk at the UW

-Extension.

• Worked with Doug Hartman to schedule volunteers for the Master Gardener booth at Breakfast on

the Farm.

• Worked with Al Nass to schedule volunteer help for cleaning out and storing MG supplies from the

storage garage at the former UW-Extension location

Old Business:

Plant Sale Wrap-up – Eileen Rueden. Committee will have one more wrap-up meeting.

New Business:

• Vijai’s replacement - Position will be posted next week.

• New MG Location at UWGB– Building is on schedule. The Bob Mongin garden will be the only area

we will be caring for. There was discussion regarding the current Bob Mongin garden. There are

plants that we may be able to transfer to the new garden. We will need to care for them until then.

Use of the gardens at the Head Start school is undetermined, tabled for the next meeting.

NEWMG Board Meeting Minutes: July 10, 2019

Officers Al Nass, President Trisha Linssen, Vice President Nancy Fictum, Treasurer Julie Cole, Secretary

Linda Gutske Steve Herro Joanne Kondro Eileen Rueden Melissa Schmitz

Board Members Steve Beernsten Crystal Brown Barbara Brumm Dr. Tim Freeman Kyle Gigot

Mary Sprangers Mindy Ward Doris Magyar,

WIMGA Rep

2019 NEWMG Board of Directors

Continued: Page 3

Page 3 August 2019

NEWMG Board Meeting Minutes (continued)

Announcements: Annual Meeting – Eileen Rueden is the coordinator. This year we will also celebrate

the 40th anniversary of the N.E.W. Master Gardeners Association. We would like to invite Vijai Pandian

and Paul Hartmann to share in the celebration. Eileen would like to put a history together. If anyone

has something they would like to contribute, contact Eileen.

Newsletter: Project Leaders are asked to submit brief reports/pictures to Trisha Linssen for the

newsletter.

Newsletter – any additional articles for the newsletter should be sent to Trisha Linssen,

bluewaters2626@protonmail.com by July 30, 2019. She is looking for articles of interest to Master

Gardeners.

Next Board Meeting – September 11, 2019

Julie Cole, Secretary

New Extension Offices at UWGB

Submitted by Al Nass

In mid-July, James Radey and I took a tour of the

Extension’s future new offices in the STEM Innovation

Center on the University of Wisconsin Green Bay’s

Campus. The interior of the 63,000 square foot building

was still being constructed. The building will be shared

by UWGB, Extension, Land and Water Conservation, and

the Einstein Project. The Extension Staff are scheduled

to move into the building at the end of September. The

attached photo shows the front/South side of the

building. In the photo, the Extension’s Offices are on

the left side of the building on the ground floor (tan

colored portion behind the truck and car). Above the

Extension Offices are the living (vegetated) roof and an

open patio. The greenhouse is shown just to the left of

the Extension’s Offices and it is nice. There will be a

small parking lot in front of the Extension’s Offices/

greenhouse. The Mongin Garden will be at the far right

corner of the building (mostly off of the photo). It looks

to be a great building when completed.

Page 4 August 2019

Small Space Garden Project at the GBBG Submitted by Jim Radey

The Small Space Gardening Project team members

have been taking turns maintaining the garden each

day of the week but on July 8 and 31 we had two

general work days for all team members to meet at

the garden to do some additional weeding, discuss

progress of the plants, get any questions answered,

and talk about plans for the garden during the rest of

the growing season. With the Botanical Garden's

butterfly exhibit attracting many visitors to the

location this year, we are also getting many visitors to

our garden project. As in the past, it is great for our

project members to be able answer visitors gardening

questions and exchange gardening information.

The Botanical Garden staff has also been using lettuce

and herbs from our garden again this year for their

Wednesday lunches open to the community. In past

years they used our early tomatoes too but this year

we didn't have any ripe tomatoes for the lunches which

only go through the end of July. Our garden has been

doing well this year but at the end of June we

encountered an insect eating our Swiss Chard that was

unfamiliar to all our team members so we asked the

Horticulture Help Desk at our UW-Extension office to

help us identify it. Horticulture Help Desk volunteers

consulted with the Insect Diagnostic Office in Madison

to determine our new pest looked like either the larvae of a Chrysomelid Beetle or type of flea

beetle. The three-spotted flea beetle (Disonycha triangularis) and the spinach flea beetle

(Disonycha xanthomelas) are listed as occasional pests of Swiss chard and related plants. We

decided to treat our insect problem with a Spinosad insecticide and since then our Swiss chard

is again looking healthy.

Submitted by Jim Radey

Mongin Perennial Garden Update On July 18 about a dozen Master Gardener Volunteers did a

general weeding and cleanup of the Mongin Perennial Garden at the former UW-Extension

location on Bellevue Street. Master Gardener Volunteers are maintaining the garden this year

and plan to move some of the plants in the spring of 2020 to a new Mongin Perennial Garden

that is being created at the UW-Extension's new location on the UWGB campus. The new

Mongin Garden will be located near the main entrance to the building and visible to visitors.

The fate of remaining plants at the current Bellevue Street Mongin Garden is not yet

determined but the NEWMG Board of Directors will be working with Green Bay School staff, the

current owners of the Bellevue Street location, to make these arrangements.

Mongin Perennial Garden

Page 5 August 2019

Neville Museum Garden Report Submitted by Claudia Schultz

We participated in an event celebrating the Neville’s new Bird Exhibit. We demonstrated how

birds and native gardening go hand in hand. The kids made a pine cone peanut butter and seed

feeder. They learned that all parts of the feeder...the pinecone, seeds, peanut butter and cotton

string...all originated from plants. We introduced info on birds and native plants and and offered

a fun quiz with a paper bird craft as a prize for finishing it!

The garden is filling out in its second year. Looking good! Thanks, Val Campbell, for building the

beautiful birdhouse obelisk.

Children’s Edible Garden at the BC Library

Submitted by Steve Herro

Ten Master Gardeners and their friends and library staff from

three departments have helped lead the Children's Edible

Garden in 2019. Once again, Master Gardeners have adjusted

their volunteer schedule to meet the public in the garden on

Tuesday nights. Staff from the Children's Department plan

activities around the Garden for its weekly Friday morning

lessons on food and horticulture.

The Children’s Edible

Garden was recently

acknowledged in the

Brown County

Community Garden’s newsletter for its early season

donation of leafy green vegetables to Paul’s Pantry.

Also, one of the team members is planning several

tours and instructional sessions of the Garden to adults

served by the Gathering Place.

Come see our newest Garden features, climbing

cucumbers that are a great space saver and shade provider and a new shaded seating area

that will soon be developed as a quiet contemplation corner.

Page 6 August 2019

Recording Your Volunteer & Continuing Education Hours

Submitted by Jim Radey

All active Master Gardener Volunteers should be receiving the “Volunteer Vibe”, the Wisconsin

Master Gardener Office’s online newsletter. In the July edition (which was sent out around July

16), there was a notification that the new online system for recording our volunteer hours and

continuing education hours is now available. This online system replaces the recording of our

hours on paper forms and submitting them to our local Brown County UW-Extension Office.

The “Volunteer Vibe” article provides directions on entering your hours online. It also has

directions for creating your own personal log in information if you have not already done so.

Here is a copy of the directions:

Online Reporting System is Now Live! Learn about the ORS and how you can enter your hours: Visit https://wimastergardener.org/report-your-hours/ to access the system and for directions. Watching the training videos = 0.6 hours of Continuing Education! Are you a first time user? You will need to activate your account before entering their hours. Follow the posted instructions (scroll to the bottom of the page and look under First Time Access). Frequently Asked Questions: Read through them on the Report Your Hours page to see if you can get your questions answered here first.

If you have problems or questions, please contact me at james.radey@co.brown.wi.us. If you

aren’t able to enter your hours online, we can still take a paper copy of your volunteer and

continuing education hours at the Brown County office, but I will need the report by

September 30 so I can enter the hours into the state system.

Page 7 August 2019

Brown County UW-Extension 210 Museum Place, Green Bay, WI 54303 Phone 920-391-4610; Fax 920-391-4617 www.BrownCountyExtension.org

University of Wisconsin, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Wisconsin counties cooperating. An EEO/AA employer, University of Wisconsin

Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming, including Title IX and American with Disabilities (ADA) requirements.

2019 Master Gardener Volunteer Opportunities

Name of Project Team Coordinator Contact Info

Garden Series Barb Brown 920-336-6098, utschigbrown@gmail.com

Garden Clippings newsletter Trisha Linssen 920-819-7370, bluewaters2626@protonmail.com

Facebook Crystal Brown 715-292-0380, inspirednorth@gmail.com

NEW Master Gardener website Trisha Linssen 920-819-7370, bluewaters2626@protonmail.com

Small Space Garden at GBBG Shirley Maenner &

Jim Radey

Shirley: 920-434-0291, smaenner@gmail.com

Jim: 920-360-3891, james.radey@co.brown.wi.us

Square Foot Garden at St. Mark Church Mary Sprangers 920-680-2546, sprangers3@gmail.com

Square Foot Garden at YMCA (West) Jo Ann Holloway 920-336-7988, joannholloway@att.net

Native Garden at Locktender’s House Claudia Schultz 920-336-0030, csch5677@gmail.com

Native Garden at Neville Museum Claudia Schultz 920-336-0030, csch5677@gmail.com

UWEX Trial Garden Donna Trousil 920-336-3896, donnatrousil@att.net

UWEX Mongin Perennial Garden Lee Richardson Lee: 920-336-5331; benrich1789@sbcglobal.net

Plant Diagnostic Help Doug Hartman 920-445-9530, hartman.doug@gmail.com

UWEX Rose Trial Garden Anita Mueller 920-845-2647, muellanit@gmail.com

Annual Banquet assistance Eileen Rueden 920-470-5562, erueden@tds.net

BC Central Library Children’s Garden Steve Herro 920-217-8213, steve.herro@snc.edu

Heritage Hill Tank Garden Kyle Gigot 920-680-1625, kpgigot@gmail.com

ADRC Raised Bed Gardens Lee Richardson 920- 336-5331, benrich1789@sbcglobal.net

WI Master Gardener & UWEX (State)

WI Farm Tech Days – MG Booth WIMGA http://wimastergardener.org/

WI Garden Expo – MG Booth WIMGA http://wimastergardener.org/