Mobile County Master Gardeners added members and interns on November 11 when the Class of 2021 graduated. This class pioneered the new on-line component of MG training and the statewide challenge to certify by creating community improvement gardening projects. Their teams worked at a Mobile Urban Garden (MUG) site and the Mobile County Juvenile Court. The MUG team applied their classroom knowledge to clearing, building raised beds, and planting vegetables. The Court team applied their new landscape design and plant identification knowledge to refurbishing a forgotten courtyard. Community members expressed their delight with the improvements our interns’ hard work created.
Our annual Greenery Sale, MCMG’s only fund-raising project, also provided lots of opportunities for our interns and members to complete volunteer hours. With the help of Mobile Botanical Gardens, the safe, no-contact online-only sale included pre-orders through an online catalog. After harvesting buckets of fresh local greenery, members and interns arranged centerpieces, mailbox toppers, and swags which were delivered to purchasers at a drive-through pick-up at the Gardens. It is our hope that next year will return to our usual sale, both on-line and in person at MBG Marketplace.
MCMGs Master Gardeners of the Month: September: Harry Surline (2018) who, along with his wife, likes to grow pre-1900 camellias, and has about 100 of them; October: Kathy Dawe (2008), who volunteers often in the Mobile Botanical Gardens’ greenhouse; and November: Alice Marty (2007) who presents inspiring talks on her two favorites: hardy hibiscus and monarch butterflies.