President's Letter

May 2020 
By Michele Worden, AEMG

It’s still bitter cold as I write this.  A fire is again crackling in my cast iron stove and I am writing this in my PJ’s. What has changed since the February letter?   Well, we have had some spring-like days alternating with snow; my snowdrops and crocus have bloomed and now my early daffodils, miniature Tete-a-Tetes, are blooming.   The season is turning.

There is no reason to get dressed immediately in the time of pandemic.  Though I do try to get dressed each day, I enjoy a slow morning of coffee and office work before I engage with the day by getting dressed.  Soon, though, I hope to be springing out of bed at dawn into my gardening clothes…

I ask myself “What is the purpose of the Master Gardener Association of Northwest Michigan?” in the time of the pandemic.  I think about the Master Gardener program tagline “Helping People Grow”.  This is a time to focus on your personal growth as a gardener and to avail yourself of the educational videos posted on the Volunteer Management System (VMS).  Watching these can fulfill your education hours and deepen your gardening knowledge.  In 2020, we all still need to complete 10 educational hours.

I also think of the tag line of MGANM “Connecting a Community of Gardeners Through Learning”.  I think connection and community are more important now than ever in this time of required social distancing.    With ‘connecting and community’ in mind, we did not go the same route of many other organizations and cancel our meetings and educational speakers.   We moved them online.

The April meeting ‘Hot Plants for 2020’ was held via Zoom, an online meeting platform.   A big thank you to Robin Smillie of Garden Goods, who stepped in to tackle this topic in a new online format when our scheduled speaker was technology shy.   Robin did a great job!  It was also rewarding to see the faces of 45 members of the Master Gardener community and chat for a bit before the presentation started.  It was the most people I had seen at one time in one place since the stay home, stay safe order, and it felt good.  One benefit of virtual presentations is that many people enjoyed a glass of their favorite evening beverage while engaging, making it almost a virtual happy hour too.

We are hosting our May 5th meeting, Carolyn Thayer and ‘Gardening for Water Quality’, virtually as well.  The June meeting is a work in progress but probably that will happen, as scheduled, virtually as well.    We are working out the details.

We are using the Zoom platform for meetings.  This means we need to manage online security to prevent being hacked.  Therefore, we will not be promoting these events to the public as much as usual.  You will get a zoom meeting link in your registration confirmation when you register through our site.  Our events are free for members and still open to the public.  Our registration process asks nonmembers for the usual suggested $5 donation to register.  We will wave that for anyone who requests it if they send me an email.  There will be no questions asked, but I have to register them manually.  At the moment we are limited to 100 participants through the paid Zoom subscription.

You may have heard from Diane Brady that MSUE is waiving the required volunteer hours this 2020.  While you are not required to volunteer, I encourage you to do so where you can safely.  People need gardens, and helping people garden, whether for beauty or food, is more important than ever.    Nate Walton is working on some initiatives to connect Master Gardeners to projects like the Victory Garden Initiative and Junior Master Gardeners.  There are many virtual ways to volunteer and educate the public.

Another way to volunteer and help your community is by serving on the MGANM board. If you are interested, contact me for more information, but also consider joining our next virtual board meeting on Tuesday, June 16 at 6 pm. We will create an event for this on our website and you can register just as you do for other events. Serving on the board is collegial and fun—we laugh a lot. It’s also a positive way to have a ripple effect in both your Master Gardener community, and the broader community at large.

Finally, make sure wherever you live, you find a way to connect with plants.  Working with soil and plants is healing in so many ways and is so needed in this moment.

Thank you for all you do.