Welcome to Mississippi

Mississippi has an abundance of visual beauty that is enhanced by mild climate and diverse vegetation. It ranges from Gulf coast semi-tropical palms and citrus plants to the cool-loving shrubs in the foothills of the Appalachians. A great place to live and enjoy the pleasures of gardening. This site is devoted to encouraging others to travel the many trails that meander through the gardening map of Mississippi.

Welcome to the Southern Region Master Gardener Conference

Hope you all are getting bags packed and ready to hit the road to this year's MG Conference in Natchez, MS..... looking forward to seeing everyone. Be prepared to enjoy gardening in Mississippi!

Note: MSMG Board minutes (January 2012) have been posted in the members only section (Click on MSMG Log-in)

Click here for Details about the Conference and Registration

The 2012 Southern Region Master Gardener Conference is hosted by the Mississippi Master Gardener Association and the Mississippi State University Extension Service. The Adams County MG group is hard at work (with lots of help from other Mississippi groups by teleconference) planning the 2012 Southern Region Master Gardener (SRMG) Conference. We meet on the first Thursday of each month at 10:30 am.

The conference website is up and running http://msucares.com/srmg

We need help!

Door Prizes and Items for Silent Auction Needed

We are planning to have door prizes and a silent auction; therefore, we would like to ask each Mississippi MG county group to provide the conference with one lovely garden-related item to be used as a door prize and two items to be used for our silent auction. The door prize can be wrapped or placed in a gift bag, but the silent auction items do not need to be wrapped.

The _______ County MG’s are in charge of the Silent Action (team leader: ___________________________ ).

Lafayette County MG’s is the group responsible for the door prizes (team leader: Fran Woodward, franzplatz@yahoo.com).

Please send us a description of the items as soon as you get them. Please include the price of the item as well as the donor so that we can acknowledge the gift. We would like to have door prizes and auction items turned in to team leaders by 2 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012. Call or email me if you want to begin sending/bringing items in advance. Otherwise, we’ll send instructions for where to send or drop them off as we get closer to the event.

Digital Pictures Needed

We are planning a statewide PowerPoint program to show Master Gardeners and their projects across our great state. We want every one of our Master Gardener groups to be represented. Barry McCalla of Desoto County MG has volunteered to put together the PowerPoint program and needs digital pictures from each county. Please identify the top 5 and then the top 10 you want us to use along with a caption for each. The preview deadline is 28 Feb. 2012, final date 15 March 2012. Sent photos to Barry at catldog@bellsouth.net.The power point will be used 3 times during this 4 day event.

Send digital photos to Barry McCalla. We look forward to working with you building a presentation of which the Mississippi Master Gardeners can be proud.
Select someone from your county to serve as the person to submit photos for your county and to serve as a contact
Please identify the photos you submit by order of importance. We will make every attempt to use all photos submitted but we may need to limit the number depending on the total number submitted.
Provide a caption for each photo submitted.
Identify your county and the district represented by the photos submitted.
You may reply to this message with your submissions.
Photos must be submitted before March 15th, 2012 but you may begin submitting them now.

Help Selling Ads for Conference Program Book

Each person attending the conference will receive an event program booklet. This booklet will include the schedule of events, speakers’ bios with space for notes, vendor layout and location, maps of conference area, Natchez restaurants and nurseries and more. We are selling ads and want like to see garden centers and nurseries across the state represented in this book. The smallest ad cost only $75. Help us make sure your favorite places in the state have an ad in the booklet! For more see http://msucares.com/lawn/master_gardener/2012conference/sponsorship.html

Encourage Attendance by Offering Incentives

To encourage everyone to attend the conference, perhaps groups might also want to offer some reimbursement to their members to defray some of the associated costs. We want Mississippi Master Gardeners to shine and for all of our membership to be able to attend in order to make this the best-ever conference!

If you have any questions, or if you want to help with the planning, just email Kelly Parks at kellyparks99@yahoo.com. There are always lots of details to handle, and we will need many volunteers before, during, and after the event.

Thanks so much for assisting us with this highly-anticipated conference!

Kelly Parks, Chairman

The 2011 Crystal Springs Festival was terrific again.

There was a lot of Master Gardener activity at the 2011 Fall Flower & Garden Festival in Crystal Springs. If you took a few pictures at the event, send them along for the website.

Here are a few pictures from last year.

Fall Festival - by Wand Holmes

We continue need more speakers from our Master Gardeners to increase the selection of horticultural related subjects. This is a real service to community garden and civic organizations who are looking for speakers. A great way to promote master gardening activities. Please let the webmaster know of a subject you would be interested in presenting to groups and get you name on the list. Spread the word!

A new section has been added to the MSMG Website ... A Master Gardener Speakers Bureau! A request was made at the recent MSMG Conference that we provide a resource of master gardeners who would be willing to make gardening/horticultural related presentations to interested community groups. If you enjoy giving presentations in particular areas of interest, please send along your information for including on the Speakers Bureau list. We would like to have a variety of subjects to give a selection to choose from for local groups.

Click here to check out the this new area of service by Mississippi Master Gardeners to their nearby communities and consider being a presenter.

Upcoming Master Gardener Conferences -

2012 - May 1-4, 2012 in Natchez - The Southern Regional Master Gardener Conference. Yes, Mississippi is hosting the SRMG conference.

Note: We now have a Southern Region Master Gardener Conference Website on msucares.com. http://msucares.com/lawn/master_gardener/2012conference/index.html
As information about this conference develops it will be posted. Please mark your calendars for May 1-4, 2012 in Natchez.

More ways to get Master Gardener Information -- We are now blogging... check it out.

Counties and Master Gardener county e-mail contacts,
You may not be aware that eXtension has launched a new blog specifically for Master Gardeners.

These volunteers now have a new communication tool to encourage interaction and sharing at the national, state and local level. Check it out http://blogs.extension.org/mastergardener/

Statewide Master Gardener Project: The creation of a password-protected site on msucares for Master Gardener generated Consumer Horticulture educational materials.

Objective: To provide a resource for Master Gardeners and Extension professionals to avoid “recreating the wheel” when looking for material to use in Extension programs and activities. Compiling materials that were created by Master Gardeners and are already in use at a central, accessible location will save time and help us reach our audiences more effectively.

These materials would be available only for use by Master Gardeners or Extension professionals. Materials would include powerpoints, word documents, such as fact sheets, FAQ’s or other appropriate materials generated by a Master Gardener or MG group and already being used for Extension programming in the county.

Master Gardeners are requested to submit their materials directly by e-mail attachment to Kelly Parks, kellyparks99@yahoo.com, or mail a CD to Kelly Parks, 2112 Hawkins Road, Pattison, MS, 39144.

All materials will be subject to peer review by a committee of selected Master Gardeners. Materials will be edited, formatted and then submitted to the state coordinator for further review and revision if necessary before putting on the password protected website.

Certain criteria should be met before submitting the material for review.

Criteria:

1. Must be approved by your County Master Gardener Coordinator

2. Should be original work or include citations indicating the source of the material, if possible

3. Powerpoints should include speaker notes with the slides for clarity. Please indicate if the photos in the powerpoints are original (your own), if source is unknown, or the source of photo (book, web-site etc.), if possible

4. Should have application statewide, if possible

5. Must be in electronic format

6. Must include names of Master Gardeners responsible and county name on all documents

If you have any questions about this project or whether your material is appropriate please contact Dr. Lelia Kelly, leliak@ext.msstate.edu, or Kelly Parks. Thanks in advance for your submissions.

Any 2012 activities that you want posted for your district or county?? Information on state, district and local events will be included on the website so you can stay current with what is going on. If you have events or items from your county that you would like to have included, please send the details to homerrichardson@hughes.net so they can be included.

A few pictures from the Crystal Springs 2009 Fall Garden Extravaganza - submitted by Wanda Holmes

Locations that have offered discounts to Mississippi Master Gardeners are now listed on the Members page. Click on "MSMG Log-in" on the sidebar, then enter the ID & Password to get to the Members Page.

Take a look at the list of horticultural publications that are being revised by the Education & Training Committee on the Education & Training Link

Benefits of being a MS Master Gardener member

These membership fees are used to support:

Mississippi Master Gardener Website www.msmastergardener.org
Scholarship, Educational Training
Annual MG State Awards
State Membership Cards
The State MG Newsletter
Support for the State Conference
Voting Rights at the State Conference
Educational Materials, i.e. Rose Short Course

The "News & Events" link will be updated with things happening in the four Master Gardener Districts in Mississippi. This will include Newsletters, seminars or special events that may be of interest to others. Please send any items you would like to include to the webmaster so we can keep information current.

If you have items to submit for the MSMG Newsletter ( Botanical Blurbs) from you Master Gardener Association, please send to: Barry & Sherri McCalla at email: catldog@bellsouth.net

Two of the most frequently asked questions asked when a group of master gardeners get together are:

1) What kind of interesting projects are you working on?

2) How does your group make money to fund different projects?

If your MG Association has been working on some interesting projects or managed to find some unique ways of getting them funded, pass them along and we will build a section on the MSMG website where others can visit and maybe even stimulate more ideas.

Again, if you have a gardening or plant question, Go to "Garden Question" link, then ASK JAY!

Our Purpose

To promote responsible horticultural practices in accordance with the research and recommendations of the Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension Service