2021 Year Recap

Every year volunteers contribute their passion, energy and time to serving in our community and sharing the science-based education received by being in the Master Gardener Program. We'd like to recognize the accomplishments of the following RCMG volunteers.

• Leonard Gloeb Outstanding Service Award: Nanette Boudreau

• Ralph Thrane Extraordinary Partnership Award: Mary Montagne

• 10 Years of Service: Cindi Bell, Jane Carlstrom, Mary Parenteau, and Merlin Schlichting

• 15 Years of Service: Barbara Brockway, Barb Gaida, and Don Vegoe

• 20 Years of Service: Nancy Ness and Gail Olson

• 25 Years of Service: Laurie Holmberg

• 2,000+ Hours of Service: Bill Suchy

• 3,000+ Hours of Service: Brianna Gohde

RCMG offered a wide variety of options for volunteers to increase their knowledge and skills in 2021. Monthly Meetings The Education Committee brought in top notch speakers like Peter MacDonagh & Ramsey County soil science, Marissa Schuh & IPM Updates, Sacred Blossoms Herb & Tea Farm, RCMG Diversity Audience Projects, Pam Frink from White Bear Seed Library & Maureen Hark from West Side Seed Library, Dr. Joe Storlien from the Environmental Studies Department, Dr. Bonnie Keeler from the CREATE Initiative, Heather Holm & new Wasp book, Ping Honzay Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Bee and Pollinator Center, Pam Bennett from NICH, Tim Kenny's Volunteer Plans for 2021. You can watch recordings of these monthly meetings on the RCMG website HERE for 2022 Continuing Education credit. Garden Gate Tours Home tours of RCMG volunteers' gardens returned in late 2021. The Garden Gate Tours are organized by the Education Committee. Special safety precautions – shoe covers and boot brush – were used to minimize the risk of spreading Jumping Worm. Train-the-Trainer Events RCMG volunteers shared their knowledge with others this year in the quarterly Train-the-Trainer events. Jennifer Porwitt taught about Starting Tomatoes from seed, Tina Hammer taught the best practices for Editing Articles for RCMG Blog, and Stacy Sola taught an introduction to Smartphone Photography. The Speakers Bureau demoed their new classes: All About Seeds, Be a Pest Detective, Stopping Problem Plants, Introduction to Vegetable Gardening, Planting for Pollinators, Spring into Summer, and Fall into Winter. You can watch recordings of these Train-the-Trainer events on the RCMG website HERE for 2022 Continuing Education credit. Special Workshops

• Elisa Iha shared the 2021 Strategic Plan Focus Groups Recap.

• Darren hosted the 2021 Volunteer Project Fair for new volunteers.

• The New Member Committee ran a workshop for Interviewing New RCMG Applicants.

You can watch recordings of these special workshops on the RCMG website HERE for 2022 Continuing Education credit. RCMG Book Club (NEW) RCMG started a Book Discussion group that meets every-other-month on the 4th Tuesday. They read Nature’s Best Hope in September and Braiding Sweetgrass in November. The group will be discussion Finding the Mother Tree at the January Book Club. Copies of these books are now available in the RCMG Lending Library for all volunteers to read. Poinsettia Reblooming A small number of volunteers participated in a year-long home project to learn how to save, prune, and then re-red poinsettias.

RCMG created a catalog of the existing projects and built a new way to propose new volunteer service projects. (New projects are reviewed by the Program Coordinator, Darren.) For volunteers leading projects, a new “project coordinator” job description has been developed and is being adapted to existing roles.

NEW Volunteer Activities The State Leadership developed ways for volunteers to contribute to their communities from the safety of their homes with three (3) At-Home Projects. These included Pollinator Walk-By-Learning Gardens, Food Shelf Donation Gardens, and Growing/Propagation Plants for Donation. RCMG developed several new ways for volunteers to get involved locally. Many of these projects are expected to continue in 2022.

• Gardens for Good (Deon Haider)

• Garden Coaches (Susan Cathey)

• Community Education Garden camp (Susan Cathey)

• Journey North school project (Marlys Daugherty & Susan Cathey)

• Community garden house-calls (Chris Stevens)

• Garden Journalist (Tina Hammer)

• Garden care on Lilac Hill at Muriel Sahlin Arboretum Roseville (Brianna Gohde)

• Highland Park Pavillion planting (Susan Cathey & Mentor Team 9)

• Children's Hospital Video Project (Susan Cathey & Ed Shinbach)

• Solarization Project at Edgerton Community Garden (Brianna Gohde)

• Planting day at Cerenity Marian of St Paul (Deborah O'Halloran & DeAnn Strenke)

• Eastside Community Garden advisors (Tim Iverson & Laurie Witzkowski)

REDESIGNED Volunteer Activities In 2021, many of our traditional projects had to adapt to the COVID-19 environment or be cancelled.

• The Plant Sale, RCMG's primary fund-raiser, was held online in May 2021, with the pick-up location at at new location, Holy Childhood Parish in St Paul. Volunteer Cees Duijndam also found a hoop house that RCMG can use to harden-off plants for future sales. (Cheryl Brady)

• Without being able to invite residents to visit the RCMG diagnostic clinic at the Extension building, we offered twice-weekly online “Garden Q&A LIVE” events. (Danielle Cabot)

• The High Rise Garden Mentor program moved online and helped spread garden information to residents in the St Paul Housing Association. (Roger Hinze, Jamie Aussendorf, Lesley Perg)

• The Speakers Bureau continued to teach their adult education classes online, reaching a record number of participants in 2021. (Brianna Gohde)

RETURNING Volunteer Activities These long-term volunteer service projects returned in 2021 after taking a hiatus in 2020.

• Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District School Projects (Susan Cathey, Ed Shinbach)

• Native garden planting with East Side Boys and Girls Club of St. Paul

• Seed Stratification with St Paul public schools

• 2021 Seed Trials featured Ground Cherry, Delicata Squash, Lacinato Kale, Cayenne Peppers, Onions, Dill, Tall Yellow Marigolds, and White Cosmos. (Jeanne Buck)

• The Home Garden Productivity Study, a collaborative research study with Hennepin County Master Gardeners completed its 4th year of volunteer research. (Brianna Gohde)

• The Little Green Friends hospital visits were able to resume in May 2021, using safety protocols from the hospital. (Ed Shinbach, Lynette Thompson)

• Blooming St Paul returned, with homes evaluated and photographed by RCMG volunteer teams.

• We were invited to participate at Local Festivals (Selby Jazz Fest, Mac-Grove Fest, Take Aim Fest, Solidarity Street Fest) in August and September.

• RCMG was able to resume visits at several Farmers Markets (Aldrich, Downtown St Paul, Little Canada, New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, and St Thomas More) in August and September. (Gary Unger, Bill Suchy, Elaine Noel, Jennifer Daul, Cherie Boen, Laurie Holmberg, Cherie Skildum, Rena Wilffang-Roepke, Judi Petkau, Gretchen Hesli, Jane Carlstrom)

• RCMG was invited back to answer resident questions at select Compost Sites (Battle Creek, Frank and Sims, Midway, Moundsview, Summit Hill, WBL Township) visits in October. (Liz O'Toole, Sherry Bianchi-Knod)

Extension & State Services

• Darren Lochner, Program Coordinator celebrated his 1-year anniversary in July.

• The University of MN created new Extension websites for each county. The is different from the RCMG website or State Volunteer website. The new site include local resources for 4-H, Agriculture, Master Gardeners, Health and nutrition, Sustainable communities, and the local Extension office.

• Jamie Spanks joined the State Leadership Team.

• The weekly meetings for volunteer program leadership changed to twice-monthly.

RCMG Committees

• The Education Chairs created a new Committee of volunteers in fall 2021 to help with choosing educational topics and organizing education events for 2022.

• The New Member Chairs created a New Member Support Committee in late summer 2021 to help evaluate the new member and mentor experience. They are looking at ways to support volunteers in new ways.

• The Communications Committee formed in early 2021. This group combines the volunteers who work on the website, the RCMG social media channels, newsletters, and newspaper communications. The Communications Chair – Nanette Boudreau joined the RCMG Board as a voting member in 2021. The RCMG was redesigned and migrated to WIX in 2021 so we could host an online plant sale. A new Web Team, lead by Sanna Mairet and Chris Beal was assembled to lead this effort. Dedicated efforts are being to update the RCMG Facebook account, which has been able to increased its reach significantly in 2021 with thanks to Jenna Strank and Mindy Johnson. We started an RCMG Instagram account, led by Kelly Greco to reach younger audiences. Stacy Sola, Nanette Boudreau and Joe Baltrukonis started work on laying the groundwork for an RCMG Image Library. We expect to see more about this in 2022

RCMG Board

Strategic Plan Teams of volunteers met in spring/early summer 2021 in Task Force Discussions to brainstorm how to approach the goals set in 2020. Many recommendations came forward as ways to improve the RCMG program. Work on these are expected to continue in 2022. Board Members

• Susan Mitchell retired to Board Chair-emeritus and Nate Galloway became Board chair.

• Nilgun Tuna leaves the Education Chair position and is followed by Sue Ellen Campbell as Education Chair.

• Christine Strong leaves the New Member Chair position and is followed by Kay Wimer. as 2022 New Member Chair.

• RCMG volunteers elected Sandy McDonald as vice-chair, Jane Carlstrom as Education co-chair, and Judie Ginter as New Member co-chair for 2022.

RCMG continues to grow by leaps and bounds and that was no exception in 2021.

Total Volunteers – 296

• Active 160

• New/Transfer/Intern 79

• Emeritus Active 18

• Emeritus Retired 17

• Leave of Absence 20

• Departing 17

Intern Classes & Mentor Teams

RCMG hosted the largest cohort in the program history: 60 people in the 2021 cohort and 30 people from the 2020 cohort. To support this class of 90 new volunteers, the New Member Committee reorganized the Mentor program; teams of interns and RCMG mentors were formed. Each team included 3 Mentors and 7-10 interns. Teams were organized geographically with hopes that teams would be able to find ways to see each other and collaborate on a local project in their shared neighborhoods during the COVID restricted period.

The Mentor model is being changed again in 2022.