CGBLLEd2020: Hello from St. Lawrence County!

Welcome and Introductory Discussion Forum

Hello from St. Lawrence County!

Hi all! I'm a new Consumer Horticulture Educator in St Lawrence County (far Northern NY).

Having started this May, I've only been in this role under pandemic conditions so far, but I've lead a couple of monthly online MGV meetings (about 15-20 attend) and am getting up to speed.

Currently, our new Growline is getting a lot of our attention. There are 6 moderators, each with a day of the week to field inquiries, which arrive by voicemail or email. The responses are really impressive and when we "critiqued" some of them at the last meeting, the group gave great feedback. I think the moderators are proud of the job they do, and take it seriously.

Aside from that, we have other volunteers maintaining gardens in the community: one is a historic garden with food and medicinal plants, and one is a flower garden at an assisted living center. Our MGVs also planned and executed a beautiful "living quilt" at our CCE Learning Farm as part of a local barn quilt exhibition. I'm navigating giving the volunteers positive feedback and publicity for the work they're doing on these gardens, while also steering them toward more educational outreach endeavors that will reach more of the community. That said, community outreach is certainly tough during a pandemic, so I think this will be our holding pattern for now.

We also planted a little pollinator garden and are fixing up a neglected high tunnel, both to be used as instructional spaces for the future, (which is what I'm most excited about!).

Erica

Hi Erica,

Welcome! I think you'll find this group of educators is a good mix of experienced educators and those that are new like you (Jesse Meeder Cattaraugus, Kathleen Copeletti from Onondaga), so we should have some good discussions. I give you all a lot of credit for taking on these new challenges at this time - I'm sure you are doing your best to engage with people at a distance. We'll be talking more about how to reengage volunteers soon, but for now I think your strategy is a good one. Is there a community garden in your county that the MGV could do some outreach and education at as well? That is always a good avenue for getting the word out to new people. Another idea is Zoom gardenening consultations with MGV - I know Monroe County has had some success with that.

I love the high tunnel space for education and season extension! We're working with a grad student to produce some videos of "cold climate" vegetable varieties and techniques for extending the growing season, perhaps this might be of interest to some of your MGV as an educational tool? I'm excited to visit your neck of the woods when I go camping at the end of August on Wellesley Island and learn a little more about this area.

All the best,

Ashley

Show parent

Welcome, Erica!

The living quilt project sounds wonderful and I would love to learn more about it as well as your historic and medicinal gardens. It sounds like you have a vibrant, well-rounded program with lots of different opportunities for volunteers to engage in.

One silver lining with you starting in May, is that you have time to come up to speed on your position at a less frantic pace (maybe?). This timing of course will be very helpful too, as you will find new ideas and success stories from other educators with years of experience. Enjoy the course!

Show parent