Bucks County
Photo by Meagan Hopkins-Doerr
Master Gardeners "Zoom" Past COVID-19 Programming Challenges
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Bucks County embraced webinars to provide both fellow volunteers and their local community with high-quality education. Early on during the COVID shutdown, the group adapted their in-person, one-day continuing education symposium for regional Master Gardeners, to a six-part "Zoomposium" available to Master Gardeners across the state. Each session had an average of over 200 live viewers, and as of September 30, the webinar recordings had an average of 150 views each.
In May, the local Michener Art Museum invited a panel of Master Gardeners to co-present a Happy Hour webinar where they identified trees and plants in famous works of art and answered home gardening questions from webinar attendees. In September, Master Gardeners also hosted a live webinar called "Ask a Bucks County Master Gardener about Spotted Lanternfly," which attracted 90 county residents.
Photo by Kathleen Connally
Master Gardeners also continued to maintain their demonstration gardens at the Bucks County Health Building to educate and cheer up health care workers; expanded their Garden Hotline services; and launched an all-remote basic training class with 33 new trainees.
Chester County
Photo by Meagan Hopkins-Doerr
Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Chester County embraced technology to answer home horticulture questions submitted to their Garden Hotline. Previously, Master Gardeners who researched and responded to these inquiries could only access requests while in the Extension office. This year, Hotline volunteers moved to a new email system and online database, both of which are remotely accessible. Team lead, Maureen Daly provided numerous online trainings and created a mentoring program for new volunteers to work with experienced team members. These updates expanded their team to twenty Garden Hotline volunteers who helped 476 Chester County residents with home horticulture questions. Overall, the team saved home gardeners money that would have been spent on unnecessary amendments and treatments, notified Extension researchers about potential plant disease movement, supported new gardeners who started Victory Gardens, and helped residents save beloved trees.
Clinton County
Photo by Deb Burrows
Unable to conduct their usual face-to-face activities due to COVID restrictions, Master Gardeners in Clinton County instead provided home horticultural information to the public by starting two new newspaper columns. "Backyard Gardening" appears every other week in The Record and "Growing Tips" appears monthly in The Lock Haven Express. Master Gardeners share the responsibility of writing columns, which have focused on a variety of topics including, lawn restoration, drought, wineberries, sheet composting, wisteria, chicory, late-blooming shrubs, tree identification, knotweed, and native plants. Several hotline questions and requests for additional information related to the topics addressed in the columns have been logged as a result.
Lancaster County
Photo by Kim Frey
Turning the Tide Webinar Series
Though onsite education was cancelled during most of the past year due to COVID-19, Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Lancaster County hosted a webinar that attracted a national audience--Turning the Tide: A Practical Guide for Bringing Nature Home. The three-part series featured nationally renowned entomologist and ecologist Doug Tallamy speaking on what individuals can do to restore nature and turn back habitat destruction. Local native plant expert Wendy Brister provided specific guidelines for residents to put Tallamy's ideas into effect in their own gardens. Planned in partnership with a local group, Community Conservation Committee, the series garnered 1,397 registrants. Master Gardeners of Lancaster County researched answers to the large overflow of webinar questions, which were provided to registrants along with the recordings.
Lawrence County
Photo by Alma Thompson
The Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Lawrence County feature an annual garden tour of Lawrence County properties. The tour is a great opportunity to reach out to the community and provide a fun, educational garden tour while promoting the Master Gardener program. This year, Master Gardeners adapted to life during the pandemic and put together a virtual tour of gardens on the county Facebook page. This adaptation was well-received and provided viewers an opportunity to view design ideas and formulate a vision for their own gardens. It was also an opportunity for the Master Gardeners to engage with residents to offer gardening advice and promote Extension educational resources. Over 80 community members viewed, shared, and commented during this outreach event.
Luzerne County
Image by Penn State Extension
Spotted Lanternfly Education
This spring, Luzerne County was added to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture quarantine zone for spotted lanternfly. Recognizing the threat this invasive insect poses to the county's forest resources, the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Luzerne County made spotted lanternfly awareness a top priority for community outreach. Master Gardeners reached over 1,000 community members at the Luzerne County Winterfest and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Home & Garden Show with informational handouts and children's activities about spotted lanternfly. Master Gardeners also visited first graders at Noxen Elementary School to give a lesson on spotted lanternfly, show students what to look for, and teach them what to do when they see one.
Montour County
Weed of the Week
Facebook was the avenue the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Montour County implemented to share information with the public during the pandemic. Beginning in May, Master Gardeners reached out to community residents with "Weed of the Week" using social media. Every Thursday for 17 weeks, Master Gardeners posted about an annual, biennial, or perennial weed that was relevant at the time, including identification and management. They discussed many poisonous and invasive weeds and were able to show the flowers and the roots to help viewers with identification. This was also a good outlet for the public to reach us with their gardening questions.
Pike County
The 2019-2020 reporting year was one of changes for the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Pike County. The challenge of COVID-19 modified many of the regularly planned activities, although outdoor work in the demonstration gardens continued. Master Gardeners shifted their Garden Hotline to remote email services and added an Instagram account, @pikepamastergardeners, to increase public outreach. The addition of a paid Coordinator brought new life to the program, allowing for realigning programs and generating new ideas.
Despite the waived requirement for volunteer hours this year, the Master Gardeners of Pike County still donated 330 hours to Pike County for a value of $8,390.
Wyoming County
During this year of the pandemic, the most notable output for the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Wyoming County was more than doubling the number of trainees enrolled in the first ever, virtual, statewide basic training. In addition, we saw increased diversity in the class with half of the trainees in the age category of 35 to 44. This increase in age diversity will improve our community reach and will generate new ideas and projects, such as therapeutic gardens, youth programming, and sustainable gardening.
