Having completed their Master Gardener Volunteer (MGV) course requirements and 50 volunteer hours, fifteen Secrest Arboretum MGV interns are now fully certified as Secrest MGVs. Although they have varied interests and backgrounds, they share a love of gardening and an appreciation of nature’s wonders. Their enthusiasm and knowledge add to the extensive value of Secrest Arboretum.
The new class of 15 includes Martha Belden, Karen Brenner, Sandra Chenal, Duncan Darby, Doug Eck, David Griffith, Kristen Harmon, Gary Horrisberger, Lee Horrisberger, Esther Kulenich, Michael Lilburn, Tabatha Miller, Carol Millhoan, Cynthia Whitford, and Mark Wiest. In this issue we spotlight five of the new MGVs, featuring the others in upcoming issues.
Martha Belden
A transplant from Seattle, Martha Belden uses “trowel and error” to manage microclimates as she works “slowly, but surely” to revive her Ohio garden, abandoned 20 years ago. Her MGV hours included working in the Stan Hywet English Garden, organizing volunteers “to grow and install two thousand native plants” at Summit County Parks Valley View, and helping with the Secrest Garden Fair. “Fascinated by the science supporting gardening techniques,” Martha created a final presentation focusing on “how to put your garden to sleep in the fall and wake it up in the spring.”
Karen Brenner
Artist Karen Brenner finds beauty in the colors, shapes, and patterns of daylilies. Her fascination with these lovely flowers led her to learn about and practice hybridizing. Her final MGV
project was an informative presentation about daylily hybridizing including daylily basics, her hybridizing and record keeping practices, and examples of her results. Her MGV hours were attained through weeding the Secrest Arboretum gardens and aiding Merry Gentry with the Secrest Garden Fair.
Sandra Chenal
Energetic and recently retired, Sandy Chenal runs her small business Home Harvest, is a beekeeper, and works part-time pruning trees at Rittman Orchards. Delivered with subtle humor, Sandy’s final MGV project “High Tunnel Site Selection” was a tutorial on what to do and what not to do when developing a site. Sandy volunteered with the Rittman Garden Club, the Rittman Historical Society, and the CFAES
Klienhenz Lab’s Vegetable Production Team.
Duncan Darby
Duncan Darby enjoys creating naturalized microenvironments on his five acres utilizing native plants, many with Appalachian origins. His MGV presentation “Ginseng—Appalachian Green Gold” included the history of ginseng, its status, and growing methods. The bulk of Darby’s volunteer hours involved weekly cleaning around Secrest Arboretum’s crabapple
trees, placing tree tags, and answering calls for “Get Garden Answers.”
Doug Eck
Doug Eck enjoys growing hot pepper varieties that he dries and grinds into chili powder. To fulfill his required MGV hours, Doug participated in the Secrest Arboretum’s phenology of crepe myrtle research and spent weekly sessions at a OneEighty House demonstrating vegetable growing, harvesting, and cooking. For his final MGV project, he presented his research on Christmas cactus phenology. Both Doug and his wife, MGV Patricia Matthews, enjoy gardening as a family with their grandkids.
–Pat Warner, Master Gardener Volunteer