Florida Master Gardener Volunteer 2022 Awards
Earlier this fall, the Florida Master Gardener Volunteers gathered in Kissimmee for the 38th Florida Master Gardener Advanced Training Conference. They networked, advanced their training, and celebrated accomplishments. The 2022 Awards of Excellence were divided into 11 categories:
- Communication
- Demonstration Garden
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Educational Display
- Educational Materials
- Florida-Friendly Landscaping™
- Newsletter
- Personal Communications
- Service to 4-H and Youth
- Outstanding Master Gardener Volunteer Team
- Outstanding Master Gardener Volunteer
Learn more about each award and the volunteers that earned them below.
One of Joyce's gardening articles
Communication — Charlotte County Master Gardener Volunteer Joyce Laubach
Joyce Laubach writes columns for two Southwest Florida publications. Her "Garden Happenings" column in Isles Life magazine includes a featured plant, events lead by Charlotte County Master Gardener Volunteers (MGVs), and other community resources. Harbor Styles magazine also publishes her "Gardening in Paradise" column, which educates 10,000 readers monthly. In this column, she collaborates with subject-matter experts and nature photographers.
Joyce's duties include meeting with magazine editors, choosing unique and relevant topics, writing Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ (FFL) content, and providing high-quality, striking photos. Her Harbor Style articles teach people to improve their properties and gardens using FFL practices. Since her readers are often new to Florida's ecology, she gears her articles towards average gardeners who want to achieve more. Her Isles Life articles have piqued interest in MGV sponsored activities and increased trust in UF/IFAS advice.
View of the St. Lucie County Extension office's butterfly garden
Demonstration Garden — St. Lucie County Butterfly Garden
St. Lucie County Master Gardener Volunteer Julie Norsworthy realized the county Extension butterfly garden was lacking butterflies and needed improvement. Julie began the garden renovation by sketching her vision. Next, she met with MGV Claire Northcutt and St. Lucie County MGV Coordinator Kate Rotindo to draft a plan and budget.
A team of volunteers (Barb Lasher, Nancy Moriarty, Laura Charloff, Molly Morgan, Maggie Cook, Kim Keith, Robyn Young, Janet Fitzgerald, and Kathy Ladd) pulled weeds and dead plants, grew butterfly-attracting plants, and trimmed the overgrown plants. They also mended broken irrigation and fixed a rotted trellis.
The result of their efforts is a beautiful demonstration garden that is now home to many species of butterflies. Over 800 people have viewed the garden through in-person visits and newsletter photos. The garden is a tool for showing St. Lucie County residents how they can attract butterflies using Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles.
The spring plant sale offered special hours for attendees needing assistance.
Diversity and Inclusion — St. Lucie County Master Gardener Volunteer Plant Sale VIP Hours
The St. Lucie County Master Gardener Volunteer Shade Nursery Crew (Lead Patricia Kraus, second lead Carolyn Luxion, Mark Lewis, Nancy Angemaier, Anne Mygatt, Cathy Brewer, and Kathy Ladd) saw that a segment of their diverse plant sale attendees could use extra help. During prior plant sales, attendees in scooters struggled to steer through the narrow aisles of the sales nursery. Their solution was to offer VIP hours for attendees who use a scooter, wheelchair, walker, or otherwise required aid.
The crew have offered these VIP hours twice so far and were thanked by those who took advantage of it. The five or six attendees of the 2021 VIP hours enjoyed one-on-one help with moving through the nursery and finding their plants. The group intends to continue offering VIP hours to assist visitors with mobility challenges and expanding their advertising to promote further growth.
Top: the new mobile plant clinic; bottom: what it looked like before.
Educational Display — Lake County Mobile Plant Clinic
Two years ago, Lake County Master Gardener Volunteers realized that their county Extension office in Tavares was not close by for many residents. Lake County is large, which makes it hard for residents who don't live nearby to utilize their Extension office's educational offerings. The MGVs turned a trailer into a Mobile Plant Clinic (MPC) to bring their horticultural knowledge to the people.
Volunteer Sandra Bryan's idea was to renovate the exterior of the trailer to clearly showcase the clinic and UF branding. She formed a contest to find photos for the display. Afterwards, she collected the winning photos and raised funds to create an eye-catching "skin" for the trailer. MGVs then brought the MPC to the Lake County Fairgrounds, Clermont Garden Fair, and MGV plant sales, among other places. Event attendees flocked to the clinic to ask questions, order soil tests, and supply plant samples for identification. The team enjoys using their mobile clinic to promote their county Extension office and Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles to hundreds of Lake County residents.
A young girl leans over a table to look at plants in the herbarium book
Educational Materials — Nature Coast Portable Herbarium
A team of Nature Coast Master Gardener Volunteers (Eugene Gibbins, Gabriel Thomas, Roger McDaniels, Debra Weiss, Carol Lorene, and Rosella Smith) learned how to create herbarium specimens during an advanced training class. This inspired them to create a portable herbarium for public education. The team started by collecting local plant specimens. Next, they mounted the samples and organized them by collection date into seasonal albums.
They have amassed over 290 specimens from Dixie, Gilchrist, and Levy counties. To complete their portable herbarium, the MGVs developed QR codes that lead to an online database. The database has the common and scientific names of the plants to promote further research. Users can then search the plant on the AskIFAS Extension website to learn more.
So far, 1,086 visitors have viewed the portable herbarium at events in Levy County. MGVs staff the booth to answer visitor questions and aid with plant identification. Visitors learn about various plant structures and processes by viewing the life-sized samples. The MGVs enjoy developing the herbarium and feel it is a worthwhile effort to serve their community.
The Marine Resource Task Force sets up the exhibit booth at public events four to six times per month.
Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ — Lee County Invasive Plant Education
Lee County MGV Rose Larkin's Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ project began with her involvement in the Fort Myers Marine Resource Task Force. In her volunteer position she was tasked with discovering how many invasive plants appeared in Fort Myers Beach. Rose walked the streets of Fort Myers Beach and documented any of the ten most invasive plants. As more MGVs joined the project, they found 761 properties that had these invasive plants.
Rose then presented the evidence to the Fort Myers Beach environmental project manager to revise the city's vegetation ordinances. Additionally, the Marine Resource Task Force began setting up an exhibit booth to share UF/IFAS information on native plants and Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ to residents. Rose joins these events twice per month as an MGV, and her materials are shared at every event. Rose views her project as successful because she was able to impact city ordinances with her invasive plant research. The highly popular booth resulted in HOA members and homeowners adding native plants to their properties as well.
Newsletter — Sumter County Master Gardener Volunteers' Gardeners Journal
Sumter County Master Gardener Volunteers Dr. Elaine Cohen, Nini Conner, Ed Johnson, Jeanie Powell, Susan Ball, Ann Fender, Bobbi Leader, Kathy Porter, and Jan Carlos have published their monthly Gardener's Journal newsletter for years.
However, in 2022 they knew it was time to improve the newsletter's format. They had been sending the newsletter as an email containing a link to a PDF, but low open rates inspired them to switch to the Mailchimp marketing platform. Now, their newsletter displays in a dynamic format that looks sharp on a computer or mobile device.
The newsletter has 6,817 subscribers, with an average of 40 new subscribers every month. Most new readers (94%) come from the QR code displayed at all MGV events. The team spends 100 hours per month researching, editing, and reviewing the newsletter. They ensure the newsletter conforms to all UF/IFAS style guidelines and that all articles are furthering the mission of UF/IFAS Extension. The overall success of this project is seen in the 50% newsletter open rate, which is now higher than the industry standard of 35%.
Margaret teaching MGV interns how to do soil pH testing.
Personal Communications — Okaloosa County Master Gardener Volunteer Margaret Stewart
Margaret proved her passion for the Master Gardener Volunteer program through her personal communications.
Margaret works the MGV helpdesk once per week, where she typically fields 10-15 calls and up to 10 emails per shift, depending on the growing season.
For 14 years, she has consistently given expert horticulture advice and excellent customer service.
Linda Kulaw (standing left) showing a second-grade class how to transplant in the school garden
Service to Youth — Okaloosa County Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Kulaw
Linda Kulaw began volunteering at the Longwood Elementary School gardens in 2009. A few years ago, she partnered with a student to have him build 12 raised beds for his Eagle Scout project. After attending school gardening classes in South Florida, Linda coordinated with Longwood teachers to give every class a bed in the garden. The project's goal was for students to practice math, writing, science, and ecology while connecting with nature.
Linda's perseverance was tested many times during this project by constant staff rotations, lack of funding, and equipment being damaged or taken. However, she resolved these challenges by reaching out to all teachers at the start of the school year to introduce them to (or remind them of) the school garden. She also contacted her funding sources to replenish the budget when low and set up a monthly school garden committee meeting to discuss any issues that arose. The gardens serve as an educational tool and a place for teachers and students to de-stress.
Signage in the Palmetto Library's butterfly garden.
Photo courtesy of Palmetto Friends of the Library.
Outstanding Team — Manatee County Master Gardener Volunteer Children's Programs
A group of nine Manatee County Master Gardener Volunteers gathered to create the Children's Programs team in 2017: Angela Cleator, Nancy Hammer, Jim Kerrigan, Norma Kisida, Becky Moreland, Lois Panner, Janet Papazian, Nancy Porter, and Catherine Reuth. The goal of this team was to present educational programs to children between the ages of four and twelve.
Program topics included soil, seeds, flower parts, composting, and native bees. One successful program was creating a butterfly garden outside the children's wing of the Palmetto Library. Their butterfly exhibit at the Braden River Library children's Earth Day event was also a success, with a huge attendance. The team worked with other community organizations including the Mark Wandall Foundation, Roslyn Walton Education Services, and the Manatee County fair. The program has also been adapted for disabled adults in a successful partnership with the Loveland Center.
The team works together throughout the year on their various projects through email and face-to-face meetings. They are adding several programs each year and hope to offer one each month. The events offered during the award period were well attended by a diverse group of 163 children and 177 adults.
Bill (fourth from right in bucket style hat) with MGVs and other participants at a Habitat for Humanity project. Photo courtesy of Habitat for Humanity Walton County.
Outstanding Master Gardener Volunteer — Walton County Master Gardener Volunteer Bill Kuenstler
Bill Kuenstler is proficient in many aspects of horticultural sciences and enjoys sharing his knowledge with clients through several projects. Bill served as vice president of the Master Gardener Volunteer Association. He promotes sea turtle conversation by leading turtle walks and leads plant identification walks as well.
Within the Extension offices, he has restored demonstration gardens, prepped new volunteer training classes, and worked at plant sales. He is involved in nearly all of the MGV activities in Walton County where he is known as a both leader and a respected team member.
Community members have greatly appreciated Bill's efforts. For example, his most popular plant identification walk had 35 participants. Every visitor to the Extension demonstration gardens enjoys the landscape he tends and learns from the helpful labels on each plant. Bill attributes his success to the time he spent studying Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles, best regional practices for gardening and landscaping, and Florida plant identification and care.