1 GIEI Meeting Minutes (12/8/2015)
University of Maryland Extension, Grow It Eat It Statewide Meeting
Tuesday, December 8th, 10:00am-1:00pm, UME Montgomery County Office, Derwood
Present
Alicia Bembenek, MG Advanced Training Coordinator, HGIC; Jon Traunfeld, MG State Coordinator, HGIC, Joslyn Read, Montgomery;
Georgia Eacker, Howard; Kay Sedlak, Carroll; Barbara Davidson, Carroll; John Hubbs, Carroll; Bill Palm, Carroll; Ellen West, Frederick;
Patricia Strawder, Frederick; Don Ludke, Frederick; David Muns, Frederick; Norman E. Cohen, Baltimore; Linda Emerick, Baltimore;
Anna Glenn, Baltimore; Robin Ritterhoff, Montgomery; Heather Whirley, Montgomery; Lily Bruch, Montgomery; Erica Smith,
Montgomery; LJ Mauceri, Howard; Jo Ann Russo, Howard; Janet Young, Montgomery; Donna Starkweather, Montgomery; Mary Anne
Normile, Montgomery; Pam Hosimer, Montgomery; Shery Heckel, Montgomery; Karin Nillett, Montgomery; Dara Ballow-Giffen,
Montgomery; Terri Valenti, Montgomery; Bill Newman, Montgomery; Kent Phillips, Howard; Ming Pang, Howard; Donna Koczaja,
Prince George’s; Anastasia MacDonald, Howard; Elizabeth Kingery, Montgomery; Joan Parris, Harford; Eleanor Cone, Harford; Lisa
Rainey, Harford; Renee Stevens, Montgomery; Pat Kenny, Montgomery; Sue Kuklewicz, Montgomery
Welcome and Announcements
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Please take some seed packets, let Jon know which types of seeds you would like for next year. If you have specific needs let us know,
Jon can request specific crops. Don’t sell the seeds! We will have a new supply of GIEI seeds for the next meeting.
There is a form to fill out if you plan to take a new Grow It Eat It sign. Please fill in your information on that form if you would like
to take new signs for your demo, school, and community gardens.
David Muns (Frederick) reported that there are four different kinds of mustard still growing in the News-Post Community garden.
David brought some with him and he doesn’t want to take these back, he welcomed people to take some home.
Montgomery County is selling Common Garden Bugs and Common Garden Weed booklets. The cost is $8.00 for MGs, $10.00 for
the public. These are excellent aids and are portable. They will be available for sale at the 2016 MG/MN Annual Training Conference
on Thursday, May 26th.
County Highlights
Kay Sedlak, Carroll County
• Will again offer their winter (January-March) GIEI classes, the Carroll County local paper provides free publicity
• The winter classes comprise of 8 weekly classes, 2 topics per session, and Henry does food demo during break between topics
• The Twilight meetings (held in late spring and summer out in the Carroll County demo garden) have been not as successful as the
winter classes, and in 2015 weather was an issue most every week
• Attendance dwindled over the summer. Topics for Twilight meetings included: cover crops, weeds, pruning, extending season—all of
these topics are better suited in a demo garden outside
• Heirloom kitchen garden highlights: guided tours at public events, guided tours for schools and for general public, Living History
Camp participants: 58 school-age children, this is a 3-week camp that demos activities that would have been done 100 years ago.
• Heirloom Tomato Festival at Ag Center: over 1000 in attendance, gradually adding more education activities. In coordination with
farmers market
• Next year: new raised bed in high tunnel, winter classes planned already (Jan-March, 2016)
• Access to demo garden has been problematic this year when it is not during business hours
• Question: How do you do tastings at the Heirloom Tomato festival? Cut tomatoes at facility, serve dishes on ice, only baked goods
can be made at home, otherwise food needs to be prepared in a commercial kitchen.
• There are more regulations every year. The Carroll County MGs get a certificate from the health department.
• Lisa Gonzalez will be developing guidelines for food prep and handling for MGs
• Keep in mind: Counties may be different in their regulations
Pat Strawder, Frederick County
• Frederick Co. library has a MG rooftop garden with containers and raised beds
• They have a STEM program there
• They have a new raised bed for wheel chair accessibility, it is also a square foot garden that tells what you can grow in it throughout
the year
• They have a bucket garden design and a handout for how to make a self-watering bucket
• This method works well for tomatoes and bell peppers (2 or 5 gallon size)
• When you nest the buckets, make sure the overflow holes are below the top bucket
• They also have instructions for self-watering tubs, you can use them for bigger plants (e.g., squash)
• They have a whole section in their demo garden that displays different types of container gardening
2 GIEI Meeting Minutes (12/8/2015)
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ACTION ITEM: Jon will send out Pat’s instructions for making self-watering containers
Another idea for growing salad greens: salads in bowls and covered with their lids can grow outside, similar to using a cold frame
Also working with Lucas Village public housing and a demo garden with children’s section to tell stories and plant crops
Terri Valenti, Montgomery County
• New initiative with children’s programs: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H
o They have waiting lists for these programs for next year
o Pros: the programs provided income and helped with serving more diverse audiences
o Cons: the programs require lots of resources (e.g., MGs who can lead)
• New initative: Retail sales
o Invited vendors to an event, got a % of the sales (10-20%)
o Sold plants with a consignment model, got a % of sales
o Sold GIEI and MG created items: bug/weed books, GIEI labeled products (aprons)
o Pros: generated income, needs were met
o Cons: selling plants for others (consignment model) was more labor intensive versus vendors, sale tax concerns
Robin Ritterhoff, Montgomery County
• Derwood Demo Garden had innovative techniques: straw bales were productive and nearly disease free, now serve as compost or soil
cover, they were a big hit with clients too. Grew tomatoes, peppers, beans
• For 2016: will use fewer and smaller bales, provide space for piloting an African keyhole garden
• They failed at container gardening, they were rained out, the bales did better
• For the 100 square foot garden, in 2015 had an international bed: Italian, Latin American, French, and Asian cuisines. “International
Hub of Veggies” There was lots of interest and discussion
• Manna food bank donations totaled 1720 pounds for 2015, MGs delivered the veggies in plastic bags so they are ready for folks to
pick up and use
• Coordinated with Manna to provide seedlings, pots, substrate, etc to 244 Manna clients. They sent out a survey to get some feedback
from Manna clients about the experience, but not many people responded to it.
o Only 70 of the 244 contacts had functioning email to be able to get the survey to provide feedback
o Ultimately the MGs only got 18 feedback responses from the 244 contacts
• In any case, it was clear that Manna clients loved growing the veggies and MGs loved working with them too
Erica Smith, Montgomery County
• 2 new programs, with Janet Young and Rani Parker, to reach urban populations. They are called “Urban Gardening” and are held at
the Silver Spring Civic Center
• They had demos and giveaways on how to grow on a balcony
• Next year they will have stations at the Civic Center (maybe also demos on seed saving)
Sue Kuklewicz, Montgomery County, Growing Forward: Youth Gardening Program
• Garden at White Oak Community Center in Silver Spring
• This serves Title I schools—Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged
• Had great donations for supplies (wood, soil, seeds, etc.), had great shared skills for making raised beds
• Have a tool shed too
• Used Bug Books to help kids learn how to identify
• FSNE worked and trained the MGs, had lots of demos with insects and bees
• Harvested 200 pounds of food in 2015
(Linda Emerick), Baltimore County
• Garden Fest had great participation: did tomato tasting, demo seminars, invited to Towson for demos
• Interns had veggie gardening instruction
• 9 plot MG demo garden will be demonstrating crop rotation
• Tried a recipe plot this year and a new straw bale plot that was successful
• Installed signage for self-guided visits in demo garden, changed details out throughout the year
• 776 pounds of veggies donated to Cockeysville food pantry
• Had outreach at Hannah Moore school
• Failures: cucumbers didn’t work, raspberries needed to be pulled out because of crown gall disease.
3 GIEI Meeting Minutes (12/8/2015)
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We should provide resources for using straw bales if people want to grow with them
Demos of straw bales provide opportunities for discussion too
Baltimore County: has sign in sheet at their demo garden and have mailboxes with information in them at each section of the garden
Anna Glenn, Baltimore County
• Working with Maryland Ag Council on a grant to conduct a program: Edible Schoolyards—A Professional Development Program for
BCPS Teachers (From Thought to Garden, building and harvesting an edible schoolyard)
• $2,000.00 to conduct once a month training for teachers for 12 month duration
• Teachers had to apply to get into the program
• Teachers will get a “mini” training on a variety of topics, similar to MG basic training
• Each month they get something to take home to their garden
• Food Gardening for Nutrition: Teachers get 2 MSDE credits for taking these courses. This is the 30-hour training coordinated by
FSNE.
Joan Parris, Harford County
• Did backyard fruits classes
• Made a demo garden at Eden Mill Nature Center, Pylesville, MD
• They give food to church food pantries, but the church has no scale so they don’t have an exact amount
• Classes planned for spring, some ornamental classes and some GIEI topics
• Seed saving/seed swaps/seed starting classes are a possibility, there is interest in this
• They found that some classes are not as popular and some venues are not as popular
Kent Philips and Georgia Eacker, Howard County
• Jon Traunfeld made and brought sweet potato pie from Kent’s sweet potatoes.
• There is no more public land available for community gardens in Howard Co
• Asked Pat Lynch (Community Gardens Coordinator for Montgomery Parks) for guidance. They will possibly hire a part time
coordinator to help assist them.
• A person is negotiating with BGE to get the land under the their wires
• The Columbia Gardeners organization has 3 big community gardens with this type of land
• Idea: Maybe a local church has land they can donate? David Muns talked about the Frederick News-Post community garden as an
example of land owned by companies that may be available to use
• 943 pounds to local food bank from Howard Co
• Jo Ann Russo will do a seed saving talk next spring
• Including the 943 pounds mentioned above, Howard Co donated 2 tons of produce to a local food bank from Kent’s 1600 square
foot garden
• GIEI class attendance has dropped off tremendously in Howard Co
• They have been reaching out more to schools though, they want to reach out to teachers soon
Donna Koczaja, Prince George’s County
• Esther Mitchell (PG Co MG Coordinator) worked with a lot of schools this year
• New community gardens have been started this year
• Attendance dropped off this year for GIEI classes
• PG Community college had a 9-hour training, but it was too difficult administratively so Donna won’t do it next year, but will do
classes at another location
Jon Traunfeld, State MG Coordinator, HGIC
• UME AGNR has a new Dean, it is Dr. Craig Beyrouty; him and his wife are bee keepers, his wife took MG classes in Indiana
• GIEI classes for 2016: let us know your class dates, times, locations, and we’ll post them on our website. Send them to Dan Adler
danadler@umd.edu
• 112 GIEI classes were taught last year!
• The 2016 Annual Training Conference is scheduled for Thursday, May 26th. The Keynote will be Dr. Sara Via on the topic of climate
change.
• On the GIEI website there are 2 areas that are not updated enough: the Community Garden page and the Grow It, Give It pages
4 GIEI Meeting Minutes (12/8/2015)
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ACTION ITEM: We are looking for a team of MGs to do research to find the Community Gardens in Maryland and to let us know
what changes need to be made to the website information. This would need to be done once a year
As of February 2015, there is an updated set of opening/closing slides for GIEI presentations. There is a Resources for Grow It Eat It
Programs page that lists links to all of the shared GIEI Presentations. These presentations already have the updated opening/closing
slides. The Resources webpage also has a link to the updated opening/closing slides to add other GIEI presentations.
Grow 100 update: The format this year made it easier for people to send us their stories, photos, techniques. Pam Hosimer sent us
great photos. Dan Adler posted results of the Grow 100 “contest” in the November 6 on GIEI blog.
ACTION ITEM: Do you have ideas for encouraging people to grow in 2016? We would like to focus on the topic of tomatoes. Send
us your ideas to jont@umd.edu.
2016 is the Year of Tomatoes
Previous and future years were/are
 2012: leafy greens
 2013: root crops
 2014: cucurbits
 2015: beans and peas
 2016: tomatoes
 2017: small fruit (blueberries, strawberries, currants, raspberries)
• Do you need additional resources from the state office for the year of the tomatoes?
• Request: do the tomato diseases presentation at the February GIEI Statewide meeting
• Jon’s suggestion for MGs over the winter months: Review Jon’s MG4 Avoid the Tomato Blues presentation. This was originally
presented at the 2013 Annual Training Conference. You can find a link to the presentation at http://extension.umd.edu/mg/gieipowerpoint-presentations
• We can/should focus more attention to tomatoes grown in containers and providing resources on that (e.g., which varieties to grow).
• ACTION ITEM: Send Jon (jont@umd.edu) your photos, tips, and stories of great tomatoes grown in containers.
2016 Meeting Dates, Times, Locations
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 10:00-1:00pm, at Carroll County Extension office, Westminster
Wednesday, July 27th, 10:00-1:00pm, at Center for Educational Partnership, Riverdale (PG county) (tentative)
Tuesday, November 15th, 10:00-1:00pm at Baltimore City (tentative)
o About the Center for Educational Partnership in Riverdale: They have 2 community gardens, one is the Sheridan Street
Garden and the other is Field of Greens. Field of Greens has many refugee gardeners who grow veggies that are not as
familiar to us in the States.
Power Point from Jon Traunfeld
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Jon went to the Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa this past summer for a 3-day seed saving training.
Community gardening interest is still growing
2015 was the International Year of the Soil
If you search “soil health nrcs” (NRCS: National Resource Conservation Service) you can find great resources: videos, presentations.
They highlight reducing physical disturbance, increasing diversity underground, keeping plants growing throughout year, keeping soil
covered
Idea: Cover your garden pathways with cardboard. It works to suppress weeds, but doesn’t look very pretty!
Idea: Make 6-8 inch raised beds with the soil but with no wooden sides.
ACTION ITEM: We want more pictures about container gardening to share with the community, please send them to Jon
(jont@umd.edu) if you have some.
Maybe for next year we can promote a 5 gallon bucket challenge with tomatoes
If we can fine tune our ideas about how to grow in containers that could help us share more resources with clients
At the Field of Greens CG, someone used containers right on their plot, making it a portable garden
How can you increase the number of slips from a sweet potato plant? There is a video on Multiplying Sweet Potato Plants on the
UMDHGIC YouTube Channel from 6 months ago
If you didn’t know, HGIC has a YouTube Channel, it has 140+ video clips
It would be nice if we could start collecting and sharing information on new, interesting, international plants. We could share the
names of the varieties, how they are grown and used, and have images of them.
If you are exposed to interesting crops, share the images and info with us so we can share it.
ACTION ITEM: Please send Jon your best practices and tips for success for growing in straw bales.
5 GIEI Meeting Minutes (12/8/2015)
Disease and insect problems this year
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Basil downy mildew
o The weather in June contributed to this. It was warm and rainy and leaves stayed wet overnight
o Solution: space plants, grow new plants
Spotted wing drosophila: this is a fruit fly that infests cherry, blueberry, brambles
Root rot nematodes: if plants aren’t doing well this might be the cause. They have a wide host range.
o Solution: pull the plants out, use straw bales or containers or different soil or resistant varieties
Septoria leaf spot: find this on tomatoes
o Solution: cut off lower leaves; mulch doesn’t seem to help reduce it; improve spacing around plants
Fusarium wilt of tomato: green leaves that start wilting are a sign of root diseases, vascular tissue gets gummed up
o Solution: there are resistant varieties
Spots on tomatoes: stinkbug damage, these are difficult to control. Just cut out the damage, fruit is still edible
Kudzu bug: this is invasive and has been confirmed in Southern MD. Late beans may have them. They are destructive to soybeans.
Please be on the lookout and contact Jon with any sightings.
Promoting and Reporting Events
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Data from National Gardening Association (2013) indicates that 1 out of 3 households are doing some type of home food gardening
and that there has been a 17% increase in food gardening activity from 2008 to 2013
Can we do more assessment with GIEI classes? Can we tie stats with the specific stories and images from the GIEI events?
ACTION ITEM: We need numbers, photos, and captions/stories, and, if possible, the later impacts (e.g., did people start a new
garden as a result of their new knowledge?) We can put these on our website, we can include them in our HGIC Annual Report
ACTION ITEM: Some of these stories are in your MG newsletters, but if there is a particular photo and story you would like us to
know about, send them to us to include in reports and on website. You don’t have to wait for the end of the year to send us stories
Right after an event, send us the numbers attended, a photo, and a descriptive paragraph or two right to Jon (jont@umd.edu)
There was a question about collecting demographic data from an event and reporting it: how to do this?
o One person is responsible for making sure the data is collected that day, doesn’t matter who it is collected under, what
matters is the total number, and broken out by gender, race. Please enter that information into the online tracking
system
We used to have two different annual reports: 1) Baywise and program data from MG Coordinators then 2) a separate GIEI annual
report. We thought, why not combine that information into one report?
The chair of GIEI in your county can submit this information to the MG Coordinator to include in what they will ultimately submit to
the state annual report
You can keep more extensive records of the GIEI activity in your county, but at the state level, we specifically want to know:
• Number of classes/workshops taught by MGs
• Number of people taught
• Number of youth/school gardens assisted
• Number of community gardens assisted
• Total number of pounds of produce donated
• Your stories (numbers, photos, captions)
If there are separate youth gardening activities happening, and if veggie education is involved, you can count that towards GIEI.
Suggestion: We need to let MGs and Coordinators know what the State Office would like to include in future annual reports and give
them the heads up earlier in the year about what we want to be submitted and included on the next report
ACTION ITEM: Erica Smith reported: blog posts are down, please let Erica know if you are interested in writing for the GIEI blog,
ideally on a regular basis
ACTION ITEM: We could also share our events/stories with clients on the GIEI blog! Please send information about your GIEI
success stories and projects that are happening in your county that could be used in the blog. If you have information like this, please
send it to Ria Malloy (mmalloy@umd.edu) or Erica Smith (hedda62@gmail.com)
Seed Libraries/Seed Swaps
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ACTION ITEM: Let Jon (jont@umd.edu) know if you are doing seed swaps in your county
Seed library updates: The State Department of Ag want to implement protocols for seed libraries to follow, they just want some
policies/parameters in place. Nothing changed as far as how Maryland interprets the law and whether seed libraries are allowed in MD
Concerns: would seeds be sold, would noxious plants be distributed? Richmond, CA Seed Library has protocols that can be followed
by others. It’s fine if there is a basket of seeds left out for patrons.