Eastern Shore of Virginia Master Gardener Association

Join us next Friday March 20th in Eastville!🌱🌿🌺🍊🫑🌽

Spring is right around the corner, and everyone is eager to get back into their gardens. Our next Perk Up & Learn Coffee Hour is the perfect way to jump‑start your season!

Join us Friday, March 20th, 9–10 AM at the Eastville Community Center for a hands‑on session on Establishing Your Spring Garden—plus a community Plant & Seed Exchange.

We’re bringing together an amazing lineup of local experts to help you build a thriving garden from the ground up:

🌿 Cindy Holdren & Al Curry, Eastern Shore Master Gardeners – Composting fundamentals
🌿 Phil Goetkin, Eastern Shore Master Gardener – Raised bed gardening made simple
🌿 Cricket & Carol Upshur, Copper Cricket Farm – Seed‑starting tools & techniques
🌿 Jocelyn Grover, Eastern Shore Master Gardener – How to become a Master Gardener
Helene Doughty, ANR Extension agent - Soil preparation, layout, early insect pests and diseases

We’ll dig into soil prep, growing methods, pest management, and more—everything you need to set your garden up for success.

Bring healthy, pest‑free seeds or plants to exchange… (not a requirement to attend)or just come to learn and take some home. All are welcome!

📅 Friday, March 20
⏰ 9:00–10:00 AM
📍 Eastville Community Center
17202 Courthouse Road, Eastville, VA

Free and open to the public; no registration needed.

Questions? Contact Hélène Doughty at [email protected] or 757‑678‑7946 ext. 3.

Let’s grow into spring together.

SpringGardening

Hope you will be able to enjoy this informative lecture.

The baby season is officially here. Here's the current status:

✅ ALREADY BORN:
- Great Horned Owl chicks — 3-5 days old, downy white fuzz
- Gray Squirrel babies — First litters emerging from nests
- Bald Eagle chicks — Hatching in southern states
- Some Cottontail litters — Very early, just starting

🤰 PREGNANT (Babies Coming Soon):
- Red Fox — ~2 weeks until kits
- Striped Skunk — ~8-9 weeks
- Raccoon — ~6-7 weeks
- Coyote — ~5-6 weeks

🥚 EGGS INCUBATING:
- Bald Eagles — Many still incubating
- Great Blue Herons — Colonies active
- Early Red-tailed Hawks — Starting soon

📅 UPCOMING:
- More owl hatching (Barred, Screech) — March
- Robin nesting — Mid-March
- Bluebird nesting — Late March

WHY THIS MATTERS:
- Don't seal entry points now (babies inside)
- Keep cats indoors (vulnerable fledglings)
- Drive carefully at dawn/dusk (mothers crossing)
- Check before mowing (rabbit nests in grass)

Baby season isn't coming.
Baby season is HERE.

Grow Your Own Patriotic Garden!
Celebrate America’s Semiquincentennial by planting a red, white, and blue garden right at home. Virginia Cooperative Extension has a full collection of Patriotic Gardens publications to help you design vibrant, meaningful landscapes—from spring bulbs to fall color, from native plants to corridor enhancements.
Whether you’re a home gardener, a community group, or planning a special project for 2026, these guides offer inspiration rooted in horticultural science and Virginia’s natural beauty.
✨ Did you know?
- You can create a red, white, and blue theme year‑round using seasonal plant combinations.
- Many native plants naturally fit patriotic palettes while supporting pollinators.
- Strategic corridor and entrance plantings can transform public spaces into living tributes.
- Spring bulbs like tulips and hyacinths offer some of the earliest patriotic color displays.
- Fall and winter gardens can still shine with red berries, white foliage, and blue‑green evergreens.
Explore the full series:
• 426‑210 | Patriotic Gardens: How to Plant a Red, White and Blue Garden
• 426‑211 | Patriotic Gardens: A Statewide Corridor and Entrance Enhancement Program
• 426‑220 | Patriotic Gardens: Bulbs for a Red, White, and Blue Spring Garden
• 426‑223 | Patriotic Gardens: Native Plants
• 426‑228 | Patriotic Gardens: Red, White, and Blue in Fall and Winter Gardens
Find them all at pubs.ext.vt.edu (https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/) and start planning your Semiquincentennial garden today. Don't hesitate to reach out to your local Extension office and our Eastern Shore Extension Master Gardeners for support!
🌼 Let’s grow something beautiful together.

Grow Your Own Patriotic Garden!
Celebrate America’s Semiquincentennial by planting a red, white, and blue garden right at home. Virginia Cooperative Extension has a full collection of Patriotic Gardens publications to help you design vibrant, meaningful landscapes—from spring bulbs to fall color, from native plants to corridor enhancements.
Whether you’re a home gardener, a community group, or planning a special project for 2026, these guides offer inspiration rooted in horticultural science and Virginia’s natural beauty.
✨ Did you know?
- You can create a red, white, and blue theme year‑round using seasonal plant combinations.
- Many native plants naturally fit patriotic palettes while supporting pollinators.
- Strategic corridor and entrance plantings can transform public spaces into living tributes.
- Spring bulbs like tulips and hyacinths offer some of the earliest patriotic color displays.
- Fall and winter gardens can still shine with red berries, white foliage, and blue‑green evergreens.
Explore the full series:
• 426‑210 | Patriotic Gardens: How to Plant a Red, White and Blue Garden
• 426‑211 | Patriotic Gardens: A Statewide Corridor and Entrance Enhancement Program
• 426‑220 | Patriotic Gardens: Bulbs for a Red, White, and Blue Spring Garden
• 426‑223 | Patriotic Gardens: Native Plants
• 426‑228 | Patriotic Gardens: Red, White, and Blue in Fall and Winter Gardens
Find them all at pubs.ext.vt.edu (https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/) and start planning your Semiquincentennial garden today. Don't hesitate to your Eastern Shore Extension Master Gardeners for support!
🌼 Let’s grow something beautiful together.

MASTER GARDENER VIRTUAL CLASSROOM: Welcome to a new year of MGNV Facebook posts. Each Thursday throughout the year, we will take you on a tour of the recorded presentations on our MGNV website, with seasonally-appropriate suggestions for talks on a wide variety of gardening topics, from composting and container gardening to weeds and wildlife. The subject headings pictured below are just a sampling of the content.
Each recording is accompanied by helpful handouts and resource lists and is broken into chapters to help you zero in on sections most relevant to your needs. No matter what your interest, you are sure to find reliable, science-based information to support your gardening endeavors.

Today is a good day for a reminder to address any tree issues before severe winter weather arrives! Dead limbs are the first to break off in a storm, and a dead limb tearing off does more damage than careful removal!

Tips for protecting your trees before storm season:

Look up: Regularly inspect trees for dead limbs, signs of stress, or early disease.
Remove hazards early: Prune dead or dying limbs before they break off on their own.
Don’t ignore past damage: Trees with previous injuries are more likely to fail in high winds.
Get a professional opinion: Have a certified arborist assess risky trees for hidden issues, such as root damage, weak branch attachments, or internal decay.
Plant for the future: When planting new trees, consider bare-root saplings, which develop strong root systems. Perform critical structural pruning in the first three to four years to ensure healthy growth.

Read more: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2025/09/ext-prep-for-fall-storm-season.html

First day of restoration work at the Onley Rural Health Center. Stay tuned for great things!

Mark your calendar for this informative FREE lecture on Sept 5!

🪴 Gardening hack to trim tall plants, hedges and trees! #gardening #trees #hedgetrimming

The Living Grove. The Hidden Life of Trees 🌳
A single oak can shelter over 2,300 species, a towering habitat of mosses, lichens, fungi, insects, birds, and mammals. Even the ash, though more slender in frame, supports nearly 1,000 life forms, its bark and branches alive with activity.

Trees hold back floods, clean our air, offer remedies, and stand as living links between generations, witnesses to the old paths and forgotten names.

In the lore of old, great trees were more than timber. Many believed each bore a spirit, a Dryad, a Tree Wight, or some quiet, rooted guardian. These weren’t mere fancies, but deep rooted ways of seeing the land as alive, sentient in its own slow, enduring way.

Such beliefs weren’t about superstition, but relationship. A way of listening to the woods, not just walking through them. Of noticing the hush before rain, the lean of branches, the language of birds and bark.

Perhaps we’ve not outgrown these old ways, perhaps we’ve simply forgotten how to listen.
And perhaps now, more than ever, it's time to remember.

So next time your path takes you beneath the branches, pause. You walk not just among leaves, but through a world teeming with life, and perhaps, something more.
-Woodlarking