Know Your Weeds

If you are involved in weed management, the nursery industry in general, or are a landscaper or master gardener, consider signing up for one of UMass Weed Identification Workshops. Held at both the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain and at the UMass Amherst campus, the workshops are all-day affairs, incorporating a potted herbarium, walks outdoors, and the opportunity to bring in your own mystery weeds for identification.

Weed workshops are held in July and August, and have a registration fee of $95 each. They can be used as credits for Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professionals (MCLP) or Massachusetts Certified Horticulturists (MCH), or can count as 5 pesticide contact hours (for categories 29, 36, 37, and Applicators License). For more details, visit this UMass Extension website, or contact the UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery, & Urban Forestry Program at 413-545-0895 (email: eweeks AT umext.umass.edu).

Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts

Tuesday and Thursday of this week the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts held its annual Speaker's Program Workshop. I participated on both days and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet folks from garden clubs across the state (and to meet all the other speakers as well!), speak to them about this project, and encourage them to sign up for our Pest Alert email list.


The presentation was set up to have multiple panels that can be swapped out depending on the interests of the audience, with two pests per panel, plus the project logo and URL and two smaller panels describing the project in general. For the garden clubs, I featured:

• Asian longhorned beetle and the Emerald ash borer
  
• Viburnum leaf beetle and Daylily rust
  
• Giant hogweed and Mile-a-minute vine

It took quite a bit of work (and help from kind coworkers) to produce those posters, but they'll be getting a lot of use this year, I am sure.