Do you use or supervise the use of pesticides for producing an agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by you or your employer?

Do you apply pesticides on property owned by another person, without compensation other than an exchange of personal services?

If you answered “yes”  to any of these questions, the State of New Hampshire requires you to have a private applicator’s pesticide license. UNH Cooperative Extension will be conducting training sessions for individuals who are not presently certified to apply pesticides and those whose private applicator licenses have expired due to lack of required re-certification credits.

This training is free, thanks to New Hampshire Department of Agriculture’s IPM Grant Program, although participants will need to purchase a manual in order to study for the state exam. Please note: no re-certification credits will be issued for attending this workshop.

Register for training and order your study materials online
Just click on the link below for your county’s training session, or contact Rachel Maccini, Pesticide Safety Education Program Coordinator at 629-9494 ext. 130.

All trainings take place over two consecutive days: Fridays, 4:00 pm – 9:00 p.m. and Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. – noon.

Presenters include Bill Lord, retired UNH Cooperative Extension fruit specialist; Becky Grube, sustainable horticulture specialist, and Amy Ouellette, agricultural resources educator in Belknap County. In most cases, county Extension educators will lecture at their home county training sessions.
                                               

Hundreds of beautiful poinsettias in a huge array of colors await visitors to the first Poinsettia Trials Open House at the University of New Hampshire Research Greenhouses December 6-8.

This collaborative event brings more than 80 poinsettia varieties developed by breeders to New Hampshire growers and the general public. If you visit, you can help researchers by recording your favorites from among many new and different varieties, including some that aren’t yet available for sale and are being shown for the first time.

The Poinsettia Open House will begin on Wednesday, December 6 and run through Friday, December 8. Hours will be 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. A broad selection of the many poinsettia varieties will be available for purchase on all three days.

Metered parking will be available at the UNH Visitor Center across from the greenhouses. Please join us in celebrating the season by exploring the amazing diversity of poinsettias.

People who come together to tend a vegetable garden produce much more than food. They get the camaraderie of work, a sense of community, a bond to the land, food for the soul and a lower weekly grocery bill.

This has definitely been true for the 12 Somali Bantu, Sudanese, and Meskhetian Turk families who have been coming together weekly since early May to tend their plots in the Brookside International Community Garden in Manchester.
           
Started in 2005 on the initiative of Master Gardener Riekie Sluder and I, the garden has thrived. This year it almost doubled in size, to 4500 square feet. In August the families harvested as much as 150 pounds of okra, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, herbs, and flowers. That’s amazing, considering that this was the most difficult growing season in several years.

The community garden is a partnership between Brookside Congregational Church, the International Institute of New Hampshire and UNH Cooperative Extension. For the church, which contributes the land and water, it’s about community outreach. For the Institute’s Anne Sanderson, “it’s about helping immigrants become integrated into American life. They learn about scheduling, punctuality and arranging for transportation. They get a chance to grow foods from their native homeland. They begin to understand that there are people trying to help them adjust to life in America.” And that last item sends a powerful, positive message indeed.
           
For the UNH Master Gardener volunteers, it’s all about the people. It’s about bridging cultural differences, about learning to communicate with sign language, smiles and body language. It’s about the pleasure of working in a garden with others on a sunny summer day. It’s about teaching, But, most of all, it’s about joy.
           
The experiences shared within this disparate group of gardeners build memories that will last a long time. Some are fabulous, some humorous, some bittersweet. Some are poignant, like the day a church member and her mother paid a visit to the garden. They had been arranging the funeral of the church member’s grandmother. The member’s mother, grieving and tearful, was able to connect with Romena Fatkulina, a young Turkish mother who speaks some English, and who had lost her own mother recently. The visitors stayed to work in the garden for a while. They found the experience healing and said they’d come again.
           
The week after planting, the refugees and Master Gardeners cooked a meal for each other in the church kitchen. Each group prepared dishes they would be cooking from the vegetables they hoped to harvest. The Master Gardeners prepared a vegetable omelet, two salads and mint tea. The Africans cooked a delicious casserole using goat meat and vegetables. The Turks made a stir-fry using potatoes, green vegetables and what they thought was chicken, but which turned out to be pork—forbidden by their religion. Apparently, the specified ingredient got lost in translation to the shopping list. But once the mistake was revealed, the gardeners good-naturedly traded dishes and enjoyed themselves despite the confusion.

All these immigrant groups have close relationships within large, extended families. At one time or another, most of the gardeners bring some of their children with them. The children generally learn to speak more English faster than their parents and often become their interpreters. Children will ask for the English names for common objects used in the garden. Then they try to teach the Master Gardeners the words in their native languages. You can guess which group is more successful!
           
Here’s a conundrum for you: Romena asked one day, “Why are American grocery stores full of boxes? Don’t Americans know how to cook?” Apparently her apartment building houses seven Turkish families, some Sudanese and one American family. The Americans, she noted, always eat convenience food. That’s food for thought.
           
As the season winds to a close, the gardeners will be harvesting butternut squash and cabbage to provide some food this fall. We’ll clean up the garden and begin planning for next year, incorporating some of what we’ve learned and chuckling over other parts.

In 2004 the city of Manchester alone helped to settle more refugees than settled in 23 other states. Because of the generosity of donors, the partners and volunteers, Brookside International Community Garden has helped to create a warm welcome for a few of these refugee families. If you’d like to donate to the garden, please contact Margaret Hagen or phone (629-9494).

By Margaret Hagen, Hillsborough County Agricultural Resources Educator

The wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa L) is a fairly common roadside plant in New England. A mature plant can grow about 45 inches tall. It’s considered the same species as cultivated parsnip and is also closely related to the wild carrot (Queen Anne’s lace). The parsnip has yellow flowers and Queen Anne’s lace has more feathery foliage and white flowers.
 
Some species in this plant family, including wild parsnip, can cause a painful, blistering rash if you cut or break the foliage, get the sap on your skin, and then get exposed to sunlight. The skin discoloration can last for months after the rash subsides. The term for such skin reactions is phytophotodermatitis. Many local physicians are unaware of this plant-caused skin reaction and attribute the problem to poison ivy.

The chemicals that cause this reaction are called furocoumarins, and occur in the leaves, stems and seeds. A related plant, giant hogweed, can cause even more severe burns.

The picture here is of a roadside plant in Lee taken August 1.The flowers have mostly gone by, but the seeds are highly visible. Apparently this plant is more common in northern parts of New Hampshire than in the seacoast, where I live. A colleague suggested I experience the dermatitis myself to get first-hand photos of the injury. No thanks!

If you want to eliminate wild parsnip plants on your property, you have a couple of options. Just mowing or cutting them down won’t eliminate them, because they usually re-sprout from the roots. (Plus it might expose your skin to the sap.) Cutting off the taproot just below the soil line with a shovel is an easy method if you have only a few plants. Wear gloves, long pants and long sleeves to protect your skin if you choose this approach. Dispose of the plants in the trash to ensure the seeds won’t get carried off by small animals or the wind to sprout somewhere else.

If you have a lot of wild parsnip plants, chemical controls might be appropriate. Spraying the foliage with the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup, Kleenup and other brands) is one effective alternative. Be sure you follow label directions and precautions when using this (or any other pesticide).

But remember, chemicals may not be appropriate in some situations where special restrictions apply. Check state and local regulations before you spray near wetlands or surface water bodies and highway rights-of-way, for example. Also, if your home drinking water supply relies on a shallow (“dug”) well, you may want to avoid spraying any pesticide (or other chemical) within a 100-foot radius of the wellhead.

By Alan Eaton, UNH Cooperative Extension Entomologist and Pest Management Specialist

This spring about a thousand New Hampshire landowners will slice the newly-defrosted ground to create thousands of welcoming holes for tree and shrub seedlings bought from the State Forest Nursery.

Howie Lewis, nursery forester, calls his nearly 40-acre nursery one of New Hampshire’s best- kept secrets. Lewis says the nursery produces a unique product. “We provide something nobody else does – tree and shrub seedlings native to New Hampshire, with seeds picked from specimens grown right here in the state. When you buy from the state forest nursery, you know the plant is suited to grow here.”

In operation in Boscawen since 1910, the nursery grows more than 50 species of trees and shrubs for reforestation, Christmas trees, and wildlife, and sells them at affordable prices. Seedlings, sold on a “first come-first served basis” include conifers, such as white, red and Scotch pine, Norway, blue, red, and white spruce, concolor, balsam, fraser and douglas fir, and hemlock.

The nursery offers many other species, including arrow-wood, crabapple, fragrant sumac, grapes, highbush cranberry, dogwood, rose, nannyberry, beach plum, elderberry, winterberry holly, bayberry, hazelnut, red oak, cedar, sugar maple and white ash. Special “packages,” each containing an assortment of 25 shrubs and/or trees, include a Christmas tree sampler and special wildlife-and-songbird, wetlands, native species, and winter survival packages.

Besides being one of his best sellers, balsam fir is Lewis’ personal favorite. “I’ve worked with this species the most. I follow seedlings from the parents in the seed orchard through to watching them grow in the seedbed.” Balsam fir is a customer favorite because it has that classic evergreen smell. Seedlings sell out, so nursery staff suggest you order early.

Ordering starts in January and ends March 30. “When you are in the nursery business, spring starts a different time each year,” says Lewis, “So we ship to a county pickup point in late April or early May, whenever the seedlings can be lifted from the ground.” Customers receive a card in the mail announcing the pick up dates. “We work throughout the year getting ready for the spring shipment and hope we have many new customers this year.”

Lewis is enthusiastic about his trees and shrubs and hopes “New Hampshire’s best kept secret” is known by all.

By Karen Bennett, UNH Cooperative Extension Forest Resources Specialist

More information:

• To receive a catalog, contact the N.H. State Nursery, N.H. Division of Forests and Lands, P.O. Box 1856, Concord, NH 03302-1856, or call 603-271-3456.
• View the State Nursery catalog and order online.
• Planting and Care of Tree Seedlings
• Establishing the Christmas Tree Plantation

Dreaming of a better garden? Love to mingle with fellow gardeners? Do we have a day for you!

The New Hampshire Master Gardener Association and UNH Cooperative Extension invite you to the 4th annual Welcome Spring! Garden Symposium, Saturday, March 25, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott Grappone Center in Concord.

Radio/ TV personality and gardening humorist C.L. Fornari will deliver the keynote address, offering ideas on garden design and how to use concepts from other gardens in your own landscape.

A dozen workshops presented by UNH Cooperative Extension horticulture staff and outside experts include: For Meat and Medicine: A Look at Herbs and Their Uses; Orchids are Easy; Daffodils 101; Water Gardens; Great Lawns for Less Money; and Shade Gardening “Beyond Hosta.”

The cost is $38 for NHMGA members, $48 for non-members and general public includes refreshments, buffet lunch, displays, books and a chance to bid on items in the silent auction.

Participants must register by March 18. To register, download this brochure. To receive a brochure in the mail, contact Karen Firmin at (603) 279-0763.

Topsoil. Some biologists call it the most precious stuff on earth. It takes nature 500 years to make an inch of it.

In the past 30 years topsoil has become a hot commodity in New Hampshire, removed by land developers and sold to meet the swelling demand from homeowners and businesses looking to establish or improve lawns and gardens.

Land scarcity in many areas, combined with new building techniques, allows construction on steep, rocky sites once considered unbuildable. This makes importing topsoil the only option for home or business owners who want a lawn or garden on those sites.

The soil you buy might have come from recently-cultivated farmland, from a recently clear-cut tract of forest land, or from a long-abandoned field. It might contain herbicide residues that could inhibit germination of some of the plants you want to grow. It might be full of roots and rocks or undesirable weed seeds.

A vendor might even have adulterated the original topsoil with a lot of additional sand, adding commercial wood ashes to darken the final product. On the other hand, some topsoil vendors manufacture a superior growing medium, amending native topsoil with just enough wood ashes to bring its pH into the optimum range for lawns and gardens, then adding compost to boost the soil's water- and nutrient-holding capacity.

Like most states, New Hampshire has no regulations defining quality standards for topsoil or governing its sale. To protect yourself, experts suggest learning as much as possible about the soil you plan to buy before you buy it. Consider it worth your time. After all, you can't take this product back to the store!

This list of guidelines from experts will help boost your confidence that the topsoil you buy will grow good vegetables, fruits, flowers, or a nice lawn:

• Know your supplier and ask about the source of the topsoil he or she sells. If a vendor has advertised an "amended" product, ask for the 'recipe'-in writing.
• If you plan to buy your soil from a garden or landscape supply center, ask the vendor for the product's test data. If the vendor hasn't had the product tested, ask for a small sample and have it tested yourself. Call the UNH Cooperative Extension Info Line (1-877-398-4769, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.) for information about soil testing.
  
  At the very least, soil experts say, the soil analysis should include pH (a measure of the relative acidity of the soil) and soil texture class (a classification based on the relative percentages of sand, silt and clay particles in the soil).
  
  While you can raise or lower a soil's pH and add nutrients, you can't realistically change a soil's texture. Look for a texture classification of loam or sandy loam. Soils with a high percentage of sand won't hold water or nutrients well, while high-clay soils won't drain well and can become extremely difficult to work.
• If you haven't seen the topsoil, ask if the vendor has screened the loam to remove rocks and roots. For the right price, you might find yourself willing to rake them out yourself if the price is right, but it's definitely something you'll want to know about up front.
• Don't buy a product that has a chemical smell or other off-odor. Vendors might have adulterated the topsoil with petroleum-contaminated soils or other potentially toxic waste products.
• Occasionally, topsoil stripped from former farmland may contain herbicide residues that could hinder crop germination. If you have concerns about residues, take a soil sample home, plant a few seeds in it and see if they germinate well. Herbicide residues can affect some crops but not others, so plant a variety of different seeds, especially if you plan to plant a vegetable garden in this soil. The process of test-germinating seeds will also help a prospective buyer determine if the soil is infested with difficult-to-control perennial weeds, such as quackgrass or thistles.

Whatever its source, the topsoil you buy may lack organic matter, important for holding moisture, improving soil structure and retaining plant nutrients. Add plenty of organic matter in the form of compost and animal manure. Make sure to compost manure before adding it to soil that will grow food crops, or plant a cover crop and turn it under before planting vegetables.

Finally, make sure to incorporate both the organic matter and the purchased topsoil into the existing soil, rather than simply spreading the new soil on top. Plant roots grow best in a single zone of topsoil.

By Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension Master Gardener

Worm composting (or vermicomposting) is a natural and efficient way to recycle your organic kitchen scraps. And it sure beats plowing through knee-high snowdrifts to the compost pile in the middle of winter! Worm bins really require very little in the way of maintenance and care. You can keep them anywhere the temperature will not go down to freezing such as a basement, insulated garage or under the kitchen sink. The best temperature range is 55-77 Fahrenheit.

This is a great project to do with kids; it's easy to make compost using worms as long as you have the right container, bedding material and the right worms. And the finished product, consisting mostly of worm castings, can be used with perlite to make a houseplant potting mix, added to planting holes when transplanting seedlings, or simply incorporated into flower or vegetable beds.

You can either make your worm bin yourself or order it from a number of different sources (listed later). Common materials for a do-it-yourself project are opaque plastic storage boxes and wooden boxes built from exterior-grade plywood. A basic design would be 1 foot high, 2 feet deep and 3 feet wide with aeration holes in the bottom. Depending on the size of your container, you'll need to drill 8 to 12 holes (1/4-1/2 inch in size) in the bottom. A simple cover can be made from a sheet of black plastic. A cover will help conserve moisture and provide darkness for the worms. A box this size will accommodate about 6 pounds of kitchen scraps a week (the average amount from a family of 4-6). You will need to keep the bin elevated at least an inch off the ground for air circulation. Place a tray underneath to capture excess liquid which can be used as liquid plant fertilizer.

The bottom of your bin will need to be lined with a 2 to 3 inch layer of bedding material. Cellulose-based materials like shredded newspaper, corrugated cardboard or coarse sawdust are best. Tear newspaper or corrugated cardboard into 1 to 2 inch-wide strips. Before putting bedding material into the bin, dampen it with lukewarm water until it has the same moisture content as a wrung-out sponge. Adding a little garden soil or leaf mold to the bedding will provide microorganisms for the composting process and grit for the worms' gizzards. Check your bedding at least once a week to make sure it stays damp. Add water if necessary by misting with a spray bottle.

After spreading the bedding over the bottom of the bin, you're ready to add worms! What worms do you buy? Of the 17 species available in North America, you want redworms or red wrigglers. You can buy them at a bait shop or through mail order. You want redworms because they can process large amounts of kitchen scraps, don't mind confined spaces, reproduce well in culture and tolerate a wide range of temperatures. For the bin described above, you'll need about 2 pounds (about $25-$35). You'll get between 600 and 1,200 worms per pound. They will be red and from 2 to 4 inches long. Put your worms on top of the bedding and watch them quickly burrow to escape light.

Now comes the fun part, feeding your worms. Put leftover kitchen scraps into the bin: vegetables, fruit rinds and peelings are great. Bread, coffee grounds, cereal, crushed eggshells, pasta or rice and houseplant clippings are also okay. Food should be cut into small pieces and buried in the bedding every few days. By covering food waste with a few inches of bedding, you avoid odors and pests (like fruit flies). Rotating the burial places in the bin will provide your worms with a balanced diet of kitchen scraps and bedding. As with outdoor compost, you want to stay away from meat, bones, oils and dairy products.

After 6 or 8 weeks of feeding the worms, most of the bedding should be gone and a dark, crumbly soil-looking material should be in its place. Now it's time to harvest. Do this by pushing the nearly finished compost to one side of the bin. Put fresh moistened bedding with some fresh garbage in the vacant side. Over the next few weeks the worms will migrate to the new bedding, and you can harvest. Take the finished compost out, and put fresh bedding in, starting the cycle all over again.

On occasion, unpleasant odors may waft from your bin when it is overloaded with food waste. If this occurs, gently stir up the entire contents to allow more air in. Stop adding food waste until the worms and micro-organisms have broken down what is in the bin. If that doesn't solve the problem, check the drainage holes to make sure they are not blocked. Drill more holes if you need to. If the moisture level seems right, the bedding may be too acidic due to a lot of citrus peels and other acidic foods. Adjust by adding a little lime and cutting down on acidic wastes.

Discourage fruit flies by always burying food scraps and not overloading the bin. If flies persist, move the bin to a location where the flies will not be bothersome.

If you're interested in more information on worm composting read Mary Apelhof's book, Worms Eat My Garbage (1997) or check out the Worm Digest.

The following are sources for composting supplies and worms:

• Flowerfield Enterprises-10332 Shaver Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49002.
  (269)327-0108
  
  
• Gardeners Supply Co.-128 Intervale Rd., Burlington, VT 05401
  (800)833-1412, minimum 2lb order-available mid-March to November
  
  
• Vermico, Peter Bogdanov - 4425 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532
  (541)476-9626
  
  
• Willingham Worm Farm-Route 1, Box 241, Butler, GA 31006.
  (478)862-5545, e-mail: wworm@gnat.net
  
  
• Worm World - 26 Ihnat Lane, Avella, PA 15312-2106. (724)356-2397

The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has money to help New Hampshire farmers and woodland owners with 70 different conservation practices, through the national Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP).

UNH Cooperative Extension and NRCS are working together to see that the conservation goals of the funding are met.

For farmers, EQIP funds nutrient management plans, animal waste storage facility, cover crops, composting facilities, contour farming and feed management practices; WHIP pays for field restoration, brush cutting, release of fruiting trees and shrubs, and other practices that improve wildlife habitat.

For woodland owners, EQIP and WHIP fund forest stewardship plans, access roads, site preparation, tree planting, forest stand improvement, and stabilization of roads, trails and landings.

NRCS State Conservationist Tessa Chadwick says the financial and technical assistance programs can “help farmers and forest landowners address resource concerns on agricultural working lands, promote environmental quality, address challenges in water quality and quantity, protect prime farmland and grazing land, and protect valuable wetland ecosystems and wildlife habitat on private lands.”

The deadline for signing up for the cost-sharing programs is February 17, 2006, though we encourage landowners to apply immediately. If you are interested, contact your local NRCS or UNH Cooperative Extension office today.

By Karen Bennett, UNH Cooperative Extension Forest Resources Specialist

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about federal cost-share programs for landowners

A team of 93 community volunteers organized by Carroll County Extension Master Gardeners picked, washed, boxed 12,500 pounds of surplus vegetables from Sherman Farm in East Conway and distributed them to food pantries and senior meal programs throughout the county last summer.

Their generosity served more than 23,000 vegetable meals valued at more than $15,000 to residents of Carroll County who might not otherwise have had access to fresh vegetables.

Organized last year as an Extension Master Gardener initiative, the Veggie Volunteer Program (VVP) links volunteers with Sherman Farm, a diversified dairy, livestock and vegetable farm whose community-spirited owners had long wanted to find a way to get their crop surpluses to people in need.

In addition to the fresh food it distributes, the VVP offers important educational benefits. “Volunteers from the community get to see a working farm in operation,” said Carroll County Extension agricultural and environmental stewardship educator Tina Savage. “Many people are unfamiliar with how and where vegetables grow. Visiting the farm helps them develop an understanding of the value of working farms, local food and open space.”

This year the VVP expanded to include an after-school program, called the Sprouts. “Children in the program learned about human nutrition, plant nutrition, food safety, and the food guide pyramid,” said Savage. “The Sprouts finished up with a trip to the farm to help with the harvest and tour the whole operation.”

Future plans for the VVP include writing and publishing a how-to manual that will help other counties and other states develop similar programs.

Donating food in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Food Bank, which expects to distribute nearly 4 million pounds of food in 2004 to emergency food pantries and soup kitchens throughout the Granite State, can provide information about where to donate food in your community. Call 669-9725.

Hunt for the Hungry
The Food Bank also manages a program that accepts donations of whole or processed game animals. Call 669-9725 for information.

Dear Cooperative Extension,

First I tried planting them pointy side down, roughly two inches deep, watered them faithfully, waited a week--but nothing came up. So I bought another dozen, and this time I planted them the rounded side down, gave them the same care, an even threw in a few handfuls of 10-10-10 fertilizer. It’s been two weeks now and still none of my eggs has germinated. I‘ve wanted to raise chickens ever since I was a small child growing up in the city. Please tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

The reply came in the next day's mail: Sorry, we are unable to determine the nature of your problem until you’ve had your soil tested. Please find enclosed the required form, which includes sampling and mailing instructions.

Generations of county extension educators across the nation have shared this “true story.” While it’s good for a chuckle, it also illustrates just how serious (some would say fanatical) we in Cooperative Extension feel about soil testing.

Whether you tend a postage-stamp backyard garden or lawn, or a large acreage of food or forage crops, having your soil analyzed by the UNH Analytical Services Lab is a bargain you can’t afford to pass up. For the price of a couple of hamburger meals you’ll receive a detailed soil analysis from a state-of-the-art testing facility, along with crop-specific recommendations of what to do. Following through with these recommendations will save you money, help you grow a better crop, and improve your soil environment.

We suggest fall as the ideal time to have your soil tested. Because the lab is less busy in fall than in spring, you’ll probably get your results faster. If your test indicates a need to raise your soil pH, remember it can take three to twelve months for a lime application to produce the desired change. A fall lime application gives you a head start on the process. Although you can also apply compost in fall, wait until spring to apply fertilizers to avoid the possibility of nutrient leaching and runoff.

To get all the information you need to submit a soil sample for testing, visit the Analytical Services Lab. Each of the following downloadable forms contains information on how to take a representative sample and get it to the lab:

• Home gardeners: Vegetables, Lawns, Small Fruits and General Landscaping Form
  
• Commercial Fruit, Vegetable, Turf, and Landscaper Form
  
• Corn, Forage, Pasture, Biosolids Spreading
  
• Greenhouse and Nursery Form
  
• Understanding Your Soil Test Results
  This fact sheet will help you interpret the report you receive from the lab.

By Steve Turaj and George Hamilton, UNH Cooperative Extension Agricultural Resources Educators

Whether you tend a postage-stamp backyard garden or a large acreage, having your soil tested is a bargain you can’t afford to pass up.

For the price of a couple of fast-food meals you’ll receive a detailed soil analysis from a state-of-the-art testing facility, along with crop-specific recommendations for amending or fertilizing your soil. Following through with these recommendations will save you money, help you grow a better crop, and improve your soil environment.

The lab gets busiest in spring, so get your sample in as soon as your soil thaws enough to sink a spade into it.

To find all the information you’ll need to collect and submit a soil sample for testing, visit the Soil Testing Web page or visit your county Extension office in person.

If you love both gardening and sharing your gardening experience with others, consider becoming a Master Gardener volunteer. Extension Master Gardeners are trained volunteers who share their enthusiasm for gardening with the general public. After completing a 10-week program that covers basic botany, soils, pest management, home lawns, growing vegetables, small and tree fruits, annual and perennial flowers, and more, participants give a minimum of 45 hours of volunteer service.

To date, we’ve trained more than 600 Master Gardener volunteers who have provided thousands of hours of volunteer service to their communities through a variety of activities coordinated through local county Extension offices and our Family, Home & Garden Education Center in Manchester.

Applicants can choose one of three Master Gardener trainings:

• The County-based Master Gardener program. Participants in this program take part in a variety of county-based community horticultural projects. Please note that Hillsborough County Applicants must intern for the Info Line before participating in County based projects.
  
• UNHCE's Manchester-based Family, Home & GardenEducation Center program. Master Gardeners participating in this program will staff the toll free Info Line to respond to a variety of questions related to growing things (families as well as gardens).

• A special North Country class. This year, we’re offering a special evening class in Lancaster for North Country residents. This class will feature local instructors.

Volunteer training will be held in the fall of 2005. The county based class will meet in Concord on Thursdays, from September 29 to December 1. The Family, Home and Garden Education Center class will meet in Manchester on Tuesdays, from September 13 to November 29. Both sets of classes run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Lancaster class runs from mid September to the end of October.

The cost of the Concord and Manchester trainings is $175.00; the Lancaster class costs $100. Scholarships are available based on need.

To download an application, visit the Master Gardener Web site. If you have questions about any of the three Master Gardener programs, call Pam Doherty at 629-9494, ext.120.

Savvy farmers and gardeners consider regular soil testing the most cost-effective crop insurance available.

For the price of a couple of fast food meals, a home gardener or commercial grower can receive a detailed soil analysis from a state-of-the-art testing facility, along with crop-specific recommendations for what to do. Following through with these recommendations will save you money, help you grow better crops, and improve your soil environment.

You may have heard that the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture will close its Durham testing lab soon. It’s true. But, as we’ve done for more than a century, UNH Cooperative Extension will continue to provide a comprehensive soil testing service to New Hampshire farmers and home gardeners.

Logistically, nothing will change for you. Sampling and mailing procedures remain the same. Costs won’t change. When you send your samples to UNH, Extension staff will forward them to a state-of-the-art laboratory at Pennsylvania State University for analysis. Based on the lab’s analysis, Extension soil experts will make recommendations specific to New Hampshire’s climate and soils.

New, improved reporting system

Not only will Cooperative Extension continue making soil recommendations, we’ve improved our reporting system.

• The new system reflects new research findings, including the latest research on environmental risks from nitrogen and phosphorus movement.
• Home garden reports will contain the results of a lead screening test, with guidelines for minimizing risks to children.
• We’ve improved the readability of our reporting format.
• Each report will refer you to the latest fact sheets related to the crops you plan to produce.
• The new system gives you the option of receiving your report and recommendations by email. Those who don’t wish to receive their results online can still choose to receive results by U.S. mail.

We’ve posted new forms and more detailed information about our soil testing services

You can also request copies of the forms and information you need by calling or visiting your local UNH Cooperative Extension office.

Information for home gardeners:

• Understanding Your Soil Test Results
  
  
• Home Gardening Fact Sheets
  
  
• Information for Commercial Growers
  Click on general category of interest at left side of page to find specific information and fact sheets

More than 60 Cooperative Extension Advisory Council members, educators, legislators, county commissioners, business owners, and community members turned out September 20 to hear a panel of Coos County residents talk about their relationship to the University of New Hampshire and Cooperative Extension. The afternoon program was followed by remarks from UNH President Ann Weaver Hart and a discussion designed to generate ideas for further collaborations between UNH and Coos County. Attendees included.

Hart called Cooperative Extension “one of the greatest resources that our American culture has ever had,” noting not only the distinct partnership between the land-grant university and county, state and federal governments, but also its ability to change with the times to address critical issues facing individuals, families and communities.

While Hart’s daylong visit focused on Cooperative Extension, she talked about several partnerships between UNH and people living and working in Coos County—from an undergraduate research project on moose habitat in Milan to an upcoming project with UNH’s Carsey Institute and the Androscoggin Valley Partnership Project that will explore workforce development in the region.

Hart also noted with pride that about 340 students from Coos and Grafton counties attend UNH. Of those, 142 were named to the Dean’s List last semester.

This was Hart’s fifth county visit, having previously visited Merrimack, Rockingham, Strafford, and Grafton counties.

Panelists describe long-time ties to UNH and Extension

Most of the panelists had some connection to UNH Cooperative Extension as members of 4-H clubs when they were children. John Scarinza of Randolph highlighted the breadth and scope of what Cooperative Extension offers. Scarinza has tapped the expertise of Extension educators for his work on the Randolph Planning Board, his membership with the tree farm program, and his work with the New Hampshire State Police, when Extension educated him on timber harvesting laws. He noted that Cooperative Extension keeps current with changing times and technologies, pointing out one of its publications, How Not to Get Lost Using GPS.

“Extension is an invaluable resource to myself and the communities up here,” Scarinza said.

Michelle Pimental of Berlin talked about how an Extension program called LEAP— Lifeskills for Employment, Achievement and Purpose— turned her life around, enabling her to strike a balance between work and family, manage her time, and find and take advantage of community resources.

Describing Cooperative Extension the “front door to the university,” community leader Bill Joyce of Stark called Extension a true partnership. “The staff works with you, and I’ve never been disappointed.”

When Clare Hinkley Valley arrived in Berlin 21 years ago, she soon connected with UNH and was hired as an adjunct professor of nursing so that she could educate nurses in the area on the latest research and techniques. “UNH has been instrumental in the success of nurses in the North Country ,” she said, adding that she feels excited about new collaborative research between UNH Nursing Professor Susan Fetzer and area hospitals.

Fred Sullivan, owner of Sullivan’s Greenhouses in Lancaster, the largest greenhouse operation north of the Lakes Region, has been connected to UNH and Cooperative Extension since he was a small boy, earning the distinction of having the best 4-H garden in New Hampshire when he was 10 years old. “The advice we give to our customers has come from the expertise and programs at UNH,” Sullivan said, noting in particular the information on greenhouse management and the use of micronutrients, the latter applying the research of UNH Professor Paul Fisher.

County Conversation generates new ideas and concerns for the future

The conversation that took place after the panelists spoke covered a range of topics, from providing better North Country access to New Hampshire Public Television, to more connections to high-speed Internet access for residents.

Several people asked Hart and others to consider using Coos County as “a learning lab,” using the 10,000-acre Randolph Community Forest as an example.

Issues that are facing the region, according to attendees, include the out-migration of young people who leave and don’t return, the lack of spare time opportunities for youth between the ages of 13 and 20, and the in-migration of families in need of social services the county can’t provide.

Earlier in the day, President Hart traveled to Gray Mist Farm in Groveton, where Nancy and Gordon Gray operate a diverse family farm operation that works closely with Extension agricultural specialists and field educators.

by Kim Billings , UNH Media Relations

The new program means that a New Hampshire company grinding organic grains into muffin and pancake mixes, producing organic yogurt or cheese, or turning organic maple products into a line a line of maple-flavored organic salsas can have its processing operation certified in-state and its products bearing a New Hampshire certification label.

Richard Uncles, supervisor of DAMF's Bureau of Markets, said organic processors themselves came forward to help develop and push the enabling legislation, "on the grounds of affordability and a desire to maintain a strong New Hampshire brand identity for their products."

"New Hampshire processors had discovered it was a very expensive proposition to hire an outside certifier," Uncles said. "With the new program, we'll provide certification as a service, charging only enough to cover our costs.

"Also, New Hampshire processors wanted to maintain their own state identity with a New Hampshire 'brand' label," said Uncles. "They told legislators it looks kind of strange to have to market products bearing another state's organic label."

Meeting national organic standards
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