Master gardeners "adopt" program

By CAROL WERSICH, Courier & Press staff writer
(812) 464-7452 or cwersich@evansville.net

Jessica Brandi Lifland / Courier & Press Beth Meyer does some Japanese bonsai style gardening in an adopt-a-spot plot of land adopted by the Baha’i Faith. The plot is just outside her home on Parrett Street. The plots behind her also are adopted by local residents and groups

Adopt-A-Spot
The 2001 Adopt-A-Spot program will kick off at 9 a.m., May 19, at Outlook Pointe, an assisted-living community on Galaxy Drive, off North Green River Road, just south of Lynch Road. The team of master gardeners participating this year will be introduced. Flowers, mulch, weed-control chemicals and other gardening items, donated by area businesses, will be distributed to the adopters, who are present, to help them get started.
To adopt a spot
Call Christine Wezet at Operation City Beautiful, 425-4461.

Operation City Beautiful has been encouraging novice gardeners to adopt public spots for 27 years.

This year, the Adopt-A-Spot program — the organization’s oldest — is getting some sprucing up of its own by a team of area master gardeners.

Christine Wezet, program coordinator for the nonprofit agency, announced Wednesday the agency plans to coordinate its efforts with the Purdue University-certified master gardeners.

It will mark the first time that the agency has called upon the gardeners as a group for help with the program.

So far, nearly 20 of the gardeners have volunteered to share their knowledge with adopters of an expected 100 spots.

Each member of the Southwestern Indiana Master Gardeners Association was certified after completing an extensive horticulture course and contributing 40 hours of community service in gardening.

Ken Colbert, a director of Operation City Beautiful and a master gardener, came up with the idea of having the master gardeners involved.

In recent growing seasons, he and some of his cohorts in the association informally evaluated the area’s adopted spots along thoroughfares, street corners, boulevards, parks and side streets.

“We saw that some needed some serious attention. Some plant selections were inappropriate. And some areas were weedy and weren’t maintained as well as they could have been.”

He said the master gardeners will be able to offer advice in what plants will best tolerate a shortage of water.

“We also can suggest plants for providing the best color presentation and help the adopters identify weeds,” Colbert said.

Susie Gumberts, a lifetime director of Operation City Beautiful, has served many years as a master gardener and as a master flower show judge.

“I think it’s great that the master gardeners are getting involved because they are genuinely interested," she said, hoping to join the effort.

Wezet identified the participating master gardeners so far as Colbert and his wife, Patricia, and Teresa Alexander, Kent Carpenter, Connie Fitzsimmons, Glenda Bott, Patty Lackey, Beth Ann Langlois, Margaret Purdue, Kay Haller, Ernie Hicks, Judy Schneider-Kron, Becky McDonald, Shirley Haller, Donna Hamilton, Jonalee Jones, Jayne Bland and Susie Bruder.

In an effort to encourage more businesses to adopt spots, officials of Operation City Beautiful plan to include the company logos of businesses involved on the agency’s Adopt-A-Spot signs, Wezet said.

Ameristamp, which donates the signs each year, is helping with the effort.