NEIGHBORnwork grateful to be able to help those who care enough to ask about pesticide reduction, how to teach children about our world, what trees to plant, how to grow our own food, and so very much more about how to make our shared community a better place to live. I don’t always have all the answers, but it has been exciting to be able to do this job in a place where the need is great and where residents care enough to ask for and take my advice. Q: Where do you see Cooperative Extension going in the next 10 years? A: I work for a vibrant, dynamic organization. The mission of Cooperative Extension to share research-based education is simple and as profoundly important today as it was at its founding in the late 1860s. It is an institution with a great history and remarkable resiliency. Extension is unique. The model allows enough flexibility to address local need and has a core mission to provide its jurisdiction’s residents with research-based best practices that work. The traditionally free-of-charge Extension-provided services balance those provided by local for-profit businesses and support and expand the work of many non-profit organizations. Over the next 10 years, I feel that Extension’s work to educate about climate change, species migration, invasive plant and pest management, and urban agriculture will be in great demand. We are already seeing the results of climate change effects in our landscape. Consumers and businesses will need help in making better decisions about land use, stormwater management, chemical pesticide use, and soil health that Extension’s Agriculture Natural Resources program area is well-equipped to address. The growth of urban agriculture practices, home gardening, food production, and including outdoor learning areas on school grounds are other traditional areas of expertise that we are expanding. Q: Do you like to garden for yourself? If so, what plants are your favorites to grow? Any tips? A: I live in a townhouse with a small garden that gives pleasure perhaps because it is small. I can enjoy a place
to do a little gardening without feeling like it owns me. But I also garden at the Fairlington Community Center Teaching Garden, one of our six Extension Demonstration gardens. I also have a small community garden plot at the Chinquapin Community Garden in Alexandria, VA. I have a particularly soft spot for plants with blue flowers—Love in a Mist, Vitex, annual salvia, Nepeta, Russian sage—but truly, I don’t believe that nature’s colors “clash.” I love the riot of color of zinnias and cosmos and the deep, rich intense hues of poppies, peonies, clematis, and dahlias. My most-heartfelt tips for new gardeners are to first, cultivate the soil as carefully as the plants you want to grow. Second, get to know the plants in your own gardens and when you know these, learn the names of the trees at your school or church, and know about the plants you want to grow before you plant them: their mature size; their growing habits; their pests; their soil, moisture, light, and pH preferences. Lastly, become a serious student and emulator of other gardeners’ successes. Q: What else do you like to do in your time off from work? A: I am a beach person much more than a mountain person. I love the great open spaces where I can see the horizon and the sky, and have always had an affinity for the places from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean where I have had the good luck to live and play for many years. I travel quite a bit. I take my bike and my kayak to Delaware when I can get away. I have children and grandchildren in Canada and North Carolina, and other family members in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Florida, whom I love to visit with. And finally, great cooks often become great gardeners and I aspire to become better at both of these, although I am still learning after all these years.
450 volunteers in my two established programs that help to provide education and services to residents and that support county and city initiatives. I would love for more people to know about Cooperative Extension, to take advantage of what Cooperative Extension resources have to offer to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. I would also like for folks to understand that Extension operates county and city offices at the pleasure of your local government. If you have the good fortune to have access to the people and programs of Extension, thank your local county board, city council, or other representatives and support the funding that provides these services. Q: How can our readers contact you? A: My contact information is on our local office website: https://arlington. ext.vt.edu/. Folks can also contact our Extension Master Gardener Help Desk at mgarlalex@gmail.com for assistance with weed and plant disease management, household and landscape insect identification, and landscape troubleshooting. Our award-winning public education programs offer on-line classes, in-person classes, volunteer training support, and recorded classes at www. mgnv.org. o Jackie DiBartolomeo is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a staff reporter with The Campus Trainer.
Q: Is there anything else about yourself that you think our readers would be interested to know? A: My Agriculture Natural Resources program area serves both the residents of Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. We have about JUNE 2021
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