Rockbridge Area Master Gardeners Association

10/16/2026

10/15/2026

Fall is here and it’s time to reflect on the gardening season and start dreaming about next year. Join us for our November public program on perennials to be held at Kendal. Free and open to the public!

Saturday, November 7, 2026
10:30am
160 Kendal Drive, Lexington, VA

10/15/2026

Historical Garden Harvesting
The kitchen garden at the Jackson House Museum greets the Museum’s guests with an abundance of thriving produce. Though the signage and Museum literature, the visitors learn about what an 1850s family garden may have grown. Of interest is the herb section of the garden where an impressive rosemary plant is thriving.
The JHM garden team has generously shared their harvested produce with RARA’s Neighborhood Grocery adding their gatherings to the Giving Garden donations. On a recent delivery, their hard work produced 2 lbs. of cantaloupe, 1.4 lbs. of squash, 15 herb cups (dill, rosemary, basil, and parsley) and 6 lavender bouquets.
The garden team is partnering with the JHM staff in planning a free educational program about fall gardening practices on September 27 at 2:00 p.m. This Fall Kitchen Garden Workshop will focus on all things “autumn planting” including seed saving, cover crops, horseradish planting, and care of iris. Participants will have the opportunity to take home an iris to plant in their own garden. With programs such as this, the JHM garden team is about more than just a pretty historical garden to tour and admire. They educate.

10/13/2026

Back to School at Waddell

Photos by Peggy Agnor, Sarah Margalus, and Debbie Desjardins

The Waddell “Roots and Shoots” Garden had a presence at the Meet the Teacher Night. A table, representing the Master Gardeners, was set up in the entrance hallway with posters and brochures to introduce the school families to the Garden. Each family was invited to visit the Garden during their time at the Back-to-School event.

One highlight of the Garden visit was an opportunity to name the Garden fish. Students also were invited to harvest carrots and lettuce that they remembered planting in the spring. Master Gardener, Christoper Keeble assisted children with watering plants. According to Christopher, “some of the water actually got on the plants”. A total of 50 families took the opportunity to visit the Garden.

Starting on Thursday, September 10, Garden lessons will begin. Kindergarten grades through fifth will have the opportunity to practice hands-on application of the concepts being taught in their Living Systems and Earth Resources classroom studies.

10/11/2026

And So, It Begins. Fall Garden Lessons at Natural Bridge Elementary School

With kids back in the classroom, the school garden at Natural Bridge Elementary is also a place of learning. The first lesson of the 2026/2027 school year was experienced by first graders as they investigated the basic needs of plants. A skit created by the Master Gardener team featured Nancy Stikes, in a medical smock complete with stethoscope, as the Plant Doctor who offered a diagnosis of a sick plant. An additional part of the lesson offered the students the opportunity to inspect real plant samples and to locate the part of the plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower). These concepts are linked to the first grade Living Systems and Earth Resources classroom studies. Of course, no gardening lesson would be complete without the official garden tour led by Bobbie Lahah.

Other lessons include kindergarten learning about the concept of living and nonliving. Second grade will explore how weather changes affect the growth of plants with third grade witnessing firsthand how their school lunch waste is turned into compost which is added to the soil in the school garden. Fourth grade will observe how invasive plants are dangerous to the Virginia natural ecosystem. Fifth grade will have the honor of harvesting their potato crop that was planted during the spring of their fourth-grade year. The NBES garden team and the teachers work closely together to plan effective and fun learning experiences for all students at the school.

10/09/2026

Lexington Community Festival- August 29, 2026

Photos by Theresa Noe and Tamara Teaff

It was almost a weather miracle that the Lexington Community Festival was held on a perfect summer day. In past years, it was usually hot and humid or a rainy-day event. RAMGA was well represented with two booths.

One booth shared the mission of the Extension Master Gardeners though our famous brag board and multiple educational handouts. In that exhibit, materials were shared on ticks, the spotted lanternfly, and methods to eradicate the tree-of-heaven. Master Gardeners informed visitors to the booth that the tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is a high-risk invasive w**d tree that crowds out native plants, damages infrastructure, and serves as the primary host for the destructive spotted lanternfly. Barbara Walker, event organizer, reported that 150 people visited the booth. A total of 6 RAMGA volunteers greeted the visitors. Seed Savers had a sampling of free seeds and gave away about 250 seed packets.

The second booth was hosted by the Compost Coaches and Plant Clinic teams. People stopped by to learn about the science of composting as well as to ask personal horticultural questions. Marybeth Sharkey fielded the Plant Clinic questions while Barbara Walsh, Jeff Young, and Phyllis Fevrier worked the Compost Coaches table in the morning with help in the afternoon by Cristopher Keeble. Phyllis reported that “We all stayed busy up to and thru the closing hour!”. The Compost Coaches reported making contact with 65 people.

A new addition to the RAMGA booth was a bookmark created for young gardeners who visited the booth. Created by Sarah Margalus, the bookmark featured gardening picture books that are available at the Rockbridge Regional Library. The titles of the books follow:

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global seed Vault by Megan Clendenan with illustrations by Brittany Cicchese

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart with illustrations by David Small

Thank a Farmer by Maria Gianferrari with illustrations by Monica Mikai

Uncle John’s City Garden by Bernette Ford with illustrations by Frank Morrison

Whose Garden Is it? by Mary Ann Hoberman with illustrations by Jane Dyer

10/07/2026

Congratulations to Hayden Payne for completing 50 volunteer hours to receive certification to become a Cooperative Extension Master Gardener volunteer. Shown with Hayden are members of the Buena Vista Community Garden team.

10/05/2026

Throughout the month of August 5 to 10 volunteers showed up each workday to w**d, water, harvest, and replant. Garden workdays continue to be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As a result of these volunteering efforts, 2184.58 pounds of produce have been delivered to the RARA Neighborhood Grocery this summer. ( Note that the Jackson House Museum Historical Garden added their August harvest to that total. )

The produce delivered include Heritage tomatoes, Juliet tomatoes, kale, summer squash, zucchini, sweet and hot peppers, bush beans, cucumbers, banana peppers, okra, Bella Rosa tomatoes, Swiss chard, Jalapeño peppers, beets, heirloom yellow and green tomatoes, and pole beans. Cups of basil, rosemary, and parsley were often included in the deliveries along with bouquets of zinnias.

As soon as a plant completed its cycle of production, it was removed to be replaced by another such as mustard greens, collard greens, two varieties of spinach, spaghetti squash, and sugar snap peas. Tatsoi and senposai greens as well as radishes and turnips filled out the rows where the cabbage had previously grown.

The month of August brought its share of challenges. The Garden experienced drought conditions only to be followed by almost flooded fields. Several workdays were cancelled due to wet fields. And there were the crows who felt the newly seeded plots were completed especially for them. This required inventive crow proofing of the newly planted crops. Bug Patrol was ever present.

W**ds continue to be a never-ending battle. Purslane, which many consider as a garden w**d, was “out-of- control” in the garden. However, the garden team developed the perfect solution. Instead of fighting it, they decided to eat it when they learned that it is a good source of Omega-3 and Vitamin C. As a result, a recipe evolved. The recipe is as follows.

Mediterranean Purslane Salad

Ingredients

3 cups fresh purslane, washed

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 cucumber, diced

¼ red onion, thinly sliced

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

¼ cup Kalamata olives (optional)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Remove any thick, tough stems.

Combine purslane, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and olives.

Whisk olive oil and lemon juice together.

Toss with vegetables.

Sprinkle feta on top and serve immediately.

W**d it and eat it!

10/05/2026

Master Gardener Volunteers know how to party! We feasted at our annual picnic today and also recognized our volunteers with milestone hours. Some even received silly hats! 👏👏👏

10/01/2026

Congratulations to Cindy Georgallis who completed her 50 intern volunteer hours and is now a certified Extension Master Gardener volunteer. Pictured with her are members of the RAMGA Help Desk team.