Day of Learning and Sharing in Arlington
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Day of Learning and Sharing in Arlington

Amy Crumpton mans the Master Gardener booth at the annual Virginia Cooperative Extension Legislative Day on Dec. 2. The booth highlights the community demonstration gardens and the plant clinics held during the growing season. Crumpton says she took a 14-week program and then spent 50 hours on a project to get her Master Gardener title. “I got a strip near the Glencarlyn Library Community Garden parking lot, and my task was to make something grow in the dry, salty area. So I planted False Blue Wild Indigo, and New Jersey tea bush.”

Amy Crumpton mans the Master Gardener booth at the annual Virginia Cooperative Extension Legislative Day on Dec. 2. The booth highlights the community demonstration gardens and the plant clinics held during the growing season. Crumpton says she took a 14-week program and then spent 50 hours on a project to get her Master Gardener title. “I got a strip near the Glencarlyn Library Community Garden parking lot, and my task was to make something grow in the dry, salty area. So I planted False Blue Wild Indigo, and New Jersey tea bush.”

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

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Photo by Shirley Ruhe

Tannia Talento, new Arlington County School Board member and Cheryl Ramp, director of community relations for Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, discuss extension activities. In 2016, 887 volunteers spent 32,746 hours on extension activities in Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. This included 1,441 public education programs. Virginia Cooperative Extension works with Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, the commonwealth’s land-grant universities, to help people put scientific knowledge to work.

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Photo by Shirley Ruhe

Grace Richardson, an Energy Master Volunteer with Virginia Cooperative Extension explains how a thermal camera works. “It helps find where air is leaking, when warm air is escaping. The blue light means it is colder and when it turns red, it is warm.” The Energy Master program trains volunteers in energy efficiency and water conservation. Since 2011, 180 volunteers have helped more than 600 families living in affordable housing buildings in Arlington and Alexandria to decrease their energy and water usage.

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Photo by Shirley Ruhe

Ingrid Werber, an Arlington Regional Master Naturalist, explains the deer problem in the area. “They eat selectively, the best plants, and eat a lot in order to breed and this destroys the balance of the forest.”

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Photo by Shirley Ruhe

Jay Fisette, vice-chair of the Arlington County Board, visits the Master Gardener booth at the annual Virginia Cooperative Extension Legislative Day on Dec. 2 at the Fairlington Community Center.

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Photo by Shirley Ruhe

Despite no flag in sight, two 4-H members lead the pledge of allegiance at the Virginia Cooperative Extension Legislative Day at the Fairlington Community Center. 4-H is an Extension program designed to give youth hands-on learning to help them develop life skills.

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