Spring 2026 Master Gardener Volunteer Newsletter

April 1, 2026 Master Gardener Newsletter

In this issue…

From the President

“I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a row of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.”

– Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Old Manse”

If only the excitement, anticipation and new growth of Spring could transfer to late March when the snow departs from my garden beds and yard. The longer daylight hours bring a whole new brighter feeling to my days…but it’s so much more than that! There are so many other reasons why Spring is special (both new and re-experienced events): first day of yard clean-up, pulling up those driveway snow markers, eating out on an ocean side deck, first beach walks, thoughts of the upcoming strawberry season, seeing the first blossoms on my new peach trees (if they survived), garlic scapes emerging and the smell of lilacs and fruit trees in full bloom.  

As I write this in mid-March, my cold frame is disassembled in my shed, vegetable and annual flower seeds are waiting to get started indoors for the summer season. The peas my granddaughter plants annually wait in their packets, the asparagus bed still slumbers, but I check it each day for sprouts, and the cold crops are still but a dream, yet I am bursting with optimism for this season!  Certainly, while the growing conditions have not yet arrived, I have managed to stay on schedule this late winter (seeds have arrived, growing trays and lights are ready, garden planting rotations are planned and my seed inventory is done) which makes me hopeful for a wonderful growing season.

“I like to think of seeds as tiny archives of the past, storing information about who and where we’ve been, our decisions, challenges, and innovations, generation after generation.  We are all standing on the shoulders of the people who have come before us, and seeds are woven through that story.”

– Andrea Tursini, Introductory Letter to the 2025 High Mowing Seed Catalog 2025

While every month of the Maine Spring growing season is a busy month for gardeners, I would like to make my annual suggestions for things you might enjoy in the upcoming season:

  • Firstly, visit a neighbor’s/friend’s garden or stop by Tidewater. No matter how big or small a garden may be, there will be joy shared. Admire the array of choices, gardening skills, and seek to gain gardening wisdom and insights. The world looks like a much nicer place when we are in a backyard without emails, cellphones, political talk and the evening news.
  • Secondly, support our local horticultural vendors and Maine seed companies. 
  • Thirdly, involve and share your gardening expertise and time with young children. It is the perfect time to involve children as school ends and despite their many activities, they are more available. I am continually amazed by the children in my neighborhood and my two local grandchildren. They ask great questions and seek answers, simple answers, which are the best! “Poppy, when will the peas/tomatoes be ready?” While I grow a good quantity of peas, with my grandchildren eating them fresh off the vine in the garden, very few peas get into the house! Enjoy inspiring a “future master gardener.”

A few Cumberland Co MGV Advisory Committee updates:

  •  A big THANK YOU to Pamela Hargest for her patience, hospitality, expertise, and common sense supporting me and all that we do! 
  • The Advisory Committee has spent a great deal of time productively planning governance and reviewing our new guidelines. Be assured the Advisory intends to continue the commitment to our educational and food security missions.  It is our hope to strengthen the MGV committees and to provide a wider range of opportunities for volunteers to be included in leadership and advisory roles through our committees.
  • Our next advisory committee meeting is on Monday, April 27th.
  • A very positive MGV Plant Sale planning report has been presented. Thank you to everyone who will roll up their sleeves and contribute to our largest fund-raising event.
  • Again, please keep in mind and leave room in your growing season calendars for the Spring Fling (Thursday, April 16th, 5-8 PM Potluck, Wolfe’s Neck Farm), Annual Plant Sale (Saturday, May 23rd Tidewater Farm), Summer Gala (Wednesday, August 12th, Tidewater) and Annual Harvest Celebration (November 12th, Falmouth Audubon).
  • This is my last newsletter! Thank you for the privilege of sharing my thoughts and suggestions.

Enjoy the upcoming growing season. May it yield us not only a beautiful and bountiful harvest, but as importantly, tranquility.

Gary Hoyt

Cumberland Co MGV Advisory Committee Outgoing- President

From the MGV Plant Sale Committee

March is such a fickle month with temperatures fluctuating from record highs to frigid conditions.  Like many of you, we’re itching to start working in our gardens. One day we think about turning over the soil and the next day we’re hunkered down inside our homes.

Master Gardener Volunteers standing in the education tent at the 2025 plant sale
Master Gardener Volunteers at the 2025 plant sale

While the temperatures keep changing, one constant you can rely on is the Master Gardener Plant Sale.  We hope that you’re planning on volunteering for the annual fundraiser – our largest of the year, the proceeds of which fund a variety of MGV activities, especially the seed grant projects. This year’s event is scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend. We’ll be out there slinging plants on Saturday, May 23 from 9:00 am to noon at Tidewater Farm in Falmouth. 

In late April, you will receive an email calling for volunteers needed on the day of the sale.  There are multiple areas that would benefit from your expertise: perennials, annuals, veggies, gently used items, check-out, education and/or parking.  Make sure you sign up!  It’s a great way to meet your MGV volunteer requirements.

Between now and the day of the sale, several committees need assistance.  The Dig Team will be starting to transplant perennials from generous garden donors.  The Annual Flower and Veggies Team are starting their work, planting seeds, watering and transplanting.

Finally, as you start your spring clean-up, consider donating your gently used garden tools, decorative garden gear, and accessories.  Your clutter can become someone’s treasure.  The Gently Used Committee would love to receive your donation.  You can drop off these items at Tidewater Farm on Friday, May 22 between 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm or the morning of the sale before 8:00 am.

We look forward to working together to make this year’s plant sale a success!

Roots: Meet Emily Mazurak, Master Gardener Volunteer

Selfie of Emily Mazurak on a hike in a riverbed
New Master Gardener Volunteer Emily Mazurak

Originally from Bedford, New York, Emily now lives in Gorham, where her love of gardening has truly blossomed. After moving to Maine a few years ago, she was looking for a way to get involved in her community when a friend introduced her to the Master Gardener Volunteer program.

“With my background in public health, I’ve seen how powerful it is to understand where food comes from,” Emily says. “I loved the idea of helping people see how approachable gardening can be.”

Emily’s gardening journey began in 2010 with a small community garden plot in Washington, D.C. Over the years, and several moves, she continued gardening wherever she could. When she and her family settled in Gorham in 2021, they inherited raised beds and plenty of opportunity. Since then, she’s been transforming parts of her yard into pollinator-friendly gardens and is excited to try growing blueberries this year.

Her favorite thing to grow? Tomatoes. “There’s nothing better than snacking on cherry tomatoes right in the garden,” she says.

Like many gardeners, Emily has learned through trial and error, like the time she planted her garlic bulbs upside down her first year.

Outside the garden, Emily works as a school nurse in Westbrook and enjoys hiking and visiting local breweries. As an MGV, she’s excited to keep learning, growing, and giving back to her community.

Is there an MGV you’d like to know more about?  Please send their name to Heather Wiggins Berger for a future article.

Project Spotlight: Yarmouth Community Garden

Bunch of red garlic with stems attached after being harvested at the Yarmouth Community Garden
Freshly harvested garlic from the Yarmouth Community Garden

The Yarmouth Community Garden, located on the Frank Knight Preserve in Yarmouth, Maine, is not just a pretty place. In addition to the enjoyment that hikers and dog walkers get while strolling past the colorful garden, it has had an important role since 2003 in supplying over 67,000 pounds of organic vegetables for the Yarmouth Food Pantry and senior housing residents. This past year a whopping 4,456 pounds was harvested on approximately one quarter acre of land.

Bed of green plants at growing at the Yarmouth Community Garden
Thriving vegetable garden beds at the Yarmouth Community Garden

Yarmouth Community Garden consists of three areas, the production garden, a children’s garden used for educational camps in the summer, and a renter’s garden. Each area is overseen by a skilled, paid, part-time coordinator. Currently there are over seventy renters who grow an amazing variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers in 129 ten foot by ten foot plots. In return, the renters are required to volunteer six hours per plot in the production garden. It is their hard work that assists the garden coordinator in preparing, planting, weeding and harvesting the land. There are two scheduled mornings of work a week but volunteers come as their schedules allow, to weed or mow. The work creates a wonderful community feeling as the gardeners learn planting tips, share seeds and seedlings, assist each other and join in monthly potlucks.

More volunteer help is always needed. There are several dedicated volunteers who do not have a plot, but enjoy helping out. 1,206 volunteer hours went into the garden in 2025.

Color plastic baskets full of harvested produce at the Yarmouth Community Garden
Produce donations from the Yarmouth Community Garden

The big question each year is determining what, and how much, the garden should grow. The Steering Committee relies on feedback from the pantry and the senior residents who are our customers. An interesting trend is that as our state becomes more diverse the demand for certain vegetables has changed. The garden is now growing crops such as hot peppers, sweet potatoes, and a variety of greens as well as staples such as onions, potatoes and carrots for more traditional tastes. Seedlings come from Bumbleroot Farms in Windham at no cost as well as through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners Program.

The garden benefits many people in the community, not just by providing food, but serving as a serene haven for artists, photographers, and residents of all ages. It benefits the environment with its native pollinator garden, beehives and organic practices, demonstrating that it is so much more than a pretty place.

If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to Ellen Wash.

We’re looking for volunteer projects to feature in our Master Gardener Volunteer Newsletter. If you are interested in having your project featured – or if there is a project you would like to learn more about – please reach out to Kerri Frazier.

Ask an MGV: Tips & Tricks for your Best Garden Yet

Q: This has been the coldest climatological winter in more than 10 years for much of the state. It’s gotten me wondering how plants can survive in such low temperatures, especially those that set buds in the fall like rhododendrons. What is it in their structure or make up that allows this to happen? 

A: [Answer excerpted from Jonathan Foster’s article in the Cooperative Extension’s Garden and Yard newsletter]

Before we get to the actual mechanisms, it’s important to frame the answer in an ideal ecosystem that the plants in question have evolved and acclimated to – proper geographical placement for the species, predictable seasonal shifts, an methodical decrease in temperature in the fall and increase in temperature in the spring, adequate precipitation/irrigation, etc. Plants, especially flowering plants, thrive on routine with regular shifts in seasonal conditions. They will, of course, adapt to changes from year to year, but those adaptations may have an impact on processes like flowering. Tragically, climate change is forcing these changes at a rate many plants struggle to adopt. All of that to say that plants, like all organisms, will perform their functions better or worse depending on conditions and resources.

With that large caveat out of the way, let’s talk about the amazing way plants protect overwintering flower buds! Internal ice is the real enemy during the cold months. Obviously, plants are full of water and when that water freezes, it expands into crystals that burst or pierce plant cells, destroying them. In fact, what actually kills the cells is massive leakage and dehydration upon thawing, which is why cold damage on plants often turns soggy. Sudden, early or late hard freezes can kill unprepared plants’ tissues by freezing before mitigating circumstances are in place. But if the plant has properly prepared, there are two mechanisms that guard against ice: extracellular freezing and deep supercooling.

Extracellular freezing occurs when the plant actively pumps water out of living cells into (1) the vast network of empty space between cells in a plant anatomical region called the apoplast or (2) the reinforced cells in the freeze-tolerant bud scales that surround the flower bud. Ice that forms in the apoplast has a lot more room to expand into without damaging living cells. And bud scale cells are hardened with stronger cell wall tissues and reinforced architecture that can withstand ice for a longer period of time (and they’re ultimately less important than the bud tissue below, and therefore expendable if they do sustain damage).

Deep supercooling is an ancillary mechanism that happens as a result of basic chemistry. When the water is pumped out of the cellular solution inside living cells, the internal solute concentration becomes higher, which lowers the solution’s freezing point. Water can actually remain liquid well below freezing temperatures if the conditions are right, though in plants this capability varies widely by species.

So, to your question, cold-hardy rhododendrons tend to allow bud scales to take the brunt of internal freezing by moving water into those zones in preparation for freezes and to maintain the bud tissues themselves lower down in supercooled, usually ice-free conditions.

If you want to go deeper, you can check out these additional references:

We want to help you with your gardening questions and issues. To get help from your fellow MGVs, submit your questions to Heather Wiggins Berger.

Upcoming Events

Spring Fling 

Please join us for the Master Gardener Volunteer 2026 Spring Fling scheduled for Thursday, April 16, from 5-8pm at the Smith Center at Wolfe’s Neck Center. Celebrate the arrival of spring with our annual gathering. Enjoy guest speakers, a potluck dinner, and the company of your fellow volunteers to kick off the season. RSVP today!

Speaker Series 

The Education Committee is pleased to present the following learning opportunities:

  • Wednesday, April 15: Nature Site Walk with Amy Witt Orris Falls Trail | 9 AM – 11 AM |  South Berwick |  $7.50 (payable on the day of the walk) | RSVP to Barbara Dee to reserve a spot | This walk is not designed to include dogs

The Orris Falls trail winds through a diverse habitat featuring a balancing rock (large glacial erratic), beaver wetlands, Orris Falls 90-foot gorge, overlooks with views of Mt. Agamenticus, and a historic homestead foundation from the 1800’s.  The walk is approximately 3 miles out and back.   Orris Falls, 551 Emery’s Bridge Rd · South Berwick, ME

Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions for workshops and presentations.  Keep the suggestions coming to Barbara Dee. 

University of Maine Extension Events

Community Events

MGV Updates

Ava at a young age wearing a pink cowboy hat and tan gardening gloves working in a raised gardening bed
Ava working in her mom’s garden as a kid

Welcome, Ava Sharpe! 

Ava, the Cumberland County Extension Office’s new Administrative Specialist, is new to Maine from Austin, Texas, but recently lived in Western Massachusetts while studying at Mount Holyoke College. In her role as the Agriculture and Horticulture Administrative Specialist in Cumberland she is excited to help support the work that Master Gardener Volunteers do, and to get to know MGV projects in the county and beyond. Ava has a background in science and community education, a passion for maps, and a love of reading. She looks forward to meeting you at the MGV Spring Fling or Plant Sale, or at another time soon!

We’re hiring a Tidewater Farm Food Security Apprentice!

The Tidewater Farm Food Security Apprentice is based at the University of Maine Gardens at Tidewater Farm, in Falmouth, which promotes the Harvest for Hunger Program and provides education opportunities for children and adults. This position will focus on vegetable production and food security initiatives at Tidewater Farm and in the Greater Portland area with the Cumberland County Gleaning Initiative, including but not limited to:

  • Assisting with general field work, planting, record-keeping, tool maintenance, irrigation, harvesting and pest management at Tidewater Farm.
  • Supporting gleaning initiatives on-site and in collaboration with the Cumberland County Food Security Council.
  • Delivering gleaned produce from local farms to community partners in the Greater Portland area.
  • Communicating with garden visitors about their horticulture needs and providing research-based answers to their horticulture-related questions.

This position is a part-time (16 hours/week), temporary position from May 26 – November 14, with an hourly rate of $20.90. Apply online here!

Kudos to You! 

New this spring: Share your appreciation for your fellow master gardener volunteers. Whether it’s pulling weeds or showing up with great energy, let your fellow volunteers know how much you appreciate them. Fill out the kudos form.

Past Editions: We are in the process of making past editions of the newsletter easier to find. All CCMGV newsletter editions will be available on this Master Gardener Newsletter page soon! Thanks for bearing with us as we do some digital spring cleaning!

About this Newsletter: The Cumberland County Master Gardener Volunteer Newsletter is edited by Clarissa Brown, Kerri Frazier, and Heather Wiggins Berger. If you would like to submit an event, article, or help with any aspect of the Newsletter, please contact Heather Wiggins Berger, the newsletter coordinator.