ZONE 3 is located in Southwestern Ontario and includes the Master Gardener groups: Elgin County, West Elgin, Essex-Windsor, London- Middlesex and Sarnia-Lambton.

London/Middlesex Master Gardeners

The  group evolved out of the Green Thumb Movement from the late 70's and early 80's. The London/Middlesex group, sponsored by the Provincial government, was one of the pioneer groups of this new interest in gardening. We began in 1985 with only a hand full of members enthusiastic in filling the void and volunteering with our expertise and garden knowledge to the general public. In the early years we were given some financial assistance by the London Horticultural Society, which continued until about a decade ago as we became self-efficient.

We met once a month at the London PUC greenhouse and set up a information telephone line at the greenhouse which was manned by the Master Gardener voluneers every Saturday morning. We still maintain that information hotline where the public can call with their questions or concerns. Only now they call seven days a week at a time convenient to them and we return their call  with the answers to their inquiries. Over the years and we still currently give presentations and lectures to area horticultural societies and at Fanshawe College, London Public libraries, London PUC, and Lee Valley. We also have an information booth/display at the annual London Home & Garden Show and in September at the Western Fair.

We are very fortunate to have one of the charter members still active in our group and two other members with more than twenty years of dedicated service. Even though we are a relatively small group for the demographics of the London area, we are still very enthusiatic about gardening and educating people.

Our group has a significant presence at the Home and Garden Show and the Western Fair. We give a large number of presentations to Lee Valley, city of London public courses, libraries and hort societies. Our members do a lot of writing and one appears regularly on the local 'A' Channel Morning Show as a Master Gardener.

Our Hotline is 519-473-9727
Our website is http://www.londonmiddlesexmastergardeners.com/
Contact person is Coordinator Nancy Abra  

Essex-Windsor Master Gardeners

HISTORY   
The Essex-Windsor Master Gardeners began on January 4, 1986.  Thirty-eight people took a qualifying test to becoming MG assisted by Ian Rumble, AG representative from Essex County.  He also assisted the group in getting started. Charlie Bowyer was the first Coordinator for five years.
About 1990 the North American International Master Gardeners Conference was held in Detroit, Michigan, a border city to Windsor.  Margaret Snyder, Beth Brennan, Florence and Charlie Bowyer were among the MG who worked at this event.
For years the MG met in Essex AG office with afternoon office hours.  In 1996 the Conservative Government under Mike Harris cut all funding and MGOI was created of which our group is a member. 
Presently, we encompass the City of Windsor and the entire Essex County with group representation from Essex, Kingsville, Belle River, McGregor, Cottam, Tecumseh, Woodslee, Harrow and Tilbury.  Many of the present members have been with the group since its inception.

EXECUTIVE
The present Executive for 2010 are: 

     Coordinator – Juliette St. Pierre     Co-Coordinator – Beth Salter
     Secretary – Christine Childs
   

ACTIVITIES
The Essex-Windsor Master Gardeners’ group has a gardening column in The Windsor Star’s Discovery section of the Saturday edition.  This column is written in a question and answer format, at the request of The Star and is our primary fundraiser. 

We also attend at Colasanti’s every Sunday from September to May from 1 to 3:30 p.m. helping customers with their gardening questions.  We provide a similar service at Rona's and Canadian Tire. We work hand-in-hand with Plant-a-Row-for-the-Hungry.  We attend at garden shows, country fairs, seniors’ days, take part in various speaking engagements.  We do not have an official website.

We have a hotline telephone number (519-561-6328) staffed by three master gardeners on a regular basis with two more master gardeners added during the peak summer months.  We also have an email at essexwindsor@mastergardeners.fastmail.fm . Three or four master gardeners respond to the home gardeners’ questions via this route.

One could contact our group by either calling or emailing a member of the executive.

At present we are a group of about 20 people.  We meet at DeGroot's Nursery on the first Tuesday of the month (from September till June) at 7:00pm.  Summer meetings are held in a member's garden.

The Sarnia-Lambton group was one of the three trial groups that were sponsored by OMAF in 1984 (or 1985?).  It consisted of members from Sarnia and the Brigden area.  In the 1980's the group was featured on the community TV channel with an interesting gardening series. 
We host a garden tour every June featuring 10 “gardeners’ gardens”. We call them “gardener’s gardens” because they need to be something that a homeowner could potentially do themselves (versus gardens that are landscaped professionally). We like to feature different types of gardens each with a different theme.   A few of our members particpate, when asked, in the local radio show gardening show Saturday mornings.

Website Address  www.sarnia.com/mastergardeners
Contact Information:  mastergardeners@ebtech.net
Hotline Number: 519-542-4312
Coordinator:  Jim Sylvester 

West Elgin Master Gardeners

The group started in October 2004 with a couple of MG members that felt a group in the West Elgin area would be beneficial.  Since then the group has grown to 10 members, with a few changes of membership over the past couple of years, but we have managed to retain the majority of our original members. We currently have a member who travels from the east end of the county and another one who travels from the central part of the county.  The majority of our group is from the western part of the county, since we all live and work in this area.

This year we decided to designate 2 co-ordinators for the group as most of us work fulltime and the responsibilities of organizing a new group takes on many facets.  We meet on a monthly basis, usually the 2nd Wednesday of the month.  We are very fortunate to have a historical tourist location that we meet at - Backus Page House, located south of Wallacetown.  During the winter months we meet at various club member's homes.  Since meeting at the Backus Page house, the group has been able to create and design a vegetable garden and a flower garden that would have been typical during that time period of settlement (1870's).  Both of these projects are on going.  We have also been fortunate to participate in an education day (usually end of May) that has primary school aged children touring the grounds and interacting with period time events. 

We also have had exposure at our two local fall fairs, displaying information booths and conducting demonstrations.  Those two events are currently in the works again for September.  Some of our members speak at our local horticultural groups/community organizations/schools on a regular basis.

Our next big project that we are undertaking is a Tech Day scheduled for next year, August 23
to be held at Lakeview Gardens located in Eagle.  We are currently in the process of securing some speakers and sponsors for the day's events.  Lakeview Gardens has not only provided us with a meeting room but has graciously allowed us the opportunity for guests to tour their greenhouses/gardens/gift shop/restaurant that day.  We are excited about this upcoming project.

If anyone is interested in contacting us, it can be done through our coordinator:

Coordinator: Susanne Spence Wilkins

Elgin County Master Gardeners

The Elgin County Master Gardeners was formed in 1995 by Diane Vaughan and Dale Smith. A bout 40 gardeners were interested in the program but only 20 continued with the courses.  We were the last group to be funded by OMAFRA.

Elgin County is located along the north western shores of Lake Erie, from west of Rodney in the west  to west of Tillsonburg in the east, and north, almost to London.  The City of St. Thomas is our central community.

Over the past 12 years many gardeners have come and gone.  Presently, our group includes  4, 12 year Master Gardeners,   2, 11 year Master Gardeners and 2 Master Gardeners In Training.

We get involved in many activities in the area.  But we are best known  for our annual gardening seminar and auction  "Digging in the Dirt", also for the Booklets, on specific gardening topics, we make and sell.

We are very supportive of the International Master Gardeners Conference  with 5 attending the last conference.

To contract our group---Helen Smith at 519-773-9621, or
                                       Diane Vaughan at 519-633-3213