Katie Bishop – Vegetables
Sunday / 12:30-1:30 / Classroom B
Katie is originally from Florida. She grew up on a backyard farm and always enjoyed the outdoors. When she married, her husband’s job moved them throughout the Southeast. They moved to Chattanooga in 2008 and she took the Master Gardeners class in 2009.
As a part of the Master Gardeners class, Katie helped clear the land for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank garden. She helped plant the first garden there in 2010 and was hired to manage the Food Bank Garden, a position she held for about 8 years. She was also hired at the UT Extension office as a program assistant for about 9 years, mostly teaching vegetable classes. She has retired from both positions over the last two years. Now, Katie is gardening, traveling and enjoying the good life!
Scott Drucker – Landscape Design Principles and Curb Appeal
Saturday / 12:30-1:30 / Classroom B
Scott is a landscape designer and installer. He has a large working knowledge of horticulture and works hard to incorporate diverse and beautiful ornamentals in his designs. He also tries to integrate as many native plants as possible in his designs to aid in ease of maintenance, to help the pollinators, and to provide food for birds and other wildlife.
He gives a variety of garden lectures on topics such as: Heirloom Gardens, History of American Landscape Design, Impressionism and Gardening, and Winter Interest in The Garden.
Steve Dykstra – Hardscapes
Saturday / 1:00-2:00 / Classroom A
Steve Dykstra is co-owner of Bursting Blooms Landscape Design & Construction. He has a BS in Ornamental Horticulture from the University of Tennessee with a concentration in landscape design and landscape construction. He is an ICPI and Belgard certified paver patio builder and retaining wall constructor. With over 20 years of hands-on experience in every step of the hardscape process from dreaming and designing to installation, Steve has completed hundreds of hardscape projects in the Chattanooga and north Georgia areas.
George Gannaway – Daylilies
Sunday / 11:30-12:30 / Classroom A
George is a native of Chattanooga went to public schools and Georgia Tech. Graduated as a Civil Engineer and spent 2 years in the U S Army as a paratrooper and then 32 years with ATT.
George’s grandmother raised daylilies and he has one of her hybrids. The plant has been passed down through the family. George and his wife, Ginny, moved into their present house almost 12 years ago. He moved several of his daylilies from his previous home and he and Ginny have continued to add daylily ygarden areas and different varieties to their gardens. They presently have almost 175 different varieties.
George and Ginny joined Master Gardeners in 2013. They are members of the American Daylily Society and the local daylily club, Tennessee Valley Daylily Society, where George is the secretary.
Fran Geier – Shade Gardening
Sunday / 11:00-12:00 / Classroom B
Fran Geier is the Certification Officer for MGHC. She and her husband moved from the Chicago area to Chattanooga 11 years ago. She became a Master Gardener in 2013 to learn about the flora and fauna of her new home and become involved with her new community. Her main interest is native plants and creating an environment for birds, pollinators and woodland animals to thrive. She and her husband are involved with the Friends of Mountain Creek, an organization that is working to assure greenspace for the area and to protect a 200 year old post oak that has been measured to be the tallest post oak on record.
Rosy Harpe – RainSmart Yards
Sunday / 1:00-2:00 / Classroom A
Rosy Harpe – After graduating with honors in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Rosy returned to her roots in Chattanooga to garden and intern with WaterWays. This year she accepted a role as the RainSmart yards coordinator with WaterWays, working with homeowners to encourage sustainable stormwater practices in their yards and homes, while maintaining her own native plant gardening business with her partner. She loves to talk about plants and mushrooms, water management, city policies, and the free homeowners program she helps to run. Please ask her any questions you may have!
Lisa Lemza – Trees
Saturday / 11:00-12:00 / Classroom B
Lisa Lemza certified as a Master Gardener in North Carolina in 2002 after retiring from the United States Army, and has been active in the program ever since. She is the co-chair managing the community garden, pollinator gardens, and urban wildlife habitat in Brainerd’s dense urban corridor at Grace Episcopal Church. When not in one garden or the other, she is usually found canoeing a nearby river or hiking with her dogs. She has been on the governing board of the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Wild Ones for 6 years, and is an avid native plant advocate, teacher, and gardener.
Lisa recently worked with MGHC to make the GreenGrace Arboretum and Grounds at Grace Episcopal Church on Belvoir Avenue a Master Gardeners Certified Project.
Carlton Mathes – Soils
Saturday / 3:30-4:30 / Classroom B
Carlton retired from TVA after working for 28 years – most of that time was at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant. He is married, has two daughters, and one cat.
He attended the Master Gardeners beginner/newcomer class before he retired. After he retired, he took the master gardener class in 2011.
His focus has been on vegetable gardening in raised beds, construction of raised beds, bluebird habitat, rain barrels and yard art.
He is the lead on his church’s 13 raised beds that we constructed in 2011. They have donated the produce to the Chattanooga Foodbank. He started a pollinator garden at the church in Spring of 2021.
He is part of the team that established the Tri-State Bluebird Society in Spring 2021. They have installed fourteen bluebird trails in Hamilton County.
Currently, he is the President of Master Gardeners of Hamilton County for 2022 -2023.
Kevin Mathews – Nature Photography
Saturday / 2:30-3:30 / Classroom A
Kevin’s interest in photography began when he got his first camera from his grandfather at age 6. In high school he was a member of the photography club and took photos for school events. Currently, Kevin is a member of the Photography Society. Because of his love of the outdoors, nature photos became his passion. He has taken photos from the tallest mountains to underwater wonders and all in-between. A few years ago he entered a photo contest with the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. After summiting 10 photos, one made it all the way to the last 10. He did not win the contest which had a prize of $100 but instead a collector saw his picture of the perfect iris and paid him $300 for the print. While working as an IT guy for a local company, the personal director saw some of his photos and decided they were better than the current paid photographer so he bought Kevin a state-of-the-art camera and asked that he take the pictures of the properties for publication. With today’s cell phones, you can take pictures equivalent to cameras in the thousand-dollar range with just a little knowledge of the settings. That will be the subject of today’s class.
Ron McKitrick – Gardening for Wildlife
Saturday / 2:00-3:00 / Classroom B
Ron was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His first memory was being with his parents in a post-World War 2 Victory Garden in southern Illinois. Since that time Ron has considered himself a gardener.
Academically, his training is Terrestrial Ecology and has worked as a Wildlife Biologist and Ecologist for 30 years. Beside his love of gardening, other hobbies include photography, bird watching, volunteer work, and playing with his grandkids.
Today he lives in Ooltewah, TN where he and his wife (Terry) built a house to be near family. When Ron looked at the soil around the new house, he decided that Native Plants will have the best chance of survival and have the added benefit have attracting wildlife.
In 2018 Ron became a Master Gardener of Hamilton County (MGHC). He served as the intern class representative to the board. After becoming a MGHC he served on the Board and was the Vice President. As as Master Gardener, Ron has given talks to Flower Clubs, presentations on Native Plants to Third Saturday classes, Beginning Gardening Classes, as well as to MGHC intern classes on Native Plants and Gardening for Wildlife. Ron helps in a Vet Center Gardening Program two times a month as well as having a MG table at Ooltewah Farmers Market once a month. Ron also coordinates the MG advisors that helps others to start Gardening projects. As you see, Ron loves to share his experience of gardening with native plants and his love of wildlife.
Mike Payne – Turfs
Saturday / 11:30-12:30 / Classroom A
Mike is a lifelong gardener. He learned gardening from his Grandfather on a 5 acre farm in Soddy-Daisy. Mike was in the first MGHC class in 1994 and has been an active Master Gardener ever since, accumulating over 3,800 volunteer hours. His favorite part of Master Gardeners is being able to give back the knowledge to make the Tennessee region a more beautiful place to live in the future for our children and grandchildren.
Mike’s accomplishments include:
- Hamilton County Master Gardener: Vice-President in 1994; President in 1995
- Tennessee Master Gardener State Board for 6 years and was President for 2 years
- Tennessee Master Gardener State Advocate Co-Chairman since inception 2002
- Committee Chairman for the Rain Garden / Aquarium Hummingbird & Butterfly Gardens
- Head of the Beginner and Newcomer Gardening Classes for 22 years
- Has taught 18 different presentations for the Master Gardener program
- Head of Food Bank Greenhouse Committee (Help raise $26,000.00 for building purchase and save the Food Bank $15,000.00 by leading the construction Committee)
- Did the original Design for the Chattanooga Downtown Library garden
June Puett – Preserving Fresh Food- Canning & Freezing
Sunday / 1:00-2:00 / Classroom A
June is the Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent with the University of Tennessee Extension in Hamilton Count. With degrees in education and a passion for helping others learn, she teaches a variety of topics ranging from food preservation to fall prevention to money management and more! She’s always looking for volunteers & community partners to expand her outreach. She enjoys traveling and getting her hands dirty and her feet wet.
Tom Stebbins – Insects, Pesticides & Diseases
Saturday / 4:00-5:00 / Classroom A
Tom Stebbins recently retired as the UT Extension Agent for Hamilton County. Prior to that job, Tom worked at the UT Plant & Pest Lab in Nashville for eight years. In that position he used microscopes and special tests to identify over 2000 insect and disease problems each year. He received his Masters Degree from Michigan State University. During his tenure as Extension Agent, Tom taught a class for 60 new Master Gardeners each year. He has served as an advisor to the Chattanooga Association of Landscape Professionals and the Tennessee Valley Beekeepers Association. He has often appeared on TV, talks on radio and contributed to the Chattanooga Times Free Press and other publications. Tom feels that gardening provides healthy exercise as it teaches us about our food sources and many associated environmental issues.
MaryBeth Sutton – RainSmart Yards
Sunday / 1:00-2:00 / Classroom A
Mary Beth earned her BS with Highest Honors in Environmental Science from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and continued her education at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earning an MSPH in Environmental Science and Engineering as well as an MAT in Science Education. She taught at several schools in the Chapel Hill, NC and Chattanooga areas and got her immersion in nonprofits while Executive Director of the Chattanooga Nature Center. She founded Caribbean SEA (Student Environmental Alliance) in 2004 as a grassroots organization to help communities in the Caribbean learn about and take action to protect their water and their health. She added a Tennessee chapter in 2008 to focus on education and action to reduce stormwater and other issues for our waterways. After working in the Tennessee River basin for 10 years, Caribbean SEA was rebranded to WaterWays in 2019 to better reflect their mission. WaterWays works closely with local stormwater departments and many other partners to encourage grassroots community education and action for our streams and rivers. WaterWays is a proud recipient of the Tennessee River Basin Network Communication and Outreach Award for 2020 and TWO BRIC (Building Recognition in Chattanooga) Awards for Best Sustainable Project and Best Collaborative Project with our partners at Propex. When not wading (or snorkeling) in the water, Mary Beth can be found scouting out wildflowers or hiking and backpacking in the mountains. In 2021, she completed a 500 mile through hike of the Colorado Trail.
Kendra Ware – Bees
Sunday / 2:00-3:00 / Classroom B
Kendra Ware will share with us beekeeping basics and benefits that she has seen in her garden since she started keeping bees. She will include such interesting topics as identifying different types of bees, the makeup of a honeybee colony, how honeybees are part of our food supply chain, and how bees produce honey.
Kendra recently earned certification as a Master Gardener and she is also certified as a Master Beekeeper. Master Beekeepers are trained in bee botany, beehive products and bee behavior. Many Master Beekeepers, including Kendra, continue their study of bees by becoming State Bee Inspectors, who are rigorously trained in bee diseases and colony problems. Kendra and her family have been beekeepers for 6 years.