Gardening association discusses annual plant sale

TIFFIN – At the Seneca County Commissioners' meeting Thursday, the Seneca County Master Gardener's updated the county on what the organization has accomplished this year and what lies ahead. James Detillion, publicity chairperson of the Master Gardeners, was the first to speak to the commissioners. "April was a pretty busy month for us," Detillion said. "On April 19th at the Seneca County Fairgrounds, we had a container gardening workshop. April 20 – April 26 was considered National Master Gardeners Week and we celebrated that by having an Ask a Master Gardener booth at two of our local stores." The organization also participated in the Franciscan Earth Literacy Center's Earth Day celebration at the end of April. The Master Gardeners had an Ask a Master Gardener booth as well as an arts and crafts section for kids. From 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on May 17 and from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 18, the Master Gardeners will have their annual plant sale at the Seneca County Fairgrounds, 100 Hopewell Ave., Tiffin. At last year's sale, the organization sold over 900 plants to over 300 customers. Charlie Huth spoke next, highlighting some of the behind-the-scenes activities the gardeners do to prepare for the annual plant sale. "Our plant sale starts early in the year," Huth shared. "In April, we have our digs around, which are from people in the area who want to give away their plants. This year we had five successful digs in excess of 400 plants." The plants the group received this year included rhubarb, lilies, irises and hostas among other plants. After the digs, the gardeners organize and label the plants before pricing them. The last thing the organization does before the annual plant sale is erect two large tents at the fairgrounds and arrange the plants in alphabetical order. In other news Commissioners then passed the following supplemental appropriations and resolutions. Supplemental appropriations $15,000 for contract services $430 for training $700 for the Ohio Recorders Association Conference $600,000 for the County Engineer's maintenance and repair fund contract projects line $1,487,323.87 for the County Township Road Reconstruction grant fund's contract projects line $40,000 to the Foster Children Donations fund for foster care other expenses Resolutions Adopting the revised compensation plan for the Seneca County Department of Job and Family Services non-bargaining unit employees Authorizing the Seneca County Board of Commissioners to enter into an agreement/contract with the County Commissioners' Association of Ohio Service Corporation for the usage of the consolidated lead evaluation and reporting database for location services on behalf of the Seneca County Department of Job and Family Services Approving the memorandum of understanding between the Seneca County Department of Job and Family Services and AFSCME, Ohio council 8, local #1685 Authorizing the Seneca County Board of Commissioners to accept the bid of 2025 LPA pavement resurfacing; LPA-2501 Amending resolution 25-86 setting time, date and place to receive sealed bids for 2025 Chip Seal project – C-2025-02 The next meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 15 at the commissioners' office, 111 Madison St., Tiffin.