Master Gardener Carol Shirk, left, is seen here with Rotarian Gayle Nummerdor. Shirk spoke at the January 29, 2018 luncheon meeting of the Beaver Dam Rotary about the Dodge County Master Gardener Association (DCMGA). The DCMGA is an outreach of UW-Extension. Its primary purpose is education. It is all volunteer. Last year, the DCMGA members volunteered nearly 3000 hours, writing newspaper articles, maintaining booths at the fair and expos, working with Life Academy and 4-H clubs, and answering questions on the help line. There are four Youth Master Gardener programs in Dodge County. It maintains three educational gardens, two in Juneau and one in Horicon. DCMGA maintains the gardens at the Seipple Art Center and plants and cares for the six planters on Front Street in Beaver Dam. Each year, it provides a scholarship to a student who is planning a career in horticulture. The organization's main fundraiser, the spring plant sale, tragically cannot take place this year because jumping worms have been discovered in Dodge County. Jumping worms, not native to Wisconsin, disrupt the natural decomposition of leaf litter. Plants cannot get the needed nutrients from the dry worm castings (poop) left by the jumping worms. For more information go to hort.uwex.edu/