whatcom county master gardenerswhatcom county master...
TRANSCRIPT
Weeder’s DigestWeeder’s DigestFebruary 2014February 2014
Whatcom County Master GardenersWhatcom County Master Gardeners
COORDINATOR’S MESSAGE
MG NEWS TO USE
MG FOUNDATION INFORMATION
NOTES FROM THE PLANT CLINIC:THE CASE OF THE INEDIBLE APPLES
A DISAPPEARING GARDEN STAPLE AND A GOOD ALTERNATIVE
YOUR MG FRIENDS
EDIBLE EDUCATION TRAINING
2014 WHIDBEY GARDENING WORKSHOP
COORDINATOR’S MESSAGE
MG NEWS TO USE
MG FOUNDATION INFORMATION
NOTES FROM THE PLANT CLINIC:THE CASE OF THE INEDIBLE APPLES
A DISAPPEARING GARDEN STAPLE AND A GOOD ALTERNATIVE
YOUR MG FRIENDS
EDIBLE EDUCATION TRAINING
2014 WHIDBEY GARDENING WORKSHOP
NEW CLASS OF MG TRAINEES FOR 2014I am excited to welcome the new class of Master Gardener trainees for 2014. We will kick things off February 6th (first day of class) with the mentors serving lunch and getting to know their trainees. Our lunch will be at the YWCA Ballroom at noon. It will be a room full of gardeners, I can’t wait! Special thanks to Jerry and Andrea Fenwick for taking charge of this year’s mentor program. And thanks to those who volunteered to mentor: Meilani Obra, Ester Faber, Jean Andreson, Kathleen Bander, David Keller, Mill Shires, Jill Cotton, Linda Battle, Julie Turner, Rebekah Snodgrass, Andrea Fenwick, Jerry Fenwick, Barbara Schickler, Louise Granger, Karen Gilliam, Linda Berquist, Alicia Lanz, and Alex Burrows. CLARIFICATION ABOUT LYRIS LISTSERV I wanted to make sure that my earlier message about how to use our MG Lyris listserv did not cause confusion. My job is to make sure that WSU tools are used appropriately and I am required by my state program lead to send out reminders. So please keep using our Lyris listserv for communication and publicizing events. If you are educating the public as a WSU volunteer, please inform me about that event. If you have questions, send me an email at: [email protected].
COMMUNITY HORTICULTURE ASSISTANTWSU Extension will be hiring a Community Horticulture Assistant. This person will help me out in the office ½ day a week with volunteer management and other duties. Stay tuned for more information.
EDIBLE EDUCATION PILOT PROGRAMOur Edible Education pilot program is moving forward. Linda Versage has been working hard developing teaching curriculum and preparing the “edible education” training that starts March 18th. If you are interested in teaching 3rd and 4th graders. Contact Beth Chisholm if you have questions. Linda will be back to work March 3rd. See page 10 of this newsletter for more.
NEW CLINIC VOLUNTEER MANAGER FOR 2014Millard Shires has stepped up to the task of assisting in the diagnostic clinic. His role is to help with pairing new interns with veteran clinicians. Clinic policies and procedures and organizational updates are also on his list.
As always, it’s a pleasure to work with such passionate, dedicated and hardworking gardeners and educators. Beth
Whatcom County Master Gardeners Program1000 N. Forest Street
Suite 201Bellingham, WA 98225-5594
360-676-6736http://whatcom.wsu.edu/mastergardener/
MISSION: The WSU Extension Master Gardeners Program trains volunteers to be effective community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship.
WSU WHATCOM COUNTY EXTENSION STAFF: Drew Betz: County DirectorChris Benedict: Agriculture Educator Colleen Burrows: Agriculture Special Projects Coordinator Beth Chisholm: Master Gardeners & Community First Gardens ProjectCheryl Kahle-Lallas: Office Manager
Whatcom County Master Gardener FoundationROLE: The Master Gardener Foundation of Whatcom County supports the MG program with fundraising and provides information about home horticulture to the public through a demonstration garden, lectures and home gardening advice.
MG FOUNDATION BOARD: Past President: Sandy KeathleyPresident: Linda Battle1st Vice President: Kathleen Bander2nd Vice President: Louise GrangerSecretary: Shelley FishwildTreasurer: Frank HubkaMembers at Large: Lorrie Yoos and David HardmanRepresentative to State Foundation: Linda Bergquist
The WEEDER’S DIGEST is the monthly newsletter of the Whatcom County Master Gardeners Program. Guest articles are encouraged. Please submit to Jo Fleming ([email protected]). Articles are most appreciated if they contain 600 or fewer words and are accompanied by a photo. Editors reserve the right to edit for content and formatting.
COOPERATING AGENCIES: Washington State University and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Extension programs and employment are available to all without discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension Office.
From the Coordinator’s Desk...
Cover photo - Mt. Shuksan taken by Barney Fleming, MG 2013
Hovander Workshop SeriesSpring is just around the corner and that means seed catalogs and prepping for teaching the public at workshops and digging it at Hovander Demonstration Garden. John Dewing has stepped up to the task of organizing the Sunday workshop series. Luanne Williams has done a fabulous job of organizing the free workshop series for many years. Thanks LUANNE for all your hard work!
News to Use...
The Hovander Workshops series for 2014 will consist of seven classes as listed below, taught on the first Sunday afternoon of each month, between 2 and 3 PM. The committee is soliciting instructors for the four classes designated with **. If you feel like sharing your expertise in one of those four topics, please contact John Dewing, at either 360-756-0470, or at [email protected]. We welcome a “committee of instructors” approach where two or more instructors teach one subject. Please contact John if you have any questions. (Committeee: John Dewing, Mill Shires, Pat Edwards)
DATE LOCATION TOPIC INSTRUCTORMarch 2 Tennant Lake House Introduction to Whatcom Co. Gardening **CommitteeApril 6 Tennant Lake House Soil Preparation **John DewingMay 4 Tennant Lake House Potatoes John DewingJune 6 Hovander Park Weeds Janis WalworthJuly 6 Hovander Park Winter Vegetables David SimonsonAugust 3 Hovander Park Garlic & Other Bulbs **Mary CarlsonSeptember 7 Hovander Park Putting the Garden to Bed **Committee
Hovander Demonstration Garden CoordinatorsVegetable Garden: David Simonson Debbie Pereira
[email protected][email protected]
398-0462366-4605
Weed Identification Garden: Dick Steele Janis Walworth [email protected]
714-8132698-2878
Children’s Story Garden: Harriet Arkley Kathy Barrett
[email protected]@yahoo.com
527-8638734-2058
Native Plant Garden: Kendra Bradford [email protected] 733-6028
Annual Garden: Elaine Gaeta Sandy Needham
[email protected] [email protected]
527-1576733-7022
Culinary Herb Garden: Peg Nathon Sheila Reid
[email protected] [email protected]
714-8270676-0054
Medical Herb Garden: Sandy Bowens [email protected] 318-902Dahlia Garden: Dick Porter [email protected] 671-6039Perennial Garden: Barbara Schmit [email protected] 366-5461Hovander Outreach: Luanne Williams [email protected] 371-0902Green House: Judy Boxx [email protected] 398-7591
More News to Use...WSU WHATCOM COUNTY MASTER GARDENER FOUNDATION
The Master Gardener Foundation of Whatcom County supports the MG program with fundraising and provides information about home horticulture to the public through a demonstration garden, lectures and home gardening advice. The Board meets monthly (first Thursday of each month at 10am) at the WSU Whatcom County Extension offices. Contact Extension for details. Times are subject to change.
Your 2014 Master Gardener Foundation Board Members
Past President: Sandy Keathley President: Linda Battle 1st Vice President: Kathleen Bander
2nd Vice President: Louise Granger Secretary: Shelley Fishwild Treasurer: Frank Hubka
Member at Large: David Hardman Member at Large: Lorrie Yoos Representative to State Foundation: Linda Bergquist
MISSION: The WSU Extension Master Gardeners Program trains volunteers to be effective community educators in gardening and environmental stewardship.
Whatcom County Master Gardeners Program1000 N. Forest Street, Suite 201, Bellingham, WA 98225-5594, 360-676-6736http://whatcom.wsu.edu/mastergardener/
WSU Whatcom Co. Extension Staff Beth Chisholm [email protected]
Even More News to Use...Northwest Flower and Garden Show, February 5-9
The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is early this year and we are a bit late in getting the bus booked, but it is happening!
We have a bus and tickets for Saturday, February 8th. This is a different day of the week than in previous years and we are hoping to fill the 47 passenger bus. The bus will leave Bellis Fair at 8am (arriving at 10am) and will return at 4:30pm (arriving back at Bellis Fair at 6:30pm).
The prices are: $45 Master Gardeners (including class of 2014) $50 Non Master Gardeners
The price includes entry for Saturday, February 8th. Seats will be confirmed when the money is received. Refunds will only be available if someone on the waiting list takes your seat. Please include an email address and phone number with your reservation.
Send the email to Linda Battle ([email protected]) and send checks to: Master Gardener Foundation 1000 N Forest St. Bellingham, WA 98225
Before we know it, the annual plant sale will be taking place. Which means there’s lots to do beforehand.
At last year’s sale there was a table filled with veggie starts. All of them were planted and raised in my greenhouse and new hoop house. There was literally no space left, as the dozens of flats took up every available inch in both structures.
SO……I know that many of you start your vegetables from seed. It means you can get exactly the plants you want. And if you’re like me, it allows yearly experimentation with new varieties.
This year, as you lovingly place those seeds into pots, would you please plant a few extra? I need some of my seed growing space back! If everyone just grew a few extra veggie starts, we’d get a wide selection, with enough to attract the every-increasing numbers of people who want to grow their own veggies and will buy our plants.
Please let me know what you’ll be raising, so we can get as many kinds of veg-gies as possible. My email is [email protected] As to how to get them to the sale, information on that will be forthcoming as we near the sale date. Thanks to all who want to help out!
Seed Starters Alert!!!!!
by Kathleen Bander, MG 2012
MG Foundation President’s MessageWishing you the happiest of New Year’s, Whatcom County Master Gardeners! January 2014 seemed to come and go as fast as our big winds. February is already here and my growing collection of seed catalogs, along with the lengthening daylight hours, attest to that. The planning and expectation of another growing season is uplifting and energizing as we all anxiously start checking our yards and gardens for new blooms, buds, and sprouts and start pruning, cleaning, and monitoring soil temperature and wetness.
Another great February highlight is the annual bus trip to Seattle for the NW Flower and Garden Show. February 8th is this year’s date. Seats are still available for this year’s trip. If you haven’t gone on a trip with fellow Master Gardeners and/or friends, it’s a fun and information-packed day. Make sure it’s on your calendar for this year and/or next year. It’s a fundraiser for the foundation and a great time. And, remember, “To plant is to believe in tomorrow”.
Linda Battle, MGF President 2014
All the Latest MG & Foundation News!All the Latest MG & Foundation News!
MG Foundation General Meeting February 13, 20146:30 pm - social time7:00 pm - general 7:30 pm - Speaker - Dr. Andy Bach
Our Speaker for February is none other than Andy Bach, Professor of Geology at WWU, who will talk about the types of soils in Whatcom County and why they are the way they are. Bring a friend and learn some valuable information together!
As Master Gardeners, we are all members of the Foundation and benefit from these interesting sessions that can also qualify for Continuing Education Credits. As always, these meetings are free and open to the general public and held at the Whatcom County Extension Office - 1000 North Forest St. Please use the side entrance on Laurel Street.
The speaker, Andy Koch has a PhD in Geography from Arizona State University, with an emphases in soil development processes. He’s been at Huxley College of the Environment for 18 years, teaching soil science, among other courses. His soil research has largely focused on natural soil systems and their relationship to native vegetation, including work on the Olympic Peninsula, Mt. Baker and the Cascades foothills, and central Washington. your calendars
March MG Foundation General Meeting. Hellebores will be the subject of our presenter, Katie Miller, on March 13th. Katie has worked at Skagit Gardens for 12 years. She earned her Bachelors degree in horticulture at the University of Idaho. Hellebores are perennials that start blooming in early winter and often last through spring. They are deer resistant.
Skagit Gardens’ home page is http://www.skagitgardens.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.home/index.htm. Their ‘Hooked on Hellebores’ pamphlet (PFD) is located at http://www.skagitgardens.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/whatsnew.detail/recID/31/index.htm.
MG Foundation State Newsletter Seeds for Thought is the newsletter from the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State. Download the PDF file at http://mastergardener.wsu.edu/mgfws/files/2012/12/February-2014-Seeds.pdf?78857a.
Seeds for Thought
Notes from the
Plant Clinic
Digger Spade & Associates, MG Plant Detective
The apples didn’t look too bad at first glance, though they had a few dimples and spots of scab. The client, however, looked far from happy. She said all her apples were unfit to eat, rotten inside.
Out with a knife - apple one, the inside was indeed rotten. And there were clear signs that there had once been an occupant.
This one seemed pretty easy. There are two insects that destroy the insides of apples - apple maggot and codling moth. The maggot larvae mess up the pulp and the moth larvae chew up the core.
The first one was clearly maggot work. So was the second but the third looked more like codling moth.
What to tell the client? First some information and then some questions.
The client needs to know: • Apple maggots are the larvae of a fly, so both insects have
great mobility.• Control is difficult requiring monitoring, spraying and
scrupulous cleanup. • There are native hosts, such as hawthorn for the maggot
and walnuts and other fruit trees for the codling moth. So control will likely be a continuing need.
Then to the questions:• How important are homegrown apples?• How close are you to other apple trees or other
potential hosts?• Do neighbors with apple trees monitor, spray, etc.?
Now the options:First, she should read the management guidelines for both insects on the WSU Hortsense site, http://pep.wsu.edu/hortsense/.
A reference for the codling moth is: http://county.wsu.edu/chelan-douglas/agriculture/treefruit/pages/codling_moth.aspx.
A reference for the apple maggot is:http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb1928/EB1928.pdf.
Then, she should decide whether she wants to carry out the required monitoring and management.(There is an expectation that the homeowner will control these pests.)
So the bottom line:If she doesn’t want to pursue the control options, the apples aren’t edible and if she decides to be a good citizen, the solution is pruning at ground level. If she has a fireplace, apple wood is a fine fuel - low in pitch and high in calories.
An easy answer to what’s wrong doesn’t necessarily lead to an easy solution. The client said thanks, left, but was no whit happier than when she came in.
Apple Maggot - adult, larvae, damage to apple
Codling Moth - adult, larvae, damage to apple
The Case of the
Inedible Apples
If you hang around the gardening world much you might have heard the most recent news about one of the most common and widely-used gardening ingredients: peat moss.
The news isn’t good. Peat is a natural substance, the accumulation of dead and decaying green matter that over time becomes yards and yards deep. The industry uses huge tractors to scrape off the layers. After harvest, what is left looks like a strip-mining site.
A DISAPPEARING GARDENING STAPLE AND A GOOD ALTERNATIVE
Smit’s GrowUpPeat is NOT a renewable resource. It takes centuries to produce a peat bog. And peat is not produced everywhere, so often there are substantial transportation costs involved. All this combines into a rising price and a waning availability for peat.
Yet one thing hasn’t changed. Gardeners still need something that has the properties of peat to aerate and create more friable soil, as well as act as a water retainer. Several alternatives are available, and although none will completely replace the properties of peat, research is being done to provide gardeners with a peat equivalent.
One of the newer peat-replacement products is being made locally. It’s sustainable, is not a wood product, and is pesticide and herbicide free. The Washington State Department of Agriculture has certified it for use in organic agriculture. The new product is called Scarecrow’s Pride, a composted, dried, and processed cow manure. It began as a solution to problems faced by all dairy and cattle farmers. Scarecrow’s Pride owners, Mike and Leann Krainick, raise 3,200 cows. They face two huge problems: 1) a huge amount of cow manure; and 2) a huge need of bedding for their cows. After much research from sources both national and international, they found a mechanical separator that extracts water and miscellaneous particles, leaving remaining solid materials that became Scarecrow’s Pride.
Their product does what peat does: it helps with soil aeration and water retention. It also provides organic matter to your soil. It is airy and friable, and works as a soil lightener and a mulch, as well as the traditional covering when planting a new lawn.
The Kranicks are in good company. In Whatcom County, many commercial dairies separate their solids and some local dairies use it on farms as bedding. Smit’s Dairy has a product similar to Scareceow’s Pride. Third generation dairy farmers, the Smit family sought to develop an environmentally-responsible solution for managing the manure produced by their thriving dairy farm. For the past six years they have been transforming cow manure and wood shaving bedding into high quality, high nutrient compost and soil products and like the Kranicks, sell their product locally. So if you’d like to try either of these products, contact local nurseries and ask them to carry it. Or contact them directly at www.scarecrowspride.com or www.smitscompost.com/about.htm.
Tulips Grown in Scarecrow’s Pride
More of Your MG Friends
Mary Carlson, 2009Luanne Williams, 2006
David Hartman, 2012Sandy Needham, 2006
Elsie Konzelman, 2012
Teresa Rowrer, 2012
Jacqui MacConnell, 2013
Ginny Winfield, 2009 Lisa Shumski, 2001
Linda Versage, 2013Harriet Arkley, 2005
Elaine Gaeta, 2006
Rebekah Snodgrass, 2013
Loretta Hogg, 2002
Janet Bieber, 2008
Alicia Lanz, 2012
There were 125 participants at the 20th Annual Whatcom County MG Advanced training in November. Here are pictures of some of those attending. Watch for more of your MG friends in upcoming issues. Plans are to create an expanded directory of Whatcom County Master Gardeners that will include photos. We’ll be contacting you for more information and to take pictures of those we missed at the advanced training.
SAVE THE DATE
EDIBLE EDUCATION TRAINING
8 hours of continuing education What: Train to become an Edible Educator!! Classroom lessons in elementary schools in
Bellingham and Mount Baker School Districts
We are excited to launch this new Master Gardener offering for schools and to have you assist us in
piloting it this spring! We will train you in core activities; soil & seeds, plant parts & consumption, classroom management and more! Once training is complete you will be partnered with a school or
classroom. You will work in pairs and teach 3rd and 4th grade students!
Who: Certified Master Gardener and those interested in Garden Education
Why: Students need to learn more about where their food comes from. A lot of amazing work
has been done in the schools and youth garden education. Common Threads Farm School garden collective supports multiple gardens in the Bellingham School District. We
have an opportunity to support and expand garden and classroom experiences.
When/Where:
Session 1: Tuesday, March 18, 9:00-1:00 Session 2: Tuesday, March 25, 9:00-1:00
Trainings held at WSU extension classroom 1000 N. Forest It is important that you make it to both sessions so you receive all the information to prepare you to
teach the unique pilot lessons we are developing for this program and understand the involved logistics
and partners.
TO SAVE A SPOT AT THE TRAINING!! PLEASE RSVP Linda Versage at [email protected]
Edible education training is funded with a grant from the Whatcom Community Foundation.
