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San Juan County WSU Master Gardener May Newsletter

MG Spring Plant Sale - a success despite the pandemic! 

When news of the COVID outbreak began in March, the Spring Plant Sale organizing team had to make a quick decision. Cancel  or move forward with the sale? They decided to go ahead and create an online sale for the 1,700 veggie starts that had already been sown... With amazing orchestration, the sale was set-up, and the details of how to fill orders and do curb side pick-up were hashed out.  219 orders were placed and customers picked-up curb side on Saturday, May 16th. Nineteen Victory Garden kits were donated to support families in need in the community. It was a wildly successful endeavor under extremely uncertain circumstances and tight safety rules from the state, WSU and County.

The team members behind this successful sale are: Mo Sloane, Alice Deane, Lenore Bayuk, Laurie O'Rourke, Sandy Ryan, Sandy May, Liz Smith, Lindsey Holloway, Kim Howard, Cheryl Turanciol, Jane Wentworth, Judy Cummings, Dianne Moeller, Diana Warner, Caitie Blethen.  Other MG volunteers who contributed to the success of this event are: Steve and Cathy Larson, Susan Mahoney, Teresa Smith, Mary Grove, Mary Galli, Cammille Layton, Kat Rose, Kristen Rezabek, Karen Breedlove, Elaine Frazel, Allison Longley, Jenny Harris, Julia Turney, Kate Yturri and Nancy Forker. These volunteers worked tirelessly to put this event together under very challenging circumstances, and spent a lot of time on zoom calls between tending veggie starts.

Thank YOU for purchasing veggie starts. We are also so grateful that everyone followed all instructions putting names in windshields and wearing face masks. We hope you enjoy the fruits of these veggies and time cultivating them in your garden!

Due to COVID, our perennial ornamental plants, grown by Myla Sherburne, Julia Turney and Tony Suruda on Orcas island were distributed to Master Gardeners. These plants are so beautiful and we look forward to providing such high quality plants to the community in the future.

This Spring Plant Sale is a fundraiser for the San Juan County Master Gardener Foundation. Funds are used for educational programing and supplies for the WSU Master Gardener program.

(photos from Kim Howard)

Helping families grow their own food

We were on the verge of launching our second year of the Grow Your Own Food program, when the COVID outbreak stopped all in-person programming. In order to continue to serve families in our community, we partnered with the Joyce Sobel Family Resource Center, San Juan County Health and Community Services and Brown's Home Center  to provide families with Victory Gardens - to grow at their own homes. Through generous donations from our Spring Plant Sale, each family received ten vegetable Victory Garden starts. Brown's Home Center donated bags of soil, pots and tomato trellis. San Juan County Health and Community Services translated Master Gardener growing tip sheets into Spanish and the Master Gardener Foundation provided fertilizer.  The San Juan Island Youth Mentoring program funded soil and time in distributing the Garden Kits.

These kits were distributed to families participating in the San Juan Island Youth Mentoring program and otherwise identified by the Family Resource Center. We are so excited to support these gardeners with any additional education that they need to grow their own food - via videos and other online means. Here is a recent article about the project.
(photo from Delphina Liles)

Planting Tomatoes

PLANTING TOMATOES
by Alice Deane, San Juan County Master Gardener 

You might think it’s late, but I’m just now planting out my tomatoes.  They’ve been in pots in my greenhouse till now.   I plant them deeply, and roots will grow along the buried stem, making the plant sturdier and stronger.  I throw a pinch (about 1-2 teaspoons) of all-purpose fertilizer in the hole first and firm the soil around the little plant. 
Next, I arrange my irrigation tubing around the starts.  
After that I place the cages.  I use concrete reinforcing wire for the cages, it’s very sturdy, will probably outlive me and leaves room to stick my hand in to pick fruit. The ones you see here are my tallest, for the Sungold and Sweet Million tomatoes, they need my tallest cages too. 
Next come the hoops.  I have a wardrobe of different sized hoops, made out of PVC pipes, to accommodate the height of different crops. 
Last of all goes the plastic cover which I secure with spring clips.  It’s a nuisance, but I take the plastic off in the daytime and put it back up at night.  It really makes a difference, and by July I don’t need it any more.  I start using it when the rains begin in fall and avoid late blight. 
For more information on growing tomatoes, check-out the WSU Growing Tomatoes in Home Gardens publication, and watch Alice's video below for transplanting advice. 

Plan NOW for a winter garden! 

Tips for growing a winter garden: 
- Decide what winter crops your family will eat; 
- Leave space in your garden for your winter veggies - which are mostly sown in June and July;
- Buy seeds now;
- Put planting dates on your calendar

Peruse food gardening resources:

Gardening in Washington State -  Washington State University publications on home food gardening, fruits, garden construction, organic gardening, pests, soils, compost, mulch and much more!  

West Coast Gardening - Dr. Linda Gilkeson is an Entomologist, author and Canadian Master Gardener. Find resources on pests and sign up for her helpful email newsletter. Dr. Gilkeson has been the keynote and speaker at our Annual Gardening Workshop.

Have a garden or horticulture question? Want a plant or insect identified? 

While the San Juan County WSU Extension office remains closed to the public, San Juan County Master Gardeners are available to answer questions about food gardening, fruit tree care, landscape plants, pollinators, help identify plants and insects and more via email or phone.

To submit a question, please send your message to mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu or call (360) 378-4414 to leave a message.

At this time, we are not taking physical samples for diagnostics, so we require several photos to be attached to your email. 

(Photo from Lenore Bayuk's veggie garden) 

Educational Opportunities 

WSU Forest Stewardship Webinar Series


The webinars are free, but pre-registration is required. Due to increased security, you must have your own Zoom account to participate. You can easily create a free Zoom account if you do not already have one. Important: you must have your Zoom account set up and be registered for the webinar at least two hours before the webinar start time.


If you are interested in a webinar but will be unable to attend, please register anyway so that you can receive a link to the recording.

 

Upcoming offerings

6/4/2020: Another one bites the dust – Why so many trees have been dying in western WA

6/8/2020: Dang it–who chewed my tree?? Controlling animal damage

6/18/2020: If you build it, they will come – Fun wildlife habitat enhancements

6/23/2020: Well begun is half done – proper site preparation and early vegetation control

6/29/2020: Plant trees like a boss (so that you only have to do it once)

7/14/2020: Plantae non grata – Invasive species on small woodlands

7/28/2020: The four horsemen of the root disease apocalypse

For complete webinar details and to register click HERE 

Xerces Society Webinars


The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.

The Xerces Society hosts webinars and participates in events organized by other organizations.


Visit THIS PAGE  which lists all the upcoming topics and dates.

About us:

The WSU Master Gardener Program is a nationally recognized program that trains volunteers to serve their communities through horticultural education and outreach. Once volunteers receive training, they provide research-based, educational information to the public on vegetable and fruit gardening, native plants, ornamentals and landscape maintenance, composting, plant problem diagnosis, pest control, and many other concerns. For more information about San Juan County Master Gardeners visit the web site or email mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu 
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221 Weber Way, Suite LL
Friday Harbor, WA 98250

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