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Susan Hoehn

Oct 30

JCMGA Fall Tips and Tricks

By Beet 2025 11 November

Compiled by Susan Hoehn

 

   A big thank you to all who contributed

to this column!

 

 

 

*I rake all my leaves into the garden area and the flower beds. I find several types of birds will come through – flipping leaves with their little feet, looking for bugs all winter!  —Dee Copley, MG 2014

*Save yourself some labor in the spring by planting a cover crop in the fall. I’m using Lacy Phacelia in between planted areas in my pollinator garden. It should serve as a weed barrier through the wet months and early spring — as well as an early-blooming and readily reseeding flower for pollinators. In the spring, I will simply dig out any areas that I want to fill with new plantings, and leave the rest of the Lacy Phacelia as a filler, pollinator flower and soil amendment. This attractive purple flower fixes nitrogen in the soil.  Fellow apiphiles: this crop attracts Van Dyke’s Bumblebees, whose males are bright yellow, in large numbers! — Erin Galbraith

*We have lived here for 47 years and had a garden every year. In the fall, after all plants and vines are removed, we cover it all with a deep layer of leaves: leaves that I rake up, and leaves the neighbors have bagged up. (That is a win-win for us both, as we do not have city leaf pick-up.)  In spring we rototill and, voila!! The leaves have all disappeared!!

We do have good soil—not clay, but we do have millions of small stones in the soil.  Or so it seems! — Liz Koester

*In general, I leave fall clean-up of my yard until March, when air temperatures are above 50 degrees F.  That way, I know most or all of the stem-nesting bees have emerged.  I leave my leaves as much as possible where they fall, or under shrubs and in the paths between my vegetable beds.  I never compost, shred or bag them, as they are habitat for many beetles, larvae, moths, chrysalises of butterflies and even adult butterflies – and those provide winter food for birds.  When I cut the stems, I lay them gently in my ornamental beds as mulch, so that all the native bees can emerge.

*My vegetable garden beds either get covered with leaf habitat (it’s not litter) or planted with green manure cover crops: crimson clover, winter pea and grass mix, and always Phacelia tanacetifolia (Lacy Phacelia). It blooms until heavy frost, provides great winter cover and blooms in spring and summer for native bees and beneficial insects.  It’s a better companion plant in your veggie garden than marigolds! — Lynn Kunstman

*Clean and sharpen tools, put away movable drip water systems in metal trash storage cans, and move all frost-sensitive plants inside beneath a light source.

*Prune back all cane berries and strawberries.  Mulch any root vegetables left to winter in the ground like beets, carrots, potatoes.

*Prune plant parts away from ground for easier flow of leaf blowing. Blow leaves into piles.  If left, they can cause disease around plants that don’t like being buried in winter, and cane berry/rose leaves can carry diseases.  Use a backpack leaf blower, or rake. Leaves are blown to vegetable planting areas and leveled in a thick layer.  My Jack Russells race through and crush them, so they disintegrate quickly.   Dry leaves must be cleaned up since they’re summer fire hazards in our area.

*Spray autumn fungicide copper soap on plants that need it (stone fruits, pyracantha).

*Root establishment is better for autumn planted perennials like fruit trees, grapes, hardy kiwi, cane and blueberries, and ornamental shrubs.

*Do autumn spraying, remove young weeds before they make seed, shield stone fruit trees from rain/snow to keep leaf curl away.  Pot up new plant starts. — Jordan and the Two JRTs

 

 

Sep 30

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST

By Beet 2025 10 October

Reminder: keep an eye out for the Mailchimp about next month’s theme to contribute your own advice!

 

 

 

 

* I knew sunflowers were allelopathic (likely to be detrimental to neighboring plants) but always thought it was just from their roots. Now, I have a LOT of volunteer sunflowers in my garden. I love them, but usually chip them up in the fall. Here is what I learned about sunflowers: even the chipped parts can impact the growth of some plants the following season. So now I still let the flower parts feed the birds, but no more composting them into beds. – Lori Ross

* I have Garden Gold peach and Nectazee nectarine trees; both genetic dwarfs that are easily managed in an average yard space. After three 3 years, they are providing the perfect summer peaches and nectarines.

* I avoided leaf curl, a fungal disease that is common around here, by keeping the trees protected during rain. They can grow in large pots beneath a clear covered deck, or I have plastic covered birdcage arbors. – Jordan and the Two JRT’s

* I had a bumper crop of basil; just the plain, regular-leaf basil. The secret is to keep it cut, always down to the next whorl of leaves. Never let it go to flower. This guarantees a continuing harvest of fresh basil leaves.  – Liz Koester

* I grew beautiful Swiss Chard with great success all season long. The main reason for success was location: it was farther down the hill near the wet weather creek, thus receiving cooler temperatures and less sun.

* I have had more cucumbers than I know what to do with. I did some interesting interplanting with them and jalapeños this season and both of those plants have done really well side by side, even while crops in other garden beds seemed to struggle.  – Lindsey McNab

* During the heat of the summer, I cover my raised beds with shade cloth, still allowing the pollinators access to the plants.

* I used sacrificial plants to help control the insects – nasturtiums, radishes, marigolds – Barbara Low

* Oh, my gosh what a crop! I have a beauty of a backyard elderberry bush which I’ve very carefully nurtured (not really) for years. Standing about 6 feet tall, that bush gave and gave this year. But what to do? I made Elderberry Syrup. Caution: Fresh elderberries, stems and leaves contain toxins. Do not eat raw. When cooked properly though, elderberries contain a very valuable antitoxin.  – Mary Schrouder, Class of 2024

* I was a month late transplanting all of our SGF plants, but our crop has been very plentiful and pretty similar to past years. We did add bone meal to the soil this past spring. Butternut squash, Sungold tomatoes, Kentucky pole beans, peppers, marigolds, gourds and luffas have been doing the best in our garden! – Nicole, Class of 2023, and Baby Jane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 01

Growing Knowledge – Tomato Tips and Tricks Part Two

By Beet 2025 09 September

 

 

 

Growing and Harvesting a Crop

  No matter how pretty those tomato flowers are, pinch them off when you transplant your tomatoes! I continue to pinch any new buds until my plants have gotten significantly bigger, so the plant can focus on root and foliage growth. This is one of the most useful tips I learned from the Master Gardener class!  — Nicole Smith, Class of 2023

Shear plant tips off above your larger green tomatoes in mid-September. This preserves energy for ripening them, rather than wasting it on smaller tomatoes that won’t have time to mature before the frost hits them.  – Jordan and the Two JRT’s

Keep tomatoes uniformly moist, but not wet.       

 

Mulch heavily with straw to keep the roots cool.

 

Tie up vines to avoid losing branches due to a heavy load.

 

Don’t prune off too many of the leaves.  They protect the fruit from getting sun scald.

 

Tomatoes are ripe when the “hinge” at the top of the stem breaks easily.  — Susan Koenig

My most important advice when planting tomatoes is to add calcium to the soil in the form of dolomite lime (calcium magnesium carbonate) to avoid blossom end rot. This would go in along with your bone meal and organic tomato fertilizer.  — Tom Capsey

At the very first sign of a calcium deficiency (brown/black spots at the bottom of the growing tomatoes) apply calcium as a foliar spray, rather than applying it to the roots.  The calcium will be available faster and more efficiently to the fruit through the leaf stomata. Blossom end rot can’t be cured or reversed; however, the incoming tomato fruits will have a better chance of maturing nicely!  — Emma H

Water well. It’s better to soak the roots thoroughly once every several days than it is to water lightly every day, as soaking will encourage deeper root growth. One good rule of thumb is to water when the top one inch of soil has dried. This often averages to about one gallon of water a week in the heat of summer.

Watering early in the day is considered a best practice. The water won’t evaporate too quickly, and any splash on the plants will have a chance to dry off as the day warms.

If your plants are looking slightly wilted late in the heat of the day, that’s not necessarily a sign that water is needed. Check the soil first.  On the other hand, if they are wilted in the morning and they don’t have any disease, they are in need of water.  — Advice Jane learned from the Practicum

 

 

 

 

“Growing Knowledge” logo designed by Diann Abbott.  Thank you Diann!

 Tomato photos courtesy of Susan Koenig

 

Jul 30

We’re Rich!!

By Beet 2025 08 August

Did you see the first installment of our JCMGA advice column, “Growing Knowledge?” What a wealth of helpful tips and tricks for successfully growing tomatoes! I have learned so much already.

Many thanks to all the members who value educating our community about gardening to the extent that they were willing to spend the time and effort to contribute their knowledge to the column. You are beautiful!

We actually received enough tips and tricks to divide the tomato knowledge into two columns. This month contains the advice pertaining to preparing a garden bed and the planting of the tomatoes.

Next month’s column will focus on tips and tricks for getting those tomatoes to grow and how to actually reap a bountiful harvest. What do you do? Do you feed? Pinch? Clip? How do you protect from heat, sun, thirst, critters? Do you thin? How do you know when to pick? What do you do with all that fruit?

Keep an eye out for the next Mailchimp that calls for your tips and tricks on growing and harvesting tomatoes. Remember, you can collect a half-hour of direct instruction credit toward your recertification. So please share your wealth of knowledge and be a part of it all!

 

 

Jul 30

GROWING KNOWLEDGE – A Homegrown Advice Column from Jackson County Master Gardeners

By Beet 2025 08 August

Tomato Tips and Tricks, Part One 

Preparing for the Planting of Tomatoes

  • Before I plant (3-4 months) I always add ground oyster shell to each bed where the tomatoes will grow.  This adds calcium to the soil. Later in the season, I may also add 12-6-6 liquid fertilizer as needed. — Sean
  • Preferring different heirloom varieties, I start my tomatoes indoors from seed so they’re mature enough to plant out after last killing frost. — Jordan and the Two JRT’S
  • Delicious tomatoes grow from good soil. Feed your soil with 1-2 inches of compost every year. — Susan Koenig

* Generous amounts of compost mixed well into the soil is crucial.  DO NOT add additional nitrogen             because it encourages leaf growth over root and flower development and results in fewer tomatoes.

* Dig a hole or a trench.  Add water and let it soak in.  Some people like to put a mixture of ¼ cup bone meal, ¼ cup organic tomato-                   vegetable fertilizer, and 1 teaspoon magnesium (Epsom Salt) covered with 2-3 inches of soil in the bottom of the hole. –Jane From                    Practicum

 

The Planting of Tomatoes

*  My tip for growing tomatoes is plant onions all around them so you won’t get the big green tomato hornworm.  — Virginia Clark

  • I always plant onions as a perimeter in my raised beds. This helps to ward off 4 legged critters early in the season.

* I also always plant basil close to my tomatoes. You can never have too much basil.

* I make sure the garden is balanced; no monoculture rows. Intermingle basil, tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and lots and lots of flowers: everything from sunflowers to yarrow; zinnias to comfrey and borage; bachelor buttons to coreopsis and calendula. — Sean

  • In the planting hole I use my grandma’s method adding 1/4 cup epsom salts with organic fertilizer.

* I like columnar growth using 7’-8’ heavy garden stakes, pinching out suckers and securing then securing new growth with green tie tape            about every 12”.

* Shear plant tips off above larger green tomatoes mid-September to preserve energy for ripening them instead of those that won’t mature          before frost hits them. — Jordan and two JRT’s

* For the last couple of years to protect from the heat and sun, I plant my tomatoes on the east side of the house. That way they get late                afternoon shade. They seem to do great!  —DA

  • Planting tomatoes horizontally in a trench has advantages. The soil is warmer at the surface, so they benefit from the added warmth. Dig a trench 4 to 6 inches deep along the stem and deeper for the rootball. Lay the plant horizontally in it, burying the roots and stem except for the top two sets of leaves. (The lower leaves can be pinched off or just buried.) Within 2-3 days, the tops will have become vertical.

* If you want to use a stake, put it in the ground before filling the hole while you can still see the roots.  Fill the hole or trench and firm the         soil around the roots. In the garden, a tomato cage can be used instead of, or with the stake. These supports are more important for                  indeterminate than determinate tomatoes.  — Jane from Practicum

 

 

 

 

 

Jul 01

The Planting of a New Opportunity

By Beet 2025 07 July

We are so excited to announce the start of a brand-new Garden Beet monthly column that showcases you – our well-seasoned Master Gardeners!  We’re calling it “Growing Knowledge: A Homegrown Advice Column by Jackson County Master Gardeners.”

The mission of JCMGA is “To learn, practice, and teach the art and science of gardening in the Rogue Valley.”  This is the reason we all signed up to be a part of this great association, isn’t it?  Our existing programs certainly provide many opportunities to do the learning and practicing parts.  But if you’re anything like me, you have found it harder to find the time and venue to do the teaching part.  Let’s face it: not all of us can teach a class or write a full article for The Garden Beet.

That’s why our Media and Technology Working Group came up with this quick and easy method for you to share some of that wealth of gardening knowledge you have been amassing in your brain.  Each month, we will send you an email that gives you a new topic.  All you will have to do is hit Reply, and write one or two sentences of advice about that topic.  If you have a source, you can briefly cite it.  Include a photo if you have one. Hit Send, and then wait for the next edition of The Garden Beet, where you will see your contribution in a collection of sound practices and sage advice created by our membership.  Just think of the education we can provide when we combine our knowledge and experiences in this way!

We will share “Growing Knowledge” with our wider community by also posting it on our JCMGA Facebook page and, of course, on our website.  So, when you send your contributions, be sure to let us know if we can assign your name to it, or if you prefer to use initials or a pseudonym.

In addition to the notoriety of having your work published, and the satisfaction of making a contribution, Grace says she is able to award half an hour of direct education to your volunteer hours each time you perform this service.  Score!

Please keep an eye out for the Mailchimp coming your way the first week of July.  The first topic is going to be tomatoes. So start thinking of those tips, tricks and talents you have used to grow your best tomatoes, and get ready to share!

We can’t wait to see what emerges from your Master minds!

Dec 31

The Book Nook – “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren

By Beet 2025 01 January

Do you think you have an obsession with plants?  Wait until you read about Hope Jahren! In her incredibly well-written memoir “Lab Girl”, Dr. Jahren affords us front-row seats into her fascinating personal and professional journey as a paleobiologist.

Hope has expertly crafted her book so that each chapter on the growth and development of plants, trees in particular, corresponds with another chapter on her own development.  For instance, she details the incredible odds every seed meets in developing into an adult tree, and then describes the immense obstacles she overcame to secure the grant funding she needed to grow as a scientist.

In one chapter, Jahren tells of a 1977 attack of Tent caterpillars that was killing a research forest of Sitka willow in King County, Washington.  In defense, the willows loaded their leaves with caterpillar poison, along with a secondary airborne compound that signaled to other Sitka willows that the trees were being wounded.  Healthy Sitka willows over a mile away sensed this signal and also began to produce the caterpillar poison, thus saving the forest from ruin!

In the following chapter, Hope’s lab partner reads the signals she is transmitting and convinces her to seek proper medication for the Bipolar Disorder that was ravaging her life, essentially saving her from ruin.

From Roots and Leaves, to Wood and Knots, to Flowers and Fruits, Hope Jahren fills each chapter with fascinating stories of strength and survival; both her own and that of the plant kingdom.  Her boundless passion for understanding and protecting our natural environment is commendable.  Here is an excerpt from the book to whet your appetite:

The leaves of the world comprise countless billion elaborations of a single, simple machine designed for one job only – a job upon which hinges humankind.  Leaves make sugar.  Plants are the only things in the universe that can make sugar out of nonliving inorganic matter. All the sugar that you have ever eaten was first made within a leaf.  Without a constant supply of glucose to your brain, you will die.  Period.

I hope you will enjoy reading “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren.  Let me know if you want to borrow my copy.

 

 

 

 

Oct 31

Writing for The Garden Beet

By Beet 2024 11 November

Each month, as you sit back and enjoy reading your Garden Beet, do you frequently marvel at how free of errors all of the articles are?  Perhaps you have considered submitting articles yourself but are intimidated by the flawless written beauty that appears so effortless to other Beet authors.  How could your work measure up when, in your attempts, writing errors have been inevitable and ubiquitous?

Actually, errors in writing are common to us all.  The brain becomes so involved with the story being related in writing, it fails to see each individual letter.  Thus, it beocemes psoibble to raed snetecnces croretcly taht are lodaed wtih splleing msitaeks.

Recognizing this common human foible, the Garden Beet utilizes a team of MG volunteers who proofread monthly submissions for possible errors.  Each article is first approved by the JCMGA president and then it passes through a first and a second reading by the editors, before being returned for publishing.

For the past four years, Lisa Brill has expertly held the reigns as the Coordinating Editor.  Using her considerable organizational skills, she has smoothly moved the articles from one person in the five-person chain to the next.  Considering some months have as many as ten articles, this is no small feat; however, Lisa has handled the task with aplomb.

Now that Lisa has become president of her biking club, she is stepping away from the coordinating position.  Fortunately, she will continue to provide us with her skilled editing service.  Thank you Lisa!

We invite you to confidently submit articles to The Beet and share your gardening knowledge and experience with your MG family.  Just email them to barbaralow@msn.com.  You can rest assured that the editors will be here to correct your typos, undangle your participles, convince your subjects and verbs to agree, and wrangle your run-ons.  Write on!