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Barbara Low

Mar 30

Seeking New Apprentice Coordinator(s)

By Beet 2025 04 April

 

We are looking for a volunteer or a team of volunteers to organize Wednesday refreshments this year!  This position is titled Apprentice Coordinator, and is greatly appreciated throughout the summer.

From mid-May through October, there are many MG volunteers who work together in the Demonstration Gardens at the SOREC Extension on Wednesday mornings.  As a way of saying thank you to them, JCMGA provides snacks and drinks.  When that bell sounds at 10:30, people and a cheese-loving dog congregate.  This is a wonderful social hour, as well as a time to enjoy great refreshments.

Last year, Pam Hiller spoiled us with an enjoyable array of snacks, including crackers and cheese, fruits and vegetables, popcorn, cookies, brownies, and such.  She is stepping down from the position, leaving it open to you.

You would arrange to have the snacks and drinks available from 10:30-11:30 a.m.  Drinks typically are water and lemonade.  Marcie Katz provides the large drink containers for you to fill.  Money for the drinks and food comes from the JCMGA budget.

We hope that you will consider filling this position, or organizing a team to do the job.

If you are interested in participating as the Apprentice Coordinator or perhaps helping with a team, contact Barbara Low barbaralow@msn.com

Mar 30

2025 JCMGA Member Survey

By Beet 2025 04 April

Many thanks to every Jackson County Master Gardener Association member who completed a short survey in January about the JCMGA. Data from the survey will help us plan future activities.

Your responses highlighted a few topics to address below:

Reassessing field trips: Organizing a field trip takes a great deal of time, and attendance was very low the past two years. Therefore, the Member Services Working Group will postpone organizing a field trip this year.

To clarify a misconception: Somehow, members or people in the community thought that marijuana was being grown on SOREC grounds. This is not true. Hemp was grown as part of a research project.

Ways to stay involved as a JCMGA member: There are two levels at which you can renew your membership:

  • JCMGA member – complete a JCMGA renewal form and pay $25. You can complete it online, or print the form and mail it with a check to us. Enter the member portal and click on Membership Renewal on the right-hand menu.
  • Be “recertified” so you can represent JCMGA while teaching a gardening class. You’ll need to complete the required number of volunteer and education hours, as well as complete the JCMGA renewal form and pay $25, as above.

Know what’s happening: The JCMGA Board Reports are available to all members. They are in the Member Portal on the JCMGA website. Once in the Member Portal, scroll down the menu on the right. Click on the “Board Reports and Minutes (Dropbox Link)” to find the Board and Working Group Reports.

JCMGA increased our visibility in the community: In 2024, we staffed our JCMGA information table at the Josephine County Home Builders Show; Blue Heron Earth Day Event; Medford Open Streets Event; Spring Garden Fair; JCMGA Fall Festival; and the Sanctuary One Event. In 2025, we plan to include one of the Growers Markets as well.

Comments made by respondents show the many ways in which our work is appreciated.

  • We are becoming a strong presence in the Rogue Valley again, after COVID.
  • Our members enjoyed the events we organized this past year, including: Community Education classes; the JCMGA Information Table; JCMGA Annual Picnic; Winter Dreams/Summer Gardens; and others.
  • The hours and hours of work done by volunteers in the JCMGA Demonstration Gardens was appreciated by many members.

Respondents commented that our members are:

  • Willing to volunteer and step in when needed.
  • Willing to share their ideas and to make suggestions which help our organization to grow.
  • Very passionate about gardening and have a willingness to share that passion and knowledge.
  • Always eager to help when they can.

Again, my thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our survey.  Your input is invaluable in helping us plan activities for this year and next.

Feb 28

JCMGA Announcements March 2025

By Beet 2025 03 March

March

  • Articles for the April Garden Beet due by March 15th. Send articles to jcmgabeet569@gmail.com
  • Volunteers needed to help plant and transplant seedling (see article)

 

April

  • Blue Heron Park Earth Day Event – April 19th
    • JCMGA will have an information table at this event. If you are interested in working at the table that afternoon, contact Barbara Low barbaralow@msn.com
  • OMGA Awards Nominations due April 15th (see the article)
  • Tree Planting and FREE Lunch – April 22nd (see article)

 

May

  • Spring Garden Fair – May 3 and 4 at the Mace Building at the Expo.
    • Save the Date – Mark your calendars!
  • Medford Open Streets Event – May 31st
    • JCMGA will have an information table at this event. If you are interested in working at the table that afternoon, contact Barbara Low barbaralow@msn.com
Feb 28

President’s Corner

By Beet 2025 03 March

This is the time of year when gardeners are busy planning their next gardens: evaluating what went well last year, buying and planting seeds, as well as pruning and fertilizing.

As a gardener, I am constantly monitoring what works well and making changes as needed. In wanting to improve my gardening skills, I read books, ask an expert whom I trust, and attend classes (either online or in person.) We are very fortunate to have access to many great gardening books and educational classes on gardening.

Have you heard of the “10-Minute University” online videos?  They are created by the Clackamas Master Gardeners Association. These are great, research-based educational videos on a variety of gardening topics. You can access them at  https://clackamascountymastergardeners.org/10-minute-university/ . These are free to view. Some of the videos available are:

Another great resource for getting information is the OSU Level Up Series  https://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/growing-oregon-gardeners-level-series. This site contains a variety of gardening topics from the past four years, all free!

Grace Florjancic, our Master Gardener Coordinator, schedules some wonderful speakers during the year for Community Education. I encourage you to investigate them.

While you are planning your garden for this year, please consider planting an extra row of produce for our Plant a Row project. The donated produce which we collect from late July through September is given to the Medford Access to help those families who are struggling with obtaining nutritional food. Last year, JCMGA donated a whopping 1,000 pounds of produce from our JCMGA Vegetable Demonstration Garden and members’ home gardens! Thank you to those of you who donated.

Enjoy Your Gardening!

Feb 28

Book Nook – Growing Fruit Trees and Berries

By Beet 2025 03 March

Growing fruit trees and berries has been an interest of mine for a long time.  Since retiring, my husband and I have spent time planting a small orchard. I am continuing to learn more and more about how to properly take care of it and improve my fruit production.

As part of my learning, I have attended some wonderful classes, and have used that knowledge to improve our orchard and berries. These include classes given at SOREC as community education. I am also always looking for and utilizing books to help us in our endeavor to improve our fruit production.

Last summer our work paid off, and we had a bumper crop of peaches, apricots, figs, and blueberries. They were delicious, and we really enjoyed having them with our meals and for snacks.

While looking for more information on how to improve our home orchard and berries (which include currants, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, Marionberries, and Tayberries), I found a wonderful book with a great deal of information pertaining to planting and tending small fruit trees and berries, “Growing Your Own Mini Fruit Garden,” by Christy Wilhelmi.

In, “Growing Your Own Mini Fruit Garden,” Wilhelmi covers the steps from planning your “mini fruit garden” to caring for and maintaining it. The book contains beautiful photographs and detailed sketches. It even has a chapter on dealing with pests and diseases. This is a book which, I believe, will be a great resource for us in working with our fruit trees and berries.

 

 

Feb 27

Annual JCMGA 2025 Photo Contest Winners

By Beet 2025 03 March

 

The Jackson County Master Gardener™ Association Member Services Working Group (MSWG) would like to announce the winners of its annual photo contest for 2025.

Thank you to those who submitted photos for the front cover of our JCMGA 2025 Chapter Directory.

With many wonderful pictures to choose from, it was a difficult decision.

The overall winner was Linda Jo Millus (2023) with her photo “Echinacea – Cone Flower”.

“I just love Echinacea- Cone flower, part of the Daisy family. I have several beds of them.

They are very easy to grow and maintain. They really don’t take a lot of care and are pretty drought and pest tolerant, also, a great pollinator as well.

This Echinacea bed is in our front yard beside a stream. The happy colors and sturdy flowers bloom all Summer into Fall if you keep them deadheaded. I love the variety of colors. Also, they self-sow which is a real bonus. They fit in nicely in my cottage type garden. 

If you don’t have any in your yard, I suggest you try one. We have Native Coneflower plants in our Native Nursery @ SOREC if you prefer a Native, I have both”   Linda Jo Millus

 

 

 

 

Our Runner Up in this year’s Photo Contest was Susan Hoehn with her beautiful photo. 

“This Cornus florida is one of the three Flowering dogwoods I am fortunate to have growing in my yard in Phoenix. I can’t say it’s a constant source of delight, as it is unglamorous in the winter. But its glorious green leaves in the dog(wood) days of summer turn a ravishing red in the fall, and such fabulous flowers spring forth in the spring as to render me awestruck. I captured this photo using the 0.5 Ultrawide lens on my iphone 15 Pro on a splendidly sunny day in April, 2024.”  Susan Hoehn

 

 

 

 

Feb 27

Volunteers Needed

By Beet 2025 03 March

Do you like working with plants, getting dirty, watching seeds and seedling grow?

We have an opportunity for you!

The JCMGA Practicum is looking for volunteers to help plant seeds and do some transplanting of seedlings.  These plants will be sold at our Spring Garden Fair.

You will be working with a Practicum Mentor and students.

We are looking for interested people working 

from 10-12 p.m. or 2-4 p.m. starting March 17 and ending April 25.

Contact Barbara Low at barbaralow@msn.com if you are interested or have any questions