For details about our Winter Dreams Summer Gardens 2023 Symposium, please click on the link.
Wednesday, July 26th
- From 9-10 a.m. at the SOREC Extension Office, 569 Hanley Rd., we will be accepting donated produce for Access. See details on JCMGA website https://jacksoncountymga.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Plant-a-Row-Update.pdf
- We will be collecting produce every Wednesday from that point.
Saturday, August 19th
- JCMGA Membership Annual Picnic at OSU Extension, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point. It will be from 5:00-8:00 p.m.
It’s fireworks time once again! While our nation celebrates Independence Day, and the night sky fills with beautiful colors of red, white, and blue, we as home gardeners can celebrate our gardens and the freedom of being able to grow whatever type of garden we desire. Whether it is a shade, waterwise, vegetable, rose, native, perennial, cottage or succulent rock garden, you can find plants that have red, white or blue flowers!
Does your vegetable garden have companion plant borage with its beautiful blue flowers or do you grow native asters? How about your shade garden with its bright red begonias and impatiens, or succulents with red flowers, such as kalanchoe and portulaca. Night gardens of all white flowers are fragrant and luminous, like moon flowers and star jasmine. Of course, there are hundreds of perennials and annuals that offer up all three colors. Yes, there are even hybrid blue roses, though they are incredibly rare. So, if you are in the mood for creating a patriotic garden, or you just want to know because it is July, here is a list of red, white, and blue flowers that bloom this month in our area. Summer is here so sit back and eat a burger while you enjoy the view and smell the flowers! Happy Independence Day!
Red Flowers – Hollyhocks, Impatiens, Day Lily, Cardinal Flower, Salvia, Celosia, Dianthus, Echinacea, Verbena, Montbretia, Geranium, Hibiscus, Kniphofia, Lantana, Nemesia, Oriental Poppy, Petunia, Phlox, Spirea, Begonia, Weigela, Yarrow, Rose, Kalanchoe, Portulaca, and lilies.
White Flowers – Foxglove, Candytuft, Lupin, Rose, Statice, Calla Lily, Larkspur (Delphinium), Lavender, Dahlia, Clematis, Hydrangea, Agapanthus, Star Jasmine, Shasta Daisy, Sneezewort, Swamp Milkweed, Japanese Anemone, lilies, Moonflowers and Morning Glories.
Blue Flowers – Delphinium, Cornflower, Clematis, Balloon Flower, Hydrangea, Morning Glory, Pincushion Flower, Lobelia, Love-in-a-Mist, Salvia, Gentian, Globe Thistle, Aster, Blue Daisy, Blue Hibiscus, Bluecrown Passionflower, Lungwort, Lupin, Monkshood, Poorman’s Weather Glass, Poppy Anemone, Sea Holly, Veronica, and Borage.
Hello Gardeners,
I am excited to announce the Jackson County Master Gardener Instagram account @jcmg_osu was launched this past month!
If you have an Instagram account, give us a follow. I will be sharing snippets of information about various gardening related topics. Anything from native plants to plant problems could pop up! I am hopeful that this will be a successful avenue for engagement with Jackson County residents interested in learning a little more about their gardens and the local nature around them.
Preparation for the 2023 class started in the summer of 2022. With no Jackson County Master Gardener Coordinator hired yet, a team composed of Josephine County Master Gardener Coordinator Danielle Knueppel, Jackson County Extension Administrative Office Manager Heidi Gehman, and Jackson County Master Gardener Jane Moyer was formed to plan for the 2023 class. Heidi and the JCMGA Communications Working Group began recruiting potential students. In the fall, Jane and Lynn Kunstman began interest group meetings to acquaint potential students with the Master Gardener Program and informed them of the requirements for students. Over 100 people attended the meetings, and 55 signed up for the class.
Jump forward to the first day of class, January 25, 2023. Grace Florjancec, the new JCMG Coordinator, had started just eight days before. Yet here came 55 new students plus a handful of perennial MGs (veterans) who wanted to retake the class, and additional perennials serving as Garden Buds (mentors) or providing help for the day. And were they ever enthusiastic!
Enthusiasm is the word that best describes this year’s class! They have been ready to participate in every activity with glee! They planned and gave presentations on 14 plant families including facts, samples, humor, food, songs and even poetry. They organized and ran an MG clothing sale. They signed up for Plant Clinic, worked in the gardens, helped in working groups and committees, and participated in Practicum. They planted seeds, transplanted seedlings, watered, fertilized, and helped keep equipment and supplies organized, neat and clean. And each Practicum session planned and held a celebration for all they had accomplished so far.
The first Spring Garden Fair since 2019, and the first to be held at the Extension instead of the fairgrounds, was held on Saturday May 6. Students assisted customers and vendors, helped direct traffic, pulled wagon loads of plants to the research parking lot for pickup, continued to stake tomatoes, collected empty trays, and just kept going and going. Then they came back on Saturday May 13 to do it all over again at the After Sale (1/2 price greenhouse plant sale).
We, the perennials, want them to know how much we appreciate their efforts! Especially due to the students’ enthusiastic labors, we estimate that Practicum brought in over $13,000. Of course, expenses still need to be deducted from this amount. Yet to put this in perspective, the most Practicum ever earned in two days at the fairgrounds was $16,000, with $12,000 to $13,000 being the norm.
What a GREAT class! Hopefully, they will continue with JCMGA for a long time!
The Membership Working Group is planning a field trip for September 13th at 3:00 to Oshala Farm in the Applegate. Oshala is a certified organic farm that uses regenerative, sustainable cultivation practices. The field trip is free and, if we have a sufficient number of MG participants, Oshala will give us an exclusive tour. Additionally, we have the option to stay after the tour for a class on making tinctures and extracts. There will be a cost for the class, but it should be a really fun learning experience.
If you are interested in attending this event, please contact me by August 31st. Sandy Hansen (707) 332-4934, or sandyhansen08@gmail.com .
Garden for Life
Beginning this month, you can donate any extra produce you grow, and Access Community Action Agency of Jackson County will distribute it to help feed others. Plant a Row provides a great opportunity for us to help others who need a little extra help to feed their families.
How can you donate produce to people in need?
- Grow food! Whether you have a community garden plot, or just a few tomato plants, every pound helps.
- Produce can be dropped off at the SOREC Extension by the Free Table on Wednesday mornings from 9-10 a.m. This will start July 26th.
- Once you’ve dropped off your donation, we will have a record sheet which you may use to record how much produce (by weight) and what kind of vegetable/fruit you have donated so we can keep track! (The form is on the next page if you want to fill it out in advance.)
- We have a beautiful Plant a Row Food Donated Thermometer to record how much food we are able to donate to Access (by pounds). Thank you Janine Slavatti for creating the thermometer!!
- Encourage friends to participate even if they are not Master Gardeners.
If you have questions, please
contact Barbara Low at barbaralow@msn.com.
Plant A Row Project
Name _____________________________________ Date ________________
| Type of Vegetable/Fruit | Weight of Produce |
Please drop off donations at the SOREC Extension
569 Hanley Rd, Central Point, OR 97502
By the Free Table on Wednesday mornings from 9-10 a.m.
beginning on July 26th.
The Vegetable Garden at the Southern Oregon Research Extension Center is managed by Master Gardeners who are growing a variety of vegetables. They are using companion planting techniques as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, and to add nutrients to the soil and improve plant productivity.
CHIVES (Allium schoenoprasum)
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)
Chives are cultivated in the garden for their culinary value as well as their ability to repel a variety of insects such as aphids, carrot flies, potato beetles, cucumber beetles and to attract pollinators. They are also known to add flavor to tomatoes and deter blackspot when planted near roses.
YARROW (Achillea millefolium)
Shallots (Allium ascalonicum), garlic (Allium sativum) and yellow yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Plant rotation is used and this year shallots and garlic are planted in these rows. Notice the yellow yarrow at the end of the rows. Yarrow is another wonderful companion plant, as it attracts pollinators such as honey bees and other beneficial insects such as wasps, lady bugs, and hoverflies. This garden has over eight separate plants of yellow and white yarrow.
NASTURTIUMS (Tropaeolum majus)
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) and California poppies (Eschscholzia californica)
Nasturtiums are not only a lovely flowering plant to have in your garden, but the flowers also make a wonderful addition to salads and the plant has medicinal properties as well. Nasturtiums also attract aphids and are useful as a trap crop to keep them away from other vegetables. Plant them near your apple trees to help repel codling moth.
ONIONS, TOMATOES, LAVENDER AND BASIL
Onions, tomatoes, lavender and basil
Onions (Allium cepa), tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and basil (Ocimum basilicum) make for great companions. Basil actually helps tomatoes grow more vigorously. Onions repel many types of insects as well as ground squirrels and other small four-legged critters. Lavender is a great companion for squash, yarrow, onions and tomatoes. In this photo you can spot lavender, onions, tomatoes and basil all interspersed together. The onions were planted very early in the late winter. They were planted as a perimeter surrounding the tomatoes, basil and peppers which were planted later. The lavender is a perennial and acts as a sentry for the garden.
These onions were planted later in the season. The bed looks a bit sparse in comparison to the other beds with onions.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST WILDFLOWERS
California poppies (Eschscholzia californica)
Flowers attract pollinators and insects of all sorts. This year the flower garden was planted with a variety of PNW wildflowers.
Yarrow, Onions, Tomatoes and Basil
Here you can spot yarrow, onions, tomatoes, peppers and basil together.
Resources:
Note that the information regarding specific companion plants may or may not be supported by extensive scientific studies, but there are centuries of anecdotal support for companion planting techniques.
- Thomas J. Elpel, “Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification”, May 2013.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropaeolum_majus
- https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/nasturtium-tropaeolum-majus/
- https://homegrownfoodandflowers.com/best-companion-plants-with-nasturtiums/
- https://plantsheaven.com/yarrow-companion-plants/
- https://wildyards.com/yarrow-companion-plants/
- https://thebackyardbloom.com/companion-plants-for-yarrow/
- https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/practice-good-neighbor-policy-garden-try-companion-planting
Saturday, August 19th
5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
SOREC Extension Auditorium
569 Hanley Road
- A time to get together and celebrate what we have accomplished this past year!
- Awards will be announced!
- JCMGA will have BBQ hamburgers, garden burgers, and hot dogs available. We will be sending out Mail Chimps later asking members to respond if they will be attending; how many members of your family will be attending; and whether you/they will want a hamburger, garden burger, or hot dog.
- We are asking families to bring:
- A Side Dish (last names beginning L-Z) and Desserts (last names beginning with A-K)
- Your own plate, silverware, napkins, and drinking glass
- Your JCMGA badge
- A great time to be had by all!
- Contact Barbara Low, barbaralow@msn.com, if you have any questions.
I am continuing this series of articles and hope that you find them helpful and inspiring. In July, there is quite a bit to do in the garden depending on what you want to grow. Our gardens still need to be cared for so that they will do well, and we will have a plentiful harvest. By caring for our gardens, we are also caring for ourselves – physically, mentally, and emotionally. 
The Jackson County Master Gardener Association has a great resource for gardeners to use. It is the Garden Guide for the Rogue Valley – Year-Round & Month by Month. This great reference book for gardeners is mainly about growing vegetables, berries, and melons.
July is the time to:
- Blackberries need at least 1” of water per week while growing and fruiting. Providing heavy mulch will reduce the frequency of watering.
- Blueberries also require a constant supply of moisture while fruiting.
- Potatoes should have their water supply decreased when you see their tops dying back.
- When peppers start to blossom, spray them with a solution of Epsom salt (4 tablespoons per gallon of water). This will help to make them crisper and sweeter.
- Plants which you can plant as seed outside (make sure to check the soil temperature)
| o Amaranth
o Beets o Collards o Endive o Florence Fennel o Kohlrabi o Peas o Scallions |
o Beans
o Carrots o Dill o Escarole o Kale o Lettuce o Rutabaga o Swiss Chard |
- Plants to transplant this month (make sure to check the soil temperature)
| o Brussels sprouts
o Cauliflower |
o Cabbage
|
- Fertilize and Prune
- Asparagus
- Trailing cane berries finish producing fruit- prune those vines which produced fruit. Prune to the ground
- Fertilize fall-bearing raspberries when they start to bloom.
- June-bearing strawberries should be fertilized once a year after harvest.
- Control Pests and Diseases
- Powdery mildew on grapes
- Corn earworm
Garden Guide for the Rogue Valley – Year-Round & Month by Month. This book contains a wealth of gardening information. You can purchase it at our local Grange Co-op or at the OSU Extension office for $21.00. It can also be purchased on-line at https://jacksoncountymga.org/shop/. Note that a shipping fee will be applied.
Happy Gardening and Stay Cool
Garden For Life
Oregon State University Extension
