Beet 2026 01 January

 

 

Happy New Year and happy gardening! The beginning of a new year is a great time to reflect on all the accomplishments of the past year. Master Gardener volunteers have been busy beavers across the county.

We kicked off the spring with a great crew of new students to the Master Gardener class, and ended the year with a wonderful graduation dinner to celebrate all their hard work. Congratulations to our new batch of Master Gardeners!  And a big round of applause to all our volunteers for completing over 8,750 volunteer hours! Thank you for all your hard work.

We held a bustling Spring Garden Fair back at the Expo Center. Gardeners from across the county came in droves to purchase the vegetable plants grown in the Practicum classes. We nearly sold out of them on the first day! Even though a lot of prep goes into it, the Spring Garden Fair provides a great opportunity for our local gardeners to purchase supplies, plants, and garden-themed art all in one place.

We formed new community partnerships this past year that strengthen our program’s priority on local food accessibility. Rogue Retreat was a pleasure to work with on the Seed to Supper classes. In class, we got hands-on practice transplanting and direct sowing veggies in their garden plot. One of the participants told me they had a ton of tomatoes this past summer. We also tabled at Rogue Food Unites’ free produce markets, handing out gardening resources and microgreen growing kits. ACCESS reached out in fall for us to bring the fun to their pantry sites as well in 2026.

This winter has been full of planning for 2026. I have been planning educational classes and programming. I am sure you all are planning your gardens. If you are growing veggies this year, consider planting onions, garlic, peppers, tomatillos, and tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes, to donate to ACCESS.

Rest up this winter and have a great 2026!

Hello volunteers! There is a new way to fill out the OSU Volunteer waiver forms that is called Volunteer Hub. This website will only be used once a year to sign our liability and code of conduct forms. Our volunteer hours will continue to be logged using the Volunteer Reporting System. I realize there may be frustrations of using yet another website for volunteering. I too wish OSU had just one website for volunteers.

The Oregon State University (OSU) has made the decision to use this new Volunteer Hub website for every volunteer for OSU. This includes people from Master Gardeners in extension offices, in addition to volunteers in other programs on the main campus. For the safety of our volunteers and community, OSU volunteers are required to sign the liability waiver forms and have a Sex Offender check prior to volunteering. Previously, OSU did not have a way to ensure every program was up to date and compliant with these safety measures. This new website will make sure the programs are following OSU policy.

I know it is one more step for all of us, but I am here to help walk you through it. I have attached a step-by-step guide to using the website at the bottom of this article. I also have in-person office hours so you can stop by and we can fill out this form together. You can also email OSU tech support directly at volunteers@oregonstate.edu. At the end of the step-by-step guide, I have added a frequently asked questions section.

In-Person office hours for tech support with Volunteer Hub

• Tuesday December 30th 10:00am-12:00pm
• Tuesday January 6th 10:00am – 12:00pm
• Wednesday January 7th 10:00am – 12:00pm
• Thursday January 22nd 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Please reach out to me if you have more questions or concerns at grace.florjancic@oregonstate.edu

Step-by-Step Guide for Volunteer Hub

1. Click on the link for either “Master Gardener Jackson County Program 2025-2026” https://beav.es/o3Q or “Master Gardener Jackson County Program 2025-2026 + youth” https://beav.es/oU7. Both require a Sex Offender check and the waivers must be signed to be eligible to volunteer.

While we do not have many youth opportunities, I am working with 4H to get the ball rolling. Working with youth also requires a Criminal History Check. This year we will be partnering with 4H for a spring break Clover Bud (5-8 years old) camp.  From 9am-12pm in the last week of March, the camp will focus on plants, bugs, and food.

2. Click on the link for the opportunity you want to be involved in. Click on the orange “RESPOND” button to sign up for volunteering

 

3. You will be prompted to create an account. Click on the orange “SIGN UP” button. You can sign up with either your email address or through Facebook. Volunteers do not have an OSU ID. (Steps for the email sign up are 4a. Steps for the Facebook sign up are 4b.)

 

4a. To Sign up with an Email address

Fill out the required fields. Select the orange “CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT” button.

4b. To Sign up with Facebook

Step 1

1. Locate the Facebook Sign-Up Option: On the “Step 1 of 4: Create an Account” screen, find the blue “Sign Up with Facebook”
2. Click the Button: Select the “Sign Up with Facebook” option to begin the Auth authentication process.
3. Log Into Facebook (if prompted): Enter your Facebook credentials

Step 2

1. If you’ve logged in, you’ll see a screen like the one shown above below.
   Click “Continue as [Your Name]” to proceed.
2. Note: By continuing, GetConnected Authentication (Volunteer Hub system) will receive limited access to your public Facebook profile information. You can review these settings by clicking the Privacy Policy link at the bottom of the screen.

Step3

1. Review the Facebook Consent Screen:
   The screen will read “Allow Facebook to use your profile to log into GetConnected Authentication?”
2. Choose an Option:
   1. Click “Allow” to continue using your Facebook profile for login.
   2. Click “Don’t Allow” to cancel the process and return to the Volunteer Hub registration options.

5. Additional questions will pop up. The only required question is the 7-Year Residence History. Select Yes or No to indicate whether you have lived outside the state of Oregon at any point during the past 7 years. Click the orange “CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP” when finished.
6. All of these forms are required to be filled out. The photo ID just needs proof of your legal name, birthdate, and address. You may block out the rest of your information on your ID. The waivers have multiple pages and a place for a signature on the last page. The system will save your progress if you need to leave and come back later to upload your photo ID. When finished, click the orange “CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP”
7. You should receive a welcome message indicating you have completed the process!

 

8. Repeat this step! Click on the link for the opportunity you want to be involved in. Click on the orange “RESPOND” button to sign up for volunteering.

 

Common Questions:

• Where do I go for help filling out these forms?

For OSU Tech Support, email your questions to volunteers@oregonstate.edu. I am also here to help you through this process. Bring a laptop or borrow one of the office laptops and we will walk through the steps together during office hours.

• Why do I need to upload a photo ID?

OSU needs proof of legal name and photo to conduct the sex offender check and, if applicable, the criminal history check. You can block out the details of your ID such as eye color, height, etc. All that is needed is your photo, legal name, birthdate, and address.

After you have passed the check, you may log back in and remove your ID photo from your account if you would like.

• How secure is my information?

OSU uses the same security systems for our volunteers’ data as for the students’ data. Your information will be protected and secure in their systems.

For those gardeners who missed the fall planting window and/or can’t wait until spring when the weather warms, native plants give you another option.  While autumn planting of natives has the most benefits — cooler temperatures, overwinter root growth, reduced transplant shock — it is possible to cash in on some of those benefits by taking advantage of our “false springs”, which often occur in late January and/or mid-February.

False springs are those days when temperatures are unseasonably warm, and plants are often tricked into blooming too early.  While this is a problem for your fruit trees’ eventual fruit set, it can be a boon to your native garden.  While I would never encourage folks to plant non-native plants during these months, natives can be quite forgiving. They can even put on extra root growth before the spring growing season by going into the ground at any time of year except in summer. The trick for winter planting is to be sure the ground is not frozen and there is a window of warmer weather predicted.  This allows any plants you place to settle in and begin the root growth necessary to avoid transplant shock. Of course, native plants are far less likely to experience shock, as they are adapted to our local soil and weather conditions.

Our native plant nursery at Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (SOREC) has many beautiful native grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees you can plant, even during winter. Our plants routinely survive completely freezing in their pots and wake up beautiful and healthy for sales in the spring.  So, planting them in winter should not be an issue.  We have plants for sale every weekday from 9 am to 4 pm.  The nursery is self-serve. Choose the plants you want, pull the price tags and take them into the office and pay.  Checks or cash are preferred, but if the plant clinic is open, we can run a card.  Yes, this sounds like shameless self-promotion, but we want EVERYONE to plant native plants. The more the better!

Our nursery has a great selection, but if you cannot find the plants you are looking for, check with these local nurseries that specialize in or carry local native plants.

Pollinator Project Rogue Valley

312 N. Main Street, Phoenix OR  97535 Phone: (458) 214-0508

https://www.pollinatorprojectroguevalley.org/

Plant Oregon

8651 Wagner Creek Road, Talent, OR 97540   Phone: (541) 535-3531

https://www.plantoregon.com/

Shooting Star Nursery 

3223 Taylor Road, Central Point, OR 97502     Phone: (541) 840-6453

https://roguevalleynursery.com/

But, of course, always shop with JCMGA first!  GARDEN FOR LIFE!