Jackson County Master Gardeners

Spring is here! Daffodils, grape hyacinth, and tulips are popping up.     

I am continuing this series of articles and hope that you find them helpful and inspiring. In April, 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 in the spring and summer. 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.

April is the time to:

• Plant grapes
• Plants which you plant as seeds to transplant later

o   Basil	Cantaloupe
o   Cabbage	o   Celery
o   Cucumbers	o   Eggplant
o   Peppers	o   Squash
o   Watermelon	o   Tomatoes

• Plants which you can plant as seed outside

o   Beets	o   Carrots
o   Chervil	o   Chives
o   Collards	o   Cilantro
o   Corn, sweet	o   Dill
o   Florence Fennel	o   Kohlrabi
o   Kale	o   Leeks
o   Lettuce	o   Parsnips
o   Parsley	o   Peas
o   Radishes	o   Potatoes
o   Salsify	o   Scallions
o   Swiss Chard	Tomatillos

• Plants to transplant this month

o   Broccoli	o   Cabbage
o   Cauliflower	o   Chinese Cabbage
o   Endive, Escarole	o   Jerusalem artichokes
o   Leeks o   Onion o   Pak Choi o   Rhubarb	o   Lettuce o   Oriental Greens o   Parsley o   Tomatoes

• Time to fertilize
  • Established artichokes
  • Established blackberries

 

 

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 Warm

Garden For Life

 

 

The Jackson County Master Gardener Association is one of many programs in all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, several Canadian Provinces and South Korea. How did this program come into being?

In 1862 the Morrill Act, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, created a nationwide system of Land Grant Colleges and Universities to provide education in agriculture. These institutions provided access to liberal, practical higher education for people who could not otherwise afford to attend the private colleges of the time (i.e., the working or industrial classes). The Land Grant focus was defined in statute, “…to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts.”

In 1868 Oregon State University, formerly Oregon Agricultural College (OAC), was established as the designated Land Grant College in Oregon. In 1914 the Smith-Lever Act established the Cooperative Extension Service to distribute objective, scientific-based information developed by land grant colleges and research stations to citizens.

In 1973, Dr. David Gibby of Washington State University created the first Master Gardener Program to meet the high demand for gardening advice, particularly for the urban setting. The program began training volunteer gardeners in King and Pierce Counties in Washington state and the concept quickly spread.

In January 1979, Donald W. Berry, Area Extension Agent and Peter Giffen, Home Horticulturist, offered area garden clubs and other experienced gardeners in Jackson County the opportunity to receive 60 hours of training over a 10-week period at no charge with an agreement to volunteer 60 hours of service time to the community in the new Master Gardener program. The volunteers would then become leaders in horticultural community service and/or garden educational programs.

Peter Giffen was quoted as saying, “This training program has been developed in response to the recent overwhelming interest in home gardening by the public and the resulting flood of questions received each gardening season by the Extension office. A single horticulturist cannot handle all these requests – over 8,000 calls last year alone.” Although the program had been successful in the Eugene area for two years and had been instituted in eighteen other states, this was the first time it had been offered in Southern Oregon.

Over thirty community members took that first class in 1979 to achieve certification as OSU Master Gardeners. A new group of gardeners has been trained every year since, except during the Covid pandemic of 2021. Today the non-profit Jackson County Master Gardener Association has a membership of nearly 300 volunteers who provide unbiased, research-based information on sustainable gardening to their communities through educational outreach programs.

Interested in joining us? Please see our website for information about all our programs (you don’t need to be a Master Gardener) and how to become a Master Gardener.

Garden for Life!

 

 

References

Jackson County Master Gardener Association, About Us

Wikipedia, “Master Gardener Program”

Extension Master Gardener Program (national)

 

 

Community Outreach Working Group

Chair, Ronnie Budge

• Update on Community Gardens:
  • Sherri Morgan held her first meeting with the Community Gardens Network. They discussed JCMGA’s grant program and set a deadline of May 1 for applications. Sherri will work with Barbara Low to update the grant and contact information on JCMGA’s website.
• ­Update on Josephine County Home Show:
  • Sandy Hammond reported that it was well worth the time of the seven JCMGA volunteers who staffed our information booth over three days. They sold $700 worth of Garden Guides and garden hats, distributed numerous flyers, and took names of persons interested in being contacted about upcoming JCMGA activities.
• Update on Bee City Phoenix Earth Day Celebration:
  • Kathy Rogers, Barbara Low, and Grace Florjancic will staff a JCMGA information booth at Blue Heron Park on April 20.
• Update on Medford Open Streets Project:
  • JCMGA will have an information booth in downtown Medford on May 17 from 4-8 pm.
• Update on Speakers Bureau:
  • Colet Allen is beginning to plan a fall series of programs for the Medford and Rogue River libraries.
• Update on Friends of the Gardens:
  • A promotional flyer has been prepared using the new logo. It will be reformatted for rack cards and there will be a page about the program on the JCMGA website. An orientation video is being prepared. There will be an informational meeting on March 22 which people can attend in person or via Zoom.
• JCMGA 2024 Strategic Plan:
  • The draft Strategic Plan was reviewed with an eye towards the COWG’s role in carrying out the activities listed, and suggestions were made for adding or removing the COWG at various points. Barbara Low will make the revisions. It was agreed that all of the activities the COWG is currently involved in should be continued, but at a level that can be sustained with available volunteers. For example, booths should be informational only, without trying to sell plants, which requires much more effort.
• Volunteers:
  • There was discussion about the need to involve more members in the work of JCMGA and to train individuals to take over from current leaders of activities.

Fundraising Working Group

Chair, Jane Moyer

• Met and discussed the upcoming Spring Garden Fair. We will be selling the Garden Guides at the Earth Day event on April 20 and at the Medford Streets Event on May 17.

Garden Working Group 

Chair, Janine Salvatti

• The Demonstration gardens are starting to be cleaned up. The Fig Garden pruning project is on hold because of Janine’s injury.
• They are scheduling several volunteer work parties in the gardens.

Marketing and Technology Working Group

Co-Chairs – Barbara Low and Keltie Nelson

• We have worked on a JCMGA Marketing plan.
• We are looking at training people for the different areas that we manage so that more than one person is able to do the task.

Member Services Working Group

Chair, Barbara Low

• JCMGA Chapter (Membership) Directory is just about ready to be sent to the printers..
• We finished the details for the Information Meeting on the Friends of the Gardens which is Friday, March 22. This program will start in April.

Program Support Working Group

Chair is Grace Florjancic

• I am very happy to announce we have been awarded funding to pursue some horticultural therapy activities with older adults in our rural libraries. It is a short 6-month grant, so we are quickly getting this ball rolling! Check out the Coordinator’s Colum for more details.

Spring Garden Fair Working Group

co-Chairs – Marcie Katz and Lucy Pylkki

• They are busy getting ready for the Spring Garden Fair, which is May 4 and 5 at the SOREC Extension.
• Volunteers are still needed. Colet Allen and Barbara Low are working on getting volunteers.

Winter Dreams Summer Gardens Working Group

chairs are Colet Allen, Susan Koenig, and Barbara Low

• We are getting the presenters for the 2024 WDSG!
• We have taken the suggestions from the 2023 WDSG Survey to help decide what topics we wanted to include in the 2024 WDSG.