The Dirt

• Articles for the October Garden Beet due by September 15^th. Send articles to jcmgabeet569@gmail.com

September

• Collecting produce (fruit and vegetables) donations every Wednesday from 10-11 a.m. in the Gathering Garden at SOREC- which will be given to Access.
• JCMGA Monthly Board Meeting – September 13^th from 9:30-11:15 a.m.
• Honey and Mead Festival – September 21^st, from 11-5 p.m. at Edenvale Winery (we will have a table at this event and will need volunteers)
• JCMGA Fall Festival – Saturday, September 28^th, from 9-2 p.m. We will need volunteers at this event which will be at SOREC Extension.

October

• Fall JCMGA Board Retreat – October 4 from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• JCMGA Monthly Board Meeting – October 11^th from 9:30-11:15 a.m.
• Winter Dreams Summer Gardens October 18, 19, 25, and 26 via zoom. Register now – cost is $30

What a great time of the year!

After all our hard work in our gardens for the past few months, we are harvesting our produce and enjoying them with our meals.

Many of you are probably sharing your produce with family, friends, and neighbors.  What a treat!

JCMGA is again doing the Plant A Row project in which we collect any extra produce and give it to Medford Access.  Medford Access makes sure that it goes to families who are struggling to put food on their tables.  We have been collecting produce for approximately one month and have collected 66 pounds!

I encourage you to participate in this project if you have any extra produce.  We collect it on Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m. in the Gathering Place on the SOREC grounds, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point.

On another note, we are continuing to look for anyone interested in being a part of our Friends of the Gardens program.  If you know someone who doesn’t want to take the Master Gardeners Class but is interested in working and learning gardening techniques in our wonderful Demonstration Gardens – please contact Grace Florjancic.

We have many volunteer opportunities available through JCMGA.  Please see the article in this month’s Garden Beet for details.

JCMGA is about community service and also about gardening education. Our Winter Dreams Summer Gardens Symposium 2024 is an example of a wide variety of gardening presentations.  This event will again be via Zoom.  It will be October 18, 19 and 25, 26.  All presentations will be recorded and available for viewing until December 31, 2024.  Registration is now open at https://jacksoncountymga.org/winter-dreams-summer-gardens-symposium/ .  You can also view the list of presenters and their presentations along with the presentation schedule.

The cost is $30!  Great deal!

JCMGA has a lot going on.  We are excited about the opportunities that we are providing.  If you are interested in joining us, please contact me.  barbaralow@msn.com

Hello Gardeners,

The Statewide Master Gardener Program has exciting news about our Garden Future Across Oregon. We received a grant to educate gardeners about upcoming changes and challenges we are facing in our gardens. Each region across the state is experiencing different impacts of the changing weather on their garden beds.

Step one for us Master Gardener Coordinators is collecting stories and data about what is happening in your gardens. At the Joy of Gardening conference, we got some input from gardeners across the state. Many gardeners are having to use shade cloths, wind barriers, water conservation techniques, and change their planting times to keep their gardens successful. You can join the conversation by signing up for the Garden Future mailing list https://beav.es/q9t and filling out the survey on what changes you see in your garden https://extension.oregonstate.edu/garden-future. We hope to get more survey participation across the state from non-MGs at tabling events, educational classes, and the plant clinics.

The next steps for the statewide team include putting together an educational module for you volunteers to learn about how our climate and gardens are changing. This module will include regional information for gardeners across the state. We are also assembling resources and teaching kits for volunteers to share with their local communities. Handouts for tabling events and class teaching kits will be developed based on the needs we see from the above survey. Currently, a drip irrigation kit like the one I borrowed from Klamath County will be our first kit to expand upon.

Happy gardening and stay tuned for more upcoming information!

So many of us fondly remember learning and working in the Creepy Old House, squeezing into the cramped propagation house, fumbling for tools in the dark and dank tool shed, and being reluctant to enter the cobwebby isolation greenhouse.

Well…

Although the timing is a bit ethereal yet, Jackson County plans to demolish the COH and propagation building and drag off the old tool shed. The isolation greenhouse may be saved, if it can be moved elsewhere on site. In addition, the driveway into SOREC Demonstration Gardens is going to be widened to 3 lanes to permit safer Hanley Road ingress and egress. The boundaries of the new driveway are not yet known.

Our Board of Directors appointed Jane Moyer to form an ad hoc Design Committee to work on a plan to replace these essential structures with new ADA compliant buildings designed to meet our classroom, storage, and tool shed needs now and in the future. The buildings will be placed on the original COH site and include an open plan lathe house in the space between the classroom and the toolshed.

The Design Committee brainstormed a long list of necessities based on long familiarity with the old buildings, their deficiencies, and potential future demands. Three bids were requested, one was favored due to the contractor’s thorough understanding of our needs and financial limitations. It was not the lowest or highest bid.

We expect to have an initial contractor drawing to share with you in the next month or two.

Next, paying for this project is a top priority. The JCMGA Board has agreed to use some of its savings and research what other funding sources may be available. (Bake sales are at the bottom of our list.)

Any questions or ideas can be directed to Jane Moyer, whose foresight was the inspiration for this project.

Look for periodic updates in The Beet as new information becomes available.

This upgrade is such a positive step for JCMGA. Exciting and uplifting!

Last month I started this column titled “The Garden Book Nook”.  I encourage you to think about what book(s) you would recommend to a fellow gardener.  Write a couple of paragraphs about why you like the book and why you recommend it.  Email the article to barbaralow@msn.com and I’ll include it in an upcoming Garden Beet “The Garden Book Nook”.

We’d love to learn what book you recommend!

I have two more books I want to recommend. For the past couple of years, I have been very interested in companion planting and all that it entails.

     Carrots Love Tomatoes – Secrets of Companion Planting For Successful Gardening written by Louise Riotte. 1998.

I have found this to be a great resource book.  It covers a wide range of plants and how they can be used in companion gardening.

Practical Guide to Garden Herbs – How to Identify, Choose and Grow Herbs, with an A-Z Directory and More Than 730 Photographs written by Jessica Houdret. 2011.

This is a very complete book on herbs, and includes great photographs of all the plants it covers. It gives you the scientific name as well as the common name. There is also a brief description of the herb and how to use it.

What book do you recommend?