Let s Talk Dirt... Linn County Master Gardener Assn. Paula Daniels s End of Year Report

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1 Linn County Master Gardener Assn. Let s Talk Dirt... Linn County Fair & Expo Center 3700 Knox Butte Road Albany, Oregon Nov/Dec 2014 Paula Daniels s End of Year Report Editor s note: Paula sent the following comments to the Demo Garden Team along with her end of year report on her two projects: Hello to all, I wanted to tell you that I thought the Demo Garden looked wonderful this year. This was my third year playing in the garden and it just keeps getting better and better! Congratulations to you for making this beautiful little piece of sanctuary. In the middle of asphalt and large buildings, it is a special place that both the general public and all of us, can learn from and enjoy. Thank you everyone! Paula This year we tried some different things in the whiskey barrels. There are 7 barrels total, the 2 closest to the center walkway had flowers, both annuals and perennials. Changing things up, we planted a crook necked squash with a butternut squash that did surprisingly well. Also had a barrel of carrots, another with trailing thornless blackberries, one with Sun Gold tomatoes and one with Blue Lake bush beans. The gates to the Demo Garden are now locked until Spring No Master Gardener will visit the garden on a regular basis during the Fall/Winter period. Please return in the Spring of This little garden is a joy to work on, as you can sit in a chair and do most of all the picking and maintenance. We had some irrigation issues and some things didn t get enough regular water. I was gone much of the time this summer and I owe thanks so much to everyone that helped the barrels survive this long hot summer. Especially to Barbara, the watering saint! This photo of the Handicap Accessible garden was taken in June 2014 before everything flourished. We also had the Salad Garden in the grocery basket planted with kale, parsley, lettuce and Traudy s container tomatoes. Next year, I would recommend lining the basket with a less porous liner to hold moisture in the soil longer and possibly have less soil depth, so that the water will stay in the plant roots area.

2 Year End Review of the Herb Gardens Linn County Fair & Expo 3700 Knox Butte Road Albany, Oregon Nov/Dec 2014 By Pat Mason My partner, Betty Anderson, and I took care of the Herb Gardens. These are the four beds as you come into the Demo Garden from parking lot. It is hard to remember details from the spring except that the rough winter killed a lot of our herb plants. We waited for prices to go down until we purchased replacement plants. As summer went along our herbs grew nicely some were huge! We closed the growing season with over a dozen healthy herbs. Stop by and count them sometime! Betty and I have had some physical challenges this summer but we managed to "take turns" being able to work. We appreciate the help from Randy and Dave as they so easily pick up and haul our trimmings to the compost! I look forward to working with the "Demo Gang" the rest of the year and next! The OSU Linn County Master Gardeners gratefully thank the following businesses for donating products and support Linn County Fair & Expo The demonstration garden and related activities are open to the general public. Blueberries In Demo Garden By Randy Peckham The Herb Gardens looked good despite all the challenges this year. This project was to introduce 4 varieties of blueberries in the garden that bloom from early June to late Sept.: Duke ripens early Hardiblue mid-range (August to September) Darrow late maturity Elliott very late. The steps taken were: 1. choosing a site which required a sunny area free of trees that may shade the blueberry plants. 2. soil requirements the soil needs to be well drained and high in organic matter with a ph range between 4.5 and care after planting the bushes include fertilizing 4. future care will require pruning. This project is in its first year right now. Please come back and monitor its progress, which includes tasting the ripe berries next year. 2

3 Sun Loving Flower Garden By Karen Waterson My idea was to be able to plant sun loving plants, because at home, all I have is shade. I planted sunflowers, dahlias, gladiolas, and irises. They all came up beautifully, as well as some plants that were planted in the bed previously, such as the cannas. Overview of Karen s Sun Loving Flower Bed (photo courtesy of Paula Daniels) A gorgeous gladiola (photo courtesy of Paula Daniels) 3

4 Demonstration Garden Projects 2014 By Barbara Coffman Edible Flowers I continued with my edible flowers in one of the culvert pipe raised beds. Planted in that bed were calendula, daylilies, dianthus, hibiscus, nasturtium, and pansy. I continued the posting of information on edible flowers (names, parts edible, flavor) in the kiosk. Hydrangea I wanted to demonstrate how to change the color of hydrangea using acid and lime fertilizers and explain the process to the public. To this end, I purchased two of the same variety hydrangea in late summer of 2013 and planted each some distance apart. One was provided acidic soil using a fertilizer designed for azaleas & rhododendrons (blooms should become blue). The other an alkaline soil using lime (blooms should become pink). A sign was made explaining the process to the public. So far, the hydrangea are not quite turning as expected. This may be due to the fact that the holes dug were large and the plants' roots have not reached the fertilized soil. Additionally, the weather has taken its toll on one of the hydrangea. Hopefully they will do better next spring. I will continue to monitor these hydrangea and fertilize them. Daylilies Since taking over the daylily bed in 2013, I have cleaned up the bed, treated for thrips, and monitored flower production. I have created a new list of the daylilies in the garden along with pictures and information on each. This information is in a notebook in the Demo Garden shed. I also added a double daylily (Kwanso) to the bed. Bee, Bird, & Butterfly Garden I took over the Butterfly Garden which had gone untended for a couple of years. I decided to expand the garden to include plants that attract birds, bees & butterflies. I have added sun flowers, fushia, flowing maples (abutilon), daphne, cosmos, echinacea, foxglove, and crane's bill geranium. I removed the pearly everlasting, which was spreading and taking over the garden and I worked on rehabilitating the butterfly bush which was severely damaged due to the severe winter. Next year I shall continue to add plants that attract pollinators. Is What You See What You Get? I divided one of the culvert pipe raised beds into two beds and planted each with a different package of flower seeds. The purpose was to find out if the resulting flowers resembled the inviting pictures on the seed packets. I used Lilly Miller annual cut flower mix and Ed Hume perennial flower garden. The Lilly Miller seeds listed its contents and that is pretty much what grew, almost matching the picture (no pinks). The Ed Hume seeds didn't make any promise, but stated that included "may be" certain varieties. None of the possible iceland poppies or columbine grew, nor did the echinacea pictured on the packet. Conclusion, if you want particular flowers, don't go by the picture on the packet. Read the contents, and if the packet dosen't tell you what's inside, be willing to be surprised. Barbara works at the Edible Flowers bed at the Demo Garden this summer. (Photo courtesy of Paula Daniels) 4

5 [Editor s Note: Larry Steele became a Master Gardener in In 2010, he planted a Purple Passion Plot that included purple potatoes, purple beans, purple tomatoes, etc. In 2011, he continued the PPP trend by planting a pepper passion plot. In 2012, it became the pumpkin patch passion. In 2013, the Pet Peeve Plot and this year, ] 2014 Plant Protein Plot (PPP) By Larry Steele The idea for the Plant Protein garden came about because I made the choice to alter my diet a bit last winter because I I had been finding it difficult to maintain or even achieve what I thought was a good body weight for my height. The choice I made was to gravitate towards a more plant based diet and away from a reliance on animal protein to a large degree. As any person making this choice might, I wanted to explore plant sources for protein and because I was thinking about this at the same time as I was considering a new project for the PPP at the Demo Garden the choice was an easy one and the Plant Protein Plot was born. My first concept for a plant based protein plot was to simply show a variety of common vegetables that have a significant protein content and demonstrate how easy it is to grow some of your protein sources in the garden. Probably this was too easy. With minimal research I knew that Spinach easily grown in both spring and fall (I'm still harvesting from the late planting into October and probably November) would be a good one to include. I also wanted a crop that would produce a significant amount for the space devoted and selected a green bean. A ten foot row of green beans produced in excess of twenty pounds of nutritious beans for the table. The key to using plants as your source of protein is to get a variety of the essential amino acids that make up a so called high quality protein that one can get from animal flesh or milk so I included a variety of plants rather than just going for the maximum I could produce in a small plot. So another choice for the early garden was sugar snap peas that can be consumed as pods or shelled peas as they mature. After several pickings of these delicious legumes they were taken out and gave way to the second planting of spinach. Two other items added to the mix for more variety were kale and broccoli. The kale yielded lots of big crinkly leaves from mid summer to the end of October and beyond and the broccoli contributed early but was less successful later on. It was supposed to be a continuous sprouting variety, but seemed to produce only more green leaves and stalks as the summer went on. Finally, I included an unusual item that had people guessing and asking questions at Linn County Fair time and that was fenugreek. It is a grain crop grown since ancient times in much of the Mediterranean region and Asia. It has many uses as a grain for sprouts and as a medicinal herb as well as having significant protein. The Plant Protein Plot accomplished the modest goals I had for it and can be continued with more plant selections, more research and signage and perhaps even another mystery plant like fenugreek just to keep people guessing a little. Vermiculture and composting Larry s other projects at the DG: The three bin system of composting in place in the Kompost Kitchen was a great success this year largely due to the diligence of Peter Lajoie and others (Ranee Webb, Randall Peckham, Pat Mason, Dave Krieger, myself and others) who helped on occasion. This process produced as much as two yards of finely screened beautiful compost for use in the garden. In addition the worm boxes added small quantities of "black gold" from the three projects in place. The worm box that I built a few years ago also served as the catalyst for an informal talk and hands on clinic on vermiculture for a handful of MGers led by myself at one of our work parties. During the clinic we replenished bedding, talked about the process and harvested worm compost for each participant to use. Worms were also collected to be used as starter kits for a couple of the participants. (Photo courtesy of Paula Daniels) 5

6 Dahlias The Dahlia bed project was mostly on auto pilot this year, with plants coming back vigorously from the previous year's root tubers left in place. It is my intention to dig them up and divide them this fall and offer them to those who donated starts in the past, the original "dahlia diaspora" I had in mind. The dahlias came back with a vengeance with very little attention. (Photo courtesy of Paula Daniels) Two Continuing Projects by Stephanie Low There have been a couple of on going projects that remained under my attention at the Demo Garden for a few years: The Christmas tree project was started in May 2011 with four Colorado Blue Spruce seedlings that were freebies from the Spring Home Improvement Show at the Linn County Fair/Expo. Enee, Menee, Minee & Moe were planted in

7 In spring of 2012, someone dropped an orphan seedling at the East gate of the Demo Garden. I named the new addition, Baby, and it joined its adopted siblings. Little has been done to the project but after three years, the trees have slowly grown: Enee from 11 to 27.5 Menee from 11 to Minee from 12 to 37 Moe from 8 to and Baby from 11 to 14.5 (after two years) Low, slow growing Martha Herman ling heather was added in between the spruce trees in They will be 8 x 12 mounds when mature. The table top Japanese Zen Garden was started in It is to encourage people to slow down their daily hectic pace. It is a place of tranquility, meditation, and relaxation. By concentrating on the task at hand within the framework of the garden, people forget about the errands they need to do, everyday problems, aches and pains at least temporarily. I am happy to report that after two years, visitors are still enjoying the project. How can I tell? Well, whenever I attend the work parties and check on the Zen Garden, the design is different from the one I saw at a previous visit. It is part of the appeal of going to the Demo Garden. Unlike many parks and gardens where there are signs telling visitors to refrain from touching the flowers, plants, fruits, etc., the Demo Garden is a place of interaction. When we tell you to come and enjoy the garden, we really do want you to be involved. What design will you create at the Zen Garden? A sunflower reaching for the sky (photo courtesy of Stephanie Low) 7

8 Linn County Master Gardener Assn. Demonstration Garden Linn County Fair & Expo Center 3700 Knox Butte Road Hwy 99 Century Drive N Map not to scale Knox Butte Road Access demo garden via north walkway by foot. Hotel Restaurant Hotel Armory Expo Parkway I - 5 Aviation way Albany Municipal Access Demo garden by vehicle behind the Expo center barns. Barns Price Road Linn County Fair & Expo Center Timber Linn Park Parking lot Dogwood Avenue Timber Street Hwy 20 (Santiam Hwy) The demonstration garden and related activities are open to the general public. 8