Becoming a Master Gardener

This fall, I signed up for the Oregon State University Master Gardener @ Night Class. This is something I've been interested in for a few years ever since I found out one of my former co-workers was a Master Gardener.

It used to be that the classes were only offered during the day, which totally doesn't work for a lot of us who work during the day. I had this image in my head that the class was mostly made up of people who were retired. So I put it on my bucket list. Then last year, my friend Britni sign up for the night class. She loved it! Now it's my turn.

I signed up to be a Master Gardener Volunteer in Training. That means I'll go through two terms of classes now through April, and then I need to complete 66 hours of volunteer work. After that, I'll be a certified Master Gardener Volunteer!

My textbook -- This book is huge!

Master Gardener Volunteers serve the public by providing information on gardening, either through the phone line, workshops, and other events. They also have other activities such as fundraisers and festivals, like the Fall Festival (pictures below).

Local Master Gardeners' best produce contest

So much garlic!

I volunteered at the book sale.

So far, in my classes I've learned about native plants, botany, weeds and soils. Some of the other topics I'll learn about this term are home composting, fertilizers and pruning. Each 2 1/2 hour class is led by a guest speaker, who is usually a Master Gardener volunteer and an expert on that night's topic. It's fascinating to see people who know so much about something as trivial as weeds. It feels like I'm back in school again without all the pressure of taking tests and being expected to memorize everything all at once. The program urges you to do the chapter readings and assignments, but the purpose is to teach you how to find the information you're looking for.

Notes from my first class

It does feel like information overload sometimes, but I'm glad I'm finally taking this first step to becoming a better gardener.

Apartment Gardening: Planting Seeds

I remember the first time I planted anything from seed. I was nervous that it wouldn't work. It's much easier to plant vegetables and flowers when all the hard has already been done for you by someone who knows what they're doing. But a couple years ago I took the jump and planted basil from seeds I got from my mom but was afraid to plant myself until then.

It actually wasn't as hard as I thought. However, I didn't bother to look at a planting calendar, which tells you the best time to plant things. But the basil came up and soon I was able to eat my favorite herb with spaghetti, Caprese salad and scrambled eggs. Since then, I've also planted lettuce, peas, spinach and cilantro from seed.

But, like every gardener, I'm still learning. I recently started producing a gardening segment at work (see video below), and the first topic we did was starting from seed. The new thing I learned was that if you want to start from seed in those little trays that you then transplant from, you have to use seed starter, not just any old dirt or potting soil. This explains why the lettuce plants on my window sill this year haven't come up yet. I used the wrong dirt. Well, there's still time to start over. I guess I know what I'm getting the next time I'm in the garden shop.

Radish Plants Get Surprise Neighbors

      When I was a kid, I didn't like radishes. I thought they were too spicy or hot. My grandpa liked them too, so I thought it was a grownup thing--that grownups liked radishes and other vegetables that kids never eat, like beets. But after trying a radish for the first time in a long time, and checking local planting calendars, I thought I'd try growing my own. I picked up a packet of cherry belle radish seeds, which are a cute, small kind of radish and decided to plant them in the same raised bed as where I planted my snap peas. However, I forgot the radishes would end up competing with some bulb flowers that I forgot can come up in late summer.

 

     The funny thing about planting bulb flowers is there's a chance that you forget where you put them. That was the case with my grape hyacinth after I started watering the radish seeds. Within a week or so, at the the beginning of September, they started coming up. I hadn't watered that area all summer because I thought those flowers were spring bloomers, not fall bloomers, so I figured I could just leave them alone. But they came up anyway, after I started watering that area, and since then they've become garden roommates more or less.
    A couple side notes--first, I've confirmed with a local master gardener that the holes in the leaves aren't worth worrying over this late in the season. Second, because I planted the seeds so late in the season, I've been told that it will take a lot longer for them to be ready to eat than what is specified on the packet. I can't wait!

Planting Spinach in a Hanging Basket

I've never planted vegetable seeds in the fall before. It always seemed complicated to take of. But new this year, I decided to give it a try. I checked the Portland Nursery's chart and found that I could plant spinach at the end of August. I love putting spinach in my sandwiches and eating spinach salads, so I picked up a package of spinach seeds, along with some radish seeds (more on that later) at the Down to Earth garden store.

      My pots were already full of other things, and an empty patch of my raised bed would be used for radishes, so I had to find somewhere else to plant them. (Enter the incredibly dead hanging flower basket.) I was able to resurrect its flowers this season for a little while after pruning, but something got to it and killed it. So, I decided to empty the basket, fill it with new dirt from Bi-Mart and plant the seeds in it.
     That week the seedlings started to come up, so I thinned them apart according to the seed packets directions. It will take a while before they are ready to pick and eat, but it's fun to watch them grow in the meantime.

Blooming Chives

Sometimes I think gardens can oftwn resemble the illustrations of a Dr. Suess book. The chives in my garden are no exception. They are now blooming their puffy purple flowers and weighing down some of the long, thin green scapes (the part you dice and eat).

I ate one of the green the other week, and it tasted so fresh. I'll have to make some potatoes or another dish that I can add the chives to soon.

One thing I like about this plant is that I got it for free at a garden event. I'll write another post about how to get free plants later.

Apartment Gardening: Basil and Lettuce Plants Have a New Home

I took advantage of this morning's dry, cool weather by transplanting some of my plants. The basil, and especially the lettuce, outgrew their small spaces and needed room to expand. I moved lettuce from three small pots to one large blue pot and planted another round of seeds in the small pots again. Transplanting the lettuce was difficult because I planted too many seeds in each pot, so they were hard to separate and probably not very strong. I hope they survive.

The basil wasn't as difficult to transplant, but again, I should have planted fewer seeds in the small blue pot they were in. The transplants are now in a medium red pot and medium-sized leftover black plastic pot, and I planted some more basil seeds in the small pots.

Elsewhere on my windowsill, the forget me nots still have not come up. I think the seeds might be a bad batch or I should try something else. I need to do more research.

Apartment Gardening: The Peas are Growing!

It's been about a month since I planted snap peas in my garden. Now they have grown a few inches tall!

I installed a synthetic net along the fence this past weekend, so the peas will have somewhere to go in order to grow nice and tall. The first time I planted peas, they were starts instead of from seed. I made the mistake of not researching how to plant them. I didn't trellis them and the bugs ate the pods.

I wasn't about to make that same mistake. Hopefully, the net that I put up will do the trick.

If you have any tips about growing peas, feel free to post them below.

Apartment Gardening: Peas in the Ground

Every year I try to plant something new, and this year I chose to plant sugar snap peas. I love how sweet and crunchy they taste, and since they can be spendy at the store I thought it would be a good idea to try to plant myself.

I bought some Cascadia pea seeds from Territorial Seed Company at the Down to Earth garden store and some legume inoculant, which helps increase yield but I haven't used it yet. Instead, I soaked the seeds between wet paper towels in a Tupperware container for a few days until the seeds started to sprout. Then they were ready to be planted.

I scraped a trench close to the fence and placed the peas in a row in the trench. Then I covered them up with the dirt. That was a week ago. They are starting come out of the ground now. When they get tall enough, I will make a net with jute on the fence and wrap them around to encourage them to grab it and grow.

Apartment Gardening: Growing from Seed

It's finally spring and the March snow is gone, so now it's time to check on my seedlings. A few weeks ago, I planted basil, lettuce and forget me nots from seed. I remembered to keep the soil watered, and my memory has paid off. The lettuce already has two sprouts and the basil has one. That's not too bad considering my windowsill doesn't get a whole lot of light. I hope they turn out well because a lot of seeds come in a packet.

If you have any tips about growing seeds, let me know.

Apartment Gardening: Preparing for Cold Weather

Brrrr! It's cold today. Cold in relation to when I last wrote a blog entry. Today's high temperature was about 59 degrees with rain and wind, and judging by what my impatients and tomato plants look like, they're on their way out.

This season was quite the contrast from last year. Only about eight of the red pear tomatoes made it, and the Lemon Boy tomatoes never made it to the color or size of a lemon. I think this is partly because of the lack of heat this summer and the lack of sunlight that reaches my patio. I feel sad because I was looking forward to finding out how the yellow tomatoes would taste. But because the startings were less than $2 each, I'm not too bummed out.

However, I did experience déjà vu with the impatients. Like last year, they spread out like a carpet almost a foot high. They were really pretty.

The fern and hosta also did well. They grew quite a few leaves and are pretty well established.

Yet with the cold weather creeping in, I'll have to say goodbye to my tomato plants and impatients. I'll dig them up soon and loosen up the dirt before more rain sets in.

I'm open to suggestions of what I should plant next year.

Apartment Gardening: Growing Tall

It is already the beginning of August, and my garden continues to grow. The first two red pear tomatoes have come out, but it will be a little longer before they are ready to eat. The Lemon Boy tomato plant is still growing, but not fruit yet. Both plants are much taller since I last wrote. I'm not sure though how high is too high.

The basil plant smells wonderful, and I can't wait to make Caprese salad. Mmmmm :)

The impatients are spreading like two beautiful carpets on both sides of the gate. On one side, I planted some begonias bulbs (right). The yellow one has come up, and the red one is almost in bloom.

The hosta (also from a bulb) keeps growing. Every time I pass by it, the plant seems to sprout another leaf. Some of my neighbors grow hosta (below) too, and the plants get to be a pretty big.

Apartment Gardening: Trial and Error

One thing I've learned about gardening is don't be afraid to try new things. Last year, I planted tomatoes, impatients and basil. Everything did alright except for the basil, because the pot it was too small.

This year I tried planting coleus for the first time. Unfortunately, since the last time I wrote, we got a spell of cold weather and the coleus pretty much died. Coleus apparently is very sensitive to cold weather, especially when it comes without warning. So, I decided to stick to what I know and planted impatients again. Impatients (right) like to spread out like carpet, so I chose bright colors and a couple of white ones to balance them out. They like the rain, and they need plenty of water and good soil when the weather is dry. You can find them for as low as a dollar each in some places right now. They're an annual, which means they'll die about the time the first frost hits.

With the cold and wet weather in May and June, I was worried that my tomato plants would also die. Luckily, that didn't happen and they're still growing. There are a few yellow blooms on both plants right now, so the fruits should be on their way. This season I planted Lemon Boy and red pear tomatoes (below).

As far as the bulb plants, the hosta (guacamole) is still establishing itself. It has three leafs right now. The Lily of the Valley doesn't seem to want to come up (not sure why), and the begonias are still growing. The grape hyacinth is on its way out for the season. So to give it a proper farewell, my grandma suggested I tug at the leafs and pull them out when they give. She says don't cut them because the leaves are still collecting nutrients before the bulbs go dormant until next year.

So if you're gardening for the first time or the tenth time, don't be afraid to try something new, even if it doesn't work out.

Apartment Gardening: Coleus

If you live in an apartment that has a lot of shade like me, coleus is a great plant to consider. It adds create color and is low maintenance.

Last week, I went to Fred Meyer, and I bought this vibrant plant that grows in partial to full shade. The leaves vary in design, but they are mostly bright green and dark magenta. If you like Star Trek, there's even a variety out there called 'Vulcan'.

Today is the first day of May, and the coleus survived being on my back porch close to the building for the past week, so it was time to plant. I spaced the eight plants a few inches apart from each other to give them room to expand. They can grow up to 10-12 inches and expand outward. I also watered them with a little bit of fertilizer. They are an annual, so if it doesn't work out, I can try something different next year. I hope they last though.

Gardening: Take 2

It's almost May, and that means it's time to start planting my garden!

Last year, I had a good run with two red tomato plants, two beds of impatients and a nice flower basket.

This year, things are different. Since crews constructed new, higher fences in my apartment complex, I don't get as much sunlight on the flower/plant beds. So, I'll need to adjust.

Yesterday, I picked up some plants from the OSU Extension Service's plant sale. I bought bush snap peas, red pear tomato and yellow tomato seedlings, and a fern (kind of random, but the fern was only a dollar). Total spent: $7.


Today, I went to Fred Meyer to pick up some potting soil and a couple of blue glazed terra cotta pots. I also bought a few more plants: yellow and red begonia bulbs, some coleus seedlings, and a pink impatient. I thought the impatient would fit in one of my small pots. No such luck. I'll find a space for it later.

Above: This coleus looks similar to the one that I bought.

My goal is to have a lot of color and see if these plants will survive under the new conditions.