Learn To Grow Veggies With Master Gardeners

By Caitlin Blethen, WSU Master Gardener Program Coordinator 

Join the San Juan County Washington State University Master Gardeners for two free community webinars exploring how to successfully grow your own food.

Dr. Carol Miles and Dr. Linda Gilkeson will spend two hours each on two separate Tuesdays, reviewing the basics of food gardening.

These events have been generously sponsored by the Orcas Island Garden Club and the Lopez Island Garden Club. Register early for each webinar as registration is limited.

Sustainable Vegetable Production

The first online event called “Sustainable Vegetable Production” is from 1-3 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 26. Register here for this free Zoom webinar.

Vegetable crop scientist, Dr. Carol Miles will explain how to plan, plant and get the most out of your food garden. She will discuss site location, how to decide what to grow, when and how to plant and year-round gardening.

Dr. Miles is a Professor in the Department of Vegetable Horticulture at Washington State University and is the Interim Director of the Washington State University Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center. Carol has diverse international experiences both growing up and in her early career where she has lived in subsistence agriculture communities in places such as Panama, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Malawi and Tanzania.

Carol received her B.S. in Bio-Agricultural Science from Colorado State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Vegetable Crops from the Department of Fruit and Vegetable Science at Cornell University. Carol’s goal has been to work with farmers to create sustainable production systems that provide a source of well-being to both the family and the community.

Cut Your Losses: Managing Pests and Diseases in Your Food Garden

The second event, titled “Cut Your Losses: Managing Pests and Diseases in Your Food Garden” is from 1-3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 2. Register here for this free Zoom webinar.

Dr. Linda Gilkeson, well known PNW entomologist and garden book author will discuss how to identify, prevent and manage common pests and diseases of vegetables and fruit using organic methods. Tips for dealing with common problems, such as aphids, late blight on tomato, root maggots, and the latest on managing recently introduced pests will be shared.

Dr. Gilkeson earned a Ph.D. in Entomology from McGill University in 1986 and then moved to British Columbia to work for a company that produces biological controls. From 1991 to 2002 she worked for the provincial government, promoting programs to reduce and eliminate pesticide use. She was head of the provincial State of Environment Reporting Unit for the next six years, then the Executive Director of the Salt Spring Island Conservancy until the end of 2011.

Linda now devotes her time to writing, teaching and consulting. Linda is the author of “Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest,” the beloved and best-selling guide to vegetable garden success, “Resilient Gardens in a Changing Climate”, and “West Coast Gardening:  Natural Insect, Weed and Disease Control”, among other self-published books.

The WSU Master Gardener Program is a nationally recognized program that trains volunteers to serve their communities through horticultural education and outreach. Once volunteers receive training, they provide research-based, educational information to the public on vegetable and fruit gardening, native plants, ornamentals and landscape maintenance, composting, plant problem diagnosis, pest control, and many other concerns. For more information about San Juan County WSU Master Gardeners visit https://extension.wsu.edu/sanjuan/ or email [email protected].

Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities and special needs who contact the WSU San Juan County Extension office at 360-370- 7663 or [email protected] two weeks prior to the event.

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