Ask a Master Gardener

Free access to unbiased research-based horticulture advice

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For more than a half century, home gardeners have been bringing us their questions and issues. We have University trained volunteers who can help you tackle those intractable problems! Our diagnostic team specializes in pinpointing issues with plants and pests, offering free research-based advice on effective management strategies for both the pests and the overall health of gardens and landscapes.

Ask a Master Gardener

Gardening advice via email

If you have a gardening issue and cannot get to one of our in-person plant clinics, you can submit your question via email. Just take a picture of the issue and fill out the email behind this section.

Question submission form

Ask a Master Gardener plant clinic locations

If instead of email, you want to have some back-and-forth question and answer so that, together, we can hone on the difficult to describe issue, then click here for an In-Person Plant Clinic location near you.

Find an Ask a Master Gardener Clinic

Hortsense

Hortsense contains home gardener fact sheets for managing plant problems.

Hortsense

Other gardening resources

Find publications and links to a vast library of gardening resources.

Gardening resources

Top Weeds in Skagit County

Bittercress (a.k.a.: Shotweed)

Little bittercress is a fall/winter-germinating annual species growing to less than five inches tall. Leaves are compound with one large terminal leaflet and several pairs of smaller lateral leaflets. Each leaflet is smooth and circular to slightly heart-shaped in outline.

Shooting 'Shotweed'!

Dandelions

The common dandelion is a persistent taprooted plant reproducing by seeds and by short shoots from the crown. It also grows back from roots broken during hand removal. 

Dandelions

Horsetail

Horsetails are found primarily in moist to wet areas. Scouringrush is common along roadsides and ditch banks. Field horsetail is found primarily in moist to wet areas, but can survive in drier areas once established. Field horsetail is a common weed of gardens, pastures, and home landscapes.

Horsetail

_{WSU is an equal opportunity provider. If you need a reasonable accommodation or language access to participate in an event, please contact Alex duPont, Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Coordinator, at alex.dupont@wsu.edu or (360) 395-2367 at least two weeks prior to the planned event. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to limited English proficient individuals upon request.}