
January 2021
Growing Groceries: Starting a Vegetable Garden
Includes a discussion on site selection, raised beds, planning your crop calendar, plant families, intercropping, succession planting, cover crops, and crop rotation.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Apple & Pear Trees in Western Washington
You’ll learn the basics of apple and pear fruit production including variety and rootstock selection, nutrient management, and basic care including pruning, irrigation and pest management.
Find out more »February 2021
Growing Groceries: Seed Starting and Raising Transplants
Beginning with how and when to start to seeds, to watering techniques, thinning and transplanting, you’ll learn how to save money and be successful in starting your vegetables from seed.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Onion and Beet Families
The onion (Allium) family includes garlic, leeks, and shallots as well. The beet (Chenopod) family includes everyone’s favorite, spinach, as well as chard and quinoa. Discussion of both families includes variety selection, cultural requirements, common diseases and pests.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Compost Makes the Garden Go ‘Round
Composting is easy to do, saves money, and is kind to our environment. You'll learn everything compost: what is good compost, where to find it, how to use it to enrich your garden, as well as how to make compost from your own kitchen and yard waste.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Raising Strawberries and Cane Berries
Topics include variety selection, soil preferences, fertility, pruning, pest and disease management, and cultural requirements for strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other small fruits.
Find out more »March 2021
Growing Groceries: Vegetables in Containers and Year-Round Salad Greens
Topics include sunlight requirements, container types, soil, drainage, fertilizer, irrigation and strategies for maximizing your harvest. Growing salad greens year-round is easy and saves money. Speakers: Diane Decker-Ihle has been a Snohomish County Master Gardener since 1990 and an avid gardener most of her life. She helped establish the WSU Extension Snohomish County Growing Groceries Program in 2009 and has been teaching Growing Groceries classes ever since. She has been an advisor for several community gardens and managed her church’s…
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Raising Culinary & Tea Herbs
We’ll cover the basic perennial and annual herbs used in so many sweet and savory dishes along with the not-so-common ones like epazote and lemongrass. In addition, we’ll talk about some of the easy to grow tea herbs like chamomile, catnip, hyssop.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Incorporating Edibles into Your Landscape
You will learn how to create a productive, sustainable, and attractive garden by mixing colorful vegetables, edible flowers, easy to grow herbs, fruit trees, and berries into the landscape. We will consider some basics (soil prep, plant needs, maintenance issues) as well as design concepts and lots of examples of edibles in the landscape.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Raising Peas & Potatoes
We'll cover the Legume family which includes peas, beans (both green and dry), and lentils as well as the one member of the Solanaceous family that can be planted out early – potatoes! Discussion of all includes variety selection, cultural requirements, common diseases and pests.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Basics of Irrigation
Join us for a discussion of several types of irrigation products and their application in the food garden. In addition, we’ll focus on the details of installing drip irrigation and its application for gardens and plants.
Find out more »April 2021
Growing Groceries: Raising Perennial Vegetables
Artichokes and Cardoon (semi-perennial), Asparagus, Horseradish, Rhubarb, Sea Kale and Sorrel. These crops will be in your garden for many years so pick a nice sunny spot and prepare your soil well. The ins and outs of planting, growing, maintaining, and harvesting these perennial vegetables.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Introduction to IPM (Integrated Pest Management)
Basics of managing disease, insect, and weed pests in the home garden. Discussion covers a variety of techniques including prevention, cultural practices like row covers, mulching, and more. Weed management practices include using mulches, hardscaping, and different cultivation techniques.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Raising the Broccoli, Cabbage, and Kale Family
Includes broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, mustard, Brussels sprouts, and other members of the Brassica family. Discussion includes variety selection, cultural requirements, common diseases and pests.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Insects in the Garden – Good, Bad, & Beautiful
Pollinators! Predators! Pests! What are these insects and what role do they play in your garden? How can you attract the good ones and deal with the bad guys? Learn to identify some of the insects found in our gardens and how many of them help our gardens flourish.
Find out more »May 2021
Growing Groceries: Raising the Carrot, Lettuce, & Corn Families
The Carrot (Apiaceae) family also includes parsnips and celery along with many herbs like dill, fennel, and caraway. Puget Sound's mild climate makes it a great place to grow members of the lettuce (Asteraceae) family just about year-round. In addition, you’ll learn to raise sweet corn worthy of bragging rights when we cover members of the corn (Poaceae) family.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Tomato, Pepper, and Eggplant Family
Topics covered include variety selection, cultural requirements, as well as the major disease and pests affecting these species.
Find out more »Growing Groceries: Raising the Cucumber, Squash and Melon Family
Our last class in the 2021 Growing Groceries series will focus on growing all things Cucurbit! From luscious melons to giant pumpkins, summer squash to zucchini and winter squash we'll cover all these amazing vegetables and cucumbers too!
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