Gardening As a Master Gardener
by Julie Hunziker, Yakima County Master Gardener
In a recent conversation with a new friend, I mentioned that I had a Master Gardener meeting the next week that would conflict with our Pickleball session. She perked right up. “You’re a Master Gardener? Maybe you can help me with my houseplants!”
That’s a pretty typical response when people find out I’m a Master Gardener. It makes me feel put on the spot, like I should know everything about plants and weeds and watering and landscaping. Alas, it makes me feel rather small. My usual response is, “I don’t know everything about gardening. I just know where to find the answers.”
Being a Master Gardener does not mean I have a well-manicured garden. My yard is far from perfect and has many challenges. It does not help that it is a rather large yard and just as I get one spot under control, it’s past time to tackle another area. And, so, I move around the yard throughout the growing season. I pull my hair out over the bindweed in the junipers and on the hillside above the driveway. I lament the overcrowded Rudbeckia that I never finished thinning in the spring. I find tending to irrigation issues to be a halftime job.
My mornings, before the heat hits, and shady evenings, are spent tending my corner of the world.
As I check my vegetables, especially the squash and melons, I may spy the dastardly squash bugs or their eggs on the undersides of the leaves. From my Master Gardener friends I have learned to squish those bugs and scrape the eggs off the leaves where the bugs will love to feast.
Washington State University Extension provides Integrated Pest Management (IPM) information for all home gardeners. Hortsense (hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu) offers fact sheets on managing diseases and pests on tree fruits, ornamentals, vegetables, and weeds. Pestsense (pestsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu) focuses specifically on common insect pest problems, offering strategies to identify and control them.
When earwigs attack my zinnias or newly planted vegetable seedlings, I know I can consult the WSU Pestsense website to find the best way to combat them.
Something wrong with my lawn? I know to consult WSU Pestsense or Hortsense for guidance.
Have I done my due diligence with Integrated Pest Management or should I use an herbicide? I can look at the WSU Pesticide Information Center OnLine Database (picol.cahnrs.wsu.edu) for recommended products, including their labels, to target specific pests.
If I am completely baffled, I never hesitate to contact the Yakima Master Gardener Answer Clinic, which is staffed Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the growing season. I’ll get free, unbiased, research-based horticulture advice for home gardeners like me. To use this service,
Email askamastergardener@yakimamg.org or call 509-574-1604 with your questions. You can drop off a sample at the clinic located at 2403 South 18th Street Suite 100, Union Gap WA 98903. The clinic is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 am-12:00 pm and 1:00 pm-4:00 pm.
The information I glean from my fellow Master Gardeners is endless. They have taught me how to clean and sharpen gardening tools, how to prune tomatoes, how to cut back flowering plants in spring to get more profuse blooms all summer, what types of fertilizer to use and when to use them. These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the benefits my garden reaps thanks to advice from these veteran gardeners.
I learn something new every day. I recently sat in on a talk about weeds in the Yakima Valley and it was the first time I had heard anything about the need to use a surfactant when applying herbicides. A bit of research found a recommended product at a local store. They were out of stock. Apparently, it’s a real thing to use a surfactant! The store employee recommended using a bit of Dawn dishwashing soap instead. I need to do some research on that. It sounds like a great topic for another Herald-Republic column.
Despite the trials and tribulations, my yard and garden give me unending joy. Growing vegetables and flowers from seed, transplanting them around my yard, and watching them flourish is most rewarding.
I’m thrilled every spring seeing new shoots emerging from hibernating perennials.
It’s so satisfying to know the proper time to prune shrubs so that they will flower abundantly next year.
I especially enjoy the search for new flowers to give my garden color throughout the summer.
Being able to successfully solve some irrigation issues so that plants don’t suffer is invaluable.
I relish the challenges my garden presents. I am rewarded with flowers, produce, greenery, and knowing that it is the bounty of my creativity and art in nature.