Linn County Master Gardeners-Trip 2

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I have blogged before about a visit to the Linn County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden in Albany, Oregon. The first time I visited was late spring and I had hit the apex of spring bloom. This visit was the end of June early July. Spring blossoms were gone and they had had quite a bit of warm weather. The vegetable gardens had recently been harvested and were being replanted.

There was a very interesting sign that introduced the concept of planting by value in the vegetable garden. That is, consider the cost of the item in the grocery store and the amount of space it took to grow in your garden. I had never really approached planting that way, but it makes sense. Their calculations suggested that herbs, carrots, beets, lettuces, kale, chard, zucchini tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and beans made more sense than broccoli, cauliflower, bulb onions, corn, watermelon, and pumpkins. Now, of course, these calculations are based on monetary value versus space. If your family has an absolute favorite vegetable that may raise its value for you more than it would for me. After all the first rule of vegetable gardening is to plant what your family will eat.

Another interesting thing I noticed this trip were some problems in the garden and how the Linn County MGs handled them. Their currant plant was covered with damage from aphids. They took this opportunity to explain via signage what this was, that it was very common in currants and how to handle the problem, turning it into a wonderful teaching moment. Likewise, there was a dwarf apricot that did not look well. Again, a sign explaining that it was dying for several reasons, the main one being that this wasn't the optimal zone for that plant and that it would be replaced with something more suitable. Sharing real-world problems and solutions with their visitors made the gardens even more interesting. It also reminded me that I should visit my favorite gardens more often because of how different they can be from season to season.

photos by Karen Metz