Master Gardeners sow seed of success in demo gardens

by Mark Amara Wsu Grant County Master Gardener
| June 27, 2019 6:53 PM

WSU Master Gardeners provide a variety of community outreach activities to the people of Grant and Adams Counties. All of our certified gardeners serve as informal educators who provide resources on horticulture and gardening to rural and urban gardeners of every skill level and age. Our group holds plant clinics at farmers markets and county fairs, presents workshops to the public, civic organizations and schools, organizes an annual gardening symposium, and sets up and manages demonstration gardens. Some MGs write articles for a quarterly newsletter, newspapers or other news media.

There are demonstration gardens in Moses Lake, Ephrata, Soap Lake and Othello. The demonstration garden in Moses Lake is next to the public library and consists of a native plant garden and a drought tolerant garden in a cooperative effort with the City of Moses Lake. Likewise, the gardens in Othello are situated at the Old Hotel where there is a combination drought tolerant and native plant garden.

The Ephrata unit is at the Community Garden where the MGs maintain a pollinator border. And, in Soap Lake, the Master Gardeners have partnered with the Soap Lake Garden Club and City of Ephrata to establish and maintain the Healing Waters Garden on the edge of the community park. All of these gardens are open to the public. Many of them have identifying signage and/or leaflets describing their contents.

Annually, each garden is checked out to determine its needs. Maintenance is scheduled to keep the gardens looking good. Sometimes irrigation systems need to be repaired, plants are replaced if they have not survived, pruning and thinning is done, fertilizer applied, or weeds removed.