Have a gardening question? WSU Master Gardeners available to help

— from Caitlin Blethen, Master Gardener Program Coordinator —

Dear San Juan County community,  

San Juan County has over 70 WSU Master Gardener volunteers who are trained as horticulture educators. Due to COVID-19 and related Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, we will not be in the community this spring as usual, but are available to answer questions about food gardening, fruit tree care, landscape plants, pollinators and more.  To submit a question, please send your message to mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu or call (360) 378-4414 to leave a message. Your question will be forwarded to a local WSU Master Gardener who specializes in your topic of interest.  At this time, we will not be taking physical samples for diagnostics, but will do our best to provide clients with resources. We welcome photos, as they are helpful with diagnostics. 

Additionally, the WSU Master Gardener program will provide a newsletter with tips and information pertaining to local horticulture issues and topics, including food gardening in the San Juan Islands. To sign up for the newsletter, please email mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu or visit our website at https://extension.wsu.edu/sanjuan/master-gardeners/  If you participate in Facebook, check out our page at https://www.facebook.com/MGSJCounty/ where tips, resources and updates will also be posted.  

The annual WSU Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale scheduled for early May has been cancelled, at least in the way we’ve done the sale in the past. We hope to be able to provide vegetable starts to our community at a later date. We will provide an update in late April.  

The WSU Master Gardener Demonstration garden, located on the Mullis Senior Community Center’s property next to the Joyce Sobel Family Resource center in Friday Harbor, grows over 1700 pounds of fruits and vegetables annually for the Friday Harbor Food Bank. Last month, a 16 X 20 hoophouse was installed to help WSU Master Gardeners produce more food for the community over a longer time period. This hoophouse was funded by the Master Gardener Foundation of San Juan County (www.mgfsjc.org).  

We sincerely wish the best for all our neighbors during this time.  

About us:  

The WSU Master Gardener Program is a nationally recognized program that trains volunteers to serve their communities through horticultural education and outreach. Once volunteers receive training, they provide research-based, educational information to the public on vegetable and fruit gardening, native plants, ornamentals and landscape maintenance, composting, plant problem diagnosis, pest control, and many other concerns. For more information about San Juan County Master Gardeners visit the web site or email mg.sanjuancounty@wsu.edu