Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up Series for 2024
The cost of food keeps climbing. One in five people faces hunger in Oregon. And the pandemic showed us the fragility of our supply system. Growing our own food—for us, for our families, for our neighbors—is an action gardeners can take to strengthen food security in our local communities. This year's Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up series is aimed at helping gardeners take a bite out of hunger.
Topics and dates
Webinars are the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 12 noon (Pacific). The series runs from February through October 2024.
- February 13: Growing Hot and Cold: Successful Vegetable Gardening in Any Season (Part 1: Cool Season)
- March 12: Growing Hot and Cold: Successful Vegetable Gardening in Any Season (Part 2: Warm Season)
- April 9: Flavor, Savor: Growing Culinary Herbs
- May 14: Nowhere to Grow but Up: Gardening without Land
- June 11: What’s Eating My Food?: Garden Pest Management
- July 9: Giving It Away: Growing Produce You Can Take to the (Food) Bank
- August 13: Don’t Lose the Plot: Making Community Gardens That Endure
- September 10: Fruit Fight: Dormant-Season Fruit Tree Care
- October 8: A Shroom of One’s Own: At-Home Edible Mushroom Production
How to attend
Details and registration: See below for webinar details and to register.
Watch online: This webinar series will be available on Zoom and broadcast live on our Facebook page.
Cost: Free
Who can attend: Open to the public, OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers receive 1 hour of Continuing Education Credit for each class.
Watch the recordings
Recordings of the webinars are posted below after the event.
Growing Hot and Cold: Successful Vegetable Gardening in Any Season (Part 1)
We’ve all had disappointing harvests that took more effort than they were worth. Sometimes it’s just one or two plant families that cause frustration. (I’m looking at you, cucurbits.) In this two-part series, presenters Lisa Rayburn and Nicole Sanchez will go over the major pests and pitfalls for each vegetable family, discuss the challenges unique to warm/wet climates and cool/dry ones, and give you tips to help you improve your growing game. This month they focus on cool-season veggies.
Presenters: Lisa Rayburn works with North Carolina State University as an Extension agent, providing technical support for commercial fruit and vegetable growers in southeastern North Carolina. Nicole Sanchez has been at Oregon State University’s Klamath Basin Research & Extension Center since 2016 as a professor of practice, working with both commercial and home horticulture programs as well as a variety of insect-related projects.
Growing Hot and Cold: Successful Vegetable Gardening in Any Season (Part 2)
We’ve all had disappointing harvests that took more effort than they were worth. Sometimes it’s just one or two plant families that cause frustration. (I’m looking at you, cucurbits.) In this two-part series, presenters Lisa Rayburn and Nicole Sanchez will go over the major pests and pitfalls for each vegetable family, discuss the challenges unique to warm/wet climates and cool/dry ones, and give you tips to help you improve your growing game. This month they turn their attention to warm-season veggies.
Presenters: Lisa Rayburn works with North Carolina State University as an Extension agent, providing technical support for commercial fruit and vegetable growers in southeastern North Carolina. Nicole Sanchez has been at Oregon State University’s Klamath Basin Research & Extension Center since 2016 as a professor of practice, working with both commercial and home horticulture programs as well as a variety of insect-related projects.
Flavor, Savor: Growing Culinary Herbs
Fresh culinary herbs can be hard to find in stores, cost a mint, and don’t keep long in the fridge. Dried ones might sit on shelves, losing flavor for years before they’re even bought. Try growing your own to save money and get a more potent product. Herb farmer Jeff Higley will offer you sage advice, basil basics, and more.
Presenter: Jeff Higley is an herbalist and farmer. In 2013, he and his wife, Elise, blended their experience and dreams to create Oshala Farm, their 145-acre herb farm in Applegate Valley, Oregon. The farm has more than 80 herbs in cultivation, is certified organic, and employs regenerative, sustainable cultivation practices.
Nowhere to Grow but Up: Gardening without Land
One of the first things we’re taught about plants is that they need sun, water, air, and soil to grow. But while having dirt doesn’t hurt, you can grow a surprising amount of food with little—or no—land. Master Gardener Richard Bertram will walk us through some methods, such as hydroponics and using vertical space.
Presenter: Richard Bertram has been a Master Gardener in Umatilla County for nearly a decade. He credits his aptitude for picking up gardening lore to his curiosity and willingness to simply try things. This has made him a resource for topics ranging from hydroponics to figs, and he presents on these and other topics.
What’s Eating My Food?: Garden Pest Management
Gardeners love sharing their harvest—with other humans, not bugs. But an integral part of sustainable gardening is limiting the use of pesticides, since overuse can lead to and speed up resistance. So how can you safely protect your produce from plundering pests? Entomologist Jessica Green will show you responsible ways to defend your veggies from invaders.
Presenter: Jessica Green has worked at OSU as a vegetable crop entomologist for 12 years. She has performed research trials on cabbage maggot, diamondback moth, armyworm, wireworm, and western corn rootworm. Jessica runs VegNet, a regional pest monitoring and reporting network, and was among the first to identify winter cutworm when it was detected in the Willamette Valley in 2015. Ms. Green holds a split appointment between OSU’s Oregon IPM Center and the Pesticide Safety Education program. She lives in the forest with her son, husband, mother, and 28 chickens.
Giving It Away: Growing Produce You Can Take to the (Food) Bank
Sharing your garden’s surplus with your local food bank is great way to ensure that people in need in your community have access to fresh, nutritious produce. Maybe you have had interest in donating your excess harvest or deliberately growing extra to give away but weren’t sure how to or what guidelines there might be or what to plant. Klamath-Lake Counties Food Bank operations coordinator Courtney Nicols will lead a panel discussion with gardeners who support their communities in this meaningful way, so you can learn how to take food banks into account when gardening.
Presenter: Courtney Nicols is with the Klamath-Lake Counties Food Bank and is currently serving as its operations coordinator. With a passion for community service and food security, Courtney oversees inventory management, coordinates incoming and outgoing food products, manages food sourcing, and maintains strong relationships with Partner Programs. The Food Bank's mission is to supply food and non-food products to programs that provide for those who struggle with food insecurity. Almost three decades ago, the program served about 10–12 nonprofits; today, that number is nearly 100. In 2023, they distributed 2.6 million pounds of food, including 400,000 pounds of fresh produce.
Don’t Lose the Plot: Making Community Gardens That Endure
Community gardens create opportunities for people to connect with the land and their communities as well as grow their own food, making them good for mental health as well as physical. But just like with any garden, it takes planning and care to make them sustainable (in every sense of the word). Our panel of experienced community garden organizers and supporters, hosted by founder and director of Veterans’ Employment Base Camp and Organic Garden, will offer the strategies, practices, policies, and resources they use to keep their community gardens thriving.
Presenter: Lovay Wallace-Singleton comes from a military and agricultural family—summer vacations in her youth involved hands-on training at her uncle’s 17-acre farm, she served in the US Navy for 20 years, and she worked as Disabled Veterans Outreach Programmer for Indiana and Mississippi. She has a BS in business administration from Alcorn State University. In 2011 Lovay founded Veteran’s Employment Base Camp and Organic Garden, whose mission is to assist homeless and disabled veterans with transitional employment and horticultural therapy. They provide healthy food workshops, agriculture events, and children’s gardening programming. In 2020 they launched a Youth Farmers’ Market program, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club; its goal is to facilitate a youth-led farmers’ market in the Greater 5 Points community, a racially and economically marginalized, low food-access area.
Fruit Fight: Dormant-Season Fruit Tree Care
If you want productive, resilient fruit trees during the warm months, you need to take action during the crisp ones. OSU Extension horticulturist Cody Copp will show you what you can do about pests and diseases between growing seasons and share pruning principles, so that you can nip fruit tree problems in the bud and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Presenter: Cody Copp is a horticulturist for OSU Extension Service in Umatilla County. He provides educational programming and applied research for commercial horticulture (tree fruit, vegetables, and wine grapes), in addition to supporting the home horticulture needs of Umatilla County and Eastern Oregon. He received his master’s in horticulture from Oregon State University.
A Shroom of One’s Own: At-Home Edible Mushroom Production
If you like growing your own food, then perhaps culinary mushroom cultivation is next on the menu for you. With a focus on Shiitake mushrooms, OSU Extension agent Alicia Christiansen will cover preferred growing media, inoculation methods, caring for your logs, money-saving tips, harvesting, and more.
Presenter: Alicia Christiansen has been with OSU Extension for 8 years. She works with a wide variety of audiences, most often small woodland owners, to provide education and outreach for forestry and natural resource subjects. She enjoys helping landowners gain forest management knowledge and experience through site visits, workshops, and tours.
Oct 8, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PDT
Dig in to recordings from past webinars devoted to growing food in the Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up webinar series
- The science and practice of seed starting
- Understanding seed characteristics
- Season extension techniques
- Plant grow harvest repeat: succession planting
- Unique winter vegetables to grow
- Growing the good stuff: from sweet potatoes to bitter melons
- Picky fruit: establishing blueberries in a home garden
- Global gardening: Asian vegetables for Pacific Northwest gardens
- Put it to the test: improving garden fertility with soil analysis, soil regions, and microclimates
- Soil fertility and nutrient cycling in garden beds
- Dirt gone bad: when your soil amendment has been contaminated