Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up Series
This monthly zoom series kicked off in January 2021, offering education for the experienced gardener led by OSU horticulture experts from across the state. Take your gardening knowledge to the next level with timely topics from gardening in a changing climate to techniques to extend your season.
The webinars will be broadcast via Zoom, the second Tuesday of the month, at 3pm, January through November, 2021. After each live event, a recording of the webinar will be posted here.
This series is open to the public, and OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers receive 1 Continuing Education Credit for each class taken. You can take one, or take all. Cost is free. Registration for each individual webinar is listed with their description below. Registration is opened 3 months prior to the event.
Classes in the Series
January 12: Understanding Seed Characteristics
This webinar already occurred. However, you can watch recording below.
About the presenter:
Nicole Sanchez is Assistant Professor in Horticulture with Oregon State University Extension Service. She is based in Klamath County and additionally serves Lake and Harney County. She coordinates the Klamath County Master Gardener program and is a member of the Small Farms team.
February 9: Multifunctional Hedgerows
Learn how to design living fences.
This webinar already occurred. However, you can watch recording below.
About the presenter:
Pami Monnette serves as the Home Horticulture, Small Farms and Forestry faculty with Lincoln County OSU Extension. She coordinates the Master Gardener volunteer program and works with the farming and forestry community to serve Lincoln County’s vibrant natural resource industries. She has been with OSU Extension since 2010 and earned her Masters in Public Policy from OSU focusing on agricultural and rural issues. She is dedicated to working collaboratively with partners in order to support a thriving local natural resource economy and a healthy community food system.
March 9: Dirt gone bad: When your soil amendment has been contaminated
This webinar already occurred. A recording and materials from the presentation are below.
Persistent herbicides sometimes make their way into the regional composting system. Unsuspecting gardeners then purchase herbicide contaminated compost and soil mix leading to plant damage. Learn how to recognize the damage, what to do about it, and how to avoid the problem. Also learn how to use compost in your vegetable garden, landscape, and lawn. Avoid problems from over applying compost.
About the presenter:
Weston Miller is a community and urban horticulturalist for OSU Extension Service. He manages the OSU Master Gardener program in the Portland metro area and works with Metro to reduce residential pesticide use. He also manages the Beginning Urban Farmer Apprenticeship Program in cooperation with Multnomah County.
April 13: Dazzling Dahlias
This webinar already occurred.
Come learn all about growing delicious dahlias! In this class we'll cover choosing varieties that do well in your site, how to prep your site and how to plant, care and tend your dahlias throughout the season. Learn what to watch out for and how to plan and treat common pests and diseases. Dahlias need a little love and support, but in the end you're rewarded with a gorgeous flower garden and beautiful cut flowers.
About the presenter:
Julie Huynh lives in Otis, Oregon, on the central Oregon Coast. She owns Julie’s Dahlias where she's been growing dahlias for over seven years. Julie is a member and a judge of the Portland Dahlia Society and also helps judge dahlia shows in the Pacific Northwest. She is a OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteer and prior to growing dahlias, she grew and showed roses.
May 11: Water-wise Gardening
This webinar already occurred. A recording and materials from the presentation are posted below.
You can save time and money, plus be a local watershed and natural resources steward, right from your own backyard! In this class on waterwise gardening, we’ll cover basic xeriscape principles, including planning and design, and how to conserve water while maintaining a beautiful landscape. We’ll also take a look at how to make smart choices regarding pest management practices to protect local water resources. We’ll have plenty of examples of waterwise designs (including pesticide-free) to inspire you to implement some of these practices.
About the presenter:
Erika Szonntag joined OSU Extension in 2018 as the Master Gardener program coordinator at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center. Her interests include water-wise gardening, native plants, pollinator health, urban forestry, and gardening to support local ecosystems. She holds a Master's degree in Agriculture from Colorado State University with and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay with Agriculture Extension (2014-2016). Erika has worked on urban forest health and post-fire conifer regeneration studies, has led habitat restoration and tree planting projects, and has worked as a professional gardener.
June 8: Unique Winter Vegetables to Grow
This webinar already occurred. A recording and presentation materials are below.
Take a deep dive into some of the more underappreciated winter vegetables! We'll cover garlic, radicchio (a form of leaf chicory) celeriac, or celery root, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, winter squash and purple sprouting broccoli, to name a few. Basic winter gardening techniques to add these delectable veggies to your plates in winter will also be covered.
About the presenter:
Lane Selman is Professor of Practice at Oregon State University and the founder of the Culinary Breeding Network. She has worked with organic farmers, plant breeders and chefs for over 15 years. Lane’s work has been featured in the media including Food & Wine, The Wall Street Journal, Civil Eats, Food Tank, The New York Times and Eating Well magazine. Lane has been the recipient of many awards, including the Award of Excellence for Organic Advocate by the Oregon Organic Coalition in 2016. Lane grew up on a citrus farm her Sicilian great-grandparents planted in 1919 on Florida's space coast. She has a Bachelors in Agronomy and a Masters in Entomology, both from University of Florida. In 2000, she moved to Oregon and since 2005 has been managing collaborative research projects and outreach events at Oregon State University with organic vegetable and grains farmers. In 2012, Lane created the Culinary Breeding Network to build communities of plant breeders, seed growers, farmers, produce buyers, chefs and other stakeholders to improve quality in vegetables and grains. She currently serves on the Portland Farmers Market and the Portland Bologna Sister City Association boards. Lane lives in Portland, Oregon.
July 13: Fire-wise Landscaping
As the Western United States population continues to grow, more and more homes are creeping into forest and rangeland areas called the wildland urban interface. The number of wildfires in combination with this urban sprawl can potentially increase the number of fire-prone landscapes. Learn more about creating a fire-wise landscape. In this class you will learn about fire behavior basics, ways to reduce the fuel load, ways to design your landscape in the home ignition zone, characteristics of fire-resistant plants, and plant selection for your fire-wise design.
About the presenter:
Amy Jo Detweiler, Professor and Extension Horticulturist, is responsible for teaching and outreach in community and commercial horticulture in the high desert environment of Central Oregon working with homeowners and green industry professionals. She specializes in sustainable landscape practices including water-wise gardening, fire-wise landscaping, and backyard food production. She is also responsible for training and managing an active group of master gardener volunteers for the tri-county region.
August 10: Season Extension Techniques
Season extension is a bundle of techniques used to provide an earlier and/or later harvest in the garden. In this webinar we will examine a variety of season extension tactics available to home gardeners and compare how they may be used differently to match regional needs. This class is just in time for fall planting!
About the presenters:
Nicole Sanchez is Assistant Professor in Horticulture with Oregon State University Extension Service. She is based in Klamath County and additionally serves Lake and Harney County. She coordinates the county Master Gardener program and is a member of the Small Farms team. Co-Instructor Heather Stoven is an Assistant Professor of Practice based in Yamhill County. She coordinates the Master Gardener and Small farms programs within her county.
September 14: Gardening with Native Plants for Pollinators
Native plant gardening has been ranked as one of the top three landscape and garden trends over the past few years, in part because of the benefits that they offer to pollinators. However, native plants are not widely planted by home gardeners, and only limited selections can be found at many retail nurseries. This talk will share research conducted by the OSU Garden Ecology Lab for the past four years, and will address questions such as:
- Which Willamette Valley native plants are most attractive to pollinators?
- Why aren't native plants more broadly available for purchase?
- What native plants are most attractive (according to Oregon gardeners), and which native plant traits gave gardeners concern?
- Are native cultivars a good approach to some of the problems associated with the production and sale of native plants?
- Do pollinators visit native cultivars as much as they do native plants?
Finally, we will end with our recommendations for native plants that western Oregon gardeners should plant, if they want to support Oregon's pollinators.
Registration information to come.
About the presenter:
Gail Langellotto, Ph.D. is a Professor of Horticulture and the statewide coordinator of Oregon's Extension Master Gardener program. Together with her lab group, the Garden Ecology Lab, she studies the plants, insects, animals, people, decisions, and management practices that either improve or degrade a garden's ability to promote environmental and human health.
October 12: Adapting Your Garden and Landscape for Climate Change
Northwest gardeners and landscapers are accustomed to our Mediterranean climate with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. With climate change, we can expect more variability in our weather with more frequent and intense weather events. How will these extreme events affect your plants? Learn strategies to adapt your garden and landscape to these new conditions.
Registration information to come.
About the presenter:
Weston Miller is a community and urban horticulturalist for OSU Extension Service. He manages the OSU Master Gardener program in the Portland metro area and works with Metro to reduce residential pesticide use. He also manages the Beginning Urban Farmer Apprenticeship Program in cooperation with Multnomah County.
November 9: Healthy Soils for Healthy People
Research has suggested that healthy soils can benefit human health, via transfer of beneficial microbes from the soil to the skin. What are the characteristics of healthy soils, and do these characteristics align with the soils tended by Oregon gardeners? This talk will provide an overview of what is known as the 'hygiene hypothesis', and how this relates to healthy garden soils. We will present data gathered from the soils of Oregon gardeners, as well as share initial results on a study looking at how garden soils might (or might not) influence the skin microbiome of Oregon gardeners.
Registration information to come.
About the presenter:
Gail Langellotto, Ph.D. is a Professor of Horticulture and the statewide coordinator of Oregon's Extension Master Gardener program. Together with her lab group, the Garden Ecology Lab, she studies the plants, insects, animals, people, decisions, and management practices that either improve or degrade a garden's ability to promote environmental and human health.
Please note regarding registration
If registration is full, keep in mind the webinars are being recorded and will be made available to view within one week after the live event here on our website. Also, all of the webinars are being broadcast live through our Facebook page.