Local gardeners to talk timing with vegetable gardens

By Sequim Gazette Staff • March 17, 2021 1:30 am
Audreen Williams, left, and Jeanette Stehr-Green look to provide information about successful vegetable gardening on the north Olympic Peninsula via Zoom on Thursday, March 25. Submitted photo
Audreen Williams, left, and Jeanette Stehr-Green look to provide information about successful vegetable gardening on the north Olympic Peninsula via Zoom on Thursday, March 25. Submitted photo

Though the north Olympic Peninsula enjoys relatively mild winters, the region’s long cool springs, moderate summer temperatures and early arrival of fall can be challenging for some vegetable gardeners.

Veteran Master Gardeners Jeanette Stehr-Green and Audreen Williams will instruct local gardeners how to grow vegetables successfully during their Zoom presentation, “Let’s Get Growing: Timing the Vegetable Garden,” set for 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 25.

At this, the next presentation of the Green Thumb Garden Tips education series, the duo will offer advice on crop and variety selection and when and how to plant vegetable seeds and starts for a more abundant harvest.

To join by computer, access the following link extension.wsu.edu/clallam and select the crimson button. To attend by phone, call 253-215-8782, with meeting ID 949 5828 5135 and passcode 726704.

Stehr-Green and Williams will discuss seed germination, plant growth and maturation, and timing of planting considering soil/air temperature, average last frost date, seed packet information, and planting charts.

They will also offer tips to help gardeners get a jump on the season by planting earlier and describe potential benefits and likely challenges of starting seeds indoors.

Stehr-Green and Williams will identify locally developed resources that will help Clallam County vegetable gardeners be more successful and save time and money by avoiding crop loss due to unsuitable growing conditions.

From 2013-2019, both Stehr-Green and Williams helped guide monthly walks through the Fifth Street Garden, showing local gardeners what needs to be done and the problems that are likely to appear each month in vegetable gardens. In 2014-2015, Stehr-Green and Williams also participated in “Growing Healthy,” a project devoted to teaching vegetable gardening skills to low-income families in Clallam County.

Stehr-Green has been a Master Gardener since 2003 and is a popular gardening speaker. She writes articles on a variety of gardening topics for both the Sequim Gazette and Peninsula Daily News, and participates in a monthly gardening call-in program on KONP. She was the 2012 Clallam County Veteran Master Gardener of the Year and has attained Lifetime Achievement status with Clallam County Master Gardeners.

Williams joined Master Gardeners in 2012 and is involved in a wide variety of Master Gardener activities. She is the lead for the Master Gardener plots and 4-H activities at the Fifth Street Community Garden in Port Angeles. She supports the Woodcock Demonstration Garden, Green Thumb Educational Series and the Master Gardener column in the Gazette. She is currently an integral member of the Master Gardener intern training program. She was the 2014 and 2019 Clallam County Veteran Master Gardener of the Year.

Sponsored by WSU Clallam County Master Gardeners, Green Thumb Garden Tips education series presentations via Zoom are available from noon-1 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursday, February through October. The classes provide home gardeners with education on research-based sustainable garden practices in Clallam County.

For more information, call 360-565-2679.