I caught up with my friend and neighbor, Suzanne Eggleston, who has been involved with the Jefferson County Master Gardener Foundation (the Foundation) since 2020 after completing the Washington State University (WSU) Extension Master Gardener course in 2019. She is currently chair of the Foundation and the lead of the annual plant sale happening on May 4 from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at Chimacum School’s Multipurpose Room. (See flyer below for details or online at https://jcmgf.org.)
“I got involved because I love gardening and wanted to learn about how to grow in this climate. I also enjoy volunteering, learning new things, and spending time with cool plant people”.
Suzanne and other volunteers have been planning and preparing for the Foundation’s upcoming plant sale for the past five months. “There’s a lot of work involved in the preparation: meetings, location scouting, logistics, publicity, and of course the planting and growing of plants and vegetables from seeds as well as from divisions and propagations.”
This year is the first time the Master Gardeners have collaborated on a sale with the Food Bank Growers (FBG), the organization that grows, gathers, gleans, and preserve plants and vegetables for the Jefferson County community. The FBGs have 15 gardens of different sizes around town that donate produce to schools, four area food banks, and other community organizations.
“We expect to have thousands of plants this year, including annuals, perennials, trees, vegetables, and herbs,” says Suzanne. “It’s been a cold spring which has created a challenge for growers, but even so, we still have an abundance of healthy plants for the sale.”
I asked Suzanne what other events the Master Gardeners are involved with, and she said they do educational outreach like plant clinics, pruning workshops, and Growing Groceries classes; the Yard and Garden lecture series, and the Secret Garden Tour, which will resume next year after a two-year break. Additionally, the Master Gardeners will have a booth to share information about clean water and water-wise gardening practices at the farmers’ markets in Port Townsend on June 8, and Chimacum on June 9.
In closing, I asked Suzanne how an interested person could become a Master Gardener. She said Master Gardeners must go through a 12-week program offered through the WSU Extension for Jefferson County. Classes are offered every 18 months. One class is just graduating, which means the next one will be in Fall 2025.
Check out https://extension.wsu.edu/jefferson/master-gardener-training/ for further information, and be sure to stop by the plant sale on May 4!
Pamela T.