Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Calling All Routt County Gardeners: Gardeners of Old and New, CSU Master Gardeners are here for YOU! By Susann Allen



Quick!  The rain and snow have stopped or slowed at best, so let's get started! 

As gardeners, we all have started our path with the interest, desire, and eventual love of the craft.  Perhaps your interest started early, inspired by a loved one or neighbor, or a through a dream of having flower boxes outside your windows, which is where I began as a child.   And with all our trials and errors, we look to others to help explain our successes and failures.

In my quest for information, I have quizzed long time Routt County  gardening  friends,  my 94 year old grandmother Wanda,  tried every "old wives tale", pored over old and new gardening books, and have used the " new-fangled" internet, as my grandmother refers to it. I have completed the CSU Master Gardener Program twice in my quest for answers, in 2005 and again in 2015.  You don’t have to do all of that, however; if you are looking for gardening advice, information, or just camaraderie, look no further.

CSU Master Gardener volunteers will be available every Thursday beginning May 19 through late August, from 9am to 1pm, to answer your gardening questions.  We are located in the Routt County CSU Extension office, located on 136 6th street in the Routt County Courthouse Annex.   

Master Gardeners welcome inquiries of every kind, from flora to fauna, pests and plant maladies, and any other questions that you may have.  The Extension office is chock full of soil sample kits, books, pamphlets, access to garden site information on the web, plus the volunteers and their combined knowledge, all available for your use.

Having manned the post myself, we welcome all inquiries and try to find solutions to your questions.  Often times, a site visit by Master Gardeners may be scheduled with clients to better understand the issues at the exact site in question. Last year, we covered many topics and saw a lot of landscaping issues, such as:
·         Tree planting problems, (too deep, not removing the root wrap, not enough water, too much water);
·         Aspen tree sicknesses (poor things are living to die!);
·         The dreaded vole(castor oil, bubble gum, pinwheels stuck in ground, crown royal bulbs that smell like skunk to deter);
·         What moose browse ( almost everything!); and
·         Seedling and weed identification, (view plant on site for easier and better ID). 

Scheduling a site visit helps define and pinpoint your concerns, more so than a phone call or an email to the office.  

This has been a rather wet spring, slowing progress, so what better tool to you as a gardener than to have our CSU Master Gardeners on your side, with information and advice to help simplify parts of your gardening world and to let you progress to the parts of gardening you love… like weeding!
Contact the CSU Extension Office on Thursdays. We all look forward to helping you achieve your dream and would love to provide a little help.

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