Winter Gardening recap

No matter how many times I've gone, I always learn something new at the Winter Gardening Fair. The Linn County Master Gardeners and other presenters do an incredible job of covering a wide variety of gardening topics. That can make it hard to choose. This year they offered 45 classes, plus keynote speaker, Susan Appleget Hurst, a former Better Homes and Garden editor who knows her stuff when it comes to garden design. Some of the tidbits I learned are below. If you attended, please do the same by sharing your comments below.

You can find a replay of the liveblog of Becki Lynch's class, called, “Get Rid of Pests the Green Way,” in the previous post on Homegrown.

Master Gardener, Irene Fishburn, led a great class on how to turn

 your garden into a monarch waystation. Most important about helping the survival of these beautiful, delicate creatures is to let milkweed grow. Milkweed is the only food source for monarch caterpillars, but is disappearing due to urban sprawl, habitat destruction and herbicide use. As adults, monarchs drink nectar from a variety of flowers, including cosmos, butterfly bush, purple coneflower, Mexican sunflower and Joe Pye weed. If there is one flower that you can plant to attract them, go for zinnias, Irene said, and don't use pesticides if you want the butterflies to survive. Monarchs migrate 3,000 miles from Canada to reach their winter hibernation site in Mexico, traveling 50 miles per day at 12 mph!

Master Gardener, Devon Dietz, also discussed how to attract beneficial species by creating your own backyard habitat. Devon noted that, especially in the winter, access to water is vital. He uses an electric calf feeder with added rocks and water that was used by birds and other critters, including a red fox. For plantings, the more diversity, the better. Conifers provide thermal protection; hardwoods provide mast; shrubs offer nuts, berries and nesting cover and a variety of grasses and legumes provide pollen, nectar and insects. Here are some shrubs he recommends: hazelnut, dogwoods, viburnum, chokecherry, wild plum, serviceberry, junipers, native honeysuckle, blackberries, raspberries and sumacs.

 Susan brought some slides from Better Homes and Gardens, which she voluntarily left last fall to pursue a freelance career. She offered a couple gardening photography tips, including the best times to shoot: early morning, later in the evening or on a cloudy day. The least favorable lighting for garden photography is a bright, sunny day at midday. She said. Examples of good garden design showed coordination between the homes and garden – the curve of a roof line that matches the curve of a fenceline; shutter colors that match the fence; and landscapes that coordinated with the style of home – a cottage garden with a cottage-style home, for example. Susan is on Twitter @cakeinthegarden

 I grow a lot of vegetables, but only use them one of two ways: fresh or frozen. Master Gardener, Bill Oliver, shared other ways of storing your bounty, including leaving root crops in the garden as long as possible; clamping in outdoor pits, having a root cellar or basement room for storage, and drying, as well as freezing. He didn't get into canning, which is another class in itself. No matter what, food safety is important. Bill advised rubbing vegetables briskly under clear running water to clean them. Soaking in water can leach away beneficial minerals and using bleach or soap will only soak those chemicals into the food, and that's what you'll eat, he said. Clamps are basically an outdoor pit filled with straw where you can stack your vegetables and cover. I'm not sure I'm ready to go that route, but the drying was intriguing. A food dehydrator works best, but ovens are also an option. Bill said he dries cherry tomatoes and eats them like candy. Sundried tomatoes won't work here, unless we have multiple hot days, above 86 degrees, WITH low humidity. Doesn't sound like Iowa. He also advised against microwaves because of poor air flow. Hopefully I'll get this next part right. For the cherry tomatoes, Bill washes them, cuts in half and places them seed side up in the food dehydrator for about 8 hours. Sounds simple enough!