Dig This!

Meet a Master Gardener Named Miriam Iwashige  “Verbena bonariensis, ” she pronounced without hesitation. Then, when I asked, she spelled it for me like a by-gone Latin teacher or spelling bee champion. Growing up, imagine having your mother refer to the plants in your garden by their botanical name! Later, you’d learn the plants had other, more common names. “As long as I can remember I have loved anything to do with our garden or farm,” said Miriam. She learned from her mother and grandmother, who both had a great deal of knowledge of plants and the environment and were tremendous gardeners. As an adult there were other teachers for Miriam, authors who shared their knowledge about growing plants that would survive in rough environments with harsh winters, hot summers and sudden hail storms ( The Undaunted Garden: Planting for Weather Resilient Beauty   (2011) by Lauren Springer Ogden,   and   Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates...

Meet a Reno County Master Gardener: Sandy Siegfried “I like it all , Sandy Siegfried, Master Gardener 2010 said, my mother always gardened. We always helped her, but I was never into it. I was a tomboy, outside in the trees.” But in her thirties she “started piddling around with it.” Sandy explained that later she needed to learn about horticulture “because things were dying and I was wasting a lot of money.” She had friends that became Master Gardeners and they encouraged her to give it a try. When Sandy retired from owner-operator of Allies Deli after fourteen years, she earned her Master Gardener certificate and shirt. She doesn’t miss her job, the getting up at 4:30 a.m. every morning, but she does miss seeing the people. Sandy’s expectations of MG classes were fulfilled. “I learned a lot. It helped me.” She said the best part was learning what to plant in Kansas, about amending the soil, and the beneficial pests. Speaking of soil, Sandy said, “I’m in heavy-duty ...