Meet a Reno County Master Gardener: Sandy Siegfried

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 clay here. It can be nasty.” We laughed when Sandy said, “I get texts from people with photos of plants. ‘What’s this?’ they ask. I don’t have a clue! They think I know everything.” Then Sandy explained how she handles the texts. “I refer a lot of people to Pam (Paulson).” We both laughed again. I asked Sandy if she had a favorite plant. “I like it all and I want it all. I smash things together.” And when her flowers multiply and the garden is crowded, she appreciates that she has a friend in the country that will take them so she doesn’t have to discard them. Every gardener has at least one pest that has tried to create havoc with a favorite flower or ripening vegetable or fruit. Sandy said that rabbits were the worst in her garden and would chew a whole stem off a rose bush. One day Sandy decided she had had enough with the devouring critters. To protect seedlings she sunk some PVC pipe into the ground and wrapped chicken wire around the perimeter. When Milton, her husband, returned home he was not impressed. “Oh, my God!” he declared. Sandy has learned that her neighborhood cats have worked much better than her chicken wire project to reduce garden predators. “The cats roam in the area beneath the shrubs where the rabbits hide,” she explained. “But the rabbits, they’ll be back!” she said all knowingly. “This year I’ve had a big problem with aphids and ladybugs,” said Sandy. “Ladybugs chew on aphids so I didn’t want to kill them. I tried soapy water but finally I had to pull up the plants. I couldn’t get rid of them.”

Garden Tour Sample Photos

Sandy is on the Reno County Master Gardener garden your site committee and explained that the committee is working on finding homes and gardens for next year and 2018. She shared that “a lot of people want to wait, that they need another year, they need more time.” She also shared, “I learn stuff every time the Garden Tour comes around.” The typical question Sandy asks herself after touring is, “Where would I put that?” Sandy told a story on herself. “Last year there was an uneven surface and I was wearing flip flops, when my ankle twisted. I fell face-first into a rose bush and cut my face all up and had thorns in my hands and knees. I came inside and told my husband, ‘You need to check on me more often.’ Now I don’t go outside without tennis shoes.” As we walked the garden it was like a colorful kaleidoscope as the sun highlighted the flowering plants: red bougainvillea, yellow dahlia, purple alternanthera, red, yellow and orange zinnia, red begonia, orange and yellow lantana, white aster, and autumn clematis.  

 

Thanks Sandy for your dedicated service to Reno County’s Master Gardeners and for sharing your flowering plants and horticulture stories!!
 Submitted by #diginthedirt