Master Gardener plant clinic gives home gardeners a little inside knowledge
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years AGO
Carmen Rimple, left, talks with WSU Grant-Adams Master Gardeners Bobbie Bodenman and Mary Love about desert-friendly native plants for Rimple’s lawn. The master gardeners have held a plant clinic at the Grant County Fair all week, answering questions and offering gardening tips.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The WSU Grant-Adams Master Gardeners plant clinic at the Grant County Fair offered information about several different methods of composting and low-water gardening.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 16, 2024 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The WSU Grant-Adams County Master Gardeners have been at the Grant County Fair this week, answering questions from the public and offering tips for more eco-friendly gardening.
They weren’t quite as busy this year as last, said Mary Love, who was staffing the booth with Bobbie Bodenman, because the weather wasn’t as hot.
“Last year, people came in and they went ‘whew!’ and they were looking for excuses to stay,” Love said. “They would come over here and they’d think of something to ask us so they could stay (in the air conditioning) longer.”
The master gardeners were ready to answer questions of all kinds and had displays about worm composting, sheet composting and something called Hugelkultur, a method of growing a garden without irrigation or fertilization that’s popular in Germany and Eastern Europe. They also had lots of information about bees and how to encourage bee-friendly plants.
“These are from the (Washington State) Noxious Weed Board, and we give them out,” Love said, holding up a seed packet. “These are flowers that pollinators like … We’re trying to make sure that we still have bees. It’s pretty important for our food supply, and flowers too.”
The packets contained seeds for blanketflower, arrowleaf balsamroot, wild sunflowers and purple prairie clover, among other plants. The blend of plants, called “Bee-U-tify,” was specially designed for eastern Washington, the packet proclaimed.
Gardening with limited water is an important focus of the Master Gardener program in this area, and master gardeners have given symposia the last couple of years on how to reduce or eliminate water use in a garden, using plants that are native to our desert climate. That was something that was on Carmen Rimple’s mind when she stopped by the booth.
“Is there native grass that I can plant in my yard instead of the regular lawn?” Rimple asked. She had already stripped out her front lawn down to plain dirt, she added.
“I have 8-foot basalt columns, like five or six of them, and I put out a big old hill of dirt mixture so my grandson can play on it,” Rimple said. “I’ve got little basins that collect water. So there’s lots of stuff I could do. I don’t want to just plant grass.”
“I’ve got good news for you,” Love said. “Columbia Basin Conservation District, they have a gal (who) does design. At no cost to you, she’ll come out to your yard, get an idea of what you want and then come up with a plan for you.”
Pollinators were another topic Rimple was interested in.
“You know those big fat bumblebees?” she said. “I want the kind of stuff that makes those guys come around.”
“Globe mallow,” Bodenman recommended. “They love to nestle right in there.”
“They like a lot of things,” Love said. “I have a lot of bumblebees in my yard.”
The master gardeners were also looking for new members, and by the time the conversation was done, Rimple had signed up to volunteer.
“The nice thing is, we have enough people that everybody pitches in and you find your niche,” Love said.
The WSU Grant-Adams Master Gardeners plant clinic at the Grant County Fair offered information about several different methods of composting and low-water gardening.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.