Page 10 - ISI_173_AugustSeptember

PAGE 10 HOME & LIFESTYLE IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2021
Making People Grow

IDAHO MASTER GARDENERS

BY KATHLEEN MULROY

Many years ago, my husband and I dis-
covered Master Gardeners can be a gardener’s
best friends. As newcomers to north Idaho,
we’d had little success cultivating vegetables
at our rural property. The short growing
season, climate, and soil conditions baffled
us. Then we attended a local farmers’ market,
where we stopped at a table with a banner
reading, “Idaho Master Gardeners.”
Those kind volunteers gave us such
sage advice that soon we were growing an
abundance of delicious veggies.
As we discovered, Master Gardeners are
dedicated to volunteering in their com-
munities, acting as official representatives
of county extension offices. With years
of experience and possessing a Master
Gardener Certificate, these folks have a
deep understanding about the issues that
influence horticulture in their specific
geographic area. They know how to raise
fruit-bearing trees and bushes, vegetables,
and flowers; how to compost and improve
the soil; and how to deal with bugs and pests
in an environmentally friendly way.
Among the many ways Master Gardeners
improve their communities is by educating
both home gardeners and organizations
about sustainable, environmentally sound
gardening practices. They spread the word
by volunteering at farmers’ markets, writ-
ing newspaper articles, posting or blogging
on social media, teaching in-person and
online classes, and helping to develop and
maintain demonstration gardens.
Students in the Idaho Master Gardener
Certification Program spend many volun-
teer hours on their own projects as well.
NORTHERN IDAHO
In northern Idaho, that can include serv-
ing at an educational booth at the Kootenai Kootenai Master Gardeners’ Pollinator Demo Garden, which is home to many native bees that the organi-
zation is raising for the UI Extension Pollination Project. Photo by Kathleen Mulroy.
County Farmers’ Market; tagging trees for

CROSSWORD CLUES
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Playfully shy
4 Cooled with cubes
8 Shrubs arranged as barriers
14 Anger
15 It has three numbers and two slashes
16 Staves off
17 *Afternoon social that may include a waltz
or three
19 Stay close to
20 Start of a pirate’s refrain
21 Matching tops worn together
23 Phobos, to Mars
25 Cry after a golfer’s ace
26 “Even __ speak ... “
29 Goldarn
31 [None of the above]
34 New Mexico art community
35 Wall St. takeover