Tiger Eyes

Having completed the classroom part of the Master Gardener's training, now comes the "payback" = 60 hours (minimum) of volunteering in various aspects of community horticultural education.

One of my very favorite places to spend some of those hours is the Learning Garden. Open to visitors all year, it is located at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds. Weekly workdays are scheduled from May through October or so. A recent project was the installation of an underground water system, with each bed receiving a number of spray heads. This is going to be a lifesaver, come August!

All the demo beds are planned, planted, and maintained by volunteer MG's. I have two projects going. One is an "Easy Gardening" raised bed, about waist high. It's a Salad Garden this year, with produce donated to one of the local food banks. Mom is helping me with this fun, easy garden project. Photos to come, it's looking good!

The second project, I'm sharing with sister-in-law Diane. She's a certified MG, and is one of my mentors. We discovered we both were interested in doing a "bag bed" for a demo plot. After pooling resources, plants and seeds, we put it together in about 30 minutes!

Diane found these unusual Tiger Eye beans in her stash. Aren't they gorgeous?!

Here's how it went - raked and shoveled some of the loose dirt left from trenching into a flat-topped mound, to raise the bags above the bark that will be put 4" deep on the paths (controls weeds). Laid down a piece of cardboard to show you can do it right over grass if you want. Lugged the sacks over and plopped them down on the cardboard which had been saturated with water. Windows cut out of the top of each, using a utility knife and leaving a 2" border to help support the contents. Sprinkled on some organic fertilizer, lightly tossed with the potting soil, then wetted it down. Planted one bag to herbs, and one with beans and kohlrabi.

The bed now has a 14" high white wire fence around it, to make it more visable and hopefully prevent tumbles by gawking garden visitors. The seeds have all sprouted, and the herbs are happy. Now we are preparing the signage, to explain what it's all about. There will be handouts during the fair, for folks who want to try a super easy inexpensive starter garden.


We've had lots of comments from fellow MGs working at the garden - the first one being, "Who died?", because the mound was about 6' long and 2' wide.

It did look suspicious, before the bags went on.