PULLMAN, Wash. — For the second year in a row, a broadleaf herbicide has contaminated compost processed in Pullman and Spokane. Commercial composters fear it may become a growing problem across the nation. Last year Washington State University’s compost was contaminated by picloram, a broadleaf herbicide that killed fruit and vegetables in many gardens in […]
TACOMA, Wash. — More than 320 pounds of garlic seed — enough for about 300 gardeners — will be given away at community gardens in Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma during the next few weeks. The seed is being made available courtesy of the Millennium Green Project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to encourage more […]
PULLMAN, Wash. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today named Steven Garrett Community Gardening Coordinator, to provide advice on establishing and expanding community gardens in Washington. Garrett, a Washington State University Cooperative Extension educator in Pierce County since 1990, developed the first Cooperative Extension gleaning project in the nation. “Community gardens not only produce fresh fruits and […]
TACOMA, Wash. A one-day conference on home and garden pesticide issues is scheduled Oct. 19 at Pacific Lutheran University. “We need to mitigate the risk of pesticide used by homeowners to themselves, their families, their neighbors, their pets and the environment,” said Carol Ramsay, WSU Cooperative Extension pesticide educator. “The best way is through education.” […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — The latest publication from Washington State University Cooperative Extension is filled with more than 500 disgusting color pictures: cherries coated with brown rot, evergreens desiccated by winter winds, pansy petals covered with spots of gray mold fungus. But it’s those disgusting pictures that make MISC0194 “Landscape Plant Problems” one of the most […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — Home drying of fruits and vegetables is a good way to preserve some of the tastes of summer from your own garden. The process prevents spoilage by depriving microorganisms and enzymes of the moisture they need to be active. “Home Drying of Fruits & Vegetables,” a 28-page bulletin published jointly by Cooperative […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University officials are formulating recommendations on how gardeners should handle herbicide-contaminated soils and will make them available on a Web page as soon as possible. WSU announced these plans today after new laboratory tests found traces of the herbicide picloram in Washington State University compost suspected of damaging garden plants […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University is investigating suspicions that some of its compost may be implicated in damage to garden plants in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Vegetables grown in soil treated with the compost are safe to eat, according to Alan Felsot, a WSU environmental toxicology expert. James Zuiches, dean of the College […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — Gardeners can get free professional advice 24 hours a day at three web sites sponsored by Washington State University Cooperative Extension. “These sites provide people with another option to get good, scientifically sound gardening information,” said Van Bobbitt, coordinator of WSU’s 25-year-old extension Master Gardener program. Separate sites serve gardeners east and […]
PULLMAN, Wash. — When should you pick apples from your backyard tree? What should you do if you spot black lesions on your tomatoes? Answers to these and hundreds of other garden and landscape questions may be as close as your computer at a new Internet website launched by Washington State University Cooperative Extension for […]