Union County Master Gardeners - Oregon

07/29/2026

It’s Union County Fair time! Follow along as Potato Squeeze Ball discovers the Union County OSU Extension booth!

Potato Squeeze Ball just learned about slake tests at our soil health display. This is an easy way to test your garden soil for aggregates. Aggregated soil is stable soil, glued together by the activity of soil insects, microbes, and fungi. Like a sponge, aggregated soil absorbs water quickly and holds it in place. Potato Squeeze Ball is going to go home and check its soil for aggregates.

Be careful in the smoke if you visit the fair — we have free masks that filter out fine particles (PM 2.5) if you need one!

07/24/2026

This sunflower isn’t even open yet and it’s already drawing a crowd.

In addition to their flowers being an A+ nectar source, sunflower stalks and foliage offer their own attractants.

Their leaves are a plush landing pad, offering shade and a bit of natural AC in the form of transpired water escaping their stomata (tiny holes in the leaf surface).

They also provide a food source! Sunflower stalks, foliage, and unopened flower buds produce something called extrafloral nectar. This syrup-like substance attracts ants, predatory wasps, ladybugs, and other insects that do a little pest control in return.

So what’s with the super long stinger on that wasp? It’s actually an ovipositor and poses no threat to humans. And it’s a really good thing to see in the garden! Wasps like this one use their ovipositors like a syringe to insert their eggs into the bodies of other insects. When the eggs hatch, they consume the host insect (often caterpillars and grubs) from the inside. Yikes!

Other species parasitic wasps (often too small to clearly recognize as a wasp because they’re the size of fruit flies!) lay their eggs in aphids, stink bugs, and other vegetable garden pests. Attracting parasitic wasps to your garden is free pest control!

07/01/2026

Hey Union County! We still have a few spots left for gardeners to join the Winter Carrot Project. What is it? A way for you to learn (& practice) how to grow carrots for winter harvest in your own garden.

We provide the seeds and coaching. In return, you record some data about your carrot garden. It's fun, it's tasty, and it works!

You can register ahead of time here: www.beav.es/xTT or show up at the Cook Memorial Library on Thursday, July 9 to pick up a grower packet (while supplies last)!

06/07/2026

Slake test: a simple way to check your soil health. Soil with lots of life in it (from "invisible" microbes and mycelium to earth worms and arthropods) that gets only minimal disturbance (little or no tilling) forms magical things called aggregates.

Aggregates are glued together soil particles. What glues them together? Secretions from fungal mycelium, bacteria, and even plant roots all contribute.

Why are aggregates good? They open up the soil structure, creating space for soil to soak up and hold water, and they make it easier for roots to grow and all the soil creatures to move around, spreading nutrients as they go. Because they require all of these players to be present, and they only form in soil that has living roots and less disturbance, aggregates are one of the best indicators of soil health.

The two soils on the left of this photo have poor aggregate stability (i.e. little or no glue). We know this because soil particles are "slaking" off of the samples, making the water murky. The far left glass is from a compacted dirt driveway (very little soil life) and the second from left is soil from a recently tilled garden (soil life, but the structure has been disturbed).

The two on the right have clear water, so we know the aggregates are stable and few particles are slaking off. The far right sample is from a no-till vegetable garden with lots of soil life, and the second from the right is from a lawn, where the soil receives chemical management but is not disturbed.

Curious to know more? Join our Soil Health workshop on June 11! https://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/union/events/your-soil-healthy

06/05/2026

Want a summer's worth of pesto for under $4? Divide your basil starts!

Nursery pots often contain several plants seeded closely together. You can divide them at planting to get more for your money.

The pot pictured here would yield four full-size plants if split, or one moderate size plant if put in the ground as is (because the plants will compete with each other, none of them will grow to their full potential).

How do you do it? When your garden is ready to plant, place the basil pot on its side and pull out the starts / soil. Working from the side of the root ball rather than the top, gently pull it in half to get a view of the roots. Disturbing them as little as possible, tease apart each basil plant. Bonus points if you can keep some soil on the roots, but more importantly, try to maintain as much of their root systems as possible. (Someone once told me to "think them apart" and somehow that helps.)

Plant them right away and water thoroughly. Pinch off 1-2 sets of leaves to encourage the plants to bush out. Don't skip the watering (even if it's raining while you plant!). This is one of the most important steps for helping starts avoid transplant shock. Another is to plant in the evening, so they have the cool of night to rehydrate and settle in before the sun comes back.

Harvest tip: When basil plants start to flower, they stop producing leaves. This can hurt your pesto game. Instead of just clipping off leaves here and there, occasionally give your basil plants a serious haircut. This means cutting each stem back by several sets of leaves, always leaving about half of the plant behind. Make a batch of pesto, wait a few weeks, repeat. Regular watering and periodic aggressive harvesting keeps basil growing leaves all summer long!

06/04/2026

Gardeners: the 2026 burn ban season is starting early (today! June 3). It's been a dry spring, so this is not a surprise. Read the full post to find out more about yard debris burning options, but be aware that open pile burning is no longer allowed.

UNION COUNTY EARLY ENTRY INTO REGULATED USE FIRE SEASON BEGINS NOW

UNION COUNTY – (Press release from Union County Emergency Services) At the June 3, 2026 Commission meeting, the Union County Board of Commissioners approved a request from the Union County Fire Defense Board to enter into regulated use fire season effective immediately. The regulated use fire season will remain in effect through September 30, 2026, unless extended or modified.

During regulated use fire season, open burning is prohibited except for regulated agricultural field burning and authorized prescribed fires.

Residents are encouraged to review the requirements of Union County Burn Ordinance 2024-02 and exercise caution with any activity that could spark a fire.

Key regulations in Ordinance 2024-02 include:

Burn barrel use is allowed only between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.
Burn barrels must be located in cleared areas with a 10-foot radius free of flammable material and at least 25 feet from any structure.
Burn barrels must be equipped with a heavy metal screen and attended at all times with water and a shovel immediately available.
Burning is prohibited on windy days.
Recreational fires are permitted only in approved fire rings less than six feet in diameter and must be constantly attended until fully extinguished.
Oregon Department of Forestry permit requirements apply in ODF-protected areas.

Should extreme fire danger develop, the Union County Board of Commissioners may enact additional restrictions, including a complete ban on outdoor fires outside incorporated cities, upon recommendation of the Union County Fire Defense Board.

In addition, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) will enter fire season on June 8, 2026 and implement fire season restrictions on lands protected by ODF. These restrictions apply to ODF-protected lands in Union, Baker, Wallowa, Umatilla, and parts of Malheur, Morrow, and Grant counties.

Current fire information is available from the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center at www.bmidc.org.

To report a fire: Call (541) 963-7171 or dial 9-1-1.

06/03/2026

Friends don't let friends buy carrot starts. If everything went smashingly (it won't--they're too close together), this pot would grow two carrots...

Here's a better deal: Join the Union County Winter Carrot project! This community science project asks Union County gardeners to grow a patch of carrots for winter harvest & record a few notes in exchange for free coaching and enough seeds to grow up to 10 lbs of winter carrots.

All you need is a patch of garden available for planting in July and a way to water them from planting until the fall rain starts. No other equipment needed!

Why winter carrots? Because they taste like candy and pulling them from the garden in December is just about the funnest.

Planting starts in mid to late July and sign ups are open now! https://forms.gle/Y3xi7HVw7ZTwvH4c6

05/29/2026

Find us at the La Grande Farmers Market this Saturday (5/30) from 9am-noon! Ask your gardening questions and learn about soil health with our interactive demos. See you there!

05/28/2026

Do you feel like your garden soil could use a little TLC but you aren't sure where to start? Soil health can mean the difference between a bountiful garden and one that's just "meh." Join the OSU Master Gardeners for a Soil Health Workshop with Nate Stacey on June 11 (5:30-7:30 pm) to take the first step toward revitalizing your garden soil.

Nate has a background in soil management and he will cover several soil health tests available to gardeners (some are free!) and what to do with the results. If you have recently had a laboratory soil test done (or want to get one in before the class), bring your results and Nate will help you interpret them. Call 541-963-1010 to hold your spot!

More information: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/union/events/your-soil-healthy