Are your roses wilting? Is your lantana less than robust? Free advice is just around the corner.
The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners’ booth has been a staple at the fresh52 Farmers Artisan Market almost since the venue opened at Tivoli Village, 302 S. Rampart Blvd. The group sets up a table near The Walk In, the indoor portion of the market.
On Nov. 3, the booth was manned by Linda Ward, Diane Lemon and Theo DeAngelis.
“Last year, we did it every week,” Ward said. “We decided to be a little more focused this year,” cutting down to about twice a month.
Lemon estimated they were seeing about 50 people a day.
“Now, in the spring, we could have upwards of 100 people,” Ward said.
When anyone approached, they jumped up from their chairs with welcoming smiles, asking what the person’s concern was and which avenues they’d already tried.
Joanna Pepper and her husband stopped by for advice. They live in an assisted living facility.
“I have container plants because that’s all I can grow there,” she said. “I forget to move them around, so they get over much sun, so they told me some things to try. It’s wonderful to have them here at the farmers market.”
Manning the booth means holding demonstrations. This day’s was on fertilizer – how to read the package, what type to buy for Las Vegas and how and when to use it. Another recent one covered when to harvest herbs, how they could be used and tips on storing them. There is no set time for the demonstrations.
“People will bring a little leaf and go, ‘What’s wrong with my plant?’ Or they’ll describe it to us and we’ll go, ‘Hmm, do you have a picture of it?’ or ‘Can you bring it back?’ ” Ward said. “That’s one of the toughest things (trying to advise without a visual), but we try to help people.”
The desk held examples of what a healthy sprig should look like and, for comparison, what an unhealthy one looked like. They had an example of a hawthorn bush. The unhealthy bush had been planted near a building, which absorbed heat from the sun and radiated that heat at the bush.
“It’s actually burning it, scalding it,” Lemon said.
She said the yellowing of leaves shows the deficiency in the Las Vegas soil, which lacks iron, and that “a lot of it is common sense … Most people are very patient as you walk them through sort of a checklist” to get to the root of the problem.”
The group’s biggest project is the home gardening help line (702-257-5555), which is staffed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Questions the group receives cover a gamut of various landscapes, such as how to correctly prune a tree, when is the proper time to trim back ornamental grasses, when is the best time to plant a certain type of bush and is freezing a problem in the desert.
DeAngelis said being outdoors and meeting people at the farmers market was more fun than manning the hot line.
“Personally, I like to have the face-to-face (interaction),” she said. “I’m a social person. … We have pamphlets we can give them, like if they have questions about growing tomatoes. We show them this list with these brands because these are the ones that grow well here. So if you’re going to buy asparagus, you want the Mary Washington or the Jersey Giant. If you buy another kind, it’s not going to do well here.”
She said heirloom tomatoes will never grow well in Las Vegas. Black beauty and Japanese eggplant, for example, are the only types of eggplant that grow well in Las Vegas. Spinach types include melody, New Zealand or Malabar.
The Tivoli Village market is one of the best-attended community events where the green thumb group has a presence, said Ann Edmunds, Master Gardener coordinator. It’s also popular with the member gardeners who sign up to man booths at various events.
“They have a waiting list of people who want to be up there (at Tivoli),” Edmunds said, adding that manning the booth at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., is another popular assignment.
In Southern Nevada, the Master Gardener program is part of the social horticulture programming of the University of Nevada’s Cooperative Extension. It celebrated 20 years of volunteer service to the community this year. The Master Gardeners have an active membership of 300, all certified. Master Gardeners get 80 hours of horticultural training, and each volunteers his time at least 50 hours a year.
Tivoli Village is only one of the places where Master Gardeners meet the public. There are more than 30 projects throughout the Las Vegas Valley, many being charity events.
“We help out wherever there’s space and wherever appropriate,” Edmunds said.
Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.
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