“Fall and Winter Berry Care,” Saturday, August 19, 2023

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 10, 2023

Your berry bushes and plants have been working hard all summer providing you with delicious fruit. Now that fall is approaching, it’s time to return the favor and make sure you are preparing your berry-producing plants for the cold months ahead.

Join Master Gardener Jeanette Stehr-Green for the Digging Deeper Saturdays presentation “Fall and Winter Berry Care,” Saturday, Aug. 19, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden.

Jeanette will cover the care that is needed by cultivated berries—strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries—in fall and winter. She will also discuss common winter problems that occur with each major berry type and how to deal with them.

Jeanette will help local gardeners be able to prepare their berry plants for the winter and take important steps to maintain berry plant health and future harvests including how to:

• Protect their berry plants from winter injury.

• Recognize when strawberry plants need to be replaced.

• Distinguish between first and second-year raspberry and blackberry canes and be able to prune and trellis these plants, tasks undertaken in late summer/early fall and late winter.

• Outline the steps to pruning blueberries, a task that is undertaken in late winter.

Jeanette is a berry enthusiast and enjoys growing, picking and eating berries! She has grown berries (including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) on the North Olympic Peninsula for over 20 years and enjoys teaching others how to improve the quality and size of their berry harvest. Jeanette has been a Clallam County Master Gardener since 2003, writes gardening articles for local newspapers and participates in gardening programs on local radio stations.

She loves teaching and is a frequent speaker at Master Gardener and other educational events. Jeanette was the 2012 Clallam County Veteran Master Gardener of the Year and has attained the Lifetime Achievement status with Clallam County Master Gardeners.

In addition to the scheduled educational presentation, a team of Clallam County Master Gardeners will be available at the Woodcock Demonstration Garden from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 19 to answer all gardening questions. Digging Deeper attendees are encouraged to bring samples of garden problems or pests for diagnosis by Master Gardeners who can recommend control measures.

Digging Deeper presentations are held from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon on the third Saturday of selected months. Presentations cover basic gardening topics relevant to many home gardeners. Presentations are free and open to the public and are scheduled for 90 minutes to allow for demonstrations and questions from viewers.

“Fall and Winter Berry Care” is part of the Digging Deeper Saturdays series. This presentation will be held in-person, out of doors at the Master Gardener Woodcock Demonstration Garden at 2711 Woodcock Road in Sequim. Attendees are encouraged to check the Clallam County Master Gardener online calendar for updates about the location of the talk at https://extension.wsu.edu/clallam/master-gardener-calendar/. For more information about the Digging Deeper educational series call 360-565-2678.