Season Extension Using Low Row Cover, a workshop on how to extend the growing season through use of covered garden beds will be offered Sunday, March 10, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Wallowa Community Garden, located on Whiskey Creek Road near the Wallowa River House. Cost for the four-hour workshop is $25, which includes materials. Space is limited to 20 participants. Registration is required and can be accomplished online at http://tinyurl.com/lowrowworkshop.

Workshop participants will learn how to construct and install durable and practical low row covers using Agribon and flexible hoops, as well as the basics of season extension techniques. Participants will leave the workshop with the materials and instruction needed to set up their own low row cover system. Use of covered beds allows for earlier planting and longer harvest of vegetable crops, including lettuce, greens, broccoli and tender annuals.

Debborah Reth, owner of Bear Creek Farms in Wallowa, will instruct the workshop. It only takes minutes a day to cover and uncover your plants and the Agribon locks in heat captured in the soil during the day. Also, it’s a nutritional blessing to your taste buds to have fresh homegrown salad with Easter dinner and a broccoli salad at your Memorial Day picnic,” she says.

Reth has 20 years’ experience in extended season market gardening in limited growing season areas. She also mentors new gardeners at the Wallowa Community Garden, helped found the Lower Valley Farmers Market and is a member of the Wallowa County Food System Council. Participants are encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch and extra seeds for an optional seed exchange at the end of the workshop.

The workshop is hosted by Oregon Rural Action and the NE Oregon Regional Food Collaborative with funding support from the Meyer Memorial Trust. For more information contact Nella Parks at Oregon Rural Action, nella@oregonrural.org or 541-975-2411 or visit the website at www.oregonrural.org/events/.

You can also contact Reth for more information at 541-398-0137.