Urban Horticulture
CALS community horticulture faculty set sights even higher

by Marlene Fritz

Whether they’re landscaping a one-acre lot in a prosperous new suburb or tending a few potted tomatoes on the balcony of a modest apartment, Idahoans old and young, rural and urban, green-thumbed or wanna-be’s are knee-deep in questions about plants. At the UI Aberdeen Research and Extension Center, Steve Love is cultivating a coordinated statewide effort to help answer those gardening questions—and to develop Idaho-specific answers if they don’t yet exist.

Love recently revamped his former position as potato breeder and coordinator of the Tri-State Potato Variety Development Program to lead CALS’ community horticulture program toward sharper focus, higher funding levels, and greater regional and national recognition.

“Idaho has one of the best Master Gardener programs in the country, but we haven’t had the resources to supply homeowners in every corner of the state with the information they need to take care of their gardens and landscapes,” he says. Nor has Idaho had a statewide support system for its county-based extension horticulture educators.

“Let’s harness the great work that our people are already doing and move in a common direction to build a stronger urban horticulture program for the long term,” Love says.

Swelling demand for horticultural information
The timing is perfect. The state’s population—particularly in urban areas—is growing briskly, and demand for horticultural information is swelling right along with it. “People are asking us how they can surround themselves with beautiful landscapes that don’t take too much water and that work in Idaho,” notes Love.

Volunteers needed: A statewide arboretum system
Often, determining “what works here” would benefit from geographically specific research or extension trials. Love envisions a statewide arboretum system—staffed by volunteers—at which UI Extension horticulturists, gardeners, and members of Idaho’s burgeoning nursery and turfgrass industries could compare the performance of various native and regionally adapted plants. UI Extension’s role in the evolution of Idaho landscapes toward greater sustainability—like drought tolerance in southern Idaho—will be pivotal, Love predicts, and that evolution will come none too soon.

“We’re just coming through a fairly significant drought period—a cycle that we’ll go into over and over and over again. Every time we go into it in the future, we’ll have less water, because both our municipal and our rural water demands are growing phenomenally. We at the university will need to get prepared for the crunch time, because there’s no doubt that it will come.”

Curbing water needs of lawns, golf courses
One of the program’s new emphases, already identified, is lower-input turfgrass management for both golf courses and home landscapes. UI Research Support Scientist Tom Salaiz—whose responsibilities have shifted from potatoes to turfgrass—will compare management needs of traditional turfgrasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, with those of newer, drought-resistant grasses, like Buffalograss and crested wheatgrass.

In addition, Aberdeen will be one of many sites of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. Golf course superintendents will be able to scrutinize the performance of numerous Kentucky bluegrasses and tall fescues that Salaiz will plant at the Hazard Creek Golf Course, across the highway from the Aberdeen center. At the center itself, he is also testing turfgrasses for shade tolerance and joining Love in an evaluation of ornamental grasses.

Love hopes CALS’ community horticulture program will prove instrumental to integrating the needs of Idaho’s turfgrass and landscape industries with those of consumers statewide. Down the road, UI faculty might help turfgrass professionals form a statewide organization. Or, they could deliver turf-management seminars to golf course employees or respond with variety trials to nursery owners’ requests for plant evaluation and improvement.

More native plants, hardy roses
Love is already collecting seed of some native perennial species that he would like to develop. Initially, he plans to concentrate on lupines, penstemons, globemallows, Indian paintbrush, and perhaps even phlox, selecting and crossing the best for Gem State gardens. He is also assembling a group of hardy roses to plant this spring in a public demonstration trial at the Aberdeen center. In addition, he hopes to breed “tidier, prettier, better” snowberries, ninebarks, and other woody shrubs for Idaho landscapes. He even expects to breed a few potatoes—specialty varieties with promise for both backyard gardens and truck farms.

New horticulture website for 2006
While some of the program’s goals are intermediate or long-range, a new website is at the front of the flower border—so to speak—for 2006. A horticulturally oriented UI Extension team of on- and off-campus specialists and educators will build a user-friendly website that will put Idaho-pertinent information at the fingertips of Idaho’s gardeners. Love expects it to become Gem State homeowners’ preferred first stop for information about planning, installing, and maintaining home landscapes and gardens.

“Our surroundings have a lot to do with how good our lives are, and we want to help people take care of them,” he says.

Contact Steve Love at slove@uidaho.edu, and Tom Salaiz at tsalaiz@uidaho.edu.

Collecting data from Idaho MG programs

What if much of the important horticultural lessons learned in each Idaho county could be captured in a central source to benefit everyone in Idaho? That’s a hope for a UI CALS website planned to gear up in 2006. Now lessons learned locally may have a chance to be shared statewide as well.
Idaho Falls plant clinics. UI Master Gardeners staff weekly plant clinics at the Idaho Falls farmers’ market, answering the gardening questions of 30 to 60 urban clients. “We have our reference books right there,” says Wayne Jones, UI Extension educator in Bonneville County. “We can address their problem and they can go straight home and put our recommendations into practice.”
Contact wjones@uidaho.edu.

Magic Valley turfgrass trials. UI Extension Horticulture Educator JoAnn Robbins has planted a 2,304-square foot turfgrass trial right under the bleachers of Jerome County’s fairgrounds. During the fair and throughout the growing season, area residents could see how Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, and perennial rye performed under various regimens of drought stress and fertilizer treatments.
Contact jrobbins@uidaho.edu.

Advanced MG training. Bonner County Extension Horticulture Educator Bob Wilson initiated an advanced class for his Master Gardeners called “Garden Scene Investigation.” This past summer, 17 students undertook 21 hours of in-depth training in diagnosing plant samples and in strategizing problem-solving approaches. His Master Gardeners are so valuable to him that Wilson wanted to “give them something extra to keep them involved.”
Contact rwilson@uidaho.edu.

Ada County display gardens. Boise’s UI Extension Office Master Gardeners have installed a water-efficient xeric garden and are establishing a perennial display garden. UI Extension Horticulture Educator Susan Bell says the best way to improve horticultural skills and knowledge is with hands-on activities. “How can Master Gardeners understand the many nuances, problems, and challenges we encounter in growing plants in our arid region unless they get some dirt under their fingernails?” she asks.
Contact sbell@uidaho.edu.

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