BUG Gardener: Sunny
After growing veggies in-ground on her property, Sunny reached out to BUG to help set her up for more success. She used her bank of garden lesson hours for periodic check-ins throughout the growing season to keep herself on track to meeting her gardening goals!
Juggling her work as Center Administrator at Sylvan Learning Center, Senior Consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics, grandmother, mother, and wife looking for ways to sneak veggies into her husband’s meals, Sunny knew that investing in her garden space would help her to be her best self in all of her roles. When a co-worker, a neighbor of the Bend Urban Gardens demonstration garden, suggested she connect with us, Sunny reached out!
After our on-site consultation in January 2021, Sunny and her husband got to work building new raised beds and filling them with soil on their own. She stopped by our demonstration garden to pick up a DIY mini hoophouse kit, low hoops, and row cover to start warming up her soil in early spring. She also committed to 12 hours of garden lessons for the season. In February and March, we spent some time together via Zoom, designing her crop plan for her two 4x8’ raised garden beds. With the seed sowing and transplanting schedule we created, she shopped for seeds for the season and set up a grow light indoors to grow plants to later transplant outside.
By mid-April, with the help of her mini hoophouses, her soil thermometer confirmed that the soil temperature was up to 45 degrees! She could start sowing cold tolerant leafy greens and transplant the cold hardy peas and kohlrabi she’d started inside 6 weeks prior. We spent her first two-hour in-person lesson together leisurely direct sowing and transplanting her first succession of crops and discussing the watering needs at different stages of plant growth. While Sunny had some background in seed sowing and transplanting, she was grateful for the tips she learned during our informal visit together and having appointments with Bend Urban Gardens on the calendar helped her hold herself accountable to getting her garden tasks completed.
In mid-May, we met again to thin her direct sown crops, fertilize her beets, harvest leafy greens, refine her irrigation practices, and chat about pests and diseases to look out for. In June, we transplanted frost sensitive plants and then Sunny soared all summer long on her own!
At the start of the growing season, Sunny radiated joy and excitement about her new garden plans. Her friends were skeptical, though. Her region of town has a reputation for being chillier than other parts of Bend. After the 2021 gardening season, she happily reported, “There is no doubt a beautiful garden can grow in Central Oregon, even in Deschutes River Woods! I was very happy to be able to eat fresh salad greens in May and our tomatoes and salsa peppers did great. You provided enough guidance and suggestions to encourage me to try new things and get creative.”
When we met again in September to reflect on the season and contemplate ideas for expansion, she shared, “I learned how necessary it is to rotate crops (hello, farmers!) and what plants to pull out completely and which ones to simply cut at ground level so the roots could be left to nourish the soil.” She also laughed about sharing her plants with the wildlife on her property. The several eggplants in pots on her deck greened up beautifully and produced flowers, but Sunny would often see a little mouse in one of the pots munching on a leaf. The mouse was so careful that Sunny said, “I couldn't disturb her.”
For 2022, Sunny looks forward to introducing new varieties of peppers and greens. With the warmer weather this fall, she said, “I am also happy to be able to plant greens in November with the chance they can be harvested for a Valentine’s salad. Why not? I also look forward to adding edible flowering plants to the beds this next season and am empowered to try anything!” She dreams of expanding - making her own compost on-site, building more garden beds for annual vegetables, creating a zone for edible perennials, and teaching others in our community about the benefits of growing food through her new non-profit organization, No Belly Growls.
Overall, Sunny shared, “Ashley was so patient with me as I learned about garden plant varieties. I feel she answered a million questions and gave me the encouragement necessary to try things on my own that I would show her later.” There was always a garden success to celebrate when visiting Sunny’s garden and we always ended our lessons with smiles on our faces.
Sunny kept a garden folder of notes throughout the season, which she referred back to in between our visits. Her record keeping and organization, which, along with her healthy curiosity, has definitely prepared her to launch into the 2022 growing season with confidence!
