Payson Community Garden Classes

Extension Agent Chris Jones teamed up with the Payson Community Garden in Northern Gila County to feature their 2021 spring gardening classes on the UA Country and Garden Extension webinar series. Speakers included Payson Community Gardeners, sharing their experiences gardener-to-gardener. You are invited to view the recordings here to learn the Payson Community Gardeners' success and how to adapt their know-how to your garden. Classes included the benefits of soil building, ways to have healthy plants throughout the garden season, how to keep bugs and disease away, and harvesting at the right time. The Q&As at the end of each webinar provide a valuable resources as the presenters answered participant questions.

Contact: Chris Jones, Extension Agent Agriculture and Natural Resources

April 15, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #9

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Featured Speakers: Jane Crafter and Sandy Herr, Payson Community Gardeners. Jane and Sandy joined the Payson Community Garden in the Spring of 2019 in hopes of producing a wonderful harvest, especially tomatoes.  They attended all the classes offered by the garden and were like sponges soaking up anything we could learn about tomatoes and gardening in general.  Jane who was born in Australia, had no experience in vegetable gardening but raised a collection of 200 orchids when she lived in Florida.  Sandy grew up in Indiana and raised tomatoes as a youngster during the summers in her family garden. They got lucky and were assigned a plot amongst some amazing master gardeners.  Jane and Sandy showed up almost every day in the garden and weren’t too proud to ask questions or ask for help when needed.  All the work paid off, both years and had a wonderful crop of tomatoes. 

Webinar Overview: The information that we want to share is what we have learned in our first two years of growing tomatoes in our plot in the community garden.  Hopefully, this information will be helpful to first time gardeners and maybe even experienced gardeners can pick up some tips. Jane can Sandy will cover basic types of tomatoes, including indeterminate, determinate, heirloom and hybrid varieties, and their favorite varieties: Tomatoes:  Beefsteak, Lemon Boy, Big Boy, Celebrity, Summer Set, and Yellow Pear Cherry. You will learn about their planting techniques, watering schedule, Walls of Water, types of tomato cages, using tulle fabric cover and companion plants.

April 1, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #8

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Featured Speaker: Suzan Miller-Hoover is an avid gardener and staff member at the Payson Community Garden.  Gardening is an ever-changing challenge and over the past 3 years Suzan has learned much from her fellow gardeners, always looking to learn new techniques. She shares her newfound knowledge with fellow gardeners and the public while teaching classes for the garden and when working on her own garden.

Webinar Overview: This is a presentation to help gardeners recognize beneficial and non-beneficial insects and bugs in the garden. Suzan will discuss organic ways to deter and eliminate the bad bugs and to encourage beneficial ones. Lots of pictures of bugs!

March 25, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #7

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Featured Speaker: Carol R Noble, Payson Community Gardener: Carol joined the Payson Community Garden in May 2016 with no gardening experience. After years of interacting with other gardeners, using Google as well as trial and error, she is now a “much improved“ gardener. She has been a staff member at PCG for the past four years and a member of the Harvest Team for the past five.

Webinar Overview: Carol has been experimenting with a variety of vertical gardening techniques for the past three years. She is a strong advocate for vertical gardening and looks forward to sharing what she has learned.

March 18, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #6

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Featured Speaker: Dan McEuen, Payson Community Gardener: Dan and his wife have been active participants at the Payson Community Garden for five years. He was a complete beginner at vegetable gardening when four years ago. He has learned much over the past several years, mostly by trial and error and gleaning valuable knowledge from other experienced gardeners at the community garden. He started with one garden plot and now has four.

Webinar Overview: Dan will be discussing how he takes care of his soil, his planting techniques and how to nurture the garden.  He begins his garden planning each spring by testing and physically examining the soil, and sectioning his garden layout horizontally and vertically according to which crops he will be planting, including where and when he will be planting. Dan takes into consideration crop rotation and succession planting, and water system layout. He will describe how he amends his my soil based on its needs. He uses only organic mulches, composts, alfalfa pellets, and seasoned horse manure. Dan will explain the purpose and benefits of each of these amendments, and how to work these amendments into the soil. He will go over his concept of the what, where, and when of planting, giving examples of the vegetable crops he likes to grow. Dan will also demonstrate which organic post-planting organic fertilizers he uses as the seedlings come up and begin to grow, including how he mixes and applies them near the plants. Lastly, Dan discusses the importance of being in the garden regularly to nurture, watch, water, thin and pull weeds. Finally, he'll share about the rewards of harvest.

March 11, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #5

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Featured Speaker: Theresa Corrigan and Dan McEuen, Payson Community Gardeners.

Webinar Overview: Using covers for your garden can provide several benefits. These include extending the season and deterring pest infestations, for example. Our speaker will discuss how and when to use garden covers, including the timing to cover your crops, which materials have been most effective at the community, maintenance and troubleshooting. Over the years, the Payson Community Garden has gained many lessons learned to get the most out of your garden by using covers.

March 4, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #4

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Featured Speaker: Dan McEuen, Payson Community Gardener: Dan and his wife have been active participants at the Payson Community Garden for five years. He was a complete beginner at vegetable gardening when four years ago. He has learned much over the past several years, mostly by trial and error and gleaning valuable knowledge from other experienced gardeners at the community garden. He started with one garden plot and now has four.

Webinar Overview: Efficient water use is a must in Arizona, and the Payson Community Garden is no exception. Our speaker will discuss the irrigation system used at the garden, including the use of manifolds and soaker hoses, the watering schedule, maintenance and troubleshooting. Over the years, the Payson Community Garden has gained many lessons learned to get the most out of your garden on the least amount of water possible.

February 25, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #3

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Featured Speaker: Chris Jones is the University of Arizona Gila County Cooperative Extension Agent for horticulture and forest health programs. He has led the Gila County Master Gardener program for twenty years. He teaches the Gardening and Landscape course at the Payson Community College and at Gila-Pueblo campus in Globe.

Webinar Overview: This webinar covers techniques and concepts to make the most of a small garden space. Mr Jones will discuss the benefits of a raised garden, vertical gardening, cool and warm season vegetables, succession planting, intercropping, and herbs and flowers in the garden.

February 18, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #2

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Featured Speaker: Suzan Miller-Hoover is an avid gardener and staff member at the Payson Community Garden. Gardening is an ever-changing challenge and over the past three years Suzan has learned much from her fellow gardeners. She is always looking to learn new techniques. She shares her newfound knowledge with the gardeners and public while teaching classes for the garden and when working on her garden.

Webinar Overview: Spring is right around the corner. Making a plan is essential for having a successful gardening season. Have you decided what to plant? Are you considering three-season gardening? Have you investigated which plants are planted during which season? Let's explore the possibilities.

February 11, 2021: Payson Community Garden Spring Gardening Class #1

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Featured Speaker: Glen McCombs, the owner of Plant Fair Nursery in Star Valley, has more than a green thumb. He may very well have gardening genes. "I’m a fourth-generation nurseryman,” he says, “my great-grandfather, Jeremiah McCombs, started a nursery in Ontario, Canada in 1890." Glen has worked in the nursery business all his life, except for four years in the armed services. Thanks to years of experience at Tip Top Nursery in Phoenix and people he came to know in the industry, Glen says he was able to increase significantly the plant palate offered in Payson when he opened his store in 1983.

Webinar Overview: Glen will provide a brief welcome to the Payson Community Garden. He will focus on "waking-up" your garden from winter and preparing it for spring and summer gardening. He will discuss organic fertilizer, soil preparation, worms, and other timely activities for your garden. Be sure to take advantage of the Q&A chat session to ask Glen any specific questions you have about gardening too.