Featured Gardeners: Erin and Shanna

Chapter: Whatcom-WA

How long have you been gardening?

About 4 years ago we tried growing 2 tomato plants in a container at our house in the city. We got beautiful foliage but zero tomatoes! So when we moved to 11 acres with an overgrown, poison hemlock-infested old garden plot 3 years ago we were excited to try again. We weeded a few 8x8 patches of soil and planted lettuce, asparagus crowns, cooking herbs, cukes, squash and a few tomatoes. We also unburied a tayberry and a thimbleberry from the detritus and discovered a cherry orchard under all the wild blackberry vines! That first year we learned from the Internet and were hooked on trying to grown our own food.

The second spring we renovated the entire 100x40' area and built 9 proper 4x8 raised beds, a row of 47 trellised tomatoes and planted more fruit trees. We dabbled for the first time in starting our own seeds and had amazing luck. We had much success with almost all of the crops, including the elusive watermelon. Because we wanted to attract more pollinators to the garden we grew a bunch of flowers from seed, including a neat forest of giant sunflowers and 3 dozen marigold plants to act as bait for the tomatoes.

We've been fortunate to not have a pest problem so we don't have to use chemical poisons. But in the fall our entire tomato crop was stricken with late blight and we only managed to harvest enough tomatoes for 12 jars of sauce. It felt like a death in the family. We didn't even know blight was a thing. Since our beginner's luck was clearly over we decided to enroll in the year-long 2025 WSU Master Gardener certification program. It's a rigorous program but we've learned so much and met many plant-loving new friends as a result!

This year we have expanded our operations to include various types of squash, dahlias, berries, fruits, root veggies, greens, peas, beans, flowers, herbs, potatoes, rhubarb and of course tomatoes.

What are your “must-grow” crops?

We are heavy into tomatoes because our love of home-made pasta sauce is unquenchable. We made the switch from a giant water bath canner to a steam canner and that's made easier than ever! We've found that Roma-types like San Marzano, Super Sauce and Amish Paste are the best for canning. This year we're growing over 50 tomatoes, many of which are disease-resistant. Some of them include Pozzano, Tiren and Juliette. We also have slicing and greenhouse tomatoes as we're eyeball deep in building our 32'x10' greenhouse so we can have better success with some of the warmth-loving crops like basil, peppers, eggplants and melons.

We are also excited to try our hand at growing salad greens all winter despite not heating the greenhouse. Our lacinato kale plants were huge, prolific and beloved after their 2 years of growth. We ate it for 2 winters and amazingly it just grew more sweet with time.

One piece of advice for beginners?

Get your soil tested! There's a desire to fertilize the heck out of your garden but if you're not adding the correct amounts of the correct nutrients your particular soil needs you're wasting your resources and potentially harming the soil and plants. Installing a drip irrigation system doesn't have to be as daunting it seems and it'll save your energy and your need to battle diseases born from overhead watering, not to mention the amount of water you'll save.

One very helpful resource we'd recommend is the WSU Master Gardener Plant Clinic. Trained volunteer Master Gardeners will help you get to the bottom of your gardening woes. It's free and you'll expand your knowledge with advice from experts, not well-meaning internet folks who might be guessing. You can also volunteer with the Master Gardners out at Hovander Park and soak up a wealth of knowledge while giving back to your community. The Whatcom County Extension page is here: https://extension.wsu.edu/whatcom/

Favorite feature of GeoGardenClub?

I love that the entire history of our garden is documented with data and photos! I can look back to last year's crops and compare how we're doing this year. It's so easy to post observations and data that's all kept in one convenient spot!

As a married couple with distinct gardening interests we love that we can share a garden in the app and post data individually. This year we look forward to being even more rigorous with our data input with things like germination rates, and it's been fun to check out other people's observations to learn from their gardens too.