Spring into gardening season with Yakima Master Gardeners annual plant sale

YAKIMA, Wash. — The annual Yakima Master Gardeners Plant Sale this weekend will include thousands of affordable annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables and garden art, but for the growers behind the sale, it's about more than selling seedlings.

“The satisfaction of growing something, I think it's in our DNA," Master Gardener Carol Barany said. "I think probably from the very first human farmers, there is satisfaction in putting a seed into the soil, watching it germinate, then caring for it until it matures and either gives you a bloom or it gives you something to eat.”

Barany said they spend weeks searching seed catalogs in order to pick the best plants to grow for the sale and the variety they have on offer is a point of pride, especially when it comes to their heirloom vegetables.

“[They're] varieties that have been lost to commerce because they have thin skins," Barany said. "They don't ship well, but what they lack in durability, they make up 100-fold in taste.”

Barany said most of their plants are priced at below $4 each and include items people might not be able to find at their local nursery or big box store.

"There's just something special about this plant sale," Barany said. "The doors open early but there will be people lining up outside the door for hours before our sale starts."

Part of the draw of the sale is the organization's roots in community service and the seeds of knowledge sowed by its gardeners.

“When Master Gardeners was founded, it was because there was such a need from the public for good science-based gardening information," Barany said. "You can go on the internet and you can get 50 pieces of advice for how to do something and some of them are just so outlandish."

But at the sale, Barany said people can ask questions of the gardeners who grew the plants they're about to buy and get advice on how to make their garden successful, whether they're experienced gardeners or if they're just starting out.

“We have all been novices ourselves and I think you can learn from all the mistakes that we've made," Barany said. "I have killed more plants than probably this greenhouse holds and so you can benefit from my experience.”

It's experience Barany said they also share with the community during their free classes over the summer, which are held on Saturdays at their demonstration gardens across the city and in youth programs.

“[We're] teaching the public how to do all of the things that they really want to learn: how to plant vegetables, how to prune tomatoes, how to grow cut flowers," Barany said.

In addition to offering space for classes, the gardens also exist as a public service.  Heirloom Garden supplies a seed lending library for community members and the West Valley Food Garden donated over 4,000 pounds of produce to the Highland Food Bank last year.

Barany said without the plant sale, they wouldn't have the funding to support those programs.

“We do a lot of projects in the community and this pays the bills for those," Barany said.

The plant sale is happening from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Yakima Master Gardeners greenhouse, located at 1522 S. 18th Ave. in Yakima.

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