Welcome to Washington Grown At Home!

Welcome to the Washington Grown Gardening Blog!

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Karla, and I'm the Executive Director of Washington Grown!  Not only do I love farming and Washington grown foods, but I am also a Certified WSU Master Gardener in Thurston County. 

I grew up on a farm in George, WA where we had a large garden and preserved much of what we raised through freezing or canning.  As you know, Central Washington has wonderfully sunny and hot weather in the summer and of course we could add water whenever necessary.  (These same conditions also make Eastern Washington a great place for farming and raising high-quality, nutritious crops!) 

When I moved to Western Washington several years ago, I wondered how people actually grew food in this cool, damp climate!  In the spring of 2013 I had the opportunity to take the Washington State University Master Gardening course and I learned a tremendous amount of information from scientifically reliable sources about growing food on the "wet" side of the state.

Because I don't have space to have an in-ground garden, I've been container gardening since I moved to Olympia.  In 2013, I discovered straw bale gardening, which greatly expanded the amount of food I could grow for my family.  While my gardening techniques are specific to container gardening, we'll also be talking about other gardening methods, as well as farming!

I love and am continually amazed by the miracle of growing things and I hope to share this passion with you.  My goal with this blog is to help you grow your best garden ever, while at the same time learning some of the similarities and differences between gardening and farming. 

Don't hesitate to ask questions!  What do you want to know?  What is wrong with your plant?  How come your tomato plant died? 

I also hope that you'll share your successes, challenges, and failures so that we are all learning together.

I look forward to growing with you!

Karla