Meet the queen bee of county master gardeners

  • By Andrea Brown Herald Writer
  • Tuesday, September 17, 2013 4:22pm
  • Life

Sharon Collman isn’t afraid of bugs.

She’s afraid of not having enough bugs.

The good, the bad and some really ugly ones end up pinned on display boards at her WSU Snohomish County Extension office in Everett.

“Beetles. Stink bugs. Bees. Anything that flies and moves,” she said.

Some are still moving. The office is a hotel for live colonies of ants, bedbugs and cockroaches.

Collman, an extension educator in horticulture and pest management, often hunts down the hemipterans herself or brings along a merry band of fellow bug hunters.

Bug-ology is part of being a master gardener.

Collman is the queen bee of master gardening. She helped start the Master Gardener Volunteer Program in Washington, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

What began as an ask-a-gardener service to handle urban plant problems has come a long way since the 1970s. So has Collman.

Early photos show the newly minted college grad in a geometric print dress with long, dark “hippie hair,” as she puts it. Short white locks are her trademark now, and she still wears some flashy threads when she isn’t chasing pests.

“I was the first woman to be an ag agent in Washington,” she said. “I was a master gardener and all the other things an ag agent did.”

Collman, who was working in King County at the time, is credited with building the foundation for master gardeners in the state and beyond. The volunteer program spread to other states and countries.

The term “master gardener” was coined from the German term “Gartenmeister,” which denotes top proficiency in horticulture.

About 2,500 people in Snohomish County have earned the title over the past four decades.

“We train about 70 a year,” Collman said. “We have homemakers to retired people, veteran gardeners, new gardeners and different ethnic backgrounds. It’s a cross-section of Snohomish County.”

The training is 12 weeks of classes, in addition to an online program and a hefty textbook to leaf through.

That’s just for starters. Master gardeners serve at educational events and are environmental stewards.

“We’re not a garden club,” Collman said. “There’s nothing wrong with garden clubs. Garden clubs do a lot of great projects. We do issue-based projects. The issues we are tackling now are important to the county and the communities they live in.”

Stormwater. Rain gardens. Natural yard care. Compost.

“Growing groceries,” she said. “That’s the one I spend most time on now.”

Not to be nosy, but what does her yard look like at home?

“I don’t have time to garden,” Collman said. “I’m trying to finish my dissertation I started 20 years ago. It’s like sweeping a dirt floor.”

Her topic: root weevils.

“They’re little insects that notch the leaves of plants, and people hate them and they spray them,” she said. “Everything you read is about one particular weevil and I knew there were others out there.”

The bug sleuth unearthed a new weevil.

“In a back yard. I’ve been saying that for years if we studied our own back yards we’d find new species all the time. Most research is paid for by critical need, driven by strawberries and particular crops, so nobody really deals with the things that happen in back yards,” she said.

“My goal was to find out what root weevils were out there, what were they eating and when were they present. You have to know which one you got in order to minimize the amount of pesticides we blast into the environment.”

She doubts the weevil will be named after her, but that’s OK. The academic title of “Dr. Sharon” will be good enough.

She has written about 300 pages on weevils. “Most of my time is spent shortening it.

“I thought a dissertation was supposed to be a big deal. A mammoth tome,” she said. “My professor is after me. He’s like, just finish it and get out of here.”

Andrea Brown; 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com.

Become a master gardener

The Master Gardener Volunteer Program requires 80 hours of training and a minimum of 60 volunteer hours as a community educator.

Training sessions are held once a year, starting in January.

Cost is about $245.

The program is open to everyone with an interest in gardening and a willingness to share their time and knowledge.

For more information: http://snohomish.wsu.edu/mg/garmg.htm or call 425-338-2400.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.