Hi, my name is Ashton Rask, and I am excited to introduce myself and be a part of the
OSU Extension services internship program. I am located in Columbia County, where I currently
reside. Though I am originally from the central valley of California, where agricultural roots run
deep. I have always been involved in some form of agriculture; I am a huge advocate for
agricultural education and take pride in being a part of a larger community. I was an active
member of 4H and FFA throughout my youth. I am entering my last year at Colorado State
University online, finishing my bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business. From here I hope to
continue to be an advocate for agriculture and move forward in a career that is rewarding and
impactful.

As I enter the 6th week of my internship here at OSU Extension, I have experienced a
number of exciting events. Including WIC/Snap-ED programming, Master Gardener events
along with viewing and lending a hand in our community & demo gardens. One of my recent
projects has been creating new signs to label our demo garden beds. This is a project that we
wanted to get done before our county fair, which is a goal we accomplished. I also had the
opportunity to sneak out of the office and get my hands dirty doing some weeding in our
experimental gardens located at the demo garden here in St. Helens.

I saw a need for signs to be made and placed in our demo garden. With the help of both
our agriculture Extension agent, Janhvi Pandey and A few of our master gardeners, who were
so kind to help me through this process, I was able to head out to the demo garden and learn
about all the things we are growing and showcasing. Our demo garden is flourishing, so having
proper signage to address people’s questions and celebrate the hard work of our community
members was important! Our demo garden has been a joy to work in over the past few weeks.
Watching all our unique plants and garden beds bloom and start to produce fruit has been
exciting. I am fortunate enough to be a small piece of this bigger puzzle and cannot wait to see
how our community members react throughout the fair and its showcasing.

These signs highlighted companion planting, our pollinator garden and our three sisters’
garden bed. Along with a really unique plant that has been introduced this year by a master
gardener, the Lofa plant! The Luffa plant is edible, but we often see it used in its sponge form!
Some signs needed to be created from scratch, whereas some just needed an updated look. I
spent about a week and a half creating these, printing and laminating them to help limit some
of the exposure from the elements, to hopefully make them last a while. From there I was able
to go out and place them on each plaque.