{"id":411,"date":"2020-03-25T15:52:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T15:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/?p=411"},"modified":"2020-03-25T15:57:39","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T15:57:39","slug":"care-of-plants-and-gardens-in-the-context-of-eo-20-12-stay-home-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/2020\/03\/25\/care-of-plants-and-gardens-in-the-context-of-eo-20-12-stay-home-save-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Care of Plants and Gardens in the Context of EO 20-12 (Stay Home. Save Lives)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>March 25, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To: OSU Extension Master Gardener Coordinators, Faculty, and\nStaff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From: Gail Langellotto, Statewide Master Gardener Program\nCoordinator<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Subject: Guidance on Master Gardener Activities and Plant\nCare, in the Context of Executive Order 20-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and in accordance with\nOregon Gov. Kate Brown\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregon.gov\/gov\/Documents\/executive_orders\/eo_20-12.pdf\">Executive\nOrder 20-12 (Stay Home. Save Lives)<\/a>, Master Gardener Programs are to\ncontinue with the suspension of face-to-face programming. This means no\nface-to-face Master Gardener classes, events, meetings or outreach activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of the executive order and this guidance is to\nslow the spread of COVID-19 in Oregon, to protect the health and lives of\nOregonians, particularly those at highest risk, and to help avoid overwhelming\nlocal and regional healthcare capacity. Oregon State University fully supports\nthe governor\u2019s executive order and encourages its community members to <a href=\"https:\/\/leadership.oregonstate.edu\/covid-19\/updates\/osu-employees-and-students-should-observe-%E2%80%98stay-home%E2%80%99-order-march-23-2020\">stay\nat home<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plant Care in\nGreenhouses or Gardens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of plant care in greenhouses or gardens (whether\nthey are school, community, or educational gardens), I offer the following\nguidance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If the greenhouse\nand\/or garden is on OSU-owned or OSU-leased land<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Only OSU employees will be allowed access to\nmaintain plant materials or gardens. Limiting on-campus and onsite operations\nis required under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregon.gov\/gov\/Documents\/executive_orders\/eo_20-12.pdf\">EO\n20-09<\/a>. Volunteers are not to be permitted to access OSU Extension-owned\nor leased property for any reason, including plant care or garden care.<\/li><li>A single OSU employee should be identified (as\nper Anita Azarenko\u2019s March 23<sup>rd<\/sup> email noting that \u2018regional\ndirectors will identify one individual per off campus location to monitor\nbuilding security, receive mail, and perform other critical functions\ndetermined by the university\u2019.<\/li><li>Maintenance of plant materials or gardens by a\ndesignated OSU employee will be performed on an \u2018as available\u2019 basis. Employees\nshould only include plant or garden maintenance in their short-term Plan of\nWork if they have the capacity, ability and willingness to do so.<\/li><li>Carefully consider whether or not plant care or\ngarden care represents a critical function at this time. Supervisors will help\nemployees to determine what qualifies as a critical function. If plant care or\ngarden care is deemed critical, think of the steps that you can take to\nminimize plant care or garden care needs. For example, can the greenhouse\ntemperature be lowered to reduce watering needs and slow plant growth? In parts\nof Western Oregon, many perennials can survive without supplemental water well\ninto June. Note that many common gardening maintenance activities, such as\nweeding, pruning or plant propagation, are not critical activities.<\/li><li>Worm bin or compost pile maintenance is not\nconsidered a critical function.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>If the greenhouse\nand\/or garden is on land that is NOT owned or leased by OSU:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We must honor the policies in place of our\ncommunity partners. Many fairgrounds, recreation and parks units, and schools\nhave closed their facilities to the public.<\/li><li>Individuals should refer to Executive Order\n20-12, particularly section 22, which dictates that \u201cindividuals are directed\nto minimize travel, other than essential travel to or from a home, residence or\nworkplace; for obtaining or providing food, shelter, essential consumer needs,\neducation, health care, or emergency services . . .\u201d<\/li><li>Under the current directives of Executive Order\n20-12, Master Gardener volunteers are not authorized to care for greenhouse\nplants or gardens on behalf of OSU or in their role as a Master Gardener\nvolunteer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Donating or Selling\nPlants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of you have asked about the possibility of selling or\ndonating plants that were originally destined to be sold at Master Gardener\nAssociation plant sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For plant materials\nthat are owned by Master Gardener Chapters or Associations and not by OSU<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We are exploring whether or not the plants can\nbe sold or donated to partner agencies, while using the Master Gardener name.\nIf we proceed, we aim to work with partner agencies that already have\ndistribution channels in place rather than creating our own distribution\nnetwork. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For plant materials\nthat are owned by OSU<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We would have to work through the university\u2019s\nsurplus system, before donating or selling excess plants. &nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These guidelines, like Executive Order 20-12, are in place\nimmediately and until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hold the important work that we do in the Master\nGardener program in such high regard. I especially value and appreciate the joy\nthat gardening and plant care brings to our lives and to the lives of Master\nGardener volunteers, and the friendships that are formed through the Master\nGardener Program.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But during this public health crisis, the best thing that we can do to ensure the health and safety of our volunteers ~ many of whom are in groups that are at higher risk for serious illness if they are exposed to COVID-19 ~\u00a0 is to encourage them stay home. Those of us in positions where attendance on campus or at the Extension office is not essential or critical should also be staying home. By doing so, each of us will reduce the risk and spread of COVID-19 locally and across Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.heartlandtv.com\/images\/Stay+Home+Save+Lives.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for stay home save lives oregon\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 25, 2020 To: OSU Extension Master Gardener Coordinators, Faculty, and Staff From: Gail Langellotto, Statewide Master Gardener Program Coordinator Subject: Guidance on Master Gardener Activities and Plant Care, in the Context of Executive Order 20-12 In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and in accordance with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown\u2019s Executive Order 20-12 (Stay Home. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/2020\/03\/25\/care-of-plants-and-gardens-in-the-context-of-eo-20-12-stay-home-save-lives\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Care of Plants and Gardens in the Context of EO 20-12 (Stay Home. Save Lives)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1238724,1179198],"tags":[1238786,1238789,1238788,1238790,1238727],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-and-procedures","category-program-updates","tag-covid-19","tag-gardens","tag-greenhouses","tag-plant-maintenance","tag-plant-sales"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mgcoordinators\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}