Purpose
The Western Arid Grower Network provides small-scale growers with information, research, and resources focused on arid vegetable growing. It is a place for growers to connect and discuss innovations and practices we use to grow successfully arid climates.
Background
Nella Mae Parks and Katie Swanson have spent hours on the phone swapping tips and frustrations from their respective farms in Cove and Klamath Falls. For years, they have been a “network” of two arid growers in the semi-arid part of Oregon, sharing practices that work and helping each other with the frustrations growing vegetables in the arid west.
While there are many excellent small-scale vegetable grower resources out there, most information is not focused on the challenges we face in arid climates in the western US. We face a cocktail of short growing in short seasons, extreme daily and seasonal temperature swings, wildfire smoke, dry, windy conditions, and of course limited water and precipitation.
In 2025, Nella Mae, Katie, and Maud Powell from Oregon State University Small Farms Program were awarded a USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education grant (SARE) to do on-farm research and develop the Western Arid Grower Network. We hope WAGN will fill a gap in information and discussion about arid growing and allow folks in similar climates to connect.
