Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

It’s hard to say where we are, weather-wise:  it’s early June now, but we’re still receiving rain like it’s April, BUT daytime temperatures are in the upper 70s Fahrenheit, sort of like early July. Tough adjustments for the garden plants, and tough on us humans as well – the plants AND the people have to ask “do we wear tee-shirts or flannel shirts, and do we bring an umbrella??!!”  Welcome to the “New Normal.”

Out in the garden, here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic stalks are waist high and dark, dark green – might just be the best garlic harvest, ever. The potato plants are up and growing, and the Colorado potato beetles have discovered them as well, so I’m spraying Neem oil every three days or so. The onion and shallot crops are trying desperately to catch up with their garlic cousins, and the sugar peas are twining their way up the bird-netting trellis – no sign of pea flowers, yet. I’m growing the livestock squash on a PVC pipe frame this year as an experiment – my gardening partner Pat built a reclining pipe frame and support leg, which will allow me to bring the climbing vines up through the netting (five and a quarter inch square openings), so they can climb up the angled frame – I’ll have to support any chicken squash using nylon mesh or somesuch, as they hang down under the frame. Both the kale and the chard plants are looking small but viable,  and the broccoli is just loving this weather – steamed broccoli soon!

Next to plant will be the tomatoes and peppers – most of them will be planted in the “Earth boxes” on the front deck, but a bunch of them will be planted in the open garden, in raised beds. Also the bean crop will seeded next to its trellis, and the cabbage will be finally big enough to transplant into the soil – I cover the cabbage rows from planting to harvest with floating row cover (Ree-May, bought locally from Northwest Seed and Pet, in Spokane) to keep all those pesky white “butterflies” from laying their cabbage worm eggs in my precious plants.

This has been an especially fragrant spring for tree flowers, just in case you have not wandered past a tree in bloom:  the apple, pear, and cherry blossoms were prolific and wonderfully stinky. Even our maple trees and choke cherry bushes were detectable across the street, and our good friend Annie gave us a bouquet of flowers from her black locust tree – amazingly nice aromas.

When our summer heat and dry weather do arrive (soon?), we’ll want to take some steps to reduce the heat trauma to our plants, and we’ll also want to reduce any (expensive) water wastage in the garden:  three to four inches of mulch (tree leaves, grass clippings, pine needles) around each plant, add compost or shredded tree leaves to each transplant as they go into the garden soil, check for soil moisture using your Mark I Finger Probe, water in the morning (battery-powered garden hose timers are inexpensive, and allow you to sleep in late!), use drip irrigation to apply water directly to the plant, and pull all those competing weeds.  Speaking of water, remember to find and drain any mosquito-breeding puddles:  check those kiddie pools, empty trash cans and buckets, stacked snow tyres, etc.

Out in your garden, it’s probably (?!) safe to transplant all those sensitive plants (tomatoes, peppers, etc.), and this is a good time to seed beans, corn, livestock squash and pumpkins, beets, carrots, and lettuce.

In the orchard, remember to thin those baby fruit to about six inches apart, and zealously prune out all those epicormic (water) sprouts – they just use up your tree’s energy.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On June 9, those vegetation venerators of the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will host a class on garden drip irrigation systems from 6-8:30 p.m. at the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension Office (227 S. Garden Avenue, Newport). You can call the office at 509-447-2401 for details or to register for the class.

On June 14, our neighborhood gardening club will be touring a local garden with LOTS of really cool features:  raised beds, berry patches, roof-top rain collectors, solar lighting, cold frames, and more.  We’ll depart Camden Grange at 7 p.m., and as always, the public is invited – oh, and be sure to check our club internet blog site, right here, for updates and the latest garden gossip.

Finally, I will be teaching a series of gardening classes in June, in two locations:  Corbin Senior Center (827 W. Cleveland Ave., Spokane) from 2-4 p.m., and at the Newport College Center (1204 W. 5^th St., Newport) from 6-8 p.m.

The classes and class dates are as follows:

• “Renovating Old Apple Trees” will cover the pruning process necessary to bring an abandoned apple tree back into production (June 4 at Corbin, June 15 at Newport).
• “Herb and Kitchen Gardens” will discuss (and taste!) fresh herbs grown from seeds or by propagation, in your back yard (June 11 at Corbin).
• “Raised Bed Gardening” will discuss the benefits of building and using raised beds in your garden (June 18 at Corbin).
• “Drip Irrigation in the Home Garden” will help you to save money, grow healthier plants, and conserve water and energy (June 25 at Corbin).

Classes cost $14 each, and you can register for the classes by calling 509-279-6030, or going online at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

Whew – that’s enough – I need to go outside and mow some waist-high grass, and knock back some of those lush weeds.  Sounds tiring, huh?

So how was Expo 2016?

Our booth was attractive, organized and well-stocked!

It was great!

On 14 May 2016, our club operated a plant sales booth for the second year, at the annual Garden Expo held at Spokane Community College. The event is sponsored by one of the larger garden clubs in the Spokane area, The Inland Empire Gardeners. Each year the Expo attracts hundreds of plant and garden whimsy vendors, and thousands of greenery-starved gardeners. Our club's booth was set up in record time on the Friday evening before the Expo, and early on the following Saturday our booth was inundated with home gardeners wanting everything from succulents (cacti?!) to fruit trees. We stocked our booth shelves with 39 varieties of tomatoes, hundreds of veggie starts, ornamental and livestock plants (squash and pumpkins), medicinal and culinary herbs, and even house plants (Elephant Ears!). 

At the end of a long day, we had sold almost all of our inventory, so we deconstructed the booth, and went home tired and thrilled with our success.

A BIG thank you to our Expo helpers, including Pat, Diane, Frank, Sarah, Franklin, Lulu, Jayden, Virginia, Barbara, Brigitte, Tina, Jane, Bill, and Su. 

Jim

May meeting featured mini-classes

Our garden club met for our monthly meeting on 10 May 2016, and it was a winner! After a short business meeting (we planned last-minute details for the upcoming "2016 Garden Expo" in Spokane – details later), we launched into four excellent gardening mini-classes.

First up was Pend Oreille County Master Gardener Joyce Weir who talked about and demonstrated micro-green gardens (fresh January salads!) and soil-blocker usage.

Next I demonstrated on a volunteer/victim hardwood tree the proper pruning techniques for generic fruit trees – we made a mess on the grange floor! 

During the demonstration, I mentioned that I am teaching a "Renovating Old Apple Trees" class for the Community Colleges of Spokane. Several club members asked for details on the class and they are as follows:  04 June from 2-4 p.m. at the Corbin Senior Center (827 W. Cleveland Ave., Spokane) also on 15 June from 6-8 p.m. at the Newport College Center (1204 W. 5th St., Newport). Cost for the class is $14, and you can register for either class at 800-845-3324, or online at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

Then Steve Byars provided a show-n-tell on his modified "Mother Earth News" version of expandable/reusable tomatoe cages – especially recommended for out-of-control indeterminate tomato varieties. Here is the original article, and below, the cage supporting a really huge cherry tomato plant in a pot at Steve's place.

Finally, Pat McGinty showed us all how to make our own seed tape at home - a perfect way to spend those cold, blustery days of winter.

Pat also offered some companion planting advice, and recommended her favorite book on the subject, entitled "Good Neighbors: companion planting for gardeners," by Anna Carr (ISBN 0-87857-530-8). Here is a quick companion planting reference.

And finally, club member Bill Turner received his Garden Gnome for allowing our garden club members to infest his garden last month. Bill provided lots of expert answers to lots of questions, and even more of his garden experience and suggestions. Thanks, Bill! 

During our exuberant and fun meeting, we snacked on delicious homemade bread provided by new club member Marlene Routt - her chocolate zucchini bread and pineapple zucchini bread were so well received that I was asked/threatened numerous times to provide Marlene's recipes, so here they are:

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins

Prep  30 m 

Cook  25 m 

Ready In  55 m 

Recipe By:FROSTH

"These are deliciously moist muffins that that'll disappear quickly! Use carrot or zucchini, or both if you prefer. I make a batch of each, then put some in the freezer (in Ziploc bags) for later, which usually isn't very long! My entire family just loves them!"

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 1 tablespoon baking soda 
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

• 2 cups vegetable oil 
• 6 eggs 
• 3 cups shredded zucchini 
• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained 
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour 4 muffin pans, or use paper liners.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the oil, eggs, zucchini, pineapple and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Yields 2

Our favorite zucchini bread recipe, perfect for - let's face it - all day snacking. And all 3 meals. (Hey, there's zucchini in it, so it counts!)

Ingredients

• 3 C grated zucchini
• 2 C flour
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1 C sugar
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 3/4 C mini chocolate chips
• optional: zest from one orange

Topping

• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T white sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside. Set shredded zucchini in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and set aside. Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Place flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• With a stand or hand mixer beat oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until combined and slightly fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.
• Gently press down on zucchini in strainer and discard any excess liquid. Add zucchini to batter (and zest if you're using).
• Take a spoonful of the flour mixture and stir in with the chocolate chips (that will help keep them evenly distributed.) Add the remaining flour mixture to the batter and stir just until combined.
• Divide the batter between the two pans, and sprinkle topping over each.
• Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.
• Let it cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Great tips

• After greasing pans, wipe 1" edge clean with a paper towel all along the top of the pan. This will prevent the batter from "slipping down", and give you a perfectly crowned loaf every time.
• When baking, put loaf pans on cookie sheets for easy moving.
• To test for doneness, insert toothpick and ensure it comes out clean. If it comes out goopey and covered in batter, continue baking for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Thanks to all the club members who attended, instructed, and who provided wonderful snacks. Our next meeting on 14 June 2016 will be a summer garden tour of an excellent local garden featuring raised beds, rainwater collection systems, berry garden, small fruit orchard, and much more.  See you there!

Jim McGinty

Getting Ready for Expo

This is the second year for our club booth at the Garden Expo, and I'm working on getting my contribution ready. It's a fun event – I especially like to browse the big outdoor sculptures. Man, I would love to have a 10-foot-tall welded T-Rex or one of those cool kinetic spinning things in my garden.

But our club doesn't offer big weird sculptures. We sell plants, mostly. Healthy tomatoes and peppers and such, varieties that do well in our short-season gardens. We've started them and nursed them along from seeds, or made divisions of plants that are flourishing in our own yards. And our diverse group of gardeners researches and orders all kinds of interesting varieties, so shoppers can find more than just the same three kinds of tomatoes that the big box stores carry.

I went to see plant-starting star (and former club president) Barbara, and she showed me her method of potting up plants for sale. She uses these Solo 20-ounce drink cups, melts drain holes with a wood-burning tool, and labels them with white duct tape. They fit 12 to a dollar-store bin.

I think the end result is quite spiffy, as well as efficient. So now I'm going back out to pot up the Opalkas. And maybe some thyme and borage from the flowerbed.

Su

Weeding Between the Lines

By Jim McGinty

Kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place: we’ve recently seen temperature extremes between 82 degrees Fahrenheit (daytime) and 25 degrees (night time).  A little chilly to plant out the tomatoes, but we have planted broccoli (Flash – a hybrid that may not available these days, and Pac-Man) starts, onion (Candy Red, and Redwing) sets, and we seeded peas (Sugar Snap, and Melting Sugar). We did cover the plants with floating row cover to negate the freezing temperatures (Ree-May or Agribon, available from Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane, will protect the precious plant progeny down to about 24 degrees). The garlic crop (planted last autumn) looks fantastic with dark blue green stalks  about 14 inches tall, while the berry plants (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries) have all set flowers, and in the case of the strawberries, have small reddish fruit already! 

In the orchard, it’s really too late to continue pruning:  we’ll wait until the leaves have all fully formed, before more snipping and lopping takes place. I just started spraying the fruit trees for aphids (and their hosting buddies, the ants), with Safer brand insecticidal soap (I drench the tree branches and leaves once a week for three weeks to kill the aphid adults and their eggs), and I reserve the Natria neem oil for the “hard core” insects that just don’t want to listen.

If you have not already done so, now is the perfect time to prune out all those brown berry canes from last year in the raspberry patch (this year’s fruit-bearing canes will be greenish with swollen buds around the edges of the canes). This is also the perfect time to fertilize those raspberries with aged manure – I prefer aged chicken poo, but most other types will be fine.

While you are carting fertilizer about, don’t forget to drop/spread some of the good stuff on the blueberries, cranberries, asparagus, and rhubarb (I usually drop a shovel or two of the poo under the new rhubarb leaves – rhubarb does indeed respond well to spring fertilizing!).

Out in the garden, it’s nearly time to plant out the root crops and cool weather veggies – just guessing here, but our last frost date this spring will be on “your guess is as good as anyone’s” day, so watch your local weather, and be prepared to cover the baby greens with floating row cover, light flannel sheets, or other frost blankets. Scheduled for planting soon are potatoes, radishes, parsnips, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, and turnips. Later (?) in the month or maybe even in early June, you can consider planting out some of the warmer weather crops such as corn, beans, tomatoes, squash (ornamental varieties and chicken-feed varieties only, of course), cucumbers, and peppers.  And remember to plant some flowers among your edibles:  all our senses deserve to be revived in the verdant spring, like seeing that perfect white daisy in a green meadow.

GARDEN CALENDAR:

On May 10, our local garden club will offer some indoor gardening mini-classes on topics such as homemade seed tape, pruning fruit trees, and building expandable tomato cages.  We meet in Camden Grange at 7 p.m., and the public is always welcome.

On May 12, those dedicated Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer a class on “How to prepare a garden bed” at the Pend Oreille County Extension Office (227 South Garden Ave., Newport), from 6-8:30 p.m. You’ll learn lots of tips on how to make your garden beds comfy and hospitable for all those salad greens and ripe tomatoes.

You will want to reserve May 14 for the annual Garden Expo held at Spokane Community College (1810 N. Green St., Spokane) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Plan to bring transportation (red wagon, garden cart, wheelbarrow, etc.) for all the plants and garden art/wind chimes/tools/decorations you’ll want to buy in over 200 booths.  Oh, and bring some money – our local garden club will be selling plant starts and other cool garden things from our booth as well. Learn more about the 17th Annual Garden Expo here.

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled afternoon of weed-eliminating, aphid-decimating, and compost-manipulating –  my back hurts already.