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?