Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

September is late into this year’s garden season, and (assuming we will experience cold weather at some point) we’ll be making some tough choices fairly soon. Specifically first, tomatoes: we have been patiently waiting for ripe, red fruit since March, and now the evenings are a little cooler, and we’re harvesting a few, precious ‘maters, but the bushes are COVERED with small, green baby tomatoes, and LOTS of new, yellow tomato flowers.  If we don’t pinch off the flowers, and remove most of those little tomatoes, we’ll harvest mostly medium-sized, relish-making green tomatoes. I don’t know about you, but tomato relish or chutney is not my goal here: I’m looking for ripe, red, juicy, fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes, with possibly a little salt sprinkled thereon, and I will be satisfied. Gardeners can also encourage the tomato plants to rush their progeny into ripeness by “stressing” the plants: cutting away half of the non-fruit-bearing branches and leaves will do the trick, or one can try driving a sharp shovel into the area just round the plant’s root ball, about 9 inches deep, and in a half (180 degree) circle around the plant. 

Specifically second, squash: all those dark green leaves on the livestock squash and pumpkins are hiding new yellow flowers and marble-sized babies, as the plants intend to produce inedible (as defined by most humans equipped with functioning taste buds) baby squash, pumpkins, and zucchini until the crack of doom, or first frost. Now is a good time to try out those batter-coated squash flower recipes you see on the cooking shows, as we must be as mean to the squash plants, as we are to the tomato plants: leave no flowers or mini-squash – be ruthless!

Elsewhere in the garden, now is a great time to probe around under those potatoe plants for some baby spuds – try them steamed lightly, and coated with butter, salt and pepper.  Yum!

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic harvest was pretty darned good – the bulbs of most varieties were large and well-formed, though some varieties (as always) were a disappointment – the best reason to plant half a dozen varieties instead of just one favorite.

Our onion crop was amazing this year, with bulbs softball-sized or larger – needless to say, my favorite side dish of fried new potatoes, onions, and garlic is on the dinner schedule.

The berry crop was a “good news – bad news” kind of thing this summer:  the Quinault everbearing strawberries performed magnificently, with quart-sized Ziplock-bag harvests every other evening. Unfortunately, the Doyle thornless blackberry plants suffered a late frost in June just as the flowers covered the vines, and we are making-do with a partial-harvest of truly-delicious berries – our blackberry smoothie evenings are now especially precious. My gardening partner Pat and I plan to build a frost-blanket roll structure that will allow us to just throw a sheet of Ree-May row cover over the top of the blackberry trellis, to protect next year’s flowers from evil frosts.

Out in the garden, now is the time to try an autumn garden, by seeding or transplanting short-season (60 day or less) cool weather crops such as bush beans, garden peas, beets, chard, carrots, radishes, and kale – no sense in letting all that expensive dirt just lie fallow.  Be sure to add some soil fertilizer and/or amendments before seeding or transplanting, as the Spring plants ate up a bunch of the available nourishment.

Out in the orchard, your plum trees will need pruning just after fruit harvest – be sure to remove any dead, diseased, or damaged branches, and you will want to open up the area inside the canopy of leaves, to encourage wind and sunshine.

GARDENING CALENDAR       

On Sept. 13, our local garden club will NOT be touring one more garden for the season, as the early sunset has historically meant stumbling around someone’s garden in the dark.  We will instead meet at Camden Grange at 7 p.m. for an indoor class, “Cleaning up the Garden in the Fall,” presented by guest speaker, Master Gardener Steve Nokes. Steve has been a popular guest speaker in the club’s recent past, and will provide us with tips on preparing our gardens for next year’s best-ever harvest. Don’t forget that you can check up on our garden club’s activities, read amusing/horrifying reports on what’s happening in our local gardens, and view blackmail-quality photos right here on this blog.

On Sept. 21r, I’ll be teaching a class from 6-8 p.m. at the Newport College Center (1204 W. Fifth St., Newport) on the subject of growing garlic (“Garlic 101” is the class title) in the home garden. We’ll talk about selecting, planting, encouraging, and harvesting your own mild-to-fiery-hot garlic. Remember, late September and early to mid-October is the time to plant garlic, so this class is timed just right for you! You can call the college for more information or to register for the class at 800-845-3324, or you can register online at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

On Sept. 28, I’ll be teaching a class from 6-8 p.m. at the Newport College Center (address same as the above) on the subject of seed saving. If you are trying to save grandpa’s favorite green bean from extinction, or if you just want to save money, you will learn some simple, inexpensive kitchen techniques that will further your gardening knowledge, and also save you some money (did I mention that earlier?). You can register for the class by calling 800-845-3324, or register on-line at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

That’s it for this month – it’s finally cool enough (only 81 degrees Fahrenheit) outside to spray some water on those autumn garden seeds:  don’t want to let the soil surface dry out with all those teeny seeds begging for mosture!