Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

It’s that time:  barbecues, family reunions, sweaty hours in the garden, and don’t forget to take your salt tablets!

Here at Rancho McGinty:

The garlic is harvested, hanging, and curing in readiness for cleaning and dispersal. This year, the bulbs are overall smaller (due to spring’s monsoon rains followed by summer’s prolonged 90-degree heat?) than in previous years – the flavor seems more intense and concentrated – we’ll have to monitor our food seasoning efforts.

Potatoes are next out of the ground – we have some BIG spuds out there (based on a sneak peek), and maybe we have the potato scab problem licked for this year – no fertilizer was applied to the 2017 potato patch last autumn. 

Broccoli is being harvested and eaten, while the cabbage is still at the large softball (bocci-ball size?) stage. 

Red raspberries and strawberries are being massaged into vanilla smoothies, and the apples and pears are still golf ball diameter – regular watering now is most important!

It goes almost without saying that the zucchini and squash (chicken food, at its best!) plants and vines seem to squeal all hot summer night long as they grow veggies long and wide – our neighbors no longer welcome our grocery-bag-toting visits.

Out in the garden, be sure to keep your compost bins and piles moist – our goal is damp and hot, not dry and hot!

Remember that some veggie plants (cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers) will produce more of the same only after you harvest the ripe versions – if you leave the ripe veggies to wither on the plants, you have created an expensive ornamental-only garden.

Your potato patch needs to be checked for exposed potatoes – cover or hill up with dirt any uncovered spuds.

As your expended plants shrivel in the sun, pull the plants, re-fertilize as necessary, and replant with short season varieties that might (?!) make it to maturity before the looming cold season is upon us: peas, spinach, broccoli, kale, chard, kohlrabi, lettuce, and radishes – look for short season (sixty days or so) varieties.

If you have melons sitting on the soil, place something waterproof (board, brick, dog-chewed Frisbee) underneath to prevent rot or wireworm damage, and those berry canes (raspberries, blackberries, etc.) that produced fruit this summer can be cut away, leaving nutrition and space for new canes.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On the 6^th of August, those greens-growing groupies, the W.S.U./Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer their annual garden tour, with day-long tours of demonstration gardens and private gardens displaying veggie gardens, hosta and perennial gardens, water features, and garden art (I recently placed some garden “art” in our veggie plot: the decorative sign reads “If thou art here, pull up a weed!”). Tickets for the tour, which starts at 1 p.m. at the W.S.U. Extension Office at 227 South Garden Avenue, Newport, are $12, and you can call to register at 509-447-2401.

On the 8^th of August, our local garden club will tour an educational display garden in Newport, which demonstrates a compost and biochar facility, raised bed and container small fruit and veggies, square-foot garden, pollinator garden, straw-bale garden, lasagna layering and hugelkultur beds, and much more!  We will depart from Camden Grange at 7 p.m.(sharp!), and, as always, the public is invited. Check back here at the blog for additional details.

That’s it for this month – stay cool and in the shade whenever possible – and take your salt tablets – those midnight leg cramps will be a thing of the past!