Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Finally, harvest time in the garden! Tomatoes, peppers, second-crop broccoli, third-crop radishes, blackberries, strawberries, and much more. The trick now is to finish the season with more ripe veggies and fruit: you will have to decide (I know, decision-making can be tough, or maybe not, I don’t know…) whether to clip off those baby plant flowers, and focus on finishing the crop of existing tomatoes, etc., or to leave those flowers, and hope/pray for a long, hot autumn. Lots of small, green tomatoes, or fewer, but red, ripe tomatoes – hmmm.

Here at Rancho McGinty, the potato and onion plants are starting to keel over, so we’ll be harvesting a LOT of spuds and onions – just in time for late night breakfasts: fried potatoes, onions, and garlic, with an overeasy egg or two. Sounds mighty good.

Our monster squash trellis is easily 6 feet tall, and 14 feet wide and deep – much bigger than our Subaru station wagon! If you want construction details for your own squash trellis, you can see pictures of the PVC frame, drip irrigation, and layout information here on the blog – just look back at the entries from summer 2016.

Speaking of the chicken squash trellis, I’ve been trying a new (to me, anyway) technique to encourage more and bigger zucchinis, spaghetti and acorn squash, etc.: once a week I prune back the older, larger leaves, leaving open spaces for the sun and wind to enter the green, heaving mass. My theory is that more sunlight stimulation will produce more fruit, and better windflow through the tubular jungle will reduce humidity-borne diseases like powdery mildew. If I can see squash blossoms and daylight back in there, it might improve the harvest – we’ll see, and the chickens LOVE those spiky squash leaves and vines.

Out in the orchard, be sure to prune (no pun intended) your plum trees right after harvest:  remove all the dead, damaged, or diseased limbs, and be sure to remove all the plums – don’t leave any to fall to the ground and turn into winter housing for evil insects.

Continue to remove any water sprouts from your fruit trees – you’ll know the sprouts when you see them:  shiny, new bark, pencil thick or so, and shooting right up to the sun, through the middle of your tree.

Garlic planting time is nearly upon us – at the end of September, just ahead of the rains (I hope!). I like to amend my soon-to-be planted garlic patch in early September with composted/aged cow and horse poo, and barnyard straw and litter. Rototill all the good stuff under, wet it down, and later plant the cloves: 4-inch-deep furrows, about 18 inches between rows. I plant the cloves pointy end up, about 6 inches apart in the rows, cover the cloves with dirt, and compact the area above the rows with the tines of a bow rake, to ensure good soil contact. Wet the area, and cover with a 6-inch-thick layer of mulch (leaves, pine needles, tax returns, etc.).

It’s time to stay weather alert – we saw 40 degrees Fahrenheit one evening here at Rancho McGinty just recently – the evil “F” word (“frost”) should never be far from our planning:  sheets of frost blanket (Ree-may or Agribon available locally from Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane), flannel sheets, even light tarps can keep your precious crops safe-ish.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On the 12^th of September, our local garden club will meet in Camden Grange at 7 p.m., for an indoor meeting with our own club member, and favorite W.S.U. apple detective Dave Benscotter, for an update on his quest to find and identify heirloom and ancient apples in our area of the world. Dave offered a dynamite presentation last year on what he is doing in our local, older orchards, and answered a LOT of questions on apple trees in general – don’t miss this meeting, and if you have older, unidentified apple trees in your orchard, please bring some apple samples – if nothing else, we can help you dispose of those tasty questions .

On the 14^th, those green, gardening gurus, the Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County, will offer a class, Pollinators: Honey Bees and Natives, taught by my own honey bee herself, Pat McGinty, and Master Gardener Vicki Green. The class will discuss and illuminate methods of attracting and feeding these beneficial insects: the class will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., in the W.S.U. Extension Office (227 S. Garden Ave., Newport), and will cost $5 per person, and you can call the office at 509-447-2401 for further information or to register for the class.

On the 20^th, I will be teaching a class on planting my favorite bulb, garlic! We will learn how to select, plant, encourage, and harvest this delectable member of the rose family – the class will be in the Newport College Center (1204 W. Fifth St., Newport), and will run from 6-8 p.m.  Cost is $17 per person, and you can call to register for the class at 800-845-3324, or you can register on-line at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

On the 27^th, I will be teaching a class on backyard fruits and berries, with an emphasis on selecting, planting, maintaining, harvesting, and (my favorite part!), eating the good stuff.  The class will cost $17 per person, will run from 6-8 p.m., in the Newport College Center, and you can register for the class at either of the two above contacts.

Speaking of berries, our Doyle blackberries are ripe and ready to blenderize with vanilla ice cream – I have to go collect berries now, before I drool and need a new keyboard.