Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Hot, summer days already – we recorded 88 degrees Fahrenheit here at Rancho McGinty in late May, and the temperatures have not moderated much at all – a little rain would be nice.

Out in the garden, the corn stalks are about 2 feet high, and dark, dark green: I’m trying the Juneau, Alaska’s Extension Service’s method of growing sweet corn under challenging (short season) conditions. So I really loaded up the soil with over-wintered chicken manure, laid down drip irrigation, covered the whole mess with black polyfilm, and planted five week-old home-grown corn plugs (a 68-day variety from Gurney’s called “Quickie”) through the film. In about two weeks, I’ll add some fresh horse poo tea to the plants through a drip irrigation “fertigator” (a liquid fertilizer applicator that adds the filtered good stuff through the weep hose), and wait impatiently for fresh corn-on-the-cob.

Our garlic stalks are about 3 feet high, and starting to twist, so garlic seed pods, called “scapes,” are due any time – I like to clip the scapes off, so all the plant’s energy will develop bigger, better garlic bulbs – the scapes are excellent as pesto makings, or batter dipped and deep fried, or cut into salads.

Out in the garden, now is the time to plant seeds or transplant all those warm weather crops:  corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and squash (why?!), and pumpkins. Soon you will be thinning your rows of veggies, and those thinnings can be replanted, or used as tasty temptations for your livestock – be sure to water the plants left in the ground, as they will be feeling traumatized.

You will want to watch those rows of potato plants for exposed tubers – you can mound up dirt or heavy mulch (barnyard litter, leaves, etc.) around the plants to keep the sun from greening those precious potato skins.

If you have not already stopped cutting those delicious asparagus spears, now is the time to leave the plants alone until next spring – leave the remaining stalks to grow tall and produce fern-like leaves – it would be good to add some rotted manure or some compost around the asparagus crowns.  

Out in the orchard, now is the time to monitor those clusters of baby fruit, as we don’t want too many apple or pears banging into each other in the wind – you can thin the marble-sized fruit to about 6 inches apart. Bruised fruit equals rotted fruit.

Now is also a good time to prune out all those water sprouts from the centers of the trees – those shiny-barked new suckers will do nothing important for the your tree, and will only pull energy away from the process of growing food for you!

Speaking of food FROM you, remember to drain all the containers of standing water to discourage those pesky mosquitos – this is a good summer for the blood suckers, so let’s all fight back!

GARDENING CALENDAR

Last month, our local garden club was treated to guest speaker Chris Stevens, the garden coordinator from the North County Food Pantry.  Chris’ discussion of what is going on in their garden was so fun and informative that many club members asked if we can go back this spring to see the many changes and improvements.  So we are: on June 12, at 7 p.m., we will depart Camden Grange for a short drive to the Food Pantry (40015 N. Collins Road, Elk) for a tour of their updated drip irrigation system, new compost facility, changes in what goes where and when, and much more. Be sure to take pictures and/or notes of the many good ideas and methods employed by the Food Pantry garden crew – they grow a LOT of high quality food, using reduced water and electricity – and our garden budget can stand a little reduction. 

You can always find out what’s going on with our garden club by accessing (that sounds so official!) our club’s blog site right here.

On June 16, our garden club will have a booth in Elk Park during our community’s annual Elk Pioneer Days celebration, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. At our booth, you and the general public may purchase high-quality plants at more-than-fair prices, ask gardening questions, and closely interrogate club member volunteers on the REAL origins of our 20-year-old club. Our booth will be right alongside the booth sponsored by our sister club, the Backyard Beekeeper’s Association, which will offer cool information on the subject of bees, plant pollination, and unconfirmed theories on what is happening to our buzzing benevolent buddies.

That’s it for this month – time to pull weeds out of the ground (and feed them to the goats and sheep!), smother weeds with deep mulch, and then mutter anti-weed imprecations – the curses won’t help, but I’ll feel better, and that’s what it’s all about!