Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Weather-whining is something we are all good at, and especially us home gardeners:  we seem to be very hard to please.  It’s either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, too much molten lava or too...wait, that last part may be asking for trouble - but you understand what I’m saying.

Just lately, the weather has been “challenging” with very little rain, and cool overnight temperatures, even dipping into the upper 20s Fahrenheit.

Here at Rancho McGinty, we saw a thin skim of ice on Buster the Wonderdog’s water bowl four nights in a row at the end of May.  Our tomato and pepper plants are protesting their lengthy indoor incarceration, while the sweet potatoe slips are turning into slimy sludge (more on the sweet potatoes later).  Long-time wife Pat and I are going to push our luck in early June, and plant (at least) the indeterminate tomatoes:  typically, the indeterminate, climbing types are a little (barely!) more frost-tolerant than their determinate, bushy cousins.  

I am trying a new sweet potato this year, “Beauregard” by name, and allegedly kind of a short season (100 days is “short” ??!!) variety.  I have the sweet potato raised bed ready, and I’m holding off planting the aforementioned stinky slips until actual warmish weather.  That would be in August, so I’m going to push my luck (there is that phrase again), and plant them in early June.  The sweet potato bed is unusual, in that it employs an eight inch mounded “ridge”, covered in black plastic down the length of a skinny box.  The black plastic helps heat up the soil in our cooler climate, and encourages the “jungle-like” growth of the infamous, human-eating vines.  I will cut slits in the plastic, right along the ridge, and plant the nasty-looking slips, provide the slips with a drink of manure tea, and await developments.  Stay tuned.

Out in the garden, the cool-weather crops handled our recent frosts without a qualm:  potatoes, leeks, onions, cabbage, and kale just sneered at the +27 degrees F. temperature.

In the fruit tree orchard, Pat and I actually wrapped the smaller trees and their tender blossoms with floating row cover, as a test to see if we can save the flowers from a frosty death.  Last year, we suffered a late May frost, and we harvested one (1!) apple from over a dozen trees in the South Orchard.  Sad, and discouraged, were we.

Speaking of orchards, now is a great time to prune out those unnecessary, life energy-sucking “water sprouts” from your fruit trees, and if you have actual baby fruit hanging from the branches (lucky you!), be sure to thin the fruit to at least six inches apart to keep them from bumping into each other, as they approach maturity – bruised fruit will not store well.

Out in the garden, now is the time to push your luck and plant corn, lettuce, beans, egg plant (why!!??), squash (ditto!), and radishes – it’s always time to plant radishes – we LOVE “German Giant” radishes.  

If your potato plants are six inches tall (or taller), it’s time to hill up dirt around the plant, leaving just a few leaves showing – the plant will grow taller, very quickly, and the hill will encourage more spuds.  

During this time of few if any nose-to-nose gardening classes and events, please remember to check out our local garden club doings, by looking online at our club’s blogsite here, and/or at our club’s Facebook page, using the same name.

And as always, it’s time to turn over the compost in the bins, and make some more – your neighbors have all the free materials (herbicide-free, of course) you need:  tree and bush leaves, lawn clippings, seed-free straw, and livestock poo.  Just be sure to ask permission, as I don’t want to read about your arrest for the act of “liberating” compost makings.