Weeding between the lines

WEEDING BETWEEN THE LINES

By Jim McGinty

End of the 2021 garden season, with a couple of “early” (?) frosts in mid-September for many areas of our local community.  Here at Rancho McGinty, I just barely managed to cover the “jungle crops” (cucumbers, and squash) with floating row cover before our low temperatures of +26 degrees Fahrenheit.  So far, the cucumber plants and fruit are still in good shape, and as one might expect, the poisonous squash plants survived to ruin the appetites of folks with functioning taste buds.

Lessons learned this year, out in the garden:  place pre-measured and cut floating row cover near the plants you want to protect (don’t wait until the night of the frost warning!), drip irrigation under black weed block (with pre-cut growing holes) is a GREAT combination for raising onions, leeks, and shallots, drip irrigation with a fertilizer irrigator (“fertigator” – ours is a “Chapin” #4701 inline injector) makes for amazing crops (especially those hungry feeders like corn, squash, pumpkins, and onions), vining crops love to grow up trellises (and that saves you valuable flat garden space), spring-loaded plant support clips (ours are “KingLake” brand) help control those uncontrollable blackberry vines and indeterminate tomatoe branches and stems, weedy gardens still produce a LOT of food, and the big take away for this weather-challenged garden season is (cue all the former and current Boy Scouts of America) Be Prepared for rain, snow, wind, drought, heat, and a lot of “anomalies” you may not have previously experienced in your garden.

In the garden, now is the time cut down all the spent plants, and toss them into the compost heap (except the disease/pest-covered plants – those are best safely burned or trashed).  Please remember to water the compost heaps, as the living occupants need moisture to make all that “brown gold” you want for next Spring.

Now is also a good time to amend the garden soil with manure, leaves, or compost – you will have to decide whether to rototill it all under before Winter, or let it sit on the surface and let the snow do the work for you until Spring.

This is also a good time to prune asparagus, raspberries, blackberries, thyme, and sage, and if you have vast fields (also called “drifts” by the flowering bulb aficionados) of bulbs, and want to thin the numbers, now is the time to dig up and gently work the bulb clusters apart with your fingers, and replant.  Don’t forget to plant your garlic!!

Finally, this is the time to review which plant varieties grew best in our newly-weird garden season weather.  We can recommend “Alaska”, “Sweet Israeli”, and “Optimus” tomatoes, “Dragon Shoyu” cucumbers, “Thelma Sanders” and “Table Queen” acorn squash, “White Globe” radishes, “Dwarf Blue Curly” kale, “Frog Island” purple fava beans, “King Richard” leeks, “Texas Giant” white onions, and any of the “candy” series of onions (red, and yellow).

GARDEN CALENDAR:

On the 12^th of October, our local garden club will hold its last 2021 meeting and annual Harvest Dinner at 7 P.M. in Camden Grange and Community Center.  This being a potluck dinner, club members and friends are encouraged to bring their favorite side dish (made from your garden ingredients!), bread/rolls, dessert, and drinks.  If you are a holder of a coveted Garden Club Tour Gnome, remember to bring him along, as they hold a parallel conclave while we dine and commiserate over this year’s gardening experience.  You can keep up with our club’s activities by checking our website (www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com), or by accessing our Facebook page.

On the 13^th of October, Camden Grange and Community Center will offer a class on dehydrating veggies and fruit, from 7 – 9 P.M.  Taught by Lauri Chamberlin, the class will offer instruction and tips on safely converting all those baskets of produce into delicious munchies and cooking ingredients that will last MUCH longer than they would in the back of your refrigerator.  Class cost is a paltry $5 per person, which includes a handout and the opportunity to ask questions of someone who actually knows what they are doing!

That’s it for now, and for this garden season – our 2022 gardens will be WAY better than this year’s garden!