Free plant pots

Hello all -

Even though the weather cannot make up its mind, I am sure many of you are still planning a garden this year. One the club members, Carolyn Hargrave, is no longer gardening at the level she once enjoyed, and therefore has quite a few pots of varying sizes (especially one gallon) she would like to donate to whomever is interested. All you have to do is call Carolyn at 509-863-3346 and make arrangements for pick up. Take as many or as few as you can use. She needs to clear them out quickly so don't wait to call (snooze and you lose). As with many of us, she may not answer when you call but leave a message and she will get back to you.

Jim

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Spring sprang, I think – at this point, the last few days of March 2018, there is no snow anywhere on Rancho McGinty – though we have not placed the snowshovels in storage!

Out in the open garden, the compost piles are coming back to life, with daytime steam emanating from the mixture of last year’s maple leaves and barnyard poo. Also, the garden soil is softening, and I am finding just how many garden projects I forgot, or failed to finish before last year’s first snowfall. If there is good news out there in the garden, it’s that I am finding some missing/never-noticed tools, and there is the (possibly misconstrued) concept that this year’s garden will be our best garden ever! I anticipate lush green growth, tons of delicious produce, few if any evil-doing diseases and insects, and loud acclamation from passing and envious motorists.  

Out in the orchard, this spring’s fuzzy buds are out on the fruit tree branches, signaling that pruning season is about to end: we don’t prune once those precious buds start to break open, and we wait to further prune until all the leaves are full sized. If you have not already sprayed your expensive fruit trees with dormant spray, you have a couple of weeks when the daytime temperatures will be in the 40s Fahrenheit. Dormant spray kills/suffocates a host of overwintering pests:  scale, leaf roller, coddling moth larvae, mealy bugs, and mites, all of which will compete with you for homegrown fruit.

If you are waiting to plant or transplant fruit bushes or trees, now is a perfect time – remember the old adage, “$25 tree, $200 hole” (actually, I just made up that old adage), so be sure to dig a hole three times the diameter of the root ball, plant the tree in a rodent-defeating wire basket if you have this issue, backfill with good soil mixed with compost, and soak the tree roots thoroughly to remove air pockets, and to hydrate those important root fibers.  

By mid-April, you may be able to rototill or dig into the garden soil some composted manure and/or organic matter (you DID remember to accumulate/beg for your neighbor’s black plastic trash bags of tree leaves last autumn?!).  

I anticipate continuing nightly frosts until the end of April and into early May, based on my years of painful (and expensive) plant replacements (sob!).

This IS a good time to divide that immense rhubarb plant by using a sharp shovel to slice out about a quarter of the root (you can replant the slice, or trade it to a neighbor), and fill in the empty space with some aged manure – your rhubarb plant will reward your effort!

Likewise, your asparagus crowns will appreciate a few shovel loads of manure – remember to call me at the time of harvest!

If you are waiting to start some veggie seeds indoors, now it the time to begin Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants (why?!), leeks, onions, tomatoes, and lettuce.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On April 10, our local garden club will meet in Camden Grange, located at 21 Elk-

Camden Road, Elk, at 7 p.m. to talk about our 2018 garden plans, learn how propagate new plants from existing plants or “liberated” plants (as my beloved gardening partner and wife Pat refers to abandoned or underused plants found on the wayside), and to confirm or deny rumors started when certain members “forgot” to attend the March meeting. Our meetings are always open to the public, and both new and experienced gardeners always learn something new at each meeting.  You can always check on our club doings by checking here at the blog.

On April 12, those gleeful gardening gurus the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer a class from 6:30-8:30 p.m., on developing healthy garden soil using both purchased and locally-developed amendments. You can register for the class, which costs $5 per person, by calling the WSU Extension Office at 509-447-2401. The class will be held in the Extension Office, which is located at 227 S. Garden Ave., Newport.

On the 21st of April, the Master Gardeners will be back with a class on raising healthy trees and shrubs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the CREATE center at 900 W. Fourth St., Newport.  The class will begin with indoor classroom work, then proceed outside for show-and-tell, and some simple pruning techniques, so dress for the weather.  The class costs $5 per person, and you can register for the class by calling that same 509-447-2401 phone number.

And on the 28^th of April, those busy botanical bargainers will hold their annual Master Gardener Plant Sale, from 9 a.m. to noon, in the Stratton Elementary gymnasium (1201 W. Fifth St., Newport). This is THE place to purchase your garden, flower, shrub and tree starts, and you will be able to ask gardening questions of people who actually know what they are talking about!

That’s it for this month – time to slowly tilt the recliner forward, and take a step towards the light.

Garden club meeting warning!

We will be assembling in Camden grange tonight, the 13th of march, at 7 p.m., for our first meeting of 2018.  We will have a short class on easy seed starting, a question and answer session, some rumor mongering about every member not present, and we will discuss what we want to change/improve in this year's garden.  If you have unwanted, current garden seed and equipment catalogs, please bring them along for our "I don't want to take it home with me" table.  also, if you have unwanted seeds or plant starts, you could bring them along as well.

Members are asked to bring snacks or treats, and the club will provide drinks as well.

Remember that this is a new year, and club dues are payable to our esteemed club treasurer, Jane Bolz:  memberships are still $5 per person, or $10 per family.

See you then, 

Jim.

Heirloom apple tree grafting opportunity

On the 24th of March, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Inland Northwest Food Network will offer an opportunity to obtain rare or heirloom apple tree starts. The "Scion Exchange" will be held at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, located at 15319 E. Eighth Ave., Spokane Valley. Scions, which are the young shoots or twigs of an apple tree, can be grafted to modern apple root stocks to produce those delectable apples no longer available in today's supermarkets. Scions will be available for sale, along with many types of root stocks, and appropriate grafting supplies. I will be offering a grafting workshop from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., which will be a hands-on experience on why, when, and how to graft scions to root stocks, using the "whip and tongue" grafting technique. The grafting class will cost $40, and students will receive two root stocks, scion wood, and the necessary supplies, as well as my personal attention :). Some of the rare or heirloom apple varieties available as scion wood include many names not seen in generations:  Fall Jeneting, Frazier's Prolific, Lubsk Queen, and dozens more. Class size is limited, and registration is required: you can call the food network at 208-546-9366 for more information, or to register for the class.  

Refreshments will be available on a donation basis, and proceeds will be used to maintain the heirloom fruit tree orchard of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection.  

Other organizers of the Scion Exchange include the Washington State University County Extension Service, and the Spokane Edible Tree Project.

See you there, 

Jim

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Looking out my window in late February, I see no signs of greenery, fresh growth, or spring:  I do see about 30 inches of crusty snow, patches of treacherous ice, and – wait, what’s that?!  Is that the sound of opportunity knocking, garden-planning-wise??  

YES, it’s time to think about what we want to plant, and hopefully, harvest this spring and summer – time to rough out the what goes where in our 2018 garden, what seeds to start indoors, and what new gardening technique to try, or new crop to grow.

Besides, you were just lolling around on the recliner, eating stale Christmas cookies, and looking for something (anything!) good to watch on your 500+ channels.

Instead, let’s engage our gardening brain and think ahead to warm July: tall or bushy, green, productive plants, and delicious edibles growing exactly as we planned back in late winter. 

Here at Rancho McGinty, we are planning to reduce the amount of some crops we grow (fewer potatoes, kohlrabi, and squash – the decision to grow less squash took NO time), and instead focus on a salad garden, a salsa garden, lots of garlic, and sweet corn. We have a long undistinguished history with sweet corn – our growing season is short, our patience is thin, and the whole process seemed a waste.

These days, there is exists a number of short season (70+ days or so) varieties of sweet corn:  “Kandy Korn” from Gurney’s (513-354-1492), “Painted Corn” from Baker Creek (417-924-8917), “Yukon Chief” from Denali Seed (if they can grow veggies and corn in Alaska, we can grow them here!  231-421-4496), and “Early Vee” from Territorial Seed (800-626-0866).  

My gardening partner and wife Pat and I plan to grow sweet corn as transplants in biodegradable pots (corn roots hate to be disturbed), and later as seeds, once the garden soil temperature reaches 60 degrees or more. Corn is a heavy feeder, so we plan to use LOTS of aged chicken poo (our birds may not produce many eggs at -6 degrees, but their manure output has not slackened off a bit!), rototilled into the open garden early in spring.  We’ll use drip irrigation, so at least an inch of water is placed where it will do the most good, right at the plant roots – overhead watering can produce plant disease, and it’s also a waste to spray expensive water into the summer hot air. We’ll put the transplants out there about 15 inches apart, after there is no danger of frost, and we’ll seed the corn patch in a “block” (more than three rows wide, about 3 feet apart) to encourage pollination. We may try planting and seeding through black plastic film: the black plastic not only helps raise the soil temperatures, it also reduces weed growth, as corn hates competition.

When the baby stalks are about 6 inches tall, we’ll side dress the plants with either blood meal or aged chicken poo, on a weekly basis, until the stalks are knee high. If we decide to use the black plastic mulch, we’ll apply a liquid, filtered, homemade tea version of the blood meal or poo using an inline injector on the drip irrigation system. All this effort to raise sweet corn – we’ll know by August just how successful (or not) we are.

March is a good time to spray your fruit trees with dormant oil, providing the daytime temps are above freezing, and now is the time to finish your late winter fruit tree pruning – remember, you’ll have fewer water sprouts if you prune before the warm weather returns (warm weather? Yes, please). Speaking of trees, remember to spread those woodstove ashes all around the drip lines of your trees – you’ll see more and higher quality fruit.

Now is also the time to remove all the berry canes that bore fruit last year – those canes are probably yellow or brown now, as differentiated from this year’s fruit bearing canes which will be green or purple.

If you are growing currants, this is a great time to lop off all those older (3-years-plus) trunks – you will appreciate the larger harvest, and fewer thorn punctures.

While there is still snow on the ground, you (and your bank account) will benefit from taking a seed inventory: after several years of reduced seed crop yields, seed packets are both more expensive, and filled with fewer seeds. Count what you already have, and order your seeds now – and don’t forget your gardening neighbors, as they may have seed to trade.

Finally, this is a good time to start some of those precious seeds so the transplants will be ready to go outside in a timely manner:  tomatoes, peppers, parsley, onions, chard, eggplant, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage will all benefit from a transplant headstart in the open garden.

GARDEN CALENDAR   

On March 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., our plucky plant platoon, the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners, will offer a class, “Growing the best vegetables, fruit, and flowers,” at the WSU Extension Office (227 S. Garden Ave., Newport). Lots of local information on how to improve your garden yield; and for the proud, competitive gardener, there will also be information on how to enter your beautiful produce into our local county fairs. You can call the office (509-447-2401) for more information, and to register for the class.

On the 13th of March at 7 p.m., our local gardening club will meet in Camden Grange for the first time in 2018: from our members, you can expect lots of weather whining, loud lies about last year’s harvest, and lots of defiant drivel on just how good this year’s garden will look and produce. Members are asked to bring along a favorite snack or non-adult beverage, and any unwanted plant seeds or cuttings for our trading table. We will have a class on seed starting for the beginner, and information on how to garden in our challenging environment, from local gardeners who actually know what they are doing. You can always check here at the blog for the latest information.

On March 15, our favorite Master Gardeners will offer another class this month, on gardening with kids. This class, which runs from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Extension Office, will NOT provide tips and tricks on how to keep those young garden slaves (I mean “youthful garden volunteers”) from checking their cellphones every two minutes, while meantime ignoring every instruction you emphasized five minutes ago!  I’m telling you, cattle prods are the answer to many (MANY!) of those…oops. So this class WILL offer may helpful hints on how to make your collective (adults and young helpers) gardening experience both positive and life-affirming. You can call the Extension Office for more information, and to register for the class. 

That’s it for this month.  Remember, all that snow and ice WILL eventually melt away, leaving mud. Just sayin’.

Garden club harvest dinner warning notice!

We will assemble at Camden Grange at 7 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 10) for our annual Harvest Dinner. Club members and visitors who hold coveted Garden Club Gnomes are asked to bring the little guys along, so they can hold their annual Conclave. I have listed below the menu offerings volunteered by our club members, and what they have promised to bring:

Carolyn - gelatin salad or garden salad

Diane - green salad and dressing

Jane - Mediterranean eggplant (!), and almond feta cheese

Marlene (the over-achiever!) - potatoes romanoff, and olive loaf

Dow and Rudi - spring rolls

Leon and Virginia - something veggie

Steve B. - chocolate chip cookies

Dixie - zucchini (!) squares

Sandy C. - cake

Mary Lee - cake

The garden club will provide ham and fried chicken, and drinks

Barbara M. will provide table settings, decorations, and door prizes - thank you Barbara!

Please be prepared to talk about your 2017 gardening season (what went right, what went the other way), and what you plan to do differently, gardening-wise, in 2018.

see you tonight,

Jim

509-292-0326

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Our little “frost pocket” garden was recently blessed by three nights of 29-degree-Fahrenheit temperatures, then by two-and-a-half inches of rain at 67 degrees for three days. Our gardening season ended on quite a traumatic note: though we covered the “sensitive” crops (tomatoes, peppers, ornamental squash, blackberries, etc.) with a frost blanket (Ree-May, in our case), most of those plants are now blackened and crisp. Still struggling, though, are the cold-hardy crops of broccoli, carrots, sugar beets, chard, collards, parsley, mint, and cabbage. 

In the orchard, the apple trees are loaded with a crop of late-ripening fruit, and the Italian prune-plum trees provide tasty snacks as we work – remember that plum trees like to be pruned for dead, diseased, or damaged branches right after harvest.

I’m rolling wheelbarrows of barnyard “litter” (Pat and I like to convert our limited income into food for the goats and sheep; they in turn convert our money into trampled hay and poo) into the garden, in preparation for the 2018 gardening season, and will top that layer off with a couple of pickup-truck loads of seasoned cow and horse poo, as well. Once that goodness has been rototilled into the soil, I’ll plant the garlic, clean up the spent plants and debris (if the pulled plants are disease-free, they’ll go into the compost bin, along with some of the aforementioned litter), and start working on firewood.  Whew!

If you are still harvesting veggies and fruit, and have extra produce, please remember our local food bank: the North County Food Pantry (509-292-2530, 40015 N. Collins Road, Elk) will gladly accept your donations.

Out in the garden, now is a great time to divide that over-crowded rhubarb plant: simply sharpen a shovel, stab it into the center of the plant, cut out a pie-shaped piece (about one fourth of the total plant), fill in the newly-opened cavity with topsoil or compost, wash the pie-shaped piece with garden water, and replant. More rhubarb next year, just in time for rhubarb-and-strawberry pie season.

Now is also a good time to prune out all of the brown raspberry canes (the ones that produced fruit this year), leaving only the green canes for next spring.

Recommendations from Rancho McGinty from our 2017 garden experience:

Cucumber: Burpless Cucumber (yes, that’s it’s actual name), planted in early September, and still producing.

Tomatoes:  Koralik, cherry-sized, very prolific; Silvery Fir Tree, salad-sized, a consistent heirloom winner; Candy Bell, grape-sized, tough skin, good flavor.

Peppers:  Sweet Pickle Pepper and Greek Pepperoncini, abundant harvests; Traveller jalapeno, mild flavor, moderate heat.

Radish:  German Giant, the longer they grow, the better they taste. Try planting with some aged chicken poo for increased flavor.

Squash (?!):  Small Wonder spaghetti squash, Reba acorn squash. The chickens and a smattering of deluded people eat them.

Brussels Sprouts: still trying to grow them, despite limited sprouts and unlimited aphids.

Cabbage: Conical Head, split heads, not recommended.

As you finish with your garden tools, remember to store them out of the winter weather. If you have the time and space, you could save your expensive shears, shovels, rakes, etc. from rusting by removing all the garden dirt and coating the steel parts with oil. Wooden handles can be saved from disintegrating (and splintering, OUCH!), by sanding the handles with 100-grit sandpaper, and coating the handles with your favorite wood preservative (boiled linseed oil, polyurethane, Watco oil, etc.).

While you are resting from your garden endeavors, you might take a look at the 2018 seed catalogs: ordering early is always a good idea, and the seed companies are currently offering substantial discounts.

GARDEN CALENDAR   

On the 7^th of October, those frolicking food and flower fructifiers, the Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County, will offer a hands-on Practical Pruning class in Newport, at the River Mountain Village Assisted Living Center (608 W. Second St., Newport). The class will discuss and demonstrate how to prune perennials, shrubs, and trees, as taught by Tim Kohlhauff, and runs from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Cost is $5, and it would be a good idea to dress appropriately for the weather and for outdoor work (bring your own gloves, pruning tools, and maybe a snack). You can register for the class by calling the W.S.U. Extension Office at 509-447-2401.

On the 10^th of October, our local garden club will hold its last meeting for the 2017 season, and also conduct our annual Harvest Dinner, starting at 7 p.m. in Camden Grange. We’ll meet one last time this year to discuss what worked in our gardens, and talk about what didn’t work quite so much, and also eat great food! Club members are asked to bring side dishes, desserts, or miscellaneous (biscuits, condiments, margarine, special beverages, etc.), enough for their families and two additional hungry gardeners. Our club will provide the protein (ham and chicken, if I’m unable to harvest something fairly fresh on the side of Highway 2), and non-alcoholic beverages. Club members are asked to call me (509-292-0326) so we can organize the menu (for one previous Harvest Dinner, our “disorganized” menu consisted of only desserts – a meal to remember!).

If you are the fortunate caretaker of a club garden gnome, you are asked to bring the little guy to the meeting, so they can conduct their annual Gnome Conclave. 

On the 14^th of October, the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer an entirely appropriate class on Preparing your Garden for  Winter, at the W.S.U. Extension Office (227 S. Garden Ave., Newport), from 10 a.m. to noon. The Master Gardeners will discuss and show how to put your garden to bed, with a tour of their rapidly-expanding demonstration garden. Topics include plant protection, pruning, mulching, and tool care; the class costs $5, and you can register by calling the Extension Office at 509-447-2401.

That’s it for this year – rest over the winter, and store up energy for next year’s Best Ever Garden. I’ll be back in March, 2018.

Visit our blog to stay current with club activities.