2020: Underwater gardening

In the year 1815, an Indonesian supervolcano named Tambora blew itself up into the earth's jetstream, causing worldwide crop failures for many years.  In 1816, the world-circling ash cloud caused Northeastern America to suffer "the year without summer", with colder, wetter weather, and a significant lack of summer heat and sunshine.  Many rural families were reduced to eating rodents, pernicious weeds, and there were unsubstantiated rumors of cannibalism.  In our garden this spring of 2020, here at Rancho McGinty, we have seen some day time temperatures into the low 70 degree Fahrenheit range, with a few days of sunshine, and though I would never compare our wussy weather to "the year without summer", I've gotta say that this is a garden season for the record book.

Thankfully, Pat and I planted a bunch of cool weather crops (cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, etc.) in early April, and those plants look pretty good (see pictures below) - that said, our warm weather crops (grinding corn, squash, pumpkins, etc.) have yet to show their eager green faces through the dirt.  We may have to plant new seeds, or forego some or all of our favorite locally-grown foods, if the weather does not warm up in time for the plants to mature before the appearance of the evil first frost (which appeared with a BANG last year at the end of September!).

I planted onions and leek starts through black weed fabric, with drip irrigation beneath, and that combination is a winner, at least for now.  The second year seed onions I planted (salvaged from last year's bountiful harvest) have already produced seed pods (hopefully, every gardener, both the new and the experienced gardeners, learned this spring that veggie seeds are not always available).

Our annual garlic crop looks fantastic, with spears about thirty inches tall, and just starting to form "pigtails" (garlic plants produce delicious seed pods called "scapes").

My Korean sweet potatoe experiment is still on hold:  though planted a month ago, we have only recently noted a few reddish-brown leaves where there should be neighborhood-sized leaf invasions by now.  I plan to cover the dirt around the individual plants with black polyfilm in an attempt to boost the soil's heat.  Stay tuned.

Pat transplanted some cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts into raised beds, and through black weed fabric in the main garden, and they seem to be in good shape - additionally, she covered the plants with hooped (is that a word?) floating row cover, to increase the soil temperature.

Finally, Pat planted some seed potatoes into green "grow bags", as an experiment, to determine if a small scale spud crop is possible. 

By August, we all may be whining at high volume about the Summer heat and drought, but for now, I make sure to examine the areas between my toes for webbing, every time I shower off the mud.

So far, our local garden club may not legally meet, though the rules may relax sometime soon, and we can perhaps gather for an outdoor garden tour or two.  Meanwhile, I plan to buy better rain gear, mow the jungle/lawn between rain showers, and expand our recipe binder with meals involving potatoes.

See you on the dry side, Jim.

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Thus far, the 2020 gardening season has been wet and cool – torrential rain at times, an irritating drizzle an hour later, and daytime temperatures not exceeding 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Perfect (!) weather for growing cool weather crops:  potatoes, onions, leeks, beets, cabbage, etc.  Let’s not just dismiss this “yukky” weather, and decide to wait for “real” Summer temperatures – we can successfully grow food now, while awaiting tomato and pepper planting time.  

Speaking of which, mid-June looks pretty good for finally setting those precious warm weather crops outside into the dirt:  beans, tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn and grinding corn, ornamental pumpkins and livestock-grade squash, tubular Styrofoam ® (I mean eggplant), and cucumbers.

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic stalks are 20 inches tall, and dark green – a result of an earlier application of chicken house litter and poo dust, I believe.  Potato plants are continuing to pop up (thanks to Joe S. for planting help), and I continue to hill dirt and compost over most of each plant as they reach for sunlight, in an effort to increase the spud yield.  Our onion and leek spears are about 10 inches tall, while the broccoli and cabbage plants look healthy and happy – and did I mention the asparagus spears – an early Spring application of organic “Vegetables Alive!” supplemental fertilizer (available from “Gardens Alive”, 513-354-1482, or on-line at Gardensalive.com) caused these two and three year old crowns to LAUNCH three feet long shoots into the air.  Next Spring, we harvest and EAT!

If your berry bushes and vines are leafing and flowering now, be sure to keep an appropriately-sized piece of floating row cover (Northwest Seed and Pet carries both Ree-May and Agribon brands) nearby, to throw over the fragile flowers, just in case we benefit (?) from a late frost – the row cover will protect your precious flowers down to plus 26 degrees or so.

Out in the orchard, the fruit trees are full of new leaves and fragrant flowers – we want to leave the trees alone now, to allow them time to decide what our harvest will look like.  By the end of June or early July, the flowers will have turned into baby fruit, and that will be a great time to thin the numbers of nickel- to golfball-sized immature fruit hanging from each branch:  6 to 12 inches between each fruit will help preclude them from banging into each other in the wind, and causing early fruit rot.

With all the recent (and well-appreciated, I’m sure!) rain, be sure to empty all those miscellaneous water catchers around the homestead, before the mosquitoes start breeding - we might yet have a mighty harvest of the droning bloodsuckers – a suboptimal consequence, in my opinion.

During this health-related opportunity to stay home, many families have decided to grow a first time garden (especially after seeing supermarket tomatoes with a five dollar per pound price!).  I recently visited with a local-to-me family to see how they were doing out in their new garden:  parents Brian and Carrie have an older, but reliable polyfilm greenhouse full of healthy plant starts, courtesy of hardworking Carrie and her sister Donna.  Brian is just finishing his solid-looking garden fence (pressure-treated four by fours extending nine feet above ground, and heavy-gauge black plastic deer netting), knowing as he does from his parent’s garden, that protection from the white-tailed marauders is paramount. 

The next step for the family (including youthful, if occasionally unfocussed helpers Jon, Malachi, Isaac, Kaleb, and Christian) is planting their food crops:  cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, some Spring garlic, and new asparagus crowns.  Later, the family will plant some warmer weather crops:  pepper, squash (sigh), beans, cucumbers, and sweet corn.

Then comes watering, weeding, fertilizer side-dressing, and finally harvest – it is satisfying work – a lot like raising a family.

GARDENING CALENDAR

Once again, I know of no nose-to-nose gardening events or classes this month, though the Newport Farmers’ Market (236 South Union Street) is now open on Saturdays, from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M., so you can go there for friendly farmer confrontations, produce, crafts, and plant starts.

On the internet, youtube continues to provide gardening education, though one must sort out the advice, coming as it does from both backyard gardeners and commercial gardeners with a platoon of unpaid interns.

You can also access our local garden club’s infallible information, pithy pictures, and scandalous scuttlebutt via our club blog here or our Elk-Camden Garden Club Facebook page. 

I see a break in the rain, and I’d better rush outside to – oh wait, it’s dripping again.  Shucks.

TOMATO PLANTING SEASON ARRIVES (probably)

On the second of May 2020, our garden club offered drive-up, pick-up services in the Camden Grange parking lot for the many club members who pre-ordered their tomato plant starts from the nonpareil plant provider, Barbara Midtbo.  Barbara grows and sells (with proceeds benefiting our garden club!) tomato plants that have thick, hardy tree trunks, and dark green foliage - I have had many reports over the years, of unsuspecting tomatoe plant buyers, who have mistakenly planted Barbara's big, green guys, and who failed to get out of the way fast enough to avoid leafy whip burn from tomato plants forcing their way up into the sky!

Thanks to the garden club members who helped pass along a LOT of tomatoe plants, free seed potatoe starts (Red Lasoda, German Butterball, and Red Gold varieties), and some second year seed onion plants:  Pat McGinty (the Official Club Photographer), Barbara Midtbo herownself, Jim Hoffman, Jane Bolz (the club's Official Secretary and Treasurer), and Joe Schofield (our club's Official Newest Member).

During the Great Tomato Pick Up experience, many club members asked "when, oh when will we meet again??!!".  Hopefully we can squeeze in a 2020 garden tour before our October Harvest Dinner ends the club meeting season.  We'll see.

jim.

Tomato leftovers

Shoot on over to our FaceBook page for barbara midtbo's list of leftover, under-loved tomato plants in need of "re-homing" to your garden:

please take a look, and if you want to "adopt" a plant or ten, please directly contact barbara at the e-mail address on the right side of the inventory sheet.

you can request tomatoe plants until 01 may 2020, when barbara will be fully exhausted from filling all those orders.

see you this saturday at camden grange, jim.

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

I trust your 2020 garden plans and activities are racing right along, as we leave the starting blocks on our sprint to ripe produce, before the checkered flag (I know – I mixed metaphors) of the first killing frost shuts us down.

If we want edible veggies, and veggies for preserving, now is the time to plant out those crops that can handle a light frost:  Brussels sprouts, broccoli, turnips, leeks, peas, cauliflower, potatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, kale, chard, spinach, and cabbage. 

By the end of May, we should be able to push our gardening luck and plant out the whiny, less-hardy crops:  tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash (even the nasty-tasting, ornamental-only, livestock-grade stuff, which describes ALL of it!), beans, corn, pumpkins, basil, and cucumbers.  Here at Rancho McGinty, we have pre-cut pieces of floating row cover (“Ree-May” or “Agribon” brands, locally sold by “Northwest Seed and Pet”, or readily available through the internet) ready to plop over the plants, at the first hint of an over-night sneak frost.  Floating row cover is pretty amazing stuff:  it protects most plants down to +26 degrees F., and used as a crop cover, it protects our dainty plants from pest infestation (think no aphids in your Brussels sprouts!), while it allows sunlight, water, and air to infiltrate.  Good stuff, but it needs to be removed during wind/insect/human-intervention paintbrush pollination time – we just pull it back in the morning to allow the bees to do their flower thing, then replace it in the early afternoon.

If your garlic spears have popped up, now is the time to carefully pull back the over-Winter mulch, and lightly fertilize between the rows with your choice of aged poultry poo, or a 5-5-5 chemical fertilizer.  Once the fertilizer has been watered into the rows, you can carefully replace the mulch around the garlic spears to reduce the weed population.

In the strawberry bed, now is NOT the time to fertilize the plants, unless your goal is lots of pretty, green leaves – if you want delicious strawberries, wait until the plants produce blossoms, then fertilize.

In the fruit tree orchard, now is the time to stop pruning, and let the trees blossom forth – be sure to take time to sniff the flowers – my favorite aromas are from the choke cherry, apple, and pear blossoms.

If you were late to the gate (returning to the race metaphor – stay with me!) with spraying the fruit trees with dormant oil, you will want to wait until early Winter or next Spring – any smothering oil sprayed on the trees now will impact (negatively) your fruit harvest.

GARDENING CALENDAR

To the best of my knowledge, no public face-to-face gardening events are taking place for a while, though for those with an internet connection, this is a great time to check out the Master Gardener “Short Course” modules produced by the states of Oregon and Idaho, and offered for free during this break in normal life – just use your favorite browser to search for topic, and enjoy on-line, virtual gardening, without the weeding!

Our local gardening club also has an on-line presence, and you can check us out at our website (www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com), or look up our Facebook page (Elk-Camden Garden Keepers).

That’s it for now – I see asparagus spears popping up in their raised bed, and the over-Wintered kale needs some pruning – don’t let all those Spring gardening chores “run” you down 😀.

The Great Tomato Pickup

our garden club's first annual Great Tomatoe Pick Up day will be on Saturday, 02 May 2020, at the Camden Grange parking lot, from 2-4 P.M.

Due to various health agency recommendations, we will be observing the following rules:

Enter on the NORTH end of the parking lot - there will be a friendly sign.

Bring your own container/tray/box to haul your precious plants home.

Stay in your car, maintain social distance of 6 feet, and don't breathe on each other.

Club distribution crew members will exchange your tomatoes for cash (exact change would be appreciated), via your vehicle window from tables on the WEST side of the grange building.

Exit on the SOUTH end of the parking lot.

If you missed the first opportunity and you want to order tomatoe plants from Barbara Midtbo for pick up on 02 May 2020, please contact her directly at: bamidtbo@gmail.com, by 01 May 2020.

Barbara's tomatoe plants are amazing:  big, beautiful, green, and with thick TRUNKS, not just stems.  Price for the plants:  $3 per plant, $5 for 2 plants, mix and match.

Masks and gloves required for distribution crew members.

Also, we will pass along club membership cards if your 2020 dues have been paid ($5 per person, $10 per family living under the same roof).  If your 2020 dues have NOT been paid, you can exchange your cash from your car window for a membership card - club secretary Jane Bolz will be at a separate table, for this opportunity.

We will also share cans/bottles of concrete sealer (donated by club member Pam Denton) for your home made concrete leaf project - bring your own quart size container and lid.  One quart container per family or individual if club membership is current.  This opportunity is first come, first serve.

This notice will appear on our club blog (www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com), and on our club's Facebook page (Elk-Camden Garden Keepers), thanks to blogmeister Su Chism, and Facebook administrator Geoff Carson.

Hope to see 😉 you there - jim.