June garden club garden tour warning

We will be touring our first garden of the 2019 gardening season on Tuesday, June 11.  We will assemble at Camden grange, and depart at 7 p.m. for a short 10-minute drive.  Lisa and Ed Montague have a large family garden, which they are converting to a you-pick and farmers' market operation for their retirement years.  Two large hoop houses, large garden, salad mix crops, chickens with roll out egg collection drawers, and much more.  Lisa and Ed have a well with a 2 gallon per minute capacity, so they have been researching and installing water saving gardening devices – a lot to learn at this garden tour.

See you there,

Jim

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Heavy rain today, with the promise of sunshine for the next week – sounds like the weeds and grass will be happy.  Here at Rancho McGinty, the recent cooler temperatures mean that the veggie seeds I planted two weeks ago probably rotted in the ground – veggies like soil temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and our soil thermometer currently reads a chilly 41 degrees – I’ll replant those seeds during our upcoming “heat wave.”  Looking good, so far though, are the red cabbage and green cabbage plants, the potatoes, the onions (more on this later), the chard and kale plants, and the garlic and asparagus – all cool weather crops.  

This year, I’m using black plastic polyfilm in which to grow most of our onions.  The strip is 24 inches wide, with 3-4 inch-diameter holes burned into the plastic, down the length of the garden.  Under the black plastic is a drip irrigation weep hose, and yes, I did remember to move the poly film strip off of the weep hose, BEFORE I burned the holes with our propane flame weeder – that was the fun part of the project.  I planted most of the 200-plus onion sets into the holes, one set per hole, and between the added soil heat resulting from the black surface, and the lack of competing weeds, the onions are far and away taller and greener than their cousins which were planted in the open garden, with a grass clippings mulch around them.  Stay tuned for additional onion updates.

In the orchard, our apple, pear, and cherry trees were covered in flowers this spring – if we can avoid a late frost, and if I can remember to adequately water the trees this summer, we should have a bumper crop of delicious fruit.  This is a good time to prune out all those unnecessary water sprouts or suckers in the trees, and I’ll watch for fruit to appear – I’ll want to thin the nickel-sized diameter babies to 6 inches or so apart (I don’t want the fruits banging into each other – bruises equal rotten spots).  

Starting next week, (when it’s probably safe from a late frost?), we should be able to transplant all those leggy warm weather veggie starts:  peppers, egg plant, tomatoes, pumpkins, and the livestock fodder squash.  I’m thinking I will also plant seeds for the hot weather crops as well:  sweet corn, dry beans and green beans, and cucumbers.  I plan to protect all those tender, touchy plants under agricultural row cover (Ree-May ®, or Agribon ®, available at Spokane’s Northwest Seed and Pet), just in case the we get nipped.

Speaking of tender, touchy things, please remember that our favorite flora fans, the Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County, offer a gardener’s answer clinic for garden-related questions on plant and insect identification, soil improvements and composting, and much more.  You can visit the clinic site at the WSU Extension Office (227-A South Garden Avenue, Newport) on Thursdays, from 4:30-6 p.m., or you can e-mail questions (and photos!) to pomastergardeners@outlook.com, or if you insist on old-school contacts, you can call them (on the telephone- gasp!) at 509-447-2401.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On the 11^th of June, our local gardening club will begin our summer tour season with a visit to a neighboring family garden, which is in the process of conversion to a small commercial garden (long-term retirement income thinking).  Lots to see here with home-built greenhouses, salad crops growing through black polyfilm mulch, and much more (“mulch” more?).  You can obtain more information on the tour by accessing our club’s website here, or by checking our Facebook group page.

On the 20^th of June, our sister organization, the Backyard Beekeepers, will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Deer Park Senior Center, for an evening of bee information and bee training.  If you want to raise bees in our non-jungle area of the world, you will want to talk with these folks before spending any of your precious time or money.

Outside, I can hear the quack grass and dandelion plants taking over my hard-won spaces in the garden, lawn, and orchard – they, however, can hear me attaching a new one pound propane tank to my flame weeder – vengeance is MINE!

Garden club meeting warning notice

We will be gathering at Camden Grange at 7 p.m., Tuesday (the 14th of May) for this month's meeting –next month I hope we can tour a prospective garden Pat and I recently located (yes, we troll and stalk potential garden tour sites wherever we go) in the Elk area. 

 

Tomorrow evening we will talk about what we want to grow this season, and discuss the possibilities of our "new normal" weather, allowing more or less diversity in our plantings (cacti vs rutabagas).  We will also have a short but brilliantly informative class on backyard composting, and we will snack and drink ourselves into a tizzy, and loudly comment on the absence of certain club members - don't be those club members!

Please remember to bring along some snacking materials, and any excess gardening seeds, plants, or related stuff - burlap sacks of fresh manure will not be allowed in the grange - jus' sayin.'

See you there,

Jim

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Spring is in the air:  warm, gentle breezes, an occasional rain drop, and  bright sunshine – weeds, greening lawns, robins, daffodils – it’s all good, especially after our recent mini-ice age.

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic stalks are 9 inches tall and bright green, the asparagus shoots are poking through their mulch covering, and the fruit tree buds are popping open with the promise of apples, pears, and cherries in the not-too-distant future.

Now that the garden areas and raised beds have received their spring addition of aged chicken poo and barnyard waste (an aromatic mixture of hay, straw, and manure and urine from our goat and sheep pets), seeding the garden with cool weather crops has officially begun.

So far we have dropped in seeds for radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, and giant sugar beets (“Mangelwurzels”, for our livestock).

Mid-May, we’ll plant seeds for the peas and beans, and probably (?) transplant at least SOME of the remaining cool weather crops:  kale, chard, cabbage, and broccoli – we’ll see how the outdoor temperatures ramp up, and we always plant in waves of transplants (“succession” planting), so that if we have a snap frost, we have immediate replacements ready to leap into the garden.

Planting potatoes and onions will be on the calendar somewhere around mid-May as well.  We plan on using a new-to-us potato planting method:  dig a shallow trench into the garden soil, set the seed potatoes (whole chicken-egg-sized seed potatoes or cut potatoe chunks with at least one “eye” showing) into the trench about 12 inches apart, such that the eye is above soil level, and backfill with dirt.  Cover the potato patch with 10 inches or so of straw (not seed-filled hay), add an inch or so of water once per week (keeping the mulch and potatoes moist is important), and stand back!  

We’ll keep you posted on how this turns out – hopefully better than my experiment last summer with the “Alaska Sweet Corn” ploy – sigh.

GARDEN CALENDAR

On Thursday, May 9, those greenery gratifiers, the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners, will offer a class on growing berries and small fruit in the home garden.  Blackberry milkshakes, breakfast cereal with blueberries, strawberries and cream are all possible in our area of the gardening world – learn from the experts, and I’ll be there as well.  Class runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Extension Office (227 S. Garden Ave., Newport), and you can call for a seat reservation at 509-447-2401.

On Saturday, May 11, those same plant promulgators, the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners, will offer a class on drip irrigation from 10 a.m. to noon, at the same Extension Office.  Drip irrigation will save you money and time, providing you learn how to correctly set up your own personalized system, so be sure to call the office again at 509-447-2401 for your reserved seat.

Also on Saturday, May 11, the annual Garden Expo will be held on the campus of Spokane Community College (1810 N. Greene St., Spokane) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Admission and parking are both free, with lots of garden-related stuff to do, experience, and buy:  demonstrations, seminars, 250+ vendors, food trucks, garden art, door prizes, and a lot more.  Be sure to bring a wagon or cart to haul your loot, and some cash – and remember to wear sensible shoes.

On Tuesday, May 14, our local garden club will meet in Camden Grange at 7 p.m. for an evening of fun and mental illumination.  We’ll have a class on backyard composting, start rumors about you if you are not in attendance, eat great snacks, and generally misbehave (but in a good way!).  You can always obtain more information on our club’s doings by checking our Facebook group (Elk-Camden garden keepers), or check our blog, here.

That’s it for this month – time to go out into the garden, and I don’t even have to wear snowshoes!

April meeting rocks Camden

Our garden club's April meeting was a huge success: 32 members attended, including three new members, for an evening of fun and information.  Pend Oreille County Master Gardener Marge Helgeson held forth on the subject of container gardens, complete with a container potted on the spot, lots of brochures and information sheets, and Marge's unique sense of humor (which completely matches our club's sense of humor!).  We also watched a hands-on fruit tree pruning demonstration, and gossiped about everyone not present that evening, and we ate most-excellent snacks provided by thoughtful club members.

Be sure to mark your social engagement calendar for our next meeting on Tuesday, May 14, at 7 p.m. in Camden Grange.

See you there!

jim

Tomato plants at Tuesday's meeting

Hello again garden keepers,

 It has just come to my attention that former club president Barbara Midtbo will be bringing a variety of tomato starts to our meeting on Tuesday.  They are priced at $3 each or $2.50 each if you buy four or more.  She has reds, yellows, and oranges as well as small, medium, and large fruit.   As always, Barbara is donating the proceeds to the Garden Club so bring cash or check and get those healthy tomato starts for this years "best ever" garden.

See you Tuesday at the Camden Grange.  Doors open at 6:30 pm.  Donations of snacks are always welcome.  Coffee, tea, and cocoa provided by the club.

Jim

Garden club meeting warning notice!

We will be meeting at Camden grange this coming Tuesday, the 9th of April, at 7 p.m.  Marge Helgeson will talking to us on container gardening, and we will have a short (but informative!) class on fruit tree pruning.  Members are asked to bring their favorite snacks to share, and the club will provide the usual seasonally-appropriate (meaning hot!) beverages.  I don't expect a lot of snow and ice to block access to the grange, this month, but we never know!

See you there, 

Jim