Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Once our ice pockets melt, and our dirt dries, we MAY be able to get out into our gardens and access what last winter did to us.  Here at Rancho McGinty, our garden dirt is still kinda treacherous underfoot, but there are some semi-solid spots, which offer hope for the coming gardening season.

Now is a great time to finally decide on what to grow, and how much of it – I hope you will order or buy your seeds and plant starts soon – the commercial seed companies are already reporting some shortages, and the prices on commercially-produced fertilizer have recently spiked upwards (can prices “spike” downwards?).

When you plan your 2022 garden, please remember to grow a couple of extra pumpkin plants for October’s Elk Park Fall Festival – the park committee hopes to have enough pumpkin donations to send home a Halloween inedible squash with each attending child.

If the soil in your raised beds has sufficiently warmed, and if you can protect the contents of the beds with floating row cover (”Ree-may” or “Agri-bon” are the two brands we use – Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane usually carries one or the other), you can semi-safely plant some starts and/or seeds of the cool weather crops:  cabbage, kale, lettuce, spinach, beets, turnips, carrots, etc.  No guarantees here, but the baby plants may be okay with a few “minor” overnight frosts – and the “heavy” grade of floating row cover will allegedly save the plants down to 26 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you can safely walk into the orchard, now is a great time to prune your fruit trees – once the buds swell, you will want to wait a month or so for additional trimming and training.

If you have not applied dormant spray or horticultural oil to your fruit trees, now is the time, before the leaf buds open:  the spray will control/suffocate an assortment of evil-doers like aphids, mealy bugs, scale insects, whiteflies, etc.

If you have woodstove ashes saved for the purpose, now is a great time to spread a line of them around the trees at the “drip line”(the outer circumference of the branches or canopy).  Fruit trees LOVE wood ashes (it’s the potassium!), and will appropriately reward you with more and better fruit.

Out in the berry patch, now is a super time to prune out last year’s brown or yellow canes (the ones that produced last year’s fruit) – just be sure to leave the green or purple canes, as they will produce this year’s luscious harvest (and yes, berry plants LOVE woodstove ashes as well).

And this is NOT the time to fertilize the strawberry plants:  wait until blossoms appear, and even then, apply the fertilizer with a light hand.

GARDENING CALENDAR:

On 09 April, I will be teaching another beginning gardening class at Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, 99009), from 1-3 P.M.  We’ll talk about what you need to establish and maintain a great veggie garden.  Lots of tips and ideas, and a killer handout – all for $5 per person.  You can register for this class at the Grange’s website:  camdengrange.org

On 12 April, our local gardening club will meet in the aforementioned Camden Grange and Community Center at 7 P.M.  Lots of gardeners socializing and/or exaggerating their 2021 garden successes, some free stuff available from our club’s “freebie” table (seed packets, plant starts, magazines and seed catalogs, etc.), and club member and gardening virtuoso Carol Wood will offer a class on how to prepare our garden soil for a great 2022 veggie harvest.  I almost forgot to mention our traditional meeting snacks and drinks – see you there!

You can check out our club’s doings by looking here or at our Facebook page.

On 23 April, I will be teaching a class on garden composting, from 1-3 P.M., in the already mentioned Camden Grange and Community Center (what a popular place it must be, with all of you showing up for various events and classes!).

We will discuss the why, when, and how of easy composting for your home garden – remember that compost is a soil amendment, NOT a fertilizer, and that it is VERY important to use in your garden soil.  Did I mention that homemade compost is cheap and easy to make?

You can register for this $5 per person class at the Grange’s website: camdengrange.org

That’s it for this month – plan now, plant soon, and plead for a plethora of produce. 

Elk-Camden Garden Club first meeting of 2022

Our first meeting of the new gardening season was held on March 8 in Camden Grange and Community Center.

A LARGE crowd of seasoned and beginning gardeners showed up to socialize with friends, meet new club members, and learn all about garden-seed starting techniques from club members Marlene and Stephanie – we managed to make a mini-mess with their amazing “soil blocker” machine.  

We all grabbed up some free (!!) veggie and/or flower seed packets, courtesy of club member Norman (we are hoping he will return to the April meeting with more leftover seed packets), and we all thoroughly enjoyed a banquet of assorted snacks, biscotti and scones (courtesy of club member Russ) and not-enough chocolate delights.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 12 April, at 7 p.m. in the aforementioned Camden Grange and Community Center, 7 Camden Road, Elk.

 

Here are a few pictures of the meeting-in-progress, and a photocopy of the “soil blocker” instruction sheets, just in case you want to try/buy one yourself.

 

Garden club meeting warning

we will assemble at 7 P.M. in camden grange and community center (7 camden road, elk, wa 99009) for our first meeting of 2022, on tuesday, 08 march.  unless we have a monster heat wave (and subsequent monster flooding from all the snow and icecrete melt), we probably won't be gardening any time soon, BUT, we can plan, dream, and prevaricate about our best ever 2022 garden at our meeting.  we will socialize and reacquaint ourselves with other members also emerging from hibernation, and generally have fun.  club members marlene and pam will present a in-depth class on garden seed starting, and there will be freebie goodies on the club's give away table.

speaking of which, club members are asked to bring along any unwanted, viable seed packets or plants, and maybe a few of those unwanted, current, lying-through-their-teeth-with-all-those-beautiful-and-unlikely-veggie-photos-and-descriptions seed catalogs.  if you have unwanted, gardening-related books, or useful garden tools (is there a gardener who does not have too many tomatoe cages??!!), please bring them to the meeting to be re-homed.

club members are asked to bring some of their favorite snacks to share.

some folks have asked about local gardening classes:

march 13 - general for everyone gardening class by dawn trammel, 2 P.M., at the Diamond Lake Seventh-day Aventist Church (326002 Highway 2, Diamond Lake).  this class is free.

March 19 - fruit tree pruning class by yours truly, 1-3 P.M. at the aforementioned camden grange and community center.  Cost is $5, and you can register for this class at events_classes@camdengrange.org

see you at the meeting, jim.

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

 

Just looking out the window at all the snow and icecrete (yes, it’s a new word, and totally descriptive for what is underlying those 14 inches of crusty snow!), it’s hard to imagine that a few months from now, we will be seeing brown dirt and green growing things.

This is a good time to snuggle up to the heater with all your notes from last year’s garden (you DID write down what you learned from your 2021 gardening experience, right!?), and this year’s seed catalogs, and plan your best ever garden for 2022.

Think about what you want to grow and eat this year:  more specialty gardens (salsa, salad, grains, etc.), or maybe something new and unique (TONS of new tomatoes and peppers this year!), or maybe the old standards that you rely on for comfort food (potatoes, sweet corn, garlic).  

Think about what grew well last year, and what was worth harvesting, and eating:  mouth-watering vine-fresh tomatoes, crunchy sweet corn, baked potatoes with all the fixin’s (I always wanted to use that word in print, LOL).  

Think about what did not grow well in your micro-climate, or what produced lots of leaves (and promises), and produced only shattered dreams.  Maybe this is the year you learn to eat what will grow in your garden, and maybe this is the year you finally realize that your garden is NOT going to produce those big, 100-day beefsteak tomatoes, due to a shortness of sunny, warm days.  That’s okay – you’ll just have to grow some of those 70-day, medium-sized tomatoes, and slice them thin and stack them tall on your hamburger bun!

So, check out those gloriously-illustrated seed catalogs (with the understanding that those photos have all been “processed” to look good, and make you want to buy those seeds), and select something that will inspire you to look forward to fertilizing, planting, watering, weeding, and all those other garden tasks that will make your brief summer worthwhile.  Remember please, that seed shortages are already showing up in the aforementioned catalogs, so order early!

Even with snow on the ground, now is a great time to sprinkle woodstove ashes around the drip line of your fruit trees and berry bushes – those guys love (!) potash (potassium ash), and will reward you with more,  and higher quality fruit.

If you have not already bought or made the dormant spray for your orchard, now is a good time to investigate and purchase or make that insect/scale smothering goodness – though it’s still too early to spray.

This is also a good time to pull out the pruning tools, and de-rust, sharpen, and oil them ahead of use:  pruning and limb-training time is almost here, and besides, the manual labor involved in readying your equipment is good for your mind and hands.  

If you start your own plant starts from seeds, now is the time to bring inside and warm up the seed-starting soil, equipment, tools, and the seeds themselves, and get ready for the show!  Pretty quick, it will be time to start the Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflowers, and other spring cold-weather hardy plants.

I have seen desperate gardeners covering their raised beds with black plastic film, in hopes of an early, sunny start to the season, while other folks lay heat cables, normally used to combat roof ice buildup, onto the snow and ice. Desperate times, desperate measures, LOL.

 

GARDENING CALENDAR:

On the 8^th of March, our local gardening club will meet for the first time this year, from 7 P.M. to about 9 P.M., in Camden Grange and Community Center (7 Camden Road, Elk, WA  99009).

We’ll commiserate over the 2021 gardening adventure, and expand on our newly-gained horticultural knowledge (gains and losses from last year’s garden).  We will learn all about veggie seed starting in a short (30-45 minute) class conducted by our own Marlene, complete with handouts, and lots of time for questions and (hopefully!) answers.  

You can check out the club’s doings by looking at our blogsite (www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com, or at our Facebook page of the same name.

On the 26^th of March, I will be teaching a fruit tree pruning class at the aforementioned Camden Grange and Community Center, from 1-3 P.M.

We will talk about what you can do to encourage healthy tree growth, improved fruit production, and what to do about those pesky pests and dread diseases.  Cost for the class is $5, and a handout is provided, along with an opportunity to watch a sacrificial (but willing!) tree be pruned and trained in an appropriate manner.

That’s it for the month of March – stay warm, stay flexible, and enjoy your “time off from spring chores.”