Garden club ads —March 15

couple of things since our recent club meeting:

club member steve peterson is looking for more herb plants (edible, culinary, and medicinal) to add to his expanding garden.  if you have spare, or runaway weeds (i mean "runaway herbs", LOL), please call him at 509-292-0950, and he will be glad to help you.

we club members have a stack of reuseable, rehomed domed plastic containers that would be perfect for keeping all those precious plant starts alive this spring.  need some, call me at 509-292-0326, and we will arrange.

club treasurer jane bolz reminds us all that our 2024 club membership cards (yours for only $5 per person, $10 per family) have a secret code on the backside that will generate a discount (don't know how much yet, but it was 15% in 2023) at spokane's "northwest seed and pet" stores.  garden-related materials only (NO gerbils or goldfish!), and be sure to let the cashier know about the secret code BEFORE they ring up your purchase(s).

during the recent club meeting, rachael wallin brought a big pot of baked beans; those beans were so tasty, that members are asking for the recipe!  

GRANDMA HONEY'S BAKED BEANS

preheat oven to 325 degrees f. 

1 pound dry beans (navy beans?), soaked overnight, drained the next morning, and cooked (typically the beans are covered with 2 inches of water, brought to a boil, then simmered for an hour, then drained again, and rinsed in cold water)

in a dutch oven, cook 8 pieces of bacon, chopped

add one chopped onion, cook until a little brown

add 4 chopped cloves of garlic, cook one minute

add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

add 2 tablespoons of ketchup

add 1/4 cup molasses

add half cup of brown sugar (rachael used a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar, instead)

add 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

stir together all the above

add cooked beans

stir together all the above

salt and pepper to taste

cover with dutch oven lid, and bake at 325 degrees f. for 3 hours - may need to occasionally add hot water to keep the liquid just barely covering the beans

let cool, and eat!

thank you rachael!  if club members have recipe questions, they can contact rachael at rachaelwallin77@gmail.com

thanks, jim.

509-292-0326

garden club ads — March 23

couple of things popped up recently:

club member steve peterson is in the early stages of building a new HUGE herb (medicinals, edible, and culinary) garden at his home.  steve is still looking for donations of herbs, and is more than willing to dig up/pick up unwanted plants.  you can contact him at 509-292-0950, or at swp001@yahoo.com

club member brittany davis is looking for a goat-milking stanchion - any spares out there?  you can contact her at brittdavis5269@gmail.com

the managers of our local camden grange farmers' and artisan's market are asking if our garden club members would like to sell (or trade?) locally-grown plant starts, produce, or garden stuff at the monthly market, scheduled to start on 11 may, 1-3 p.m., and every second saturday until december.  you can contact melissa wiens at ridgesandbridgesfarm@gmail.com for details.

cooler temperatures, rain, snow - must be Spring?

thanks, jim.

509-292-0326

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

 

I keep hearing the “rumor” that it really is Spring, and not the tail-end of Winter, but it’s snowing outside right now, with intermittent rain and hail.  NOT especially conducive to outdoor gardening (or farm chores, for that matter, LOL), but perfect weather to plan the 2024 garden, and order necessary seeds and equipment.

Wife Pat and I tried the “EarthBox” ® garden on the front deck last Summer, and found that most veggies (especially salad veggies, like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, etc.) LOVE to grow in a container garden.  Root crops (potatoes, onions, carrots, etc.) on the other hand, just know that they are being forced to live in a small box, and hate it!  

Yes, we did harvest some small onions and spuds, skinny carrots, golf ball-sized beets, but overall I recommend planting the underground veggies in real dirt in the open garden, weeds and all.

Our garlic spears are up six inches out of the straw mulch, and are already dark green, while the out-of-control strawberry plants have started to leaf out – time to add some aged chicken manure and compost, or for those who use such, some balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Many knowledgeable folks add Epsom Salt to their strawberry bed, starting now, and monthly until end-of-season:  Epsom Salt (really magnesium sulfate) sweetens the soil, and that makes for sweeter fruit.  Two tablespoons into warm water to dissolve, and spray or water-can the plants – just don’t apply the solution on a sunny, hot day, as it will burn the leaves.

Our still-cooler weather makes for great outdoor, open garden cool-weather seed starting for spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, dill, kohlrabi, turnips, etc.  If you can find plant starts, the following should appreciate the cool weather, and get you off to an early beginning:  Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale.  I use the face-saving word “should” appreciate the cool weather, because we never know – I would place floating row cover (“Ree-May ®, or “Agribon” ®) over the transplants just in case of a late severe frost or meteor strike.

In the orchard, now is the time to apply dormant oil spray to smother all those evil insects hiding under the bark:  aphids, mealy bugs, thrips, scale, and white flies.  Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions, and DO NOT apply oil spray after the tree’s fuzzy leaf buds start to appear.

GARDEN CALENDAR:

Our local garden club will meet on 09 April, at 7 P.M., in Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA), for an evening of informative fun.  We’ll have a class on how to grow food in our neighborhood, despite our challenging weather conditions, and we’ll have time to socialize, dine on club member-provided snacks, and maybe take home some gardening stuff (plant starts, seed packets, knee and back liniment) from the freebie table.

Our meetings are always open to the public, and you check out our club’s doings at our blogsite: www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com, or look at our Facebook page of the same name.

That’s it for now – see you out in the garden.

Garden club meeting warning

we will be meeting for the first time this year on tuesday, the 12th of march, at 7 p.m. in camden grange and community center (located at 7 camden road, elk, wa).  we will have a short class on "winter sowing" techniques, and the value thereof, from club member lorelei wright, and will hear what she plans for her 2024 garden (and our challenging weather inputs, LOL).

club members are asked to bring some of their favorite snacks, and any seed packets/plant starts they want to donate to the elk seed and start giveaway scheduled for 27 april at inland grange.  giveaway organizer cheryl joy will be at the meeting with talk with us about this important effort to reestablish home gardens in our neighborhood.

as always, there will be lots of time to impress each other with our 2023 garden results (mythical, though they may be, LOL), and lots of time to socialize and catch up.

see you then, jim mcginty

509-292-0326