October garden club meeting and dinner

we will meet at 7 p.m. in camden grange and community center (located at 7 camden road, elk, wa) for our final 2024 meeting and annual harvest dinner.  this time is set aside to talk about how great our garden looked, and produced, and maybe fudge the details just a tad.

we can learn from each other what worked out there, and what did not, and maybe we can be better gardeners as a result, next year.

club members are asked to bring some food-thing from their garden, and visitors (and well-meaning club members) are asked to bring something from their favorite market delicatessen.  the club will provide ham and chicken, and if the roadside kills look palatable, maybe something exotic, LOL.

if you are the caretaker of a highly-sought-after club garden tour gnome, please bring the little guy along - they hold a conclave while we dine.  

see you then, jim mcginty

509-292-0326

September meeting and zucchini fest!

this coming tuesday, the 10th of september, at 7 p.m., we will hold our regular monthly meeting AND our first annual (?) zucchini festival.  be sure to check in the back, and under all those zuke leaves and vines - there is probably a monster green tubular veggie just waiting for you to clean, dress or decorate, or maybe even cook into something only mildly poisonous.  

categories:  biggest/heaviest, ugliest, "cook-a-zuke", and best decorated/dressed (two contestant age levels:  4-14, 15+).

zukes must have been grown by the contestant(s), and you gotta be at the grange by 7 p.m.

we have volunteer judges (incorruptible, stalwart, and keen of eye) ready to evaluate each entry.  prizes ($25 gift certificates for northwest seed and pet) will be awarded after all judgement is complete.  

club members are asked to bring along their favorite snack food (could be zucchini-based?), and/or non-alcoholic beverages for the club members, the mildly-amused general public, and our squash-deluded neighbors.

this event is free and open to the public, and yes, you must remove all your zucchini remains from the grange at the end of the meeting!

thanks, jim mcginty

509-292-0326

Home orchard class

quick note:  the pend oreille county master gardeners are offering a class on establishing a home orchard, on thursday, 12 september 2024, starting at 6:30 p.m. in the CREATE Arts Center (located at 900 4th Street, Newport).  the class will cover orchard planning, tree purchasing, planting procedures, maintenance, harvesting, and storage.  pest control and pruning will also be covered.  the class costs $5 per person, and you can register for the class by calling the pend oreille county extension office at 509-447-2401.

thanks, jim mcginty

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

We’re in the garden home stretch now folks, with approaching cooler weather, and possibly a frost or two.  What to do:  build a giant (expensive!) greenhouse covering your entire garden and orchard, or maybe cover the cold-sensitive plants with floating row cover (protects the crops down to + 26 degrees Fahrenheit – let’s see, for all you metric maniacs, that converts to, um, - 4060 degrees Centenigrate, or maybe it’s Celsonious?), or even cover the poor dears with sheets or curtains (gotta be careful with water-wicking fabric like cotton, which will crush delicate plants).  Could also try winding a string of old-fashioned Christmas tree lights (not the newer LED versions which don’t give off much heat) around and through the row crops (yes, you DO have to plug in the lights, but you can use a timer, and think how COOL your garden will look at night to your neighbors, and the folks on the International Space Station!).  Electric heat mats placed at the plant’s base’s might help, with a protective bubble-pack wrap around the plants?  Typically, we have a snap frost or two late in September, then warmer weather for a while, just to lull us back into inaction, then…WHAM!

Here at Rancho McGinty, the blueberry plants are just about finished with their annual tasty production, while the squash raised bed/trellis is loaded with huge spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and (new to us this year) “Festival Acorn” squash.  The “Festival Acorn” squash is bright orange, with green tops and bottoms, and covered in lots of colorful red and green spots – looks like confetti.  My gardening partner Pat

and I supposed the “Festival Acorn” squash plants would produce a handful of “personal”-sized fruit, but no, the plants produced a LOT of fruit in big clusters around the main stem – looks like a bunch of huge, orange grapes, LOL! 

On the front deck, the “Earth Box” garden is still producing lots of salad makings:  lettuce, spinach, white (almost pink!) tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos.  Still some Summer heat out there, so we are enjoying our fresh salads.

In the orchard, the few apple trees that are bearing fruit have sagging branches, so I may have to prop up those productive limbs with some salvaged-for-the-purpose “Y”-shaped branches – last year, our very productive “Greensleeves” apple tree carried enough fruit to crack off a branch, which stripped off some of the trunk’s protective bark layer.  Sigh.

Out in the garden, it’s almost time to plant garlic:  now is the time to improve the garlic patch soil with manure (I prefer aged chicken poo) or fertilizer (a commercial 10-10-10), a healthy layer of fallen tree leaves and/or weed/seed-free straw (is there such a thing, LOL?), woodstove ashes, and maybe some fish meal or bone meal, if you are organically growing food.  I’ll be planting garlic cloves in (probably) late September, or early October.

GARDEN CALENDAR:

On 10 September, our local gardening club will hold our first annual Zucchini Festival, at 7 P.M. in Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA) .  This will be a family-friendly, fun, and vegetable-oriented evening, with competitions for Zucchini-aficionados in the following categories:  biggest/heaviest zuke, ugliest zuke, “Cook-a-Zuke” (best food dish made from Zukes), and best decorated/dressed Zuke (two entry levels: ages 4-14, and ages 15+).

Each entered zuke must have been grown by the contestants, and all entries must be submitted by 7 P.M. in Camden Grange and Community Center.  

Our event is free to the public, and we hope you gardeners find your “dream” zuke lurking under all that foliage, just waiting to be improved with your favorite zuke recipe, or maybe carved into a stylish rose, or even dressed with a “Barbie-doll” wardrobe.

And on that fashionably-dressed squash note, I’m off to review my collection of “Mister Potato Head” decorations and body parts – hmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden club want ads

bruce and sandy cunningham have LOTS of free sawdust and sawshavings to load into your truck and/or trailer.  you can contact them at SAndyirene@yahoo.com

please note that we will be leaving earlier than our normal time for the last summer garden tour on 13 august:  6:30 p.m. departure time, due to the longer drive to kamori's home and garden.  kamori recommends we bring drinks, and bug spray - sounds more like a field trip, than a garden tour, LOL.

also, remember our first annual zucchini festival, to be held in september:  we'll have zuke competition categories (most stylishly dressed, boat construction, race cars, movie star models, etc.), cooking and baking competitions, and more.  club member rachael wallin offered to help with the festival, though she (wisely) grows NO zucchini herself, so let us know what you have in mind.  good reason to leave those monster-sized zukes in place, rather than feed them to the chickens!

thanks, jim mcginty

509-292-0326

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

This Summer’s heat is upon us, and our gardens will definitely appreciate our watering, feeding, and harvesting efforts (well, maybe not the “harvesting” part, so much – I don’t know if the blueberry plants appreciate us munching on their progeny, LOL).  

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic harvest is almost finished, and the bulbs look great, with nary a split outer skin or gopher bite.  Growing the bulbs through heavy weed fabric really (!) means limited competition from weeds, and therefore the bulbs are seriously large.

The aforementioned blueberries are almost ready to harvest, though quite a few of them have fallen victims to the “I’m just checking to see if it’s time to pick blueberries!” scheme.  Blueberry milkshakes are on the horizon!

Long-time wife and fellow gardener Pat and I have been eating salads from our “Earth Box” gardens on the front deck:  “Igloo” lettuce, “Bloomsdale Longstanding” spinach, and “Wayahead”slicer tomatoes – with (wait for it!) Kraft brand “Catalina” salad dressing – it’s an ‘80’s thing.

Out in the main garden, the key, now, is adequate watering and moisture preservation:  early morning (on a timer!), deep, infrequent watering, and thick mulch are the answers.  I prefer to use weep hose and drip irrigation – no overhead, wasteful “Rainbird”-type sprayers in this heat.

In this heat, some of the leafy greens may appreciate some shade cloth to reduce sunscald and heat stress:  commercial (30-50% dark) shade cloth can block direct sunlight damage, and keep your green leaves from bleaching (and tasting nasty).  A good, inexpensive alternative to commercial shade cloth are ordinary, dark sheer curtains – check the thrift stores!

And if you are ready to seed plants for an Autumn harvest, now is the time to seed leaf lettuce, peas, chard, and spinach – you may need to replenish the soil fertility, but there is still time until first frost.

Out in the orchard, the aphids are finally gone (for now), due primarily to three, weekly sprayings of Neem oil – the new leaves look lush and green.  It’s time to thin the fruit, which is always a heartbreaker for dedicated fruit tree folks:  we waited all Winter and Spring for the blossoms, and then the fruit, and now we are supposed to discard ANY baby fruit that are too close to each other??!!  Separate them, or the poor dears will bang into each other in the wind, and then bruise, and spoil – NOT our goal.

While you are being mean to the baby fruit, look for long, heavily-populated branches which may need some support as the remaining (sigh) fruit gain in size and weight – I use repurposed forked branches.

GARDENING CALENDAR:

On the 8^th of August, those fans of fantastic flora, the Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County will offer a class on dividing perennials, instructed by He Who Knows Flowering Bulbs Like No Other, Master Gardener Steve Nokes.  If you want to know (more!) about correctly dividing gladiolas, tulips, daffodils, etc., you will want to attend this class at 6:30 P.M. in the C.R.E.A.T.E. place, located at 900 West Fourth Street, Newport.  You can call the W.S.U. Extension Office at 509-447-2401 to register for the class, and ask for more details.

On the 13^th of August, our local gardening club will offer the final garden tour for Summer 2024, with a visit to the garden of one of our favorite guest speakers.  We will see how to use strategic garden planning for raised bed gardens, herb wheels, vineyards, and fruit tree orchards – all in a forested setting, with a solar and wind-powered lifestyle.  You will not want to miss this opportunity.  We will be leaving Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA) at 6:30 P.M., as the tour location is about 45 minutes away, up Le Clerc Road, on the other side of the Pend Oreille River.  

Speaking of our local gardening club, our first annual Zucchini Festival is coming up in September:  competition categories include largest Zuke (based on length, width, and weight), Zuke animal forms, most stylishly-dressed Zuke, Zukes fashioned into boats (do NOT need to float, LOL), and other categories as well.  So encourage your squash, and plan to squash all other challengers in the categories of your choice.  Finally, a good use for all those “baseball bat”-sized zukes hiding in the undergrowth!  More Festival details at our next meeting on 13 August.

Be careful in the heat out there:  wide-brimmed hats, long sleeves, sun block, bug spray, and lots of refreshing liquids.

 

 

 

 

July garden tour confirmed!

we are back on for a garden tour tomorrow evening, 09 july, 7:00 p.m. departure time from camden grange (located at 7 camden road, elk, wa).  we will be checking out and learning from a large family garden located in spring valley, so a 30 minute trip, one way.  lots of raised beds, green houses, drip irrigation (really important to learn this topic this summer!), and more.  

our weather will be hot, so please appropriately dress, and hydrate.  

our garden club freebie table will be set up in the grange, with donated gardening-related stuff to take home - if you have something (no, not all those decade-old "national geographic" magazines, LOL!), to donate, please bring it/them along.

see you tomorrow evening, jim.

509-292-0326

July garden tour?

well, our july garden tour host just informed me that she does not want to have us tramping around her garden this coming tuesday evening.  so, if one of you would like to volunteer your garden for an impromptu tour, please let me know.  

if no one raises their hand, we will skip the july tour/meeting on 09 july, and we'll also miss the 100 degree + heat as well, so that could be a mixed blessing.

please let me know what you think, jim.

509-292-0326

Garden club tour Tuesday, June 11

YES, it's Garden Tour time once again!!!  We (minus me, as I will be busy marrying off another Grandson) will assemble at Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, Wa) for a tour of "Faith Farm", operated by Sandy and Greg Coehlo.  Club secretary/treasurer Jane Bolz will guide the group to the tour site, leaving the Grange at 7 p.m. sharp. You will have lots of opportunities to chat with Sandy about: market farming, greenhouses, roadside advertising/weed block, livestock, and much more.  Lots to learn here, so bring your notebooks and cellphones.  

As an added pre-tour event, long-time club member Barbara Midtbo (our very own club Tomato Lady) will be at the grange at 6:30 pm with micro- and patio tomato plants available; these are perfect for the small deck garden.  Lots of tomatoes in a little space.  Barbara is well known among many long standing members for raising healthy plant starts  and making them available to members and non-members of the Elk/Camden Garden Club for just a donation to our Garden Club, so bring some cash, as well, LOL!

have fun, jim.

509-292-0326

Join the grange hall cleanup!

yep - this saturday, the 25th of may, from 9 a.m. to noon, we plan to clean up the grange kitchen and main hall areas.  members of all our grange-sponsored clubs are invited to assist, as well as the friends of camden grange, and the general public at large - we're inclusive!

please bring along some of the following cleaning implements:  canister ("shop vac") vacuums, push brooms, house brooms and dust pans, short step stools/ladders, rubber gloves, big black plastic trash bags, rags and buckets, and some enthusiasm - no heavy cleaning, no remodelling, or repairs - just cleaning.

we will stop cleaning at noon, and dine on a free lunch, in the newly-cleaned kitchen ("careful with that ketchup, bob, we just cleaned that tabletop!", LOL).

areas and tasks under consideration:

main hall - remove unused kitchen range (will need an appliance dolly for this)  to the basement, swamp out the "greeters" station just inside the front door, vacuum under the rows of theatre seats, move some stuff (VHS tapes?) down to the basement.

kitchen - clean off countertops (behind microwave, under all the countertop applicances, etc.), clean off top of refrigerator, vacuum up the fly collection in the window frames and out of the overhead light fixtures.

porches/steps - remove webs and expired bugs from the little library area, sweep off porches and steps.

stuff like that.

hope to see you there, jim mcginty

509-292-0326

Garden club meeting notice

we will be assembling tuesday evening, the 14th of may, in camden grange and community center (located at 7 camden road, elk, wa) at 7 p.m. for our month of may meeting.  much-sought-after master gardener kamori cattadoris will join us for a class on starting, maintaining, and using a home herb garden.  great handout, lots of colorful and descriptive slides, and kamori loves to answer our questions - don't miss this meeting!

we will also have time to socialize, lie about our past and present gardening efforts, and eat the delicious treats we all bring to the meeting.

our freebie table will be set up as well, so if you have useful garden-related items, plant starts, seed packets, books, etc., please bring them along - BUT, please remember to take home the stuff you bring, if no one else wants it - knowwhatimean?!

see you there, jim.

509-292-0326

Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

According to many local, long-time gardeners, the presence of snow on the North slope of Mount Spokane is THE sign that garden planting is still a bad idea.  Other folks never plant anything until after Memorial Day;  other gardeners follow their favorite guru, and wait the recommended four weeks past the last frost date, and some folks just plant everything whenever, and replace the withered remains when an unexpected frost hits.  Garden supply centers LOVE our local, unpredictable climate:  “Well, hello Bob, how many replacement tomato plants would you like this time?”.

My long-time gardening partner and wife, Pat, and I will be gardening in our Earth Box raised beds on the front deck, again this year.  Last year, we learned that the Earth Box method worked great for salad makings (lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, etc.), and not so much for our favorite root crops (potatoes, garlic, onions, etc.) – lesson learned – we’ll shop at the local farmers’ market!

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic spears in the main garden are about 14 inches tall, and looking really good – I planted the garlic cloves last October, into holes die-cut in black, woven weed block material (bought from 

Amazon).  I placed drip irrigation “weep hose” down in between the rows of garlic, and when it’s time to feed the garlic plants (they love homebrew manure tea!), I just use my “fertigator” (fertilizer irrigator – an inline bottle of the aforementioned manure tea), and it’s done – easy.

Out in the garden, now is the time to plant those seed potatoes and onion sets, and it’s probably safe to sow seeds for some of the cool weather crops:  beets, carrots, chard, kohlrabi, leaf lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips.  

Please don’t forget your compost piles or bins:  tee-shirt weather means it’s time to get your compost cooking (yes, successful composting efforts will produce visible steam on our semi-frosty mornings) with additions of fresh grass clippings, fresh (whew!) manure, last year’s leaves, and a sprinkling of water.  Every week, turn or toss the mixture into the another pile or bin, add some more grass clippings and water, and then start a new batch of compost – you will NEVER have enough!

Speaking of never having enough, I’m just now learning about the benefits of (wait for it) sheep wool pellets.  My favorite sheep raiser tells me these are excellent for the garden, and her appraisal reads true:  wool pellets hold twenty times their weight in water (reducing your expensive watering activities), wool pellets puff up in water and increase the porosity (oxygen) in the soil, wool pellets are a slow release fertilizer (naturally high in nitrogen), and wool pellets (barbed by nature) are VERY unfriendly to slugs and snails.  Something new in gardening to check out.

GARDENING CALENDAR:

On 11 May, for all of you mushroom enthusiasts, there will be a Mushroom Festival at Happy Dell Park in Kettle Falls, 9 A.M. to 8 P.M.

Activities include fungi identification classes, cooking demonstrations, children’s games, and admission is free.  More details from Gabe at 509-738-2087, or e-mail Kelly at childrenofearth@outlook.com

Also on 11 May, our local Farmers’ and Artisan’s Market opens from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. at Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA).  Plant starts, produce, live music, arts and crafts, and just a whole lot of fun.  

On 14 May, our local garden club will meet in the aforementioned Camden Grange and Community Center (still located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA) at 7 P.M. for an evening of friendship, snacks, and the much-requested return of Master Gardener Kamori Cattadoris with a presentation on starting and using a home herb garden – how to, and what for!

On 19 May, we are all invited to a day-long workshop in Spring Valley on gardening techniques, greenhouse construction and use, food preservation classes, herbal preparations, and much more.  Workshops and demonstrations run from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., and there is no admission charge:  a fun day in the sun (?) at 6561 Spring Valley Road, Newport, WA – you can call 509-860-4792 for more details.

That’s it for now – gonna be a busy Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

Was it you with the seed tape?

cheryl joy is spearheading the plant start and seed giveaway at inland grange on 27 april.  when she attended our march meeting, someone from our club offered to teach a seed tape making class at the event.  if you are that lady, please contact cheryl at 509-292-0577.  and even if you are not THAT person, and you want to teach such a class, please call cheryl.  

thanks, jim mcginty

509-292-0326

Garden club meeting tonight!

we will be assembling at camden grange and community center (located at 7 camden road, elk, wa) at 7 p.m. on tuesday, 09 april to discuss things garden-y.  time to talk and wish, time for a short class on home garden composting (hosted by a panel of local do-ers), and time to snack on the various offerings brought to the meeting by our own club members (hint!).  the freebie table will be in operation again, so if you have excess garden stuff (tools, supplies, seeds, plant starts, etc.), please bring them along.  club treasurer jane will be collecting 2024 dues ($5 per person, or $10 per family), and issuing club membership cards (don't forget the discount code for northwest seed and pet purchases, located on the back of the card!).

see you there!

jim.

509-292-0326

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

Weeding between the lines

Well, it’s been a memorable Summer, with our local wildfires, record heat, and record drought, not to mention (?) much higher consumer prices for just about everything we buy. 

That latter reason (“higher prices”) is reason enough to grow at least some of your own food, though our recent growing conditions have been more than the normal challenge.

As gardeners, we do have some things we can do to adapt to heat and scarce rainwater.  Heat mitigation suggestions:  buy and plant veggies that can handle (or love!) the heat (tomatoes, peppers, squash, corn, etc.), avoid veggies that cannot handle the heat (cabbage, kale, peas, broccoli, etc.), use shade cloth to lower the felt temperatures on the plants, interplant taller/denser plantings with smaller/shorter plants that appreciate the shade and moisture (ex., lettuce under trellised squash plants). 

To help with all that missing cloud moisture, some watering suggestions:  wisely water in the early morning using battery-powered timers, avoid watering overhead (ala “Rainbird”-type sprinklers), use drip irrigation to apply water only to the base of the plants, infrequently water, only water when necessary.

Here at Rancho McGinty, we use a LOT of drip irrigation in our few remaining raised beds, and the “Earth Boxes”, used in our new-to-us gardening scheme, require only that we fill up the bottom of the boxes with water every other day.

“Earth Boxes”, and all their clones, have a hydroponic chamber under the planting soil, so that the plant roots directly (and efficiently) water themselves.

Our garden boxes are producing a lot of kale, late cabbage (not many heads forming out there, probably due to the heat), cucumbers, onions, beets, tomatoes, and peppers.  The trellised (and yes, poisonous!) squash plants are weighted down by football-sized fruit:  I seeded six different squash varieties, and ONLY the spaghetti squash is visible.  I think the recent high temperatures may have caused pollination problems – the pollen of some of those “jungle” plants (tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, etc.) is sterile above eighty-three degrees Fahrenheit or so, and we have certainly exceeded that limit, for weeks on end.

In the berry patch, now is a good time to prune out the spent canes that bore fruit this season:  brown or yellow canes come out, and leave the green or blue canes for next year’s berries.  Be sure to dispose of the pruned canes, as the cane borers love to overwinter in your berry patch debris.

In the fruit tree orchard, now is the time to watch for overloaded branches:  I failed to prop up a pear tree branch laden with fruit, and it just recently snapped off, with ten nearly perfect pears, all of which were almost ready to harvest (the chickens found the pears to be delicious, though our daily egg count did not improve – those feathered slackers!).

GARDENING CALENDAR:

On the 12^th of September, our local garden club will meet at 7 P.M. in Camden Grange and Community Center (located at 7 Camden Road, Elk, WA) for an indoor gathering (it’s too dark for another outdoor Summer garden tour).  We will socialize, whine and weep over our 2023 gardening efforts, and eat (probably healthy) snacks.  Our indoor meeting will feature a class, taught by Pend Oreille County Master Gardener Kamori Cattadoris, on the topic of planning for the 2024 garden:  now more than ever, we need to “get it right” in the garden so we can continue to grow fresh, nutritious food for our families.  All of our club activities are open to the public, and free of cost – you can check out those club activities by accessing our club blog at www.elk-camdengardenkeepers.blogspot.com, or by looking at our same named Facebook page.

On the 14^th of September, the aforementioned Kamori will offer a class on edible landscaping (she really is a great, and extremely busy Master Gardener) from 6:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. via the Zoom venue.  In this class, Kamori will help you to choose plants that not only beautify your castle’s surroundings, but also provide food for you, your family, and your gardening serfs.  You can register for the $5 class, and learn how to connect to Zoom by calling the W.S.U. Extension Office at 509-447-2401.

That’s it for the month – continue to be safe in the heat and sunlight out there: lots of water, salt tablets, wide-brimmed hats, sunblock, and limit your time in the garden to those cooler hours – there will be cooler hours, right?!