May meeting featured mini-classes

Our garden club met for our monthly meeting on 10 May 2016, and it was a winner! After a short business meeting (we planned last-minute details for the upcoming "2016 Garden Expo" in Spokane – details later), we launched into four excellent gardening mini-classes.

First up was Pend Oreille County Master Gardener Joyce Weir who talked about and demonstrated micro-green gardens (fresh January salads!) and soil-blocker usage.

Next I demonstrated on a volunteer/victim hardwood tree the proper pruning techniques for generic fruit trees – we made a mess on the grange floor! 

During the demonstration, I mentioned that I am teaching a "Renovating Old Apple Trees" class for the Community Colleges of Spokane. Several club members asked for details on the class and they are as follows:  04 June from 2-4 p.m. at the Corbin Senior Center (827 W. Cleveland Ave., Spokane) also on 15 June from 6-8 p.m. at the Newport College Center (1204 W. 5th St., Newport). Cost for the class is $14, and you can register for either class at 800-845-3324, or online at www.sccel.spokane.edu/ACT2.

Then Steve Byars provided a show-n-tell on his modified "Mother Earth News" version of expandable/reusable tomatoe cages – especially recommended for out-of-control indeterminate tomato varieties. Here is the original article, and below, the cage supporting a really huge cherry tomato plant in a pot at Steve's place.

Finally, Pat McGinty showed us all how to make our own seed tape at home - a perfect way to spend those cold, blustery days of winter.

Pat also offered some companion planting advice, and recommended her favorite book on the subject, entitled "Good Neighbors: companion planting for gardeners," by Anna Carr (ISBN 0-87857-530-8). Here is a quick companion planting reference.

And finally, club member Bill Turner received his Garden Gnome for allowing our garden club members to infest his garden last month. Bill provided lots of expert answers to lots of questions, and even more of his garden experience and suggestions. Thanks, Bill! 

During our exuberant and fun meeting, we snacked on delicious homemade bread provided by new club member Marlene Routt - her chocolate zucchini bread and pineapple zucchini bread were so well received that I was asked/threatened numerous times to provide Marlene's recipes, so here they are:

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins

Prep  30 m 

Cook  25 m 

Ready In  55 m 

Recipe By:FROSTH

"These are deliciously moist muffins that that'll disappear quickly! Use carrot or zucchini, or both if you prefer. I make a batch of each, then put some in the freezer (in Ziploc bags) for later, which usually isn't very long! My entire family just loves them!"

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 1 tablespoon baking soda 
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

• 2 cups vegetable oil 
• 6 eggs 
• 3 cups shredded zucchini 
• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained 
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour 4 muffin pans, or use paper liners.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the oil, eggs, zucchini, pineapple and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Yields 2

Our favorite zucchini bread recipe, perfect for - let's face it - all day snacking. And all 3 meals. (Hey, there's zucchini in it, so it counts!)

Ingredients

• 3 C grated zucchini
• 2 C flour
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 t baking soda
• 6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 C canola oil
• 1 C sugar
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 3/4 C mini chocolate chips
• optional: zest from one orange

Topping

• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T white sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside. Set shredded zucchini in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and set aside. Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Place flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• With a stand or hand mixer beat oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until combined and slightly fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.
• Gently press down on zucchini in strainer and discard any excess liquid. Add zucchini to batter (and zest if you're using).
• Take a spoonful of the flour mixture and stir in with the chocolate chips (that will help keep them evenly distributed.) Add the remaining flour mixture to the batter and stir just until combined.
• Divide the batter between the two pans, and sprinkle topping over each.
• Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.
• Let it cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Great tips

• After greasing pans, wipe 1" edge clean with a paper towel all along the top of the pan. This will prevent the batter from "slipping down", and give you a perfectly crowned loaf every time.
• When baking, put loaf pans on cookie sheets for easy moving.
• To test for doneness, insert toothpick and ensure it comes out clean. If it comes out goopey and covered in batter, continue baking for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Thanks to all the club members who attended, instructed, and who provided wonderful snacks. Our next meeting on 14 June 2016 will be a summer garden tour of an excellent local garden featuring raised beds, rainwater collection systems, berry garden, small fruit orchard, and much more.  See you there!

Jim McGinty

Getting Ready for Expo

This is the second year for our club booth at the Garden Expo, and I'm working on getting my contribution ready. It's a fun event – I especially like to browse the big outdoor sculptures. Man, I would love to have a 10-foot-tall welded T-Rex or one of those cool kinetic spinning things in my garden.

But our club doesn't offer big weird sculptures. We sell plants, mostly. Healthy tomatoes and peppers and such, varieties that do well in our short-season gardens. We've started them and nursed them along from seeds, or made divisions of plants that are flourishing in our own yards. And our diverse group of gardeners researches and orders all kinds of interesting varieties, so shoppers can find more than just the same three kinds of tomatoes that the big box stores carry.

I went to see plant-starting star (and former club president) Barbara, and she showed me her method of potting up plants for sale. She uses these Solo 20-ounce drink cups, melts drain holes with a wood-burning tool, and labels them with white duct tape. They fit 12 to a dollar-store bin.

I think the end result is quite spiffy, as well as efficient. So now I'm going back out to pot up the Opalkas. And maybe some thyme and borage from the flowerbed.

Su

Weeding Between the Lines

By Jim McGinty

Kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place: we’ve recently seen temperature extremes between 82 degrees Fahrenheit (daytime) and 25 degrees (night time).  A little chilly to plant out the tomatoes, but we have planted broccoli (Flash – a hybrid that may not available these days, and Pac-Man) starts, onion (Candy Red, and Redwing) sets, and we seeded peas (Sugar Snap, and Melting Sugar). We did cover the plants with floating row cover to negate the freezing temperatures (Ree-May or Agribon, available from Northwest Seed and Pet in Spokane, will protect the precious plant progeny down to about 24 degrees). The garlic crop (planted last autumn) looks fantastic with dark blue green stalks  about 14 inches tall, while the berry plants (strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries) have all set flowers, and in the case of the strawberries, have small reddish fruit already! 

In the orchard, it’s really too late to continue pruning:  we’ll wait until the leaves have all fully formed, before more snipping and lopping takes place. I just started spraying the fruit trees for aphids (and their hosting buddies, the ants), with Safer brand insecticidal soap (I drench the tree branches and leaves once a week for three weeks to kill the aphid adults and their eggs), and I reserve the Natria neem oil for the “hard core” insects that just don’t want to listen.

If you have not already done so, now is the perfect time to prune out all those brown berry canes from last year in the raspberry patch (this year’s fruit-bearing canes will be greenish with swollen buds around the edges of the canes). This is also the perfect time to fertilize those raspberries with aged manure – I prefer aged chicken poo, but most other types will be fine.

While you are carting fertilizer about, don’t forget to drop/spread some of the good stuff on the blueberries, cranberries, asparagus, and rhubarb (I usually drop a shovel or two of the poo under the new rhubarb leaves – rhubarb does indeed respond well to spring fertilizing!).

Out in the garden, it’s nearly time to plant out the root crops and cool weather veggies – just guessing here, but our last frost date this spring will be on “your guess is as good as anyone’s” day, so watch your local weather, and be prepared to cover the baby greens with floating row cover, light flannel sheets, or other frost blankets. Scheduled for planting soon are potatoes, radishes, parsnips, beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, and turnips. Later (?) in the month or maybe even in early June, you can consider planting out some of the warmer weather crops such as corn, beans, tomatoes, squash (ornamental varieties and chicken-feed varieties only, of course), cucumbers, and peppers.  And remember to plant some flowers among your edibles:  all our senses deserve to be revived in the verdant spring, like seeing that perfect white daisy in a green meadow.

GARDEN CALENDAR:

On May 10, our local garden club will offer some indoor gardening mini-classes on topics such as homemade seed tape, pruning fruit trees, and building expandable tomato cages.  We meet in Camden Grange at 7 p.m., and the public is always welcome.

On May 12, those dedicated Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer a class on “How to prepare a garden bed” at the Pend Oreille County Extension Office (227 South Garden Ave., Newport), from 6-8:30 p.m. You’ll learn lots of tips on how to make your garden beds comfy and hospitable for all those salad greens and ripe tomatoes.

You will want to reserve May 14 for the annual Garden Expo held at Spokane Community College (1810 N. Green St., Spokane) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Plan to bring transportation (red wagon, garden cart, wheelbarrow, etc.) for all the plants and garden art/wind chimes/tools/decorations you’ll want to buy in over 200 booths.  Oh, and bring some money – our local garden club will be selling plant starts and other cool garden things from our booth as well. Learn more about the 17th Annual Garden Expo here.

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled afternoon of weed-eliminating, aphid-decimating, and compost-manipulating –  my back hurts already.

  

First garden tour of 2016

Our garden club's first tour of the year was both dark in observation and short in duration - April's sunset at 7:45 p.m. was too early, and it was also chilly too soon, so maybe we'll return to a May garden tour for 2017?

That said, our tour of club member Bill Turner's garden was fun and instructive for greenery-deprived folk: Bill is a fountain of gardening knowledge, and is willing to try most anything that will allow him to grow food for his family (with a smattering of fruit and veggies to sell at our local Clayton Farmers' Market).  

We learned the use of the broadfork in breaking up garden soil: enthusiastic club member Virginia quickly allowed other members to try their hand (and lower back) with the massive tool, asking/demanding "anyone else want to try this?"

We stepped into Bill's homemade greenhouse, enjoying both the warmth and the humidity, as well as Bill's discussion of which plants grew best in the perfect growing environment.

We also learned of Bill's onion growing techniques: black plastic polyethylene film over the raised bed, drip irrigation hose beneath, and a really cool plywood planting guide (Bill employs a propane torch to melt holes through the polyfilm, so that he can drop each baby onion plant into the soil!).

We had a great time at Bill's garden, and we appreciate him answering our hundred or more questions.

If you are a local gardener, and would like to be "toured" by our garden club members this summer, please leave a note here: we promise to behave ourselves in your garden, and you can be sure we will have LOTS of questions for you on what you do and how you do it in the garden. That's how we learn, and that's also how we have fun.

Jim McGinty

Weeding Between the LInes

By Jim McGinty

Clearly spring is stretching winter into summer, with 22 degree Fahrenheit nights and 62 degree days, and our precious tomato plants are still unsafe in the open garden. What is a gardener to do? The answer, of course, is “take a chance!”:  try planting some hardy cool weather plant seeds at mid-April (peas, cauliflower, celery, leeks, onions, radishes), and some not-quite-so-hardy seeds at the end of April (brussels sprouts, spinach, chard, kale, cabbage), and see what happens. Even with a protective “frost blanket” of Ree-May or Agribon row cover (which can save baby plants in temperatures down to 26 degrees), the frost monster might wipe out your too-early efforts, BUT maybe not, and that first crop of spinach will taste all the better! 

If your fruit tree leaf buds have not burst into glorious color yet, you have a little time yet to spray those trees with dormant oil – the fine oil will smother all those life-sucking scale insects. You can also finish pruning your fruit trees, but leave the trees alone from bud break to full leaf-out, so the trees can create new growth for this season. This is also a great time to plant or transplant fruit trees, berry bushes, and perennials such as asparagus, rhubarb, and horseradish. You can also pull back the over-winter mulch on your garlic and strawberries – the sun will warm the soil, and give the plants a much-needed boost – just be sure to save that mulch, so you can re-apply it in a couple of weeks to intimidate the weeds. While the mulch is off the plants, now is a good time to lightly spread some composted manure or delayed-action chicken poo pellets around said plants – your garlic and strawberry production will dramatically increase.

Out in the main garden, now is the time to add lots of well-rotted/composted manure, last year’s tree leaves, and (my personal favorite) aged poultry litter (being the over-wintered poo, wood chips, leaves and straw). I like to rototill or shovel/fork my soil amendments under, and let the spring rains and the wormies do all the rest of the work.

Finally, don’t forget to feed your established rhubarb and horseradish plants with some really fresh manure, and the same applies to your awakening compost bins and piles.

GARDENING CALENDAR

The Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County will offer a short series of gardening classes in April, with topics such as “Improving your garden soil” on April 14 at the County Extension Office (from 6-8:30 p.m. - 227 S. Garden Avenue, Newport) , and “Extending the growing season/Seed germination” at the Camas Center (6-8 p.m. - 1981 Le Clerc Road, Cusick). You can obtain additional class information, and register for the classes by calling the Extension Office at 509-447-2401.

On April 6 I’ll be teaching a class on plant propagation at the Newport College Center, from 6-8 p.m. We’ll learn how to make more of those expensive plants we all love, but at a price we can afford. You can call the Newport Center (1302 West Fifth Avenue, Newport) at 509-447-3835 for more details, and to register for the class.

Our local gardening club will conduct the first garden tour of the summer on April 12:  we’ll depart Camden Grange promptly at 7 p.m. to check out a neighborhood market garden – the owner/operator regularly sells plant starts and produce at the Clayton Farmers’ Market, and we’ll see how he does his garden magic – lots to learn and see, and we’ll have a lot of fun, too.

On April 30, the Master Gardeners of Pend Oreille County will hold their annual Master Gardener Plant Sale at Stratton Elementary School (1201 West Fifth Street, Newport) from 9 a.m. to noon. You’ll want to check out their huge plant selection and great prices – free, helpful gardening advice is also offered, from people who actually know what they are doing!

Whew – our gardening season is just starting, but the weeds are already ankle high – makes you wonder who is really in charge here!

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Weeding Between the Lines

By Jim McGinty

Spring sprang a full month ahead of whatever passes for weather “normal” these days. Many local gardeners, including some longtime gardeners who should know better, are asking, “Is it time to start seed yet?” and “Can we plant early this year?” For the second year in a row (66 percent ?), we have 50-plus degree Fahrenheit temperatures in February – at least here in Northeast Washington.

The answers are “yes” and “yes”, but (you had to guess there would be a “but” in there, somewhere, right?), you want to start your seeds (onions, parsley, tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli should be started now; peppers and more tomatoes by mid-March) in “waves,” that is to say, start seeds of the same type and quantity a couple of weeks apart. If you are able to safely plant that first wave of victims/volunteers, and grow them to harvest, more power to you, but (there is that “but” again), if we have a week of killing frosts that wipes out the poor seedlings, well, you have a back up wave or two waiting in the wings, so to speak. If all (!) the waves safely produce food for your family, you’ll have the best-tasting veggies on the planet to eat, preserve (through canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc.), trade or give to your neighbors, or maybe you’ll want to donate them to our local, deserving food bank (North County Food Pantry, 509-292-2530). As to the mythical “last frost date”, beyond which all plantings WILL be safe from those savage icy blasts, no one knows, and as a prudent gardener, you will have all those waves of leafy, green helpers ready to throw themselves outside into your garden. Humble, yet thorough, that’s us! 

Speaking of prudent gardening, now is a great time to prune all of your fruit trees and bushes: cut out those dead, diseased, or damaged limbs, and all of those cursed water sprouts, and all of last year’s fruit-bearing raspberry canes (the brown, scruffy canes, not the green, shiny ones that will bear all those mouth-watering berries this summer). If you have access to woodstove ashes, now is the time to sprinkle those ashes around your fruit trees and bushes – don’t get carried away, but the included potash increases fruit sweetness. If you are growing currents and/or gooseberries, you can safely lop or saw off all those three year-old (or older) trunks, as they will produce no fruit. 

Have you bought your seeds for this year – or better, have you traded seeds with your gardening neighbor or fellow garden club member yet? Once again, those mail-order seed catalogs, with hundreds of pages of beautifully posed and photographed veggies and fruit, have notices showing ‘’out of stock” or “crop failure – no seeds for 2016.” Don’t wait too long, or there will be nothing left but seed packets for ornamental or poisonous squash (is there another kind?!). Finally, now is the perfect time to evaluate your inventory of expensive garden tools: check for broken tines, cracked or splintered handles, dull or rusty edges, and missing tools (I usually “discover” some trowels and pruners with the rototiller every spring – I call the events “serendipitous,” while my gardening partner, Pat, calls them “evidence”).

GARDENING CALENDAR

On March 1, the Pend Oreille County Master Gardeners will offer a class on growing and pruning fruit trees: tree specialist and friend John Stuart and I will show how to care for your expensive backyard orchard.  Class runs from 6-8 p.m. at the Camas Center (located at 1981 Leclerc Rd., Cusick), and you can call the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension office at 509-447-2401 for more details, cost, and registration.

On March 2, I’ll be teaching another much-requested class, this one on crosscut saws. We’ll discuss vintage two-man and one-man saw history, as well as purchasing, renovating, and sharpening. Class will run from 6-8 p.m. at the Newport College Center (1302 W. 5^th Ave., Newport) – you can call the center at 509-447-3835 for more details, cost, and to register for the class.

On March 8, at the Camas Center, Stan Urmann (“Mr. Blueberry”) will teach a class on his favorite subject, growing and eating blueberries – if you want to successfully raise blueberry plants in your garden, Stan’s your source for simple and reliable information. Class runs from 6-8 p.m., and all the Camas information is the same as the earlier calendar entry.

Also on March 8, our local garden club meets for the first time this year, from 7-9 p.m., in Camden Grange. We’ll have a short “welcome back” organizational meeting, and then we’ll launch right off for the 2016 gardening season with a class on homemade seed tape, a seed-and-plant swap fest, our member-provided tasty snacks, and we’ll start and/or update rumors about you – be sure to be there! If you have an abundance of duplicate or unwanted garden seed and garden equipment catalogs, please bring them along – we would rather recycle/pass them along, than burden the landfills.

On March 9, I’ll offer a class on seed starting, at the Newport College Center, from 6-8 p.m. We’ll talk about and demonstrate the how, when, and why of home garden seed starting – it’s time to start seeds now, and you can call the Center at 509-447-3835 for class details and to register.

On March 16, I’ll bring a willing tree volunteer to a fruit tree pruning class at the Newport College Center. From 6-8 p.m., we’ll discuss the hows of artful pruning, and then we’ll get into the gritty, clippy details, one branch at a time.  Once again, you can call the center at 509-447-3835 for more information, and to register for the class.

On March 23, I’ll teach “sharp” individuals the skills of fruit tree grafting, in the Newport College Center, from 6-8 p.m.: students will want to bring their favorite SHARP pocket knife, and a cutting surface (a plastic kitchen cutting mat is excellent). Class details and registration are available from the center by calling 509-447-3835.

On March 29, John Stuart and I are back at the Camas Center to demonstrate the art of fruit tree grafting – this is a hands-on class from 6-8 p.m., so motivated students will want to bring their own wicked-sharp pocket knives and cutting boards (kitchen cutting mat, 12-inch square of plywood, etc.).  Once again, you can call the Pend Oreille County Extension office for more details.

Good grief – the gardening season is just beginning, and I’m already pooped – good thing we started early, huh?!

EXPO yes or no? Vote now!

Several club members have asked me if we are going to have a booth at the Garden Expo 2016, as we did this year. Pat and I are not able to organize or lead the charge for the Expo 2016, so would one of you (or a combination of you) club members like to take the helm for next year? Pat and I kept pretty good notes on the 2015 experience, and we can provide the 2016 chairperson(s) with accurate advice.

Let me know by Saturday, Nov. 7, please, as we must send a booth-space deposit to hold our 2015 location (which was awesome!).
Jim

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I vote yes! because we seemed to do quite well. If we decide to do it, I'll commit to providing at least 50 plants (Russian tomatoes and others) and helping with any signage. But I'm no good with the public or with money, and probably can't do set up or take down. What do you all say?
Su
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Set up and take down team helpers here. I will commit to 50 plants (not tomato).
Diane