Growing Veggies in Cool Temps

Are you enjoying the slow cool-down we're having this Fall? It's a great time to clean up the beds while the temperatures are cool enough to work up a healthy sweat pulling out corn stalks and raking leaves off the lawn.

It's sad to put the garden to bed, though - summer's sweet days with blue skies and bright sunlight are gone, taking all the flowers and pretty colors of the veggies with them. The breezes across my yard have just the tiniest hint of winter and I miss the noisiest of the summer birds at the feeder.

But (aha!) there is a little glimmer of a growing season still in my garden - I'm experimenting with growing vegetables into the late Autumn, early Winter.

When I lived in the Willamette Valley, the growing season was beautifully long - the weeds grew every month of the year even if the vegetables didn't. I didn't know then that some veggies love the cool weather and I could have been growing broccoli, lettuce, peas, and all the root vegetables for most of the year, with a break for summer heat which they all hate.

Now that I'm in Central Oregon, my growing season is frighteningly short - between 75 and 90 days. Some years it's almost impossible to grow corn or tomatoes outside of greenhouse. The cool summer nights stop the growth and the poor heat-loving plants can't always recover enough to produce good crops. So I grow a lot of the veggies that love our cool Springs and nuture them carefully as far into Summer as I can (shading the lettuces got me a few more weeks of harvest in June).

Now that I've gotten the last of the "hot" veggies out of the ground - beans, corn, tomatoes - I've got lots of room to plant a Fall crop.

Since the temperatures are staying warmer than usual, I think I'll put in a cover crop of legumes - some garden peas will like the Fall rains and they should be able to grow enough before the snow falls. I know my Summer corn uses up a lot of nitrogen so I can turn the pea plants back into the soil in the Spring, replenishing the bed where I intend to grow corn next year.

 The carrots and potatoes are still in the ground so I'll wait until early Winter to dig them up, before the ground freezes solid.
 A few of the raised beds get lots of sun in the afternoon and are protected from cold winds by a hedge, so I may build some cloches to grow broccoli and lettuce.

Several years ago I found this OSU publication with great directions for building a raised bed garden cloche. I built mine with row cover and deer screening instead of the plastic, but in the cooler Fall temps, the plastic is a better choice. If I also put some row cover over the plants inside the cloche when the nighttime temps get really low, I should be able to extend the growing season into December.

There's a ton of information in these publications if you want to try some cool-season gardening:

Cover Crops - http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/17462/fs304-e.pdf

Fall and Winter Vegetable Gardening in PNW -
 https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/pnw548

Warm Season Crops in a Cool Climate -  http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/21092/k-em9027coolseason.pdf?sequence=12

 Build your own raised bed cloche - http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/ec1627-e.pdf

The Garden Party's Over

That's it! The first hard frost has wiped out the veggies. Not a moment too soon since the family of four deer has figured out how to push through my fence. Just this morning one of them lifted two cantaloupes out of the cold frame - just in time for breakfast (theirs,  not mine).

Once I put my frustration aside (after all, how many more veggies can I expect in October?) I'm intrigued by the deer's menu.  First they ate the carrot tops and the broccoli.  Okay, they're going to be pretty healthy this winter.  Then they ate the onion tops.  Well, that seems a little strange but maybe they needed some seasoning on the carrots. And then - then! - they ate the flat-leaf parsley.  Ha! Gourmand deer cleansing their palates after a hearty veggie meal. Alllll rightey then!

It all points to the end of the garden year - frost-burnt cucumber and squash vines, shriveled petunia stems, sad, frozen hostas, exceptionally hungry deer prowling in daylight hours. And the last of the hummingbirds seems to be gone from the feeder.

But I'm looking forward already. The flower beds are 13 years old now and looked patchy even at the height of the summer bloom - now is the time to fix what is obviously "broken" in the summer garden design.

Since the annuals are finished, I can pull them out to better see what the perennials are doing. Once I've pulled the last of the weeds and raked up any debris left behind, I like to step back (sometimes the view from an upstairs window is best) and see what is wrong with the design.  I take photos of my flower beds throughout the season so I'll be able to judge what's working well (or not) as the year moves along. This particular bed has wonderful Spring flowering bulbs and late Summer Lavender but it's pretty bland in between.  I can see, from this vantage point, that the Irises have multiplied and are overwhelming everything else so I'll be digging and dividing them. The lavender plants are doing well, placed evenly throughout the bed but it's now obvious that I need to add some contrast and height to the picture. I'll add some Russian Sage (Perovskia) which will arch above the shorter plants and some pink-flowering Persian  Stonecress (Aethionema schistosum) to cover the ground beneath.

It's a great time to put in some new plants: the nurseries don't want to carry their stock over winter and the garden is nice and damp from the random fall showers.  I do a lot of planting in October so the new plants will have enough time to produce new roots before the ground freezes solid - I've got four or maybe five weeks, so I'd better hurry.

If I can get the garden ready for the first snowfall,

my 2016 garden will be in great shape.  If the four-legged neighbors leave anything for me...

I've found that the OSU Extension Service's Garden Tips help me remember all my seasonal chores - here are the tips for October and November: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/GardenTipsOctNov.pdf

Perennials and Winter

This is such a great time of year - the kids are off to school, the veggies are showing the results of all the Summer's hard work and the pressure to keep up with the Jones' garden is easing up. Back to being a happy housebound garden-book reader.

But before I settle into my over-stuffed chair with a good book, I really must get the perennials ready for their long winter's sleep.

In an earlier posting, I said that I leave my Blue Oat Grass up all winter, preferring to pull out the dead leaves in Spring.  I've found that the seedheads look really nice waving gently in the winter breeze and snow balances very prettily on the thin blue leaves.  But the Karl Foerster Grass needs to be cut back since it's huge and impossible to "de-leaf" in the Spring the way I clean up the Oat Grass.

So I'll snugly tie a length of garden twine around the leaves of the Feather Reed Grass about 6" above the ground and cut the grass with hedge clippers. In the Spring it'll be easier to clean out any dead leaves when the new ones emerge from the clump.

The Peonies are fading fast so I'll cut them down to the ground. The Roses can be trimmed down to keep the canes from whipping around in the winter wind and breaking.  I usually leave about 8 or 10" since my Roses are growing in a protected area but many gardeners will wrap their Roses in burlap and mound mulch or soil around the bundle.

Some people trim their Lavender in the Spring but I've found it's easier to get the flower "wands" trimmed off in the Fall since the new growth in Spring comes up right in middle of the old stems. I'm carefully to not disturb the woody stems which will produce next Summer's flowers. There usually are some old dead branches underneath so I clean them up while I'm there. It also gives me a chance to evaluate the plant and look for any new starts that have sprouted over the Summer. By next Spring or Summer, I may be able to cut them free of the older plant and move them to a better location.

The Butterfly Bushes need to be cut back hard - in many parts of Oregon, it's an invasive plant but here in the High Desert we just need to prune it hard in the Fall to keep it under control. Mine have been growing about 8 years so I prune them down to about 12". When the early Summer growth appears, I often trim them back again, pruning out old branches then.

The Forsythia, the Hibiscus and all the Spireas will stay un-pruned for now - in the Spring I can see where any damage was done by the Winter and cut back to green wood then.

Once I've done the Performance Review of the plants and cleaned up fallen leaves and branches, I'll get the hose out again and do some heavy watering. So many plants suffer from the drying cold winds of Winter unnecessarily - dragging out the hose every 6 weeks will prevent a lot of dieback next Spring. If we get a few good snowfalls or some timely rainstorms, I'll mark my calendar and check the soil again in a month.

Many of us remember that the past couple Winters have brought shockingly cold temps - minus 25 and below! With temps like that, we really can't determine what Hardiness Zone our plants are living in. And as much as I'd like a greenhouse that encloses my entire yard, it just isn't practical (and my hubby won't agree to buy it for me - imagine that!), I'll have to use other methods to protect my perennials and trees.

Toasty warm decomposing compost (cornell.edu)

So I turn to mulch.  Once the plants are trimmed, the ground beneath them is cleaned up and well watered, I can put down a nice 4 or 5 inches of mulch. I use either ground bark from a landscaping company or the aged compost from Knott Landfill, making sure to keep it back a bit from the trunks of any plants. (The insects are looking for a good, warm place to over-winter in safety and a shrub with mulch against the trunk is ideal.) In the Spring, I'll turn the mulch into the soil as an amendment.

That should do it, my plants are as ready as I am for the winds to blow and, I hope, the snows to fall.

More information about mulching is here: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Winter_Care_of_Perennials-reference_list.pdf

Cooling Down

Big blue sky, chilly, dew-laden mornings - I love September!

It'll be hard to say goodbye to the little hummingbirds at the feeder by the window.  And all the plants on the front porch have to go to "sleep" in the cold room inside, leaving an empty doorway to greet visitors.

But the harvest is fully underway with daily tomatoes, green beans and herbs arriving in the kitchen in almost overwhelming numbers. Every armful of veggies brings the promise of flavorful winter meals from the freezer - yum!

Until this past week, I hadn't noticed that some of my neighbors have veggie gardens - are you wondering how I missed it all summer but notice now, in September? Our gardens are all open, no fencing, with lots of small trees and bushes that keep most backyards secluded. But the view has changed recently with the cooler overnight temps -

Row Cover! Wrapped over some PVC hoops pushed into the soil. I'll bet there are some tomatoes under that fabric.

In my garden the green beans are still producing so I'm determined to protect the vines from any frost. And the tomatoes haven't all reached the blush color that means they'll ripen off the vine. Last year my corn plants weren't ready for harvest by the time of the first frost so I wrapped up the 6' tall plants - it was quite a sight, especially when a slight breeze made the row cover look like a huge ghost lurking just behind the garden fence!

The floating row cover I bought from the Master Gardeners protects the plants when the temperature drops to about 30 degrees. I use clothes pins to anchor the fabric to the trellis and tomato cages and it stays there until the weather forecast promises above freezing nights.  The irrigation can pass through the fabric and it's not so heavy that the sunlight is blocked. (In the middle of summer, I use it to protect the cabbage from the moths that eat huge holes in the heads.)



My other season extender is my cold frame, made from old windows and 2x12 lumber. I was lucky to have the windows and lumber but I've seen other cold frames made of stacked straw bales with a 'lid' of rigid plastic on top. If you've got the space, you can even just dig a hole in the groundabout 12 - 15" deep and make a cover of plastic. If the ground is soft, you may want to line it with lumber but the important part is having the cold frame face south.  As you can see, the back is higher than the front so when the lid is closed, the light gets all the way to the back.
If you're going to use the cold frame farther into the fall and winter, you can add some heating cables on the bottom. I've used  incandescent light bulbs in a shop light but they're getting harder to find. This picture shows a cold frame with water jugs - the water is heated from the sun all day long and gives off the heat overnight. I'd put the jugs in clusters all around the plants and not expect too much once the daytime temps go below freezing. Some veggies like broccoli, peas and spinach do really well in this setting but warm temp plants like eggplant, green beans and tomatoes, not so much.

If you've still got plants in the ground not quite ready to harvest and there's a sudden cold snap, go for anything that can cover your plants: blankets, sheets, cardboard boxes, even bottomless milk jugs for small plants.

There are lots of options for getting your crop to harvest despite the weather.  Here are some sites with good information:
http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/districts/tanana/mg/manual/9-Greenhouses-and-Season-Extenders.pdf
https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/files/project/pdf/pnw548.pdf
http://extension.illinois.edu/hortihints/0402c.html

Dig Now for Spring Bulbs

I'm anticipating Spring - it's hard to believe I'd say that in late September, but it's a really important thought for me since (if you've read any of my previous posts, you know) I'm a lazy gardener.  I don't like to work too hard without a really good reason.

But here are a few good reasons:

 

And the only way I can have these wonderful flowers is if I kneel in the dirt with my back to the sun, and dig holes. Lots and lots of holes!

First I shop for the best bulbs Holland has to offer.  Why Holland, you ask? It's a long, fascinating story about price gouging, insider trading, huge deals and massive market losses - when you've got some time, look up "Dutch Tulip Mania of 1637".  It makes the housing bubble and market crash of 2008 look like kindergarten games. But the bottom line is, the premium bulbs in the world come from Holland. We've gotten some pretty good growers here in the Pacific Northwest, too, so I shop a number of stores, looking for the healthiest, most unique blooms.

Estella Rijnveld Tulip

When I shop for bulbs, I make sure they'll survive our Zone 5 climate - if I was in Madras, I could buy Zone 6 plants and in Sunriver, they'd be Zone 4 (or maybe even 3 if I was at a higher elevation). I never buy dahlias since I forget to dig them up before the ground freezes (and kills them) and I haven't had a lot of luck with growing Amaryllis inside (one year's bloom for an $8 bulb seems impractical). So I buy lots and lots of Muscari, Daffodils, Alliums and Anemones. Many people love the Crocus and Chionodoxa, too. The Chionodoxa multiply so they need a large area to go crazy in.

I spend a lot of time in the aisle at the stores, checking the bulb packages to be sure the bulbs aren't soft. I won't know until I have them in my hand if they have any diseases or maggots, but softness is a good indicator before I pony up my money. Once the bulbs are home, I look them over carefully to avoid bringing anything harmful into my garden. Out of 100, I might get one or two shriveled bulbs but I think that's pretty good if they came all the way from the Netherlands!

My favorite part of Spring bulb planting is the weather - it has to cool down to plant. No sweltering heat, no blindingly bright sun, just the cool, sweet-smelling days of late October with a gentle breeze if I'm lucky.  Unfortunately, I've also dug bulbs into muddy soil in driving rain because I was running out of calendar.  But the reward is great no matter the planting conditions - the important thing is to be sure the soil has begun its cool-down before the bulbs are planted.

Little bulbs, big bulbs, HUGE bulbs - how deep should the hole be dug? I follow the grower's advice: the bottom of the hole should be measured 3 times the diameter of the bulb.  It's not an exact science so I just use the trowel with the inch marks on it and figure the size against the marks. The bigger the bulb, the deeper the hole. The Gladiator Allium is HUGE and you might be digging an 8" deep hole for it. But the little Crocus and Squill need only about 2".

 

So far, so good - the worst is almost over.  Now just scratch up the soil at the bottom of the hole and mix some fertilizer in.  If you can find a Bulb Fertilizer it'll say it's something like 5-10-5 with more phosphorus than nitrogen or potassium. Bone Meal has lots of phosphorus too, but we've found that critters like to dig up the plants to eat the bone meal. I once had a cat who would lick the dirt wherever the bone meal spilled!

If Bulb Fertilizer is hard to find, a balanced fertilizer will work too - use one that's 10-10-10 or 16-16-16.  It's especially important to not let the bulb sit directly on the fertilizer since it would "burn" the root plate of the bulb where the roots grow.  

After you've placed the bulb in the hole and replaced the dirt, pat it down and pour water over it.  The flow of water will push dirt into the air pockets so the bulb is in full contact with the soil.

That's it. You're ready for Spring - how easy was that? Well, except for digging in rocks or tree roots or while it's raining/snowing. But, like childbirth, the work is forgotten when you see those lovely blooms brighten a grey March day.

Here's some more information you may enjoy:
 http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/flowers/spring-flowering-bulbs/
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scenece3a.html

Tulips and Daffodills and Crocus - Oh My!

Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Need some inspiration? This photo is from Holland, in the Netherlands, where they've made Spring bulb design an art and a very profitable business. It's much like the annual New York Fashion Week when design houses parade their newest and most exciting creations. The bulbs in the Keukenhof Park are planted each Fall to showcase the work of the Dutch growers. Almost 80 acres are planted with 8 MILLION bulbs! Imagine a photo of what the annual Fall planting must be like!

 Has the photo inspired - or intimidated you? They make my wallet hurt - I once tried to count just the blue Muscari in the first picture and stopped when my estimate went over 1,000 bulbs. That was a design dream that quickly turned into an economical nightmare.

But the amazing number of bulbs they manage to plant every year heartens me - surely I can get a few dozen in the ground this fall without too many complaints. Right?

"White Lion" Double Daffodil

"Faith" Daffodil

In the past few years, I've planted hundreds of daffodils.  After the initial fascination with the big trumpeted  old-fashioned King Alfred, I bought  some gorgeous double daffodils, some multi-flower, and some split-cup narcissus. The originality of some breeders stops me in my tracks - just look at those pink trumpets!

But every Fall when the bulb catalogs arrive, I fall in love with the newest varieties (oh you fickle woman!) and carefully choose a few dozen new ones. Last year it was "Spring Beauty" Scilla which popped up between the ornamental grasses in early Spring this year - the brightness of the little blue flower was startling to see. 

"Spring Beauty" Scilla siberica

Sweet Woodruff (photo by Heather Birkett, Wash.)

Anemone Blanda

            A month later, the Anemone Blanda I had naturalized in the side garden bloomed just weeks before the Sweet Woodruff flowered.  I had seen the effect of the anemone coming up through the green leaves of the woodruff in a fellow Master Gardener's yard (thanks, Bev) and the effect was so charming, I've been gradually adding the anemone to the bed. It's early yet so I don't have a good photo of the bed but if you apply a little imagination with these two photos, you might see what I'm working toward.

 Once the design is planned and the purchases are made, the work begins.  Next time I'll explain how the magic happens and any tricks we can use to make it a little easier. Meanwhile, one last Keukenhof:

And a couple of good websites for design ideas: http://extension.illinois.edu/bulbs/landscaping.cfm
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scene74a6.html

What is this thing called "Permaculture"?

Recently I've been seeing and hearing about something called "Permaculture". It's one of those things that you think you know but, if you're asked, you're not able to really describe. So, being a Master Gardener with a love for googling (is that a word?), I've done my research focusing on edu websites.

Permaculture = permanent + agriculture. Simple enough, right? But I still don't know why permaculture is different than any established farm or my yard with the perennial plants I've been growing for ten+ years. More research is needed...

Quoting the University of Massachusetts Permaculture Initiative: "to design sustainable human settlements based on ecological principles that restore and renew natural systems" - in much simpler words, have a lifestyle based on simplicity, balance and a respect for the world around us.

25 Acre Permaculture Design by Andrew Millison, OSU

Mahatma Gandhi espoused a belief that, in part, spoke of self-reliance as an important part of freeing people from dependence on large-scale consumerism.  The India of Gandhi's time (1920 - 1948) was a colony dependent upon the British Empire and its culture. He believed many small steps, such as wearing locally produced clothing, would loosen the bonds that kept the people in poverty. He didn't use the words, but he was talking about living in a sustainable, independent India and is often remembered for the words: "You must be the change you expect to see in the world."

Permaculture wraps into a sustainable lifestyle, a strategy for keeping your impact on the earth at net zero: aim to replace what you take. "Sustainable gardening" isn't a new term but is just becoming a popular idea with home gardeners: the right plant in the right place, use native materials, conserve resources.

We've all lived with high maintenance things: haircuts, relatives, cars, plants. The kind of thing that takes so much time and energy that you sometimes dream of eliminating it from your life. Roses come immediately to my mind - so much trimming, feeding, treating, tying up and protecting that you almost neglect the rest of the garden just to end up with a couple dozen exquisite blooms.

But a Rugosa Rose is a tough little plant that will bloom almost in spite of mistreatment.  It's not as showy and as fragrant as its more famous relatives but I like a plant that treats me as well as I treat it.

Many folks who raise chickens for the eggs have realized how efficient it is to use a portable chicken house: move the chicken house (and attached 'yard') to a new area periodically and you've got some of the best weed and insect-eating machines at your command.  AND they fertilize with fantastic manure, ready to be turned into the soil when they move to a new location.

OSU Corvallis,, Oregon

So if I apply the principles of Permaculture to my yard, I'll be designing with more native plants, looking for dought-tolerant species, planning a veggie garden that makes the most of the location (enough sun and warm temperatures), growing only plants that don't require massive amounts of fertilizer or pesticides and using local materials whenever possible.

If we all work toward a Sustainable World, we can hope that our great-great-grandchildren will live in a world of clean air, abundant water and healthy food.

For more information, check out these links: http://www.umass.edu/sustainability/get-involved/permaculture-initiative
http://permacultureprinciples.com/
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13190

Do You Compost?

A couple days ago I wrote about my Gardening 101 class - the class with just one student, my hubby. I explained about the different types of plants and which ones will be back next year and which ones will be gone after the first hard frost.

In passing, I mentioned both our burn pile and our compost pile. You may be wondering why a Master Gardener has a burn pile when we promote composting so vigorously. It's a valid question and I'll have to admit to adapting the sustainable gardening rules to fit my lazy gardener lifestyle.

My first year as a Master Gardener was amazing: I weeded, mulched, fertilized, deadheaded, pruned and irrigated on an exact schedule.  My garden was perfect! Of course, it was also quite sparse since we hadn't lived in our house very long and the plants I could afford had huge spaces around them, waiting for plant sales to fill in the gaps.

Fast forward ten years.  Several trees have been planted, the veggie garden is filled to overflowing, the butterfly bushes reach higher than the windows and the birds have spread the sunflowers far and wide. Nowadays, I'm lucky to weed every bed every couple weeks and deadheading has moved lower on my to-do list.

Don't get me wrong, everything gets done but not on such a regular schedule and with a lot more time between each chore. And yet (!!) everything keeps growing (except the birch and two service berry trees that the beaver cut down and dragged away about 8 years ago...) and producing leaves, flowers, berries, low-hanging branches and, at the end of summer, frost damaged stems.

Since composting experts suggest chopping up large "yard debris", one year we used a chipper to break up all the branches. It wasn't such a bad idea but it didn't work on the hollyhock stems, the corn stalks or the sunflower stalks. So we used the material we chipped to mulch the flower beds and pushed the chipper into the back corner of the garage with the power washer and the snow tires.

And now my compost pile is built with fallen leaves, dried grasses and paper from the office shredder (the necessary "brown" or carbon part), deadheaded flowers and stems, cut back frost damaged plants, grass cuttings, kitchen waste and weeds that I've pulled before they flowered (the important "green" or nitrogen part). If I remember to keep the pile watered every couple weeks and turn it over every month or so, I'll soon have a rich smelling, earthy pile of humus to put back on the garden. It sounds a little barbaric, using this year's decomposed plants to feed next year's garden, but that's Nature, I suppose.

What's left? Well, I still need to get rid of those corn stalks, the spent hollyhock stems and the huge sunflowers after the birds have picked them bare.

I could cut them up and fill my trash with them (and they'll end up in the household waste section of the landfill, not the compostable yard debris section) but I hate filling up the dump with material I can take care of myself. So we have a burn pile.

Our soil here in Central Oregon is a mixture of many types, depending upon where you live. Generally, we have sandy, volcanic soil but some areas have clay. I've gardened in clay soil in the Portland area and if that was my current fate, I'd use my burn pile ashes to amend my soil and raise the alkalinity. But since I live in rocky, sandy soil, I use the ash to control the weeds in the outlying area of our property. Not a great solution but better than waiting a few years for the butterfly branches to finally decompose in a compost pile!

If you'd like to read more about composting, check out these sites and publications: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/homecompost/intro.cfm
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1189.html
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/1070

Fall Cleanup: Rake, Water, Mulch

You've got to love Central Oregon's weather - cold and windy with light rain.  Then a week goes by and it's 75 degrees and sunny. I wonder if the plants get confused: is it time to grow? time to go dormant? should I turn color or push out some more flowers?

What I do know is that the animals (that includes me) are thinking: Yay! a reprieve before the long cold winter! Time to finish up that seed gathering, hibernating den building, fat-building-for-the-long-flight-south! And the animals must be thinking the same way...

Seriously, the temperature swings help motivate me to get out early in the day to do all those chores that will cause great a Winter-long guilt if I neglect them. A cool day helps the last of the weeds come easily out of the ground and a sunny day encourages pruning and a thorough raking.


Here's my list of September tasks:

• Shasta Daisies, Echinacea and Rudbeckia get cut 'way back. I don't leave too much green behind when I trim them because I know that if there isn't too much snow, they'll put out some growth even in winter. The Hollyhocks and Foxgloves (both biennials) will just get their flower stalks cut down.
• Herbaceous flowering plants like the Peonies are beginning to fade, with the stems flopping and the beautiful green leaves looking worn and tired. I usually cut them down sometime before I head inside for the Winter - they go down to the ground even if a few leaves still look green. They'll be back in the Spring, growing from their roots.
• The ornamental grasses (Blue Oat Grass and "Karl Foerster", a feather reed grass) are left standing through winter.  I know a lot of gardeners who either cut them back in the Fall or in the Spring but I've found that the stubby grass left behind keeps the clump from filling in well. So in the Spring, I get some vinyl palmed gloves and "comb" through the new leaves, gently pulling out
  
  the old, dead ones. It's tedious and hard on the back but I like the look better in Summer with only new leaves and seed heads on the plant.
• Once everything is cut down or back, I rake up everything.  Everything! All the cut stems, fallen leaves, flower buds that dropped off, weeds that died a natural death (hidden under all the blooming plants). Anything left behind can become a winter haven for some of the insects we particularly despise, like earwigs, weevils, and caterpillars that will grow into destructive moths next Spring (if you have an Apple tree, the codling moth may have hidden some larva under the fallen apple leaves this Fall). Any of the refuse that's healthy can be composted.
• Those of us who live in the States that get snow in Winter, often forget to water if the snow is skimpy. The plants may be in hibernation mode, but they aren't dead; they need some kind of water all year.  If it doesn't fall from the sky every 6 to 8 weeks, we have to get out the hose and water deeply. It feels strange to be bundled up, wearing a wool hat and mittens and holding a watering hose, but the alternative is to replace your plants next Summer when they have more dead branches than green ones.
• The sight of clean, damp earth around my plants is always so satisfying, which may be why I like to get my mulch from the Bend Landfill.  They sell aged compost from a huge pile which has been sitting and steaming for months (a year?), the weed seeds have been killed and the decomposition has begun. It's a dark brown material and I like to spread it about 3 or 4 inches deep around my plants after I've watered and the temperatures have dropped. Kind of like a tender blanket, tucking them in for the winter. I never push the compost/mulch up against the stems or trunks, though, since that just invites any insects to winter-over against my plant. 

Do you follow the OSU Extension Service calendar? It's a handy way to remember your garden chores every month.  Here's the link (Tips are at the bottom of the page): http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/general-gardening-central-oregon

Fall Cleanup: Cut Down or Pull Out?

While cleaning up the veggie garden last Fall, my hubby asked me a great question:
   "Why are the Sunflowers pulled out but that Daisy plant (it was an Echinacea) was cut down at the ground?"

When we married, he had a few scrubby-looking plants around the house foundation and the rock garden that the former owners had created was most grass weeds. He was totally content to keep the "garden" just the way it was.

After a period of adjustment (several summers) he learned to accept that I was going to buy and plant lots of trees, shrubs and flowers. Last summer he even helped me build raised cedar beds for the vegetable garden.

But the plants remained in just two categories for him: organized and dis-organized. It's an engineers mind that classifies flowering plants that way and it's not always easy for a gardener to predict (Foxgloves are organized, Geraniums aren't). He's never gone beyond that simple classification so I wasn't surprised by his question during last year's annual Fall cleanup. He doesn't know about perennials and annuals or our hardiness zone (as an avid reader, he does know there are such things) and he knows that some trees are evergreens because, well, duh!

So we had a little Gardening 101 out by the burn pile which was stacked high with spent sunflowers, yarrow stems, butterfly bush branches and corn stalks.

This is what "The Class" sounded like:

The Peonies are herbaceous perennials - the stems will rot and die back when the frost hits them but will always sprout new stems next Spring. We cut them back to remove any hiding places for over-wintering insects.

The Sunflowers are self-seeding annuals - we have them every Summer in just about the same place because the birds have spread the seeds. Nothing will grow from this year's roots so we pull them out of the soil to make room for next year's plants.

The Shasta Daisies are perennials that hunker down in winter and manage to keep a few sad-looking leaves growing right through snowfall. So they get cut back, leaving a small leaf rosette to support the roots this Winter.

It's sad every year to pull out the frost-killed plants (the veggie garden looks particularly bleak by November) and the compost pile behind the garage is very large with withered annuals, seedless weeds and dead squash vines. But next Spring when we can see the first new  green shoots appear in the barren garden beds, it'll be heartening to realize that February is far behind and May will, once again, soon arrive in Central Oregon.

If you want to know more about the plants in your yard, this is a link to OSU's Landscape Plant ID:  http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/. You can search by Latin or Common Name.

What IS a "Master Gardener"???

It was years ago when I first heard the modern term: Master Carpenter.  It was on a public broadcasting show and I didn't give it much thought since the person they were describing was the only expert they consulted for carpentry advice. Master, Schmaster - as long as the advice works, who cares?

Fast forward to the 21st Century and here I am,  a Master Gardener. Who knew, back in 1978, that I'd be considered a Master of anything! Certainly not me, the jack (or jill, actually) of all trades who's never been the master of anything.

Then I heard about the Master Gardener program, begun in 1973 in the Seattle area. Horticulture agents working in the Cooperative Extension Service offices set up by land-grant universities, were finding their time being filled with questions from homeowners in addition to the farmers they were intended to help. It was a surprising phenomenon since gardening had always been a small hobby for homeowners who just needed to keep their properties looking good. Suddenly, it seemed, everyone wanted to grow vegetables to eat, flowers for bouquets, herbs for more creative cooking, and shade trees to cool their homes in summer.

The Horticulture Agents across the country were overwhelmed! People wanted their expertise and, being horticulture experts, they wanted to help everyone who asked. But how?

Brilliant answer: train volunteers who love gardening and make them available for free to answer the needs of the gardening public. Ta-Dah! The Master Gardener Program was begun.

There are now approximately 95,000 Master Gardeners in the US and Canada, providing 5 million volunteer hours to their communities every year. Amazing, huh?


We're not all the same, of course. The training is done locally with a variety of educators. Here in Central Oregon, our program uses many Oregon State University professors to teach new Master Gardeners the bare bones of Entomology, Sustainable Gardening, Integrated Pest Management, Soils, Pest and Plant I.D., Weeds, Wildlife, Trees, and more. Since the program is only 60 hours of classes, we barely skim the surface of Horticulture but we learn how to find the answers to most questions, even if it takes a few hours or days of research.

Did I say it's free?  The program is supported by OSU which, of course, is tax supported. Everyone who calls, visits or emails the Extension Service with a question or problem gets their answer without any hassle or expense. How cool is that?

Sometimes you may hear that the Master Gardeners are asking for donations - that's usually when we need to pay for materials for plants we've grown or for classes we've taught.  We hope to cover our costs of educating the public without using the Extension Service's limited budget. Our mission statement is Teach Support Promote (and have some fun doing it).

If you're interested in joining the program, the OSU Extension website has all the details: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/.

My OMG Failures

A friend of mine listened patiently to my gardening complaints today and suggested that a posting about my (many) failures might be pretty funny.  Really?  Funny?? Oooo, she's probably right since I do manage to flame out in pretty strange ways, for someone who's supposed to be trained as a Master Gardener!

Here's a list of My More Masterful Ideas:

1. Feed the local birds a gourmet diet: plant strawberries in a raingutter and hang it near the bird feeder, just to be sure they don't miss the red strawberries when they ripen.

The rain gutter idea was a good one - I attached it to the outer edge of the porch railing so that the strawberries would grow above the wood and brighten the view with the green mounds of leaves, dotted with red berries. I did cover it all with "bird netting" but the netting only seems to work by tangling the less agile birds. And when they get caught, I naturally run out to help them get loose and fly away (to return another day to eat the berries).

2. Feed the local deer a healthy diet: plant the green beans so the vines will grow up the veggie garden fence. 

This one really isn't my fault. I built a really nice trellis inside the garden, arching over the walkway and ending beside the fence. Of course, since it's very happy green bean plant (about 8 of them, actually) the twinny little tendrils launched out and attached to the fence while I was away from home one week in early August.

Imagine how happy the deer were to discover the abundance of green beans at their eye level!  How conveniently grown.  No wonder they visit every morning, probably anxious to see what wonderful things I've provided for them to eat that day.

3. Put the Tanglefoot (a very sticky material intended to trap traveling insects like ants and weevils) on the bird feeder's post BEFORE you put it up: this way you're sure to get covered in the pine sap-like product that you will, before you realize it, transfer to your clothing, the lawn chair that was on the path to the feeder,  the neighbor's cat who desperately  needed a chin scratch, the door knob going back in the house, the light switch beside the bathroom sink...

4. Encourage the self-seeding Sunflowers and Hollyhocks (they're free and the birds really love them): this way you won't have to worry about weeds in the veggie garden since the 8' tall Sunflowers and Hollyhocks will block all access to the veggie garden.  Cutting them down seems criminal since the birds really love them - which is probably how the veggie garden became overwhelmed with both plants.  Every May I promise to pull out the little plants but it's so hard to do when nothing else is growing so well - by August, it's a jungle of towering plants, toppling into the other plants and walkway from the sheer weight of the flowerheads. But the birds love them so much (more than my hubby loves the squashes and cabbages)!

5. Be sure to start enough tomato (zucchini, squash, zinnia, sweet pea, calendula, lettuce) plants in late Winter; after all, not all 4 zucchini plants may survive: by the time all 6 tomato plants are ready to be planted out in the garden, you'll find the 7 plants that last year's fallen heirloom tomatoes have sprouted.  Pretty soon, you're reverse panhandling: "please, dear neighbor, take some tomato (squash, marigold, spinach) plants for your garden!"  Of course, if they're as over zealous as you are, they're trying to get rid of their own extra plants. And that's how I've grown cucumbers in my back porch flower pots, lettuce in my flower garden, and chives all over the yard.  To be honest, the unusual placement of the veggies is quite attractive and attention-getting.  I may intentionally repeat it next year (like I have a choice - I always start too many plants).

And who could complain about too many tomatoes??? 

What have you done that raises eyebrows and makes your family question your sanity? What 'mistakes' turned out so well you'd do them again? Share your experiences with us in the Comments, below.

Late August Garden Tips

The Summer is winding down? Really? Is it fair to say that when the temps this week have been in the mid-80s? But my garden is getting tired: the flower stems are long and leggy, the corn is being harvested daily, and even the lawn looks a bit scruffy (I like to fertilize in the early Fall).

So it's time to evaluate and appreciate this year's garden and do what's necessary to get "us" happily into the Fall.

First, deadhead all those zinnias, petunias, geraniums, Shasta daisies - they'll give one last bloom before the frost if the old blooms are snipped off. A light feeding (more phosporus than nitrogen - a fertilizer with  larger middle number than the other two) will keep the flowers happy.

Second, DON'T feed the tomatoes! Your plan should be to get all those lovely green tomatoes already on the plant to finish growing and start ripening.  Fertilizing now will encourage the plant to start new tomatoes and they'll never reach ripening stage before the frosts. You want the plant to put all its energy into ripening, not growing new stems or fruit.

Third, remember to nip the flowering tips off the herbs to keep them going. I've been trimming stems on my basil back to the lowest branch - see the red line in the picture? Trimming it back 

trim basil ever other week

causes the side shoots to grow into full stems and make the plant bushier - with more leaves. If you take the basil (or other herb) inside for the winter, continue to pinch off new stems until the plant is exhausted. I keep a Basil and a Rosemary plant in my living room all winter - careful pruning/pinching of the Rosemary gives me a tiny Christmas tree in December.

Fourth, get some deep watering around your trees. Once the ground freezes, you'll have to wait for a good thaw in January or February to water again, so don't let the trees start the winter dehydrated. It's a fallacy to think that a dormant tree doesn't need any water - if we get a good snowfall or three, they'll be quite happy but in the last few years we haven't been able to count on much winter precipitation. Treat them right and give them a good soak now.

Excuse me, it that YOUR homegrown mint?

Fifth, pull up a chair and appreciate all your hard work! It'll be gone soon (tradititonally, our first hard frosts are in early September) and everything will be back to that winter brown and gray.  Put your feet up, have a little snack and enjoy the beauty you created. We'll talk again soon about Fall chores but for now, pat yourself on the back - it looks great out there!

Managing Those Pests

We recently got a new kitty - our senior male cat has become more of a floor mat than a cat and I hoped a new kitty would shake up his world a little. But it seems that she's shaken up everyone's world around here!

She was brought to the Humane Society as a sick & pregnant 2 year old, found on the street. Once they nursed her back to health and she had her kittens, she was ready for adoption. The Redmond shelter was wonderful, letting us walk around the rooms with the cats, experiencing their different personalities. When we saw this little calico girl, we fell in love - and then the volunteer got out the laser and our new love chased it all over the room. Love at (almost) first sight.

She's been home with us for about a month now and is all settled in. Since we live on a dead-end street with no traffic and no free-roaming dogs, we knew she'd enjoy exploring our half acre property. Little did we know that she'd take over everything except the mortgage!

We seem to have a serious infestation of grasshoppers every summer. They jump and fly in my face as I walk across the garden - and their munching makes the plants look bedraggled and ugly. No longer - the little Terror of the Neighborhood loves to leap up and pull them out of the air! Then she bites them in half, obviously enjoying her new-found job as resident hunter.

When the grasshoppers began to avoid her (or she's killed off enough of them to make a difference), she must have decided to find another victim - and now she's after the voles and chipmunks.  I've been plagued by them both, eating the plants in my greenhouse and even coming up on my elevated deck to eat the container plants.  One chipmunk spent its days munching sunflower seeds in the bird feeder, eating the flowers in the pots, and sleeping it off in a tiny, almost unreachable space between the plants. Not any more - she watched the chipmunk from the window until she knew "his" routine and then went out and had him for lunch! It was frightening to watch, but I had to admire her tenacity.

She's even challenged the local deer - growling and arching her back when they appear in the garden. The same behavior worked on the neighbor's dog but I'm not so sure it's going to stop the flower-eating deer in our yard. Since she's a tiny cat, I really love her attitude.

We try hard to not use pesticides at our house - I love the bees and butterflies that seem to hang out in our garden all summer long.  It means that sometimes our plants look a little abused with holes in some leaves and stems with no flowers. But now I've got a new pest management plan: let the Terror of the Neighborhood loose in the garden and step away from the sprayer. She knows her job and she's doing it well.

Now if she'd just stop bringing her half-eaten trophies home and leaving them on the doormat to decompose, she'd be a great addition to my integrated pest management!


Update: on Friday, September 4th, she brought home (to the back door mat) 3 voles: two dead, one still alive enough for her to chase it around the back porch containers for 30 minutes. I don't expect to see many voles in our yard this winter!

The Incredible Lightness of Bee-ing

I love to sit and weed - it's such a peaceful, Zen-like thing to do on a pleasant summer day. I never use ear buds to listen to music and my phone is turned off so I can hear the garden; the rustle of the leaves in the little gusts of wind, the continuous chirping of the birds in the trees and, especially, my friendly local honey bees and bumblebees.

My hubby and I are tickled each year when the early summer weather helps the cat mint to bloom and attract the big, fat, clumsy-looking bumble bees.  They always make us laugh when they perch on the tiny blue flowers causing the short stems to bend almost to the ground with their weight.

This is a Honey Bee

Have you ever looked at a bee on a flower?  If they've been working at it for a while, they'll be coated in yellow pollen - almost discoloring their fuzzy black bodies. They have little saddlebags on their "hips" where they pack the nectar to bring it back to the hive and it's easy to see on the fat bumble bees.

I often hear people worrying about "bee" stings. But when they describe the insect (long smooth body, yellow and black bands of color) and where they saw it (at the picnic table, foraging in the abandoned hamburger), I can assure them it's a wasp or a yellow jacket they're describing, NOT a bee.

This is a Yellow Jacket Wasp

You can pretty safely assume a  bee won't sting you unless you're directly threatening its nest - they die if they sting, when their stinger is ripped from their body.  A wasp (a yellow jacket is a variety of wasp) will sting if you stop them in their hunt for food or threaten their nest.  Actually, by keeping them from hunting for your hamburger, they probably think you are threatening their nest since they need to build up reserves for the winter. And they can sting repeatedly without harming themselves.

But the bees are our primary source of food - did you know that one of every three servings of food on your family's table is due to bees and other pollinators? The humble bee helps the squash blossom, the carrot umbel, the tomato flower develop into a fruit. Without bees we wouldn't have most of our agricultural crops including alfalfa, onions, cherries, apples, watermelon, raspberries, almonds (and many other nuts) and our flowers.

Recently I read an article in the Washington Post that said that we don't need to worry, the bees aren't dying in huge numbers - that it was all a fabrication.  I was quite surprised since no beekeeper or university source agrees with the conservative organization that claimed a resurgence of the bee population this summer.  Indeed, deeper reading revealed that the source of the optimism are  beekeepers who said they're buying new queens, new hives, and using all available measures to save their bees from extinction. They're trying desperately to protect their bees from the ravages of temperature change, illness, and increased pesticide usage.

There may be hope for the bees when more and more homeowners, farmers and small-tract growers think globally and act locally to plant organic when feasible, develop native habitat around their crops, limit pesticide use (herbicides and insecticides) and support local growers selling local products.

This bee is really "into" his job

If you would like to read more about the bees and our crops:
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=C934 
http://beelab.umn.edu/index.htm

http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm

http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/ec1623-e.pdf

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/pollinate/gardeners/