September Garden Chores

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

The fall equinox is approaching quickly. The weather is changing. Autumn offers opportunities to plant and transplant; the soil retains warmth longer than the air can—a perfect combination for encouraging root growth. With cooler temperatures and short day length, plant growth slows. The roots have a chance to get established without the additional stress of transpiration or pumping water through plant and out the leaf surfaces.

Autumn is a great time to make compost piles with debris from the vegetable garden, perennial plants and deciduous leaves. Some people prefer to leave the dead foliage and seed heads for spring removal allowing insects and birds food and habitat overwinter. Try it, but note that adding garden clean-up to normal spring chores might overwhelm some gardeners.

Edibles

Fruit trees: Most tree fruits are ripe when they come off easily by lifting and twisting the fruit. Take care not to break off the short branch with buds known as a fruit spur. Cut open an apple —ripe seeds are brown. Pears are picked when they are still hard, before they are fully ripe. They soften from the inside out. Asparagus: Let the fronds remain and turn yellow. Cut them back to the ground after a hard frost. If you have an excess of produce, try making sauerkraut or kraut-chi.

Soil Fertility

Soil Samples: Every couple of years it is worthwhile to take a soil sample and get it tested. Although Jefferson Conservation District no longer handles soil testing, they do lend a tool for extracting clean samples and lab suggestions including A&L. I’ve had good luck with Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.

Compost: Build compost piles in bins or free-standing rectangles. All the autumn decaying foliage from the veggie garden, perennials, and deciduous leaves. Add a source of Nitrogen: manure; powdered fish or bloodmeal; or urine.

Mulch shrubs and garden beds for winter protection and weed suppression. The increased organic matter that will eventually feed the soil ecosystem.

Cover-cropping: After removing spent vegetables, rake the soil, add seeds of clover,  field peas, oats, rye, vetch, or fava beans. More information from WSU All seed available at Chimacum Corner.

Pests

Yellow jackets

Recognize yellow jackets and their underground nests. In the autumn listen for buzzing if there are more than two yellow jackets in a location, step back and search the ground for more. Yellow jackets can sting repeatedly. By contrast, bees avoid stinging because it is lethal, it rips out their stinger. Learn to distinguish them.

Spring Bulbs

Plant bulbs and corms now for spring bloom. The earliest bloomers are the small bulbs: snowdrops, crocus, chionodoxa, Siberian squill and winter aconite. Select bulbs that are firm with no signs of injury or mold. If one bulb is lightweight compared to  others, discard it. Plant with root side down and pointy end up. Plant at depth three time the length. Small bulbs often are earliest. See Royal Horticulture Society for more information.

Asparagus

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

Asparagus shoots are emerging–here is a crop to test our commitment to delayed gratification!  Some clients have told me they tried growing asparagus but gave up. This perennial vegetable requires a dedicated bed and will produce for decades if well-tended. Growing asparagus well is time-consuming; let’s look at what it takes. One trick is to prepare the planting site well in advance.

 Preparing the bed: Diligently remove all perennial weeds and prevent them from getting established. Add lots of organic matter and water deeply until the plants are  established. If the soil is heavy clay,  prepare a raised bed. Wait a couple of years before harvesting to allow the plants to get established.

Harvesting: Begins for a couple of weeks in the third year. Snap or cut the shoots at the base. After about five years, harvest for almost 8 weeks or as long as the shoots are vigorous and finger-wide. Stop harvesting before emerging shoots are spindly. By allowing the fronds to grow and nourish the plant, we  prevent the plant from losing vigor.

The plants are either male or female. They are sold in nurseries as 1-year old crowns. All-male varieties have the advantage of bigger shoots. Growing them from seed means you will also have slender female plants that put more energy into producing red fruits and seed. Be sure to remove volunteer seedlings so they don’t crowd out the initial crowns. In the autumn after the plants turn yellow, cut them to the ground.

Staking: Do you lean more to the aesthetic or very efficient gardening mode? An asparagus crop is a prime candidate for edible landscaping with its ferny leaves. Stake individual plants or use a horizontal trellis (used for growing long-stemmed flowers) to allow the ferny fronds to sway a bit.

 If you have a no-nonsense, efficient approach to the garden then plant them in a row and place wood or metal posts at both ends. Once the plants are tall and start to bend, string a line from post to post and pin the plants in as the plants mature. A month later twine another string about a foot or two above the first to hold them in place. In any event, asparagus is a delicious addition to the garden.

April in the Garden 2024

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

Springtime can be overwhelming. Everywhere we look something is calling out in need of attention. One of my garden mentors, Beth Nelson from Camp Joy Gardens, always said, “The garden is forgiving. If we don’t get it right this year, we can try again next year. Be patient with yourself.” Enjoy the time in the garden. Here are suggestions for where to begin:

  • General garden maintenance
  • Liquid fertilizer like fish and seaweed solution benefits plants more quickly in cold soil than the dry fertilizer.
  • Control weeds before they flower.
  • In the edible garden
  • Time to pull back straw mulch to allow the soil to warm.
  • Plant bare-root strawberries and raspberries
  • Transplant vegetable starts
  • Cover pea bed with floating row covers
  • Direct sow root crops like radish, spinach, chard, lettuce, mustard greens
  • Top-dress beds of perennial crops and flowers with well-aged compost.
  • Landscape care
  • Read our post about pruning flowering shrubs
  • Replenish alder chips or arborist-chip mulch. Be careful with trunks of shrubs & trees—no mulch within six inches. (Mulch can keep the trunks moist and allow disease organisms to breed.)
  • Add lime to lawns.
  • Learn to appreciate the many benefits of weeds in the lawn—think polyculture!
  • Mow grass leaving it about 2 1/2 inches tall.
  • Hand pick & destroy slugs and snails. Learn to recognize snail eggs.
  • Sprinkle Sluggo or other nontoxic slug bait

Vegetable Starts

Start seeds indoors if you can grow healthy starts that are sturdy and dark green. Inadequate light causes the seedlings to grow spindly and fragile. Indoor lighting is dim compared with sunshine. Even a cloudy day offers more light than a typical florescent grow-light.

Once they have germinated, place the seedling trays outside on nice days. At first place them in a protected bright spot and then a day or two later, set them in full sunlight. And a light breeze will help then get sturdier. Also, by placing them outside, and bringing them in at night, the seedlings have begun the harden-off process. Otherwise, if they are greenhouse grown and then directly placed in the cold garden soil, the young plants can go into shock rather than grow.

The goal is to transplant them to the garden when they have two or three sets of true leaves. A grey, overcast day helps prevent transplant shock. If all this is too much effort, buy the vegetable starts. You can always sow your own seeds later in the season. We are so lucky here in Jefferson County to have excellent seedlings available from Midori Farm and Red Dog Farm. They are available now at the PT food Coop and Chimacum Corner Farmstand. They carry an array of vegetable varieties that thrive here.

Pruning

Shrubs that produce vigorous replacement shoots are good plants to learn pruning. These  flower on one-year old wood. If you only shear them, they never flower well. Also there will be a lot of thicker woody stems. Remove any crossing branches and weak or dead stems.

Proper pruning is a combination of thinning out—removing the branch all the way back to a larger branch, and heading back—what hedge shears are good for. Most novices just do heading back cuts. The problem is the plant grows into a dense hedge with just an inch or two of vegetation on the surface. A healthy pruning jobs increases the depth of foliage by allowing light and air in to the shrub.

Examples are flowering currant, mock orange (or Philadelphus), forsythia, kerria and flowering quince. Wait until the flowers are faded before pruning.

Making Lists

Springtime can be overwhelming. Everywhere we look something is calling out in need of attention. One solution is making lists. Walk through the garden and write down anything that needs attention. Next set priorities. Sometimes fifteen minutes is enough time to tackle a crucial task. To borrow a term from construction industry, consider making a punch list. Keep a running list of projects that require additional help or some expertise. At the end of the day, it is satisfying to cross off items. Of course, sometimes I enjoy puttering in the garden, skipping around in a relaxed fashion. This can be a form of horticultural therapy where enjoying the clouds skittering across the sky, or watching insect behavior is just as satisfying as accomplishing something.