There's always something new to learn about gardening
By LaVERLE McCANDLESS
Contributor
“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth…and no culture comparable to that of the garden…But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.” Thomas Jefferson
The above quote says to me what he thought of gardening and how much gardening and plants do change over the course of years. When you think about all the things he had done and accomplished in his life and then to call himself a “young gardener” which to me means that he was continually learning about gardening.
Gardening is a “NEVER THE SAME” project. There is always something new, exasperating, a challenge, a BIG SUCCESS one year and not the next, on and on. Every gardener experiences this and that is the fun and beauty of gardening. You just never know how things are going to grow, what the weather is going to be like, you name it, and you just may experience it.
We were looking back five years in Don's journal, in the week after Mother's Day in 2006, we had one day of 92 degrees when the A/C was turned on, one day of thunder storms with hail and high winds and yet the garden was pretty much planted in that week with the seeds. Only the corn and hot weather potted plants weren't transplanted until the next week. All was finished week before Memorial weekend in 2006.
Each year from 2006 to 2011, we were planting seeds and transplanting of the hot weather plants later and later. So far this year only the potatoes are in the ground and that happened on one of the best days of sunshine and the soil was dry enough to plant into. When the conditions are right, then it will be plant like crazy. The weather had been pretty good for the cool weather plants even if they have to be covered some nights. We hope to have most of the garden in around the end of this month or first part of June. Journaling is great way to keep track and look back on what was done and when.
It is a good thing we plant short season plants, really can't rely on a long fall season without a killing frost sometime between September 15th and the end of October. So you see there is something changing in our climate world.
Something to remember about the instructions on the back of seed packets or on the plant labels is the days to maturity. If the tomato plant says 72 days, this is the normal time from the time the plant was transplanted its last time from the pot to the garden to have its first ripened fruit, not from the date it germinated.
Another thing to remember is that the hot weather plants also need good warm soil; yes they need their roots warm in order to help the ripening process. You can use the red or black plastic on the ground and cut large X's in the plastic where you are going to transplant the plants. Then gently replace the points of the plastic and you can keep it in place with a little soil or small rocks, anything to keep the points from flopping around before the plants get larger. The plastic will keep the soil warm.
You can water near the stems of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants without hurting these plants. In fact, they prefer watering this way instead of overhead watering.
Gardeners of Cheney will have their annual spring plant sale on Saturday, May 21, starting at 8:30 a.m. until noon in the parking lot at Mitchell's Harvest Food.
Comments and questions should be directed to LaVerle at (509) 455-7568 or laverle905@gmail.com.
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