Keeping Kitties Out of Seedbeds with "Garden" Forks

 For years I've been using plastic forks and spoons in my newly planted seed beds with great results: no cat digging! George runs along the edge of the bed but not through it.

 The little seedlings come up between the plastic ware with no trouble and the guardians of the garden can be reused year after year.

This year I found a box of used bottle caps when I ran out of forks. So far, they're working just as well in keeping the cats sidelined.

Whatever the Weather

One of the difficulties of gardening in a fickle year is trying to intuit what plants will shine no matter what.

In our case, here on the north coast of Oregon, we receive an inordinate amount of rainfall, winds have been higher and later than usual and we have at times, very little actual sun. With high overcast skies the norm, most of our plants wilt when the sun finally does appear and the temperatures rise from 45-55 degrees to the "70's or higher.

Wherever you are, you may be laughing about us thinking those temps are hot, but we tend to wilt a bit, both humans and plants when the sun finally shows it's pretty face. We can plan for such vicissitudes and vagaries by planting a wide range of vegetables and planting more of what we know can take the middle road, which in our case is the cabbage family including, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, mustard and Asian greens like Bok Choy. Most of this family are very adaptable and comfortable in our climate. Many also over-winter and are a major source of green food for the "other six months" of gardening.

In a fickle year, kale is the "Queen of survival gardening". I've grown White Russian, Winter Red, a nameless lacy heirloom variety (let's call it "Victorian Secret"), Nero Di Toscana (also called "dino" or "palm" kale), Peacock kale and Dwarf Siberian.There is a kale for everyone and for every purpose from raw in salads to kale chips and soup.

Other plants grooving on the damp and cool gloom are: peas, radishes, beets, lettuce, most of the herbs, potatoes, Swiss chard, French sorrel and Purple Sprouting Broccoli (an overwintering/sprouts-the-following-spring brassica).

Major "pouters" include: tomatoes, cilantro, beans (except Runner bean and some purple beans), carrots (slooow), onions, cauliflower and amaranth. These plants need higher soil temperatures to go forth and multiply. Some plants, like tomatoes, can vacation in a greenhouse while waiting for the weather to become tolerably warm enough for them to venture outdoors. I like to buy mine from a nursery greenhouse with fruits already setting. I always get ripe tomatoes that way.

It may be challenging to garden here at times, but we are the champions of kale-culture.

If You Are New To My Blog...

If you're just popping in for the first time to my gardening blog, I'd like to encourage you to check out my previous postings of 2011 which have no expiration date on the usefulness of the information.

In that banner year I did a series called, "My Favorite Vegetables" in five installments: "Salad Veggies", "Peas and Beans", "Eat Your Greens", "Rooting for Roots"and "Harbingers of Spring: Purple Sprouting Broccoli & Chives". If you are new to gardening, gardening on the coast or new to eating freshly grown vegetables you will find these posts to be a fun review of what's possible to grow here and some particular varieties that (in my opinion) stand above the rest in flavor, suitability to our climate and ease of growing.

I also did a review of the many edible fruits that were growing in the garden I last participated in: "And the Winners Are". This posting will introduce you to a list of common and rare fruiting plants and how well they adapted to our climate. All of these plants were donated to the farm by "One Green World", an online plant catalog. The coast is particularly suited to growing many types of berries and fruits.

You will also find a posting about watering, which looking out the window today you may think unnecessary, but come summer you may want to refer back to if you are gardening on sand (most gardeners in Manzanita).

One of my favorite postings is about the sort of plants that some gardeners welcome and others scrupulously remove: self-seeding, self-sowing, happy interlopers. You choose which ones to befriend and which to demonize.

That should keep you busy reading until my next posting. Happy gardening!

I'm Back!

Hello fellow gardeners! I'm back to garden blogging after a bit of a hiatus. I now have a camera to visually help inform and inspire you to greater wonders in your own gardening.

We're off to a sloggy start here on the coast after a "false spring" the beginning of May that had some of us (even veteran gardeners) planting way too early. Amazingly, many things I planted: scarlet runner beans, purple fillet beans, tomatoes and squash family plants are hanging in there and starting to grow as long as I keep up the slug patrol. I'm using Sluggo, a safe-for-pets-and-people product to kill the ones that make it into the garden, past the slug-moats of wood chips and vertical barriers. (I could go on about slug remedies but the internet is swimming in remedial recipes to foil the slimy and voracious pests).

I'm a new member of a community garden very close to the last one I was gardening in but with new people and a very different solar aspect and soil. "The Spirit Garden on Coyote Ridge" is situated on a N.E. facing formerly wooded slope surrounded by the requisite 8 foot elk fence that is the only thing that makes it possible to have a garden in this area of large, hungry elk herds.

The garden I left was sandy soil and it's great to be back on "real" soil again. The forest loam is chock full of woody bits, chunks and large parts of departed trees which makes digging anywhere a kind of treasure hunt. You never know what your fork will hit. All that woody debris is great for making the soil more fertile and moisture retentive during the hotter months (coastal readers of this statement are snickering about using the word, "hotter") but this garden actually does get damn hot as it faces away from the prevailing coastal breezes. Maybe we will be able to grow some of those heat-loving vegetables we've nearly given up on. We'll see

I've been to "Don's Waterfall Farm" nursery (see facebook) in Tillamook a couple of times and was easily lured into jump-starting the garden with some unusual plants: purple turnips, parsley root (well-known in Europe), a miniature cuke, yellow beets and a crimson-splashed heirloom lettuce mix. I also bought leeks, scallions, parsley, celery and potatoes. Almost all of these could be started from seed but I am starting over in a new garden and have left behind many plants which would have over-wintered and still be providing food. I don't want to waste any time getting reestablished. There are still a number of herbs and cabbage family members in the new garden that are producing" leaves and tasty sprouts which will keep us in greens until the new crops get going.

I dragged some seaweed home from the beach, washed off the salt in the driveway, then chopped it up and put it in a bucket of water to make a nutritious tea for the new seedling and starts. It's my first time doing it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy spring gardening! We have a saying here: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change".

 

THE MAGICAL ACT OF GARDENING CLASSES STARTING SAT JAN 21ST

For those of you who have been following my gardening blog, here's info about a five Saturday mornings series of fun, interactive gardening classes I'm hosting through The Rainbow Lotus on Hwy 101 in Nehalem, Oregon. I'd love to see you there! (You may attend one or all of the classes and there is a discount for prepayment if you're attending all five).

JANUARY/FEB CLASSES: THE MAGICAL ACT OF GARDENING

Creating a garden is the ultimate sacred path, merging the spiritual essence of humanity with the spirit of place. Come along on a journey with me exploring the garden as metaphor, sanctuary and source of nourishment, both physical and spiritual. On walking tours we will learn about our native plant communities and the ornamental plant visitors from all over the world that happily make their new home here. We’ll also explore winter vegetable gardens in our area, inspiring us to grow our own food year-round. Indoors, we’ll be sharing our stories of connection with the natural world, talk about eco-mythology, learn how to tap into the “Genius Loci” (spirit of place) wherever you are and learn basic fundamentals of good garden design.

ABOUT MAIA HOLLIDAY: I’m an Oregon native with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the U of O. I moved to the Nehalem Bay Area in 2001 and immediately began working at “Three Peas in a Pod”, a nursery/giftshop in Manzanita. There, I met most of the gardeners in the community and learned about what plants were being used in landscapes and what plants I would have to give up (without a greenhouse). After that, I started doing landscape design, eventually creating a Landscape Contracting business with Lucy Brook, “Manzanita Gardens”. I’ve designed and installed over 35 gardens in the area. I prefer to work at a slower, more thoughtful pace so I went back to design only and managing the Permaculture vegetable garden at Alder Creek Farm (LNCT). For the past three years, myself and a small group of devoted gardeners, have delightfully indulged in experimentation with a vast range of edible plants and taste-tested the results. Coastal gardening presents unique challenges and wonderful opportunities for the adventurous soul. Come and be inspired!

CLASSES AND DATES:

JAN 21st, Saturday 10-Noon, “Gardening as a path of healing, nourishment and deep connection with place. In Nehalem, upstairs (between Art Happens and Dashing Dog) (NCCA) 35850 Hwy 101

JAN 28th Saturday 10-Noon, Manzanita plant walk, meet in Manzanita Post Office parking lot, dress for the weather.

Feb 4th Saturday 10-Noon, upstairs 35850 Hwy 101, Nehalem. “Tools of the trade”: different approaches to garden designing and how to discover your own unique way of creation.

FEB 11th Saturday 10-Noon, “Edible gardens tour”: Alder Creek Farm Permaculture Garden and other winter gardens; end of Underhill Lane off of 101 (turn off  is next to far corner of storage units/laundromat, one street down from Tohl Ave) .

FEB 18th Saturday 10-Noon “Begin at the beginning”, a tour and storytelling of one woman’s creation of her dream home and garden sanctuary in Manzanita. Tea and snacks afterwards.

COST: $15 per class. Prepay discount: $65 ($10 savings). Pay at Rainbow Lotus, 35890 Hwy 101, Nehalem. (503) 368-2112. Cash, check or credit card. Make checks payable to Maia Holliday. RSVP appreciated.

The Coastal Gardener's Waterloo

I can't believe it's almost the end of August and I haven't posted since mid spring.
Blame it on summer! Summer, that demanding season that started out (here, anyway) feeling more like early spring with hints of winter.
Now, finally, we have real sun (mostly) and dry, warm days and our Permaculture members are spending more time holding onto the end of a hose.
Many gardeners think that watering is easy. You can choose to put water on your garden in a number of different ways, using all sorts of watering devices. Choosing the best way for your soil and lifestyle and knowing when you've watered "enough" is the tricky part. I've seen many gardeners water with a trigger nozzle on the end of the hose, set to a hard-spray setting, knocking their plants sideways with what the plants would consider a gale-force hurricane and wonder why the plants always look a bit beaten up. Usually this forceful method does not lay down enough water to get the job done and often damages the plants.
How much water is enough? Well, it depends. No, I don't put out measuring cups or use water meters. I do what most people surprisingly don't do: I bend down and dig into the soil and feel with my fingers feeling how much moisture is in the ground around the plants. If  I detect dryness, I go down to see how far down that dryness goes. Only then do I start watering. After I water, I check the places that were really dry again.
Hand watering does take considerable time and for many people it's very relaxing, especially if you spend most of your day indoors. The attention to each bed allows the watchful gardener to notice ripe fruit and vegetables, pest problems, how well plants are growing, nutritional deficiencies, birds, pollinators, pet damage, natural random splendors and experience a time to just "be".
Our soil is sandy and anything in addition to plain old sand is put there by us. The only sand that's sandier is on the nearby beaches. Sand is very difficult to keep hydrated and if it is allowed to completely dry out it develops a personality disorder known as "hydrophobia". In other words, it chemically repels water molecules. Re-hydrating dry, dusty sand is a discouraging and difficult business. If large droplets of water hit the sand they will roll right off and find a more welcoming location. Sprinklers with mist settings work well to lay down tiny amounts of water over a period of time. Be patient. It can take days of intermittent soft watering to fix this problem. Once the soil rehydrates, use a layer of mulch and regular watering to keep it moist.
We strive to keep our sandy gardening soil evenly hydrated by watering frequently. We do all our watering with a 50' hose and a watering wand, set for "shower", snaking it down the aisles between raised beds. It's kept on the path by strategically placed  neck-down-in-the-ground buried wine bottles which are slick and keep the hose off of the planting beds.
The first solution to sandy, fast-draining soil, is the addition of practically anything comprised  of organic matter: manure, compost, leaves, coffee grounds and husks, straw, garden debris, composted wood products and fresh-water rinsed seaweed, to name a few. The second part of the solution is watering frequently enough that the soil never reaches the hydrophobic stage.
It would seem sensible to use soaker hoses (made of  nubbly-black recycled tires), and next year we may do that in parts of the garden. Because we are visited by the public, we try not to have hoses across the pathways. Soaker hoses which weep water though tiny pores, sometimes do not water enough square footage in sand as the water tends to run straight down instead of fanning out sideways. Small sprinklers may work better until the sand has accumulated enough organic humus over the years to be able to absorb and hold more moisture.
Here in the Alder Creek Permaculture Garden, we lay down water exactly where it is needed, especially on the beds that have just been seeded during this warmer weather. We water in the morning if we can and put the nozzle down under the leaves near the soil so that standing water droplets will not burn the leaves if it's a hot day.
Seed beds usually need water twice a day to keep the seeds and seedlings viable. Fall plantings are completely at the mercy of the gardener. Vigilant gardeners in these here "sandy parts", who put in their watering dues now will reap the most bountiful Fall harvests. Come late September, we can all sit back and watch the clouds take over our watering chores.

QUACK ATTACK!

Our slug-terminating Khaki Campbell ducks at Alder Creek Farm
"Blue Moon" upfront and center. Photo by justinbailie.com .

This spring's weather is about to set some records for wettest and coldest (for here) in years. The community garden is a swamp and cannot be tilled yet. The permaculture garden sits on higher ground but it's still cold and wet.
These are not ideal conditions for germinating seeds that need higher soil temperatures to grow, (and not rot). These are perfect conditions for slugs and ducks!
We are lucky to have a very large greenhouse to grow starts in, allowing us to bypass the worst of the spring and plant ready-to-go healthy seedlings later in the season when, hopefully, the weather will be more beneficent.
Meanwhile, the slugs and snails are happily procreating in what's left of last year's crop, the grass next to the gardens and under every rock, board, and brick possible.
Send in the ducks! With portable fences, we can drive the ducks daily into garden areas to seek out and destroy the slimy mollusks and hungry grubs. They never tire of waddling about wiggling their bills under every nook and cranny to feast on slugs, snails and red worms. And, in an incredible alchemy witnessed every morning before the ducks leave the "Quack Shack", slugs are magically transformed into big, beautiful and tasty eggs.
When we decided whether to get ducks or chickens for egg-laying, thankfully, we chose ducks. Because of their love of the wet conditions that are prevalent here, they are a perfect fit. Having lovely, khaki-colored down coats with natural water-proofing, which they reapply daily with their bills, our ducks are, well, just "ducky" in all kinds of weather.
Once when I was out gardening with them, a big hail storm swept in. I ran for the cover of a roof and they kept right on grubbing while big ice pellets bounced off their backs.
Ducks are easy to care for and have fewer diseases and other problems than other domestic fowl. They are ideal in a home setting. Though their quacking can be loud at times (ours hear us drive up to the farm to do our duck chores and loudly ask to be let out of the small pen that keeps them safe from raccoons, coyotes and dogs at night), most of the time they are happily and quietly cruising the gardens making friendly little peeps. They don't crow at dawn either.
I often work in the garden alone and the quacky Campbells work right alongside me, especially if I'm pulling up plants or otherwise exposing worms and slugs. If one of them finds a big prize, the others give chase and their antics are highly entertaining.
They need safe shelter, access to water in the form of a small tub or kiddie wading pool and with laying hens, laying mash (the same type fed to chickens).
Domestic ducks are very well suited to our fickle coastal climate. I'm not knocking chickens and I've had them before, but I must confess these little rascals are a heap of fun and they don't tear out plants if monitored and moved regularly.
This year the Quack Shack will have additional ducks and their 4H caretakers, local kids who are raising them to show at the Tillamook County Fair. Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack, quack.
Look out slugs!