Good Gardening

After a long- longest if you count rainy days- winter, we, and our plants are itching to get outside, and soak up some sun.

This is a terrible time to plant tulips or daffodils.  But it is the perfect time to get inspired by a colorful spring spectacle that has it's roots in a fall planting ritual.

40 plus years ago, while living in Northern California, I brought raspberry plants to my parents in Salem.  Years later, I brought offspring of those plants to my garden in Eugene. 

Bare root tree and shrub planting time is almost here.  Bare root plants are packed in wet sawdust or shavings, You can get them pre-packaged, but I like going through the bins at local nurseries. You'll see the roots before you buy the tree.

 If you are looking for a gift for the gardener in your life, I have a few ideas that will make the garden more productive, the gardener more comfortable, and the house quieter.

When you plant a dozen tulip bulbs in Wisconsin, you get 12 blooms the first spring, 8 the next, and one or two by the third year. The cold climate is tough on the showiest flowers of spring.

Good Gardening's John Fischer says because Oregon's summer nights are cool, it's better to ripen garden tomatoes indoors to get the best flavor.

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If you like fresh fruit, the phrase tree ripened makes you drool.  But there are important exceptions to the rule.  You need to pick your Bartlett pears while they are firm, green, and mature, so they can ripen into the soft, yellow, juicy fruit you love.

  I like cats- sometimes.  Burl Ives likes cats.  (Music from "Here Kitty").  But when I'm sifting my fingers through the soft spring soil preparing to put seeds in the ground, and I find the surprises the cats have left for me, I don't like them- at all.

  Everybody has a favorite vegetable. I have a favorite for each month- well two- a favorite to plant, and a favorite to eat. For April they are both leeks. We are finishing off the last few of the wonderful midwinter harvest planted last April, and it is time to put in a new crop for next year.

The weather has warmed, the soil is dry (er), and  the spring planting season has begun- Gentlemen, don't start your engines.

At this point in the winter, fresh fruit may seem like a long forgotten dream.  The frozen blue berries, and dried pears do a valiant job of substituting,  But if you want juicy moist fruit on your cereal, or in your lunch box you might think it has to spend time on a boat first, and come from the southern hemisphere.

You might think the recent cold weather over Thanksgiving was bad for your garden. John Fischer tells us the opposite is true.

If you are planning to plant a fruit tree in the future there are a few things you should do right now.
  (Crunch Crunch)
Firsht, shelect the ploper barity - ok, first finish that bite of apple.

Ah the sounds of summer sprinklers  For many people, keeping the grass green is a  long standing tradition.  That tradition was brought from areas that have wet summers, and naturally green grass in July.

Spring started early this year. That's been good for your salad bowl, and tomato prospects, but there is a downside to early onset warm weather syndrome.

  A lot of you have already put in your vegetable gardens.  A few sunny warm days often causes an outbreak of planting fever.  But for some crops it's still to early to plant, and for others you'll need to replant several times during the season to keep a good harvest coming.
  Melons, cucumbers, basil, and most squash need warm soil to live long and prosper.  Put them in too early- either as starts or seeds, and the plants will struggle all season.  Wait until late May, and you basil will be knee high by the 4th of July.

As spring rears its lovely head, you may find some of your holdover plants doing the same thing.  Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Kale and other cruciferous vegetables are producing seed heads right now.
  Broccoli,  Cauliflower, and Romanesco, are bred to produce a huge flower bud- that you eat.  But the flower buds on collard greens, cabbage, bok choy, Arugula,  and the like are nutritious, tasty, and available.

Winter in Oregon is gray, wet, grey, cloudy, and often gray.  While the evergreens that symbolize the state provide some dark color to the landscape, a few plants seem to defy the "I'll just blend in here if you don't mind" look.
  Colorful stemmed dogwoods and willows almost glow in shades of yellow, orange, red, and purple from the day the leaves fall off in fall until they are muted again by leaves in the spring.

Hi, I'm master gardener John Fischer with KLCC's Good Gardening.

Would you be interested in a garden product that adds fertility to you soil, saves water, and cuts down on weeding-- all while helping the environment?
  Then you're ready for Miracle Leaves.

  John- this is NPR.  Can we tone it down a bit.

Garlic breath- radio technology doesn't allow that to be transmitted- yet.

But without garlic many of your favorite foods would be bland and boring.  Imagine lasagna, spaghetti, pesto without the spice that makes them great.

Corn stalks and tomatoes, covered with split fruits.
Zucchini and peppers, even the dead roots.

Scraggly bean plants help up with strings,
These are your garden soils favorite things.

Are you outside cleaning up the vegetable patch, and listening to the radio?  Well stop ! Not the listening, the cleaning.  Despite the passing of Labor Day, there is a lot of summer- and growing season- left in Oregon.

I know you're probably just picking your first tomatoes, and still waiting for peppers to get ripe, but it's time plan for your winter garden
  Any space where you will have harvested the spring or summer crop by the end of August is an area ready to grow more food-- right through the winter.  My spring lettuce crop has pretty much gone to seed, I dug garlic a few days ago, and the potatoes will be ready to harvest late in the month.  All those areas can be second cropped with vegetables that take the cold, and give you fresh produce on New Years Day.