8
in other words
february21
2019
Diggin’ In The Dirt: Planning and Planting for Spring
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University
Extension Service - Columbia County
Basic Woodland Management course
Our OSU Extension forester,
Amy Grotta, is offering a class in March.
Everything she puts on is exceptionally
well done. Registration now open!
This five-session course is
ideal for anyone who is just starting
out taking care of a woodland property.
Topics to be covered include:
• Getting started: assessing your
property and site
• What’s going on in your woods?
Understanding tree biology, forest
ecology, and habitat
• Taking care of your woods: tree
planting, care for an established forest,
weed control
• Getting it done: Timber sale logistics,
laws and regulations
• Field trip to see first-hand examples of
what you’ve learned
Dates: Tuesday/Thursday, March 12,
14, 19, 21. Saturday field trip TBD
(probably March 23 or 30)
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location: Columbia County Extension
office, 505 N. Columbia River Hwy, St.
Helens
Cost: $40/individual or $50/couple
sharing materials
To register: https://tinyurl.com/
basicwoodland2019 or call Sonia at
(503) 397-3462. Deadline: Friday,
March 1.
Grafting workshop March 9 th
The OSU Extension office in
St. Helens will be hosting a grafting
workshop on March 9 from 9:00 am
- 12:00 pm. Participants will be taught
how to graft apple scions on to dwarf
apple rootstocks. Each participant
will receive 5 rootstocks to work with
and supplies to secure the graft. Scion
varieties will be available for free or
participants can bring their own varieties
they wish to graft. Cost of the workshop
is $15. The class is limited to 20 people
so early registration will assure a place.
To register or for more information, call
the Extension office at (503) 397-3462.
Field to Market workshop March 7 th
OSU Extension is hosting a
workshop titled “Field to Market” which
will explore how to produce a value-add-
ed food product and sell it. Experts will
discuss Oregon Department of Agricul-
ture regulations, recipe development, la-
beling guidelines, pH testing, marketing,
and pricing. The workshop is geared to
fruit and vegetable farmers or other food
entrepreneurs. It will be held Thursday,
March 7, from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm at the
Columbia Soil and Water Conservation
District office on Millard Road in War-
ren, just off of Highway 30. Registra-
tion is $25 per person or $40 per couple.
Scholarships are available. For more
information, register online at http://bit.
ly/2019FTM or call (503) 397-3462.
Small Woodland Association
tree sale set for March 9 th
The Columbia County Small
Woodlands Association has an annual
tree sale in St. Helens. You can purchase
a variety of trees in very small quanti-
ties. The sale this year will be on March
9 at the Lawrence Oil parking lot (845
N. Columbia River Highway) in St. Hel-
ens from 8:30 am - 1:30 pm. They sell
both forest tree seedlings, some native
shrubs, and some ornamental tree seed-
lings. Get there early for the best selec-
tion.
Planning and planting for spring
I recently had a question from
someone looking to do succession plant-
ing for vegetables. They wanted to know
the average dates for the last spring frost
and for the first fall frost. For years, I
have used April 15 as the average last
spring 32˚ F frost and October 31 for the
first fall frost for the Scappoose/St. Hel-
ens area. Of course, those numbers are
not absolute. Rather, they represent the
point where it is increasingly less likely
to frost after that spring date and more
likely to frost after the fall date. When
we get to higher elevations in Colum-
bia County like Vernonia, the last spring
frost average date is a month later and
the first fall frost, a month earlier, ef-
fectively decreasing the growing season
between frosts by about 60 days. Clats-
kanie is interesting. The intervals be-
tween spring and fall frosts are about the
same as St. Helens/Warren/Scappoose.
Overall, the heat units during growing
season are lower than South County but
the winter low temperatures are higher.
This has been a very strange
winter to date. The first frost in the
Scappoose area was very late, again de-
pending on elevation. Locations above
where cold air pools have only had tem-
peratures down to 30˚ F or lower a few
times until recently. Lower areas have
been several degrees or more colder on
many winter mornings. So even within
as small an area as Scappoose, there are
microclimates. Outlying areas in Clats-
kanie were having 22-28˚ temperatures
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while St. Helens dropped only to freez-
ing if that. A lot of that was higher el-
evation related. Vernonia behaved like
“outer” Clatskanie.
If your vehicle has a thermome-
ter, just driving around and watching the
numbers will give you a sense of what
is going on. I recommend that people
buy a max/min thermometer, take daily
readings and compare them to recorded
temperatures in Scappoose or St. Helens.
Over time, you will have a better picture
of your location’s response to specific
weather conditions.
We are now in the middle of
very turbulent weather as this is being
written. Cold weather has calmed the
enthusiasm of trees and gardeners alike.
Only daffodils seem unfazed.
To further complicate things,
climate change, I firmly believe, is start-
ing to kick in. We have had too many
falls in recent years where there hasn’t
been a 32˚ frost until Thanksgiving or
later. But climate change is thought to
produce more unpredictability and more
intense storms, like we are having now.
Depending on the vegetable
crops you grow, there are ways to manip-
ulate temperature and plant growth rates
at the beginning and ends of the grow-
ing season including the use of row cov-
ers (see below), transplants, raised beds
(soils warm faster as they drain better),
and other techniques. Many vegetables
will tolerate light frosts once they are
established. Often, gardeners are slowed
down more by wet soils than tempera-
tures in the spring.
Row covers will be available again
The interest in row covers
continues to increase. For those of you
that missed the buzz, row covers are
made from a gauzy fabric. They come
in twelve-foot widths and, when we cut
the roll, in lengths of 25 or 50 feet. Row
covers are used in vegetable production
on farms and home gardens.
They serve several purposes:
• Covers increase temperatures around
transplants and growing plants by 4-6˚
during the day and 3-4˚ at night. This is
valuable heat in the spring and fall.
• Seeds planted under row covers aren’t
seen by crows.
• Soils warm with the covers but don’t
crust, so seed emergence is faster and
more even.
• Covers can be left with enough slack
so that broccoli-sized plants can grow
tall underneath them.
• Covers can keep insects out like carrot
rust flies and cabbage root maggots.
However, slugs prosper under covers
so slug controls are needed. Weeds
also like it under cover, so persistent
weeding pays.
Two years ago, we sold, in 25
or 50 foot pieces, about a mile (!!) of
cover. We are selling 1.5 ounce covers
this year. The cost is $30 for a 12 x 50’
piece or $15 for a 25’ one. Larger lengths
are also available. With some care, row
cover can last several years or more. You
can cut them down further to fit your
gardening needs. Call our office (503)
397-3462 if you want some.
What are the crows and starlings eating?
If you have driven around much
in our agricultural or larger lot suburban
areas, you probably have seen flocks of
starlings and smaller groups of crows
and ravens eating something in pastures
and lawns. There are two insects whose
larva provide excellent meals for these
birds and also for robins and a few other
insect eating species. The crane fly has
been in Columbia County since the early
1980s after it made its trek from Europe
to Puget Sound and then down the I-5
corridor to Rainier. From there, it spread
to the Coast and down the Willamette
Valley. It is a serious lawn problem in
some years. The adult is a large mosqui-
to-looking insect. The eggs are laid in the
fall and develop over the winter where
they become fat, olive-green and semi-
translucent. They look vaguely like cat-
erpillars but aren’t. Cycles of heavy rain
bring them close to the surface where
birds feed on them. Before starlings got
to North America, crane flies were a ma-
jor food source in Europe, where both
are native. Now they are reunited in the
Pacific Northwest. How charming, but I
would rather have neither.
The other meal is a similar but
more recent story. Winter cutworms
reached Oregon from Europe via Nova
Scotia, Michigan, and Idaho about ten
years ago. Their numbers exploded in
2015 with significant lawn and pasture
damage in Columbia County. Grass
seed fields in Washington County were
hammered. They move in large groups
and lay bare large areas. They are still
around but we haven’t had such a large
outbreak since. My feeling is that the
birds have made many a meal of them
as well. Since both crane fly and winter
cutworm larvae are active and available
all winter, it makes for a well-balanced
diet.
Free newsletter (what a deal!)
The Oregon State University
Extension office in Columbia County
publishes a monthly newsletter on gar-
dening and farming topics (called Coun-
try Living) written/edited by yours truly.
All you need to do is ask for it and it
will be mailed or emailed to you. Call
(503) 397-3462 to be put on the list. Al-
ternatively, you can find it on the web at
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/colum-
bia/ and click on newsletters.
Take excess produce to the food bank,
senior centers, or community meals
programs. Cash donations to buy food
are also greatly appreciated.
The Extension Service offers its pro-
grams and materials equally to all
people.
Contact information
for the Extension office
Oregon State University
Extension Service – Columbia County
505 N. Columbia River Highway
(across from the Legacy clinic)
St. Helens, OR 97051
(503) 397-3462
Email: chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu
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