Thursday May 21,1981
Vernonia Freedom—Page 3
Vernonia Grown
Time ripe to plant beans of all descriptions
by Bill Hansen
Next to tomatoes, my favorite
garden vegetable is green or “snap”
beans. When the new seedlings first
show themselves, all in a neat row, I
must confess I experience one of the
fundamental joys of gardening.
Bush beans should be planted in
rich, well drained soil after all danger
of frost has passed. As with com and
cucumbers, the soil should be much
warmer than is necessary for earlier
planted root crops. You should wait
until at least the first of June to plant
here in Vernonia. Due to a relatively
short maturity date, there will be
plenty of time to harvest all the beans
you want by fall. Successive
plantings may also be made at two
week intervals from now until mid-
July.
Plant your, bush beans according to
the directions on the seed packet. If
you purchased your seeds in bulk and
have no directions, I would suggest
planting in rows, seeding about 2-3
inches apart and in a trench about
three inches deep. Cover the seeds
with fine soil and tamp firmly with
your hoe. If the soil has warmed up to
55 degrees or better, you should see
seedlings up in about a week or ten
days. If the seeds are not up by this
time, it might be because the ground
has not warmed enough to allow
germination. In this event, replanting
may be necessary.
For comparison purposes, you
might wish to plant a few hills of pole
beans. Pole beans take up far less
garden spaceman the bush verities
and produce right up to frost.
However, they are more susceptible
to disease and insect problems due to
their long season. I usually plant both
kinds to make sure I can enjoy fresh
beans all summer long.
Pole varities need a fairly
substantial support to climb on. Find
yourself three eight foot (approx.)
poles, place them in the ground about
three feet apart. Pull them together at
the top and secure with wire or rope,
like a teepee. At the bottom of each
pole, plant 6-8 seeds in well-tilled,
fertilized soil. Thin to about four per
hill once they are established.
VMS Golf Team wins
first in tourney
The VHS Golf Team, coached by
Greg Brown, won overall First Place
at the district finals held May 1L
Additionally,
team
member
Thorgen Brown tied with Trent
Anderson of Lutheran for individual
Third Place.
Team members, in order of
standings include: Thorgen Brown,
Steve Grady, David Battrick, Micky
Bruers and Scott Grady.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Applications for the low income
energy assistance program will be
taken on Fridays from 10 am-2 pm at
the Vernonia Senior Center. Call 429-
3912 to make an appointment.
Mist money •
Com is another crop which prefers
warm, well drained soil. While com
may take longer to grow here in the
Northwest, it will be sweeter than if
grown in warmer climate. Without
getting too technical, warm days
followed by cool nights will cause
more sugar to be stored in the
kernels. Here in Vernonia, you will
have the best luck with the smaller,
shorter maturing date varieties. Also,
because of a variety of factors, I am
planting (in addition to seed) com
that has been started earlier and is
already 8-9 inches tall. Maybe this
year, for the first time, we will have
com “knee high by the 4th of July”.
Plant seed com 6-8 inches apart in
rows or raised beds allowing three
feet between rows or hills. When
established, thin or transplant to
about 10-12 inches apart.
Cucumbers, another- warm weather
crop, do quite well here in Vernonia.
You may wish to use plants started
from seeds, or sow seeds directly into
the ground. There sire several kinds of
cucumbers, slicing, pickling, etc., so
be sure you are planting the kind you
wish to harvest. I plant pickling
varities in rows, sowing seeds 3-4
inches apart. After they are up, thin
(or transplant) to about a foot apart.
A 20 foot row will yield about three
bushels of cucumbers.
NEW SENIOR PROGRAM
County maps available
An atlas of the county maps of
Oregon has just been completed by
the
Oregon
Department
of
Transportation in cooperation with
the Federal Highway Administration.
The maps in the atlas are drawn to
an approximate scale of one-quarter
inch to the mile, on an 8V2 by 11 inch
sheet. The atlas sells for $6 each.
There is an additional charge of $1
per order for handling and mailing.
This atlas may be purchased by
writing to the Photocopy and Map
Distribution
Unit,
Room
17,
Transportation Building,
Salem
97310. Checks should be made
payable to the Department of
Transportation.
A free five week program,
'Managing Retirement Life’, is
scheduled to begin at the new Senior
Center in St. Helens on May 20.
' The seminars, set for 2 pm-4 pm
each Wednesday will cover such
subjects as health, time planning,
local resources, housing, financing
and legal matters and will include an
experience exchange.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Anyone wishing to join the seniors
on a scheduled trip to Redmond,
Oregon to visit the Peterson Rock
Gardens and Reindeer Farm on
Friday, May 22, please call the Senior
Center at 429-3912 in advance.
continued from page 2
local patrols and improving local
protection.
Throughout all of this the gas
companies themselves have been very
generous, for which we thank them,
and the county Commissioners did
provide $10,000 for the completion of
our fire hall. The response, however,
is still thoroughly inadequate to meet
our current needs, let alone our
projected needs.
It is unfortunate, but we have been
forced into begging, hat in hand, for
everything we’ve needed every step of
the way by the antiquated laws
controlling the disbursal of natural
resource royalties revenue. We feel it
is high time the injustices faced by
more and more small communities,
including our own, were properly
redressed.
We’re not asking for any more than
should rightfully be ours. Nor are we
asking for any more than any
community in our circumstances
would want or need to protect its own
citizens. It is time our neighbors
throughout
Columbia
County
recognize the legitimacy of our fight
and join us in realizing that each year,
as the hunt for natural resources
grows more desperate, more and more
of Us are affected.
This is not just our fight here in
Mist and Birkenfeld, it is a fight that
is affected every citizen of Columbia
County today and a fight that will,
within a very few short years, affect
the lives of most Oregonians.
.Arthur C. Laubach
Chairman of the Board
Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD
Under New Management
CLIFF & LINDA ZIEMER
WELCOME
YOU
TO
Spar Tree
across from C.Z.
5 mi. N. of Vernonia on hwy. 47
OPENING MAY 8,1981
Member American Floral Services
ATTENTION GARDENERS
serving
We have what you need
Popular "Early Girl" tomato plants.......................... 3/$ 1
California Wonder pepper plants................... ... 3|$1
Petunias, Marigolds, Zinnias - and many more - per tray........................$1-25
Geranium Plants • 4" pots from........................................................ $1.49
Seed Potatoes, Red & White, 5 lb..................................................... • • • • $1-95
Onion Sets, 1 lb.................. .. ...........................................................
Corn Plants, 3-4 per 2 lb. pot.......................
694
694
We also carry slug bait, weedkiller, lawn weedO feed,
bonemeal, Diaza non, Captan, dandelion spot spray, Sevin,
tomato blossom set, super phosphate • and much more.
breakfast
lunch
dinner
FEA TURING DAILY SPECIALS
Tuesday - Thursday
5 am - 7 pm
Friday and Saturday
5 am — 9 pm
Sunday
7 am- 6 pm
Spar Tree will be open Memorial Day from 7 am - 6 pm.
ALL PLANTS SOLD ARE TOP QUALITY, COMMERCIALLY
GROWN, AND BROUGHT IN FRESH FOR YOU BY PEOPLE WHO
LOVE TO GARDEN. This assures you of dependable, healthy
429-6465
plants which have not passed their prime for transplanting.
Downtown Vernonia
HOMEMADE PIES &
CLAM CHOWDER
Restaurant
Hansen’s Country Garden
842 Madison Ave.
SPAR TREE
429-2355