HOME IMPROVEMENT & CAR CARE
6 • EAST OREGONIAN/HERMISTON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Master Gardner Jim Willis walks around his backyard garden talking about end-of-season gardening chores and picking ripe fruit and vegetables.
MASTER GARDENER SHARES
TIPS FOR WINTER PREP
It’s time to put your garden, and
tools, to bed properly for winter
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
A
s fall weather brings an end to this year’s
growing season, Master Gardener Jim
Willis, of Pendleton, says now is the time
to start looking ahead and planning for
next spring.
Gardeners should take steps to keep both their
tools and their soil in top condition, Willis said. That
includes composting, testing composition and texture
of soils and applying light oils to hand tools to keep
them from rusting.
One of the irst things Willis does every fall is take
a photo or drawing of what he’s grown in his garden
over the summer, so he can be sure to rotate his veg-
etables next year. Rotating crops helps to break up
diseases in the soil and allow the plants to draw on
different nutrients.
“You don’t want to put the same thing in,” Willis
said.
Willis grows a wide variety of vegetables in his
own garden, including tomatoes, cucumbers, onions,
carrots, beets, radishes, bell peppers and hot peppers.
He also harvests bags illed with leaves from his yard
along the Umatilla River, which he will leave open on
the ground in order to lure in worms and provide them
food and protection.
These “worm islands,” as Willis calls them, are a
rich source of carbon, and the worm castings — i.e.
poop — provide some of the richest natural fertilizer
available.
“If you want to have good soil, you want to have
worms in it,” Willis said.
Gardeners can also mow in leaves about 3-5 inches
deep into their soil, Willis said, along with additional
compost to help plants thrive. Good soil, according
to Willis’ research, breaks down to roughly 45 per-
cent minerals, 25 percent water, 25 percent air and
5 percent organic material. Compost is key to help-
ing crops get the nutrients and microbial support they
need.
As for soil structure, Willis recommends a simple
test. First, ill a jar about halfway with soil from the
yard or garden, add water until the jar is nearly full,
give it a shake and let it rest overnight. The soil will
separate into three layers, with sand at the bottom, silt
at the middle and clay at the top.
“It’s important to have all three types of those ele-
ments in your soil,” he said.
Willis said gardeners should keep an eye on wheth-
er the soil is too loose and sandy, or too dense and full
of clay. From there, they can make any adjustments
before re-planting later in the spring.
“(The jar test) doesn’t cost you a cent, and it gives
you an idea of what you need to do in your garden,”
Willis said.
Around this time, Willis said he starts getting busy
cleaning plants out of the garden that won’t survive
through the irst frost. His carrots, however, are frost
tolerant, and he will overwinter those by shielding
them with soil, compost and a cover layer of leaves.
For his hand tools, Willis recommends linseed oil
on any wooden handles to keep them strong, and light
oil to keep the metal heads from rusting.
Willis, 75, has been gardening his whole life and
been a master gardener for eight years. He said put-
ting the garden to bed can be labor intensive, but well
worth the effort.
“Gardening is a joy,” he said with a smile. “It’s not
work. It’s happiness.”
Money going up chimney? How to make your ireplace more eficient
By StatePoint
Nothing beats gathering around the ire
in winter. Unfortunately, a wood-burning
ireplace could be a major source of energy
loss in your home, sending your utility bills
sky high.
However, you don’t need to sacriice
the ire to improve your home’s energy
eficiency and reduce your heating bills;
in fact, it’s possible to convert your wood
ireplace into an eficient heat source with
the following tips.
Upgrade Your Fireplace
Consider a gas ireplace insert. They
generate more radiant heat and are cleaner
to maintain than traditional masonry style
wood-burning ireplaces, which are a leading
source of indoor air loss.
“Traditional wood ireplaces add a lot
of charm to a home, but they are ineficient
-- even when they aren’t in use,” says Andy
Tesch, brand director of Heat & Glo, the
leading manufacturer of innovative gas ire-
places, stoves and inserts. “A gas ireplace
insert is a great alternative to maintain the
ambiance a ire creates while enhancing ef-
iciency.”
A gas ireplace insert is cleaner, too, cre-
ating no ash, soot, or smoke. Models like the
Escape from Heat & Glo use energy-saving
FireBrick technology to increase eficiency
and are low maintenance, turning on and off
with the lip of a switch. Learn more about
the beneits of a gas ireplace insert at heatn-
glo.com/insertawareness.
If you can’t part with the aroma, crackle
and act of building a real ire, consider pellet
Imagine the
possibilites
and EPA-certiied wood inserts, which can be
an easy, clean and eficient alternative as well.
Best Practices
If making the upgrade to an insert is not
possible, a few simple steps can drastically
improve the energy eficiency of your ire-
place. Number one, when the ireplace is
not in use, close the chimney damper. You’ll
prevent warm air and your money from go-
ing up and out the chimney. A lue sealer is
an affordable, inlatable stopper that its be-
low the damper to further seal off the chim-
ney and is a worthwhile purchase.
Proper maintenance can also go far to
improve your ireplace’s eficiency. Have it
inspected, maintained and cleaned annual-
ly. Even if you love DIY, you may want to
hire a contractor to ensure the job is done
safely and thoroughly.
Considering adding doors or a cover to the
front of your ireplace to help reduce the draft
and improve the look. There are many styles
available to enhance your interior design.
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