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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2002)
The INDEPENDENT, October 17, 2002 Page 7 ......... ■ B _______ Master Gardener program slated Can yon dig it? By Schann Nelson The Oregon State University I fortunately spent the last sunny day be Extension Service Master Gar fore a hard frost at my house, bringing the dener classes will be held Mon last of the houseplants inside and gathering days, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. the last of the tomatoes. I am more careful beginning Jan. 6, 2003. with this transition from outside to inside The program is designed to than I am with a lot of stuff I do with plants. teach volunteers how to make I definitely don’t want to bring in any nasty better use of gardening re aphids or spider mites, I don’t need any sources and abilities, and then, (more) large spiders in the house and I teach others. Volunteers are think it’s tragic when I accidentally bring in a given training in soil manage poor, little frog. One year I found a shrunken, dried frog ment, vegetable gardening during spring-cleaning, though I think he may have gotten techniques, landscape mainte in through an old window casing. nance, pest control and many Now I very carefully clean each and every dead leaf other aspects of gardening. off of any plants I bring inside. I use a lot of rocks on the During the gardening season, top of the soil of potted plants to diffuse water and I take these new Master Gardeners them all out. When the surface of the soil in the pot is help teach others to do a better “clean,” I give the plant a thorough shower outside with my job of growing and caring for handy water wand, so I can get to the bottom side of the leaves. plants, fighting off pests and Then I replace the rocks and bring the plant inside. I've found that making the community a better a layer of rocks on top of the soil on pots in the house keeps the place to live. dirt from getting a nasty layer of mold in mid-winter. Aquarium There is a $40 fee for refer gravel is pretty and works great! ence materials. Last month I didn’t talk about the most important bulb I plant, For more information, call GARLIC! I always plant at least one whole bed of garlic. This usu Columbia County Extension in ally yields about 7-to-10 nice braids. This year, I didn’t get to the St. Helens at 503-397-3462. garlic until after it was too dry to braid, but I have a nice big bas- V ernonia F oursquare C hurch A ssembly of G od Pastor Paul Pastor 850 Madison Avenue Vernonia, 503 429-1103 Darwin Harvey, Pastor 662 Jefferson Vernonia, 503 429-4615 Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 a.m. Children’s Sunday School Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Evening Worship 6:00 p.m. Sacrament Meeting, Sunday 10 a.m Sunday School & Primary 11:20 a.m Bible Study, Wednesday 7:00 p.m. Youth & Kids , Thursday 7:00 p.m. Relief Society, Priesthood and Young Women, Sunday 12:10 p.m. Wednesdays 7:00 p.m. Evening Service Youth Ministry Children’s Ministry Nursery Available Men’s Ministry 7:45 a.m. 3rd Saturday each month V ernonia C ommunity C hurch Grant Williams, Pastor 957 State Avenue Vernonia, 503 429-6790 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Children's Church w/Nursery Sunday 6:00-7:30 p.m. Jr. & Sr. High, AWANA, Adult Study Nursery provided Prayer Meeting, Wed. 7:00 p.m. Women’s Bible Study, Thurs. 7:00 p.m. G race R eformed B aptist C hurch D.J. Dickey, Pastor Grant & North Streets Vernonia, 503 429-1919 Sunday Services: Adult Prayer & Children’s Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:15 a.m. Evening Worship 5:00 p.m. Wednesday Service: All Family Bible Study, 7:00 p.m. F irst B aptist C hurch John Cahill, Pastor 359 “A" Street Vernonia, 503 429-1161 Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Evening Worship Saturday, 6:00 p.m. N ehalem V alley B ible C hurch 500 California Ave Vernonia, 503 429-5378 Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Nursery available Wednesday Service 7:00 p.m. S t . M ary ' s C atholic C hurch Pastoral Associate Juanita Dennis 960 Missouri Avenue Vernonia, 503 429-8841 Mass Schedule Sunday 12:00 Noon Religious Education Sunday 10:30 a.m. C hurch of J esus C hrist of L atter D ay S aints Lee Knowlton, Branch President 1350 E. Knott Street Vernonia, 503 429-7151 S eventh D ay A dventist Kevin Reiner, Pastor, 543-2254 2nd Ave. and Nehalem St. Vernonia, 503 429-8301 Sabbath School 9:15 a.m. Morning Worship, 11:00 a m. Prayer Meeting, Wed. 7:00 p.m. S t . A ugustine (C anterbury ) E piscopal C hurch The Rev. Robert Grafe, Pastor 375 North St. (Vernonia Grange Hall) Vernonia, 503 429-3700 Sunday Services 10:00 a.m. ket to pick through to get my “seed” for next year. Since I have a lot of garlic, I pick through it and plant only the largest cloves. Over the years I have done this, so I now have a dependable, large- cloved garlic. If you have to buy garlic to plant for the first time, you can plant it all, then make sure that you save your largest cloves to plant next year. You can plant garlic any time from now through late January, into a nicely raked bed. I plant mine in a grid with cloves about 5- 6 inches apart in all directions. This makes a denser bed, overall, than planting in straight rows. I stick the clove, root end down, just into the surface of the soil. Then I cover the bed with about two inphes of stuff from the chicken coop. Since the garlic grows only roots through the fall and winter, I’ve never had any trouble with burning it. Then I add a thin layer of straw or leaves to discourage weeds sprouting from the manure. In late January or early February, before the garlic has started to peek up through the ground, I add another layer of manure and mulch. This makes the garlic actually about 2-4 inches under the surface of the soil by the time I harvest in July. This method re quires almost no weeding, as the garlic comes up through the lay ers of mulch. Pretty much all you have to do after the second ap plication of mulch, is make sure that the bed doesn’t dry out in the spring. Garlic likes lots of fertilizer and lots of water to develop large cloves. When the tips of the leaves start to turn yellow it’s time to quit watering and start thinking about how much great gar lic you can harvest from that little bit you planted last year. Since I actually write stuff down now, I have results from this year’s tomato trial. My absolute favorite tomato remains the heir loom variety Tiger-Like. It's early, productive, tastes good and is beautifully striped. My other favorite is Sun Gold, a cherry tomato that beats the socks off of all the red cherry tomatoes I’ve tried, in cluding the Super Sweet 100 I planted this year. You have to re member that these cherry tomatoes don’t turn red and are ripe and sweet when they are gold, but you get a LOT of thumb-sized tomatoes. The sauce tomato, Oregon Spring, was very produc tive, I just forgot that it was a sauce tomato. Next year I’ll plant more, along with the Italian sauce tomato that didn’t get in a good spot. If I plant a section of sauce tomatoes maybe I can keep them straight. Other tomatoes I’ll plant again are First Lady II (very productive and dependable), Willamette (this year was the first year I re member planting these and I was very pleased with the large slic ing tomatoes), Persimmon (which barely makes the list because it’s not very productive, but the taste of the few tomatoes I get is worth the space) and Caspian Pink (a Russian heirloom that did n’t do well, but that I want to try again because it's supposed to taste like Brandywine). The losers are Legend (which I got because it's early and re sistant to late blight, but it didn’t do anything), Stupice (which I tried before and still don’t like as well as Tiger-Like), Super Sweet 100 (see above), and Brandywine Red (I love the taste of these but, like Persimmon, you don’t get many tomatoes and Persim mon seems more dependable). Enjoy the sunny fall days and crisp nights. Cover your bare dirt with something (leaves, straw, cover crop) to protect it from the rains to come. Plant bulbs and wait for spring. C hristian C hurch Joel Stith, Pastor 410 North Street Vernonia, 503 429-6522 Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Morning Worship 11:00 a.m. Every Wednesday: Ladies' Bible Study 9:15 a.m. Children’s Choir 3:00 p.m. Family Bible Study 6:30 p.m. Women's Fellowship, 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 1:30 p.m. MADELEINE’S MUSIC SCHOOL REGISTER NOW for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Voice, Guitar, Drums, French Horn. ALSO... Music Theory and Solfa. All this in Vernonia! Call 503-429-9402
