The
INDEPENDENT, October 17, 2002
Page 7
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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