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The INDEPENDENT, January 20, 2011
Can You Dig It?
By Chip Bubl, Columbia County
Extension Educator Agriculture/Staff Chair
G RAFTING W ORKSHOP
We will have our annual
grafting workshop Saturday,
February 12th from 9:00 a.m. –
12 noon at the Extension office
in St. Helens. Space is limited.
Call for reservations (503 397-
3462). Cost will be $15 and will
include five dwarf apple root-
stocks. If you have a favorite
apple tree that you want to make “copies” of, take
some 12” cuttings from last season’s growth (about
pencil thickness), using the middle third of the shoots.
Bundle and label the cuttings and place them in plas-
tic bag and store them in the refrigerator until the work-
shop. Free cuttings will be available of several vari-
eties
R OW
COVERS WILL BE AVAILABLE AGAIN
The interest in row covers continues to increase.
For those of you who 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 50 or
100 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 degrees during the day and
3-4 degrees 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 broc-
coli-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.
Last year we sold, in 50 or 100 foot pieces, about a
mile (!!) of cover. Cost should be the same as last year.
i.e. $20 for a 12 x 100’ piece or $10 for a 50’ one. You
cut them down further to fit your gardening needs.
Call our office (503 397-3462) if you want some. It
went fast last year.
G ARDENING
January is Blood Donor Month
January has been recog-
nized as National Blood Donor
Month for over forty years.
Blood is traditionally in short
supply during the winter
months due to holiday travel
schedules, inclement weather
and illness, and January is a
difficult month for blood center
blood donations. But, if dona-
tions are down, the need for
blood isn’t.
“Every two seconds some-
one in America needs blood,
and approximately 40,000 units
of red blood are needed every
day,” said FEMA Regional Ad-
ministrator Ken Murphy. “Do-
nating blood is a safe, life-sav-
ing and selfless gift that en-
hances the level of prepared-
ness for each and every com-
munity in this nation.”
Few blood centers can
maintain more than a three-day
supply of blood for transfu-
sions. The need for blood,
RESOLUTIONS
Ok, I know it is a little past the start of the new year,
but a good part of gardening (and life, I suppose) is
planning ahead and then acting on those plans. So here
are some resolutions that may be worth considering:
• Resolution 1: If a plant isn’t doing well where you
put it, move it or toss it! The plant may need better
drainage, more sun, or something else to allow it to
thrive. If you have a place where the plant might do
better and you still like it, transplant it. February is an
excellent month to transplant. I know rose growers
who give roses three-five years to show how disease
resistant they are (they don’t want to spray for black
spot). If they don’t perform, they are replaced. Finally,
trees, some shrubs, and even some herbaceous
perennial flowers can outgrow their place. Large trees
and shrubs generally can’t be moved, so they need to
be cut down. Perennials can be divided and/or moved.
• Resolution 2: Use a lot more compost and/or
mulch. Vegetable gardens and landscape beds bene-
fit tremendously from regular additions of organic mat-
ter. This is especially true of the clay soils found almost
everywhere in Columbia County. Top-dressings of
compost in the fall can reduce the amount of winter an-
nual weeds that start during the fall through the late
spring. If you add more mulch than compost in your
vegetable garden, make sure you provide some extra
nitrogen to help turn the mulch into compost. If you
don’t, the soil micro-organisms that make compost will
capture the nitrogen and your vegetables won’t have
platelets, and plasma is con-
stant, but only three in every
100 Americans donate blood.
So-called “baby boomers” ac-
count for the majority of blood
donations, but are approaching
an age when medications and
health issues bar them from
being able to donate. They are
also the largest age group in
the world and require more do-
nated blood for their own
health, quickly using much of
the supply they once supported
themselves.
Resolve to be Ready in 2011
is led by FEMA’s Ready Cam-
paign in partnership with Citi-
zen Corps and The Advertising
Council. For more information
on the Ready Campaign and
Citizen Corps, visit www.fema.
gov, Ready.gov and Citizen-
Corps.gov. Follow FEMA online
at www.twitter.com/fema, www.
facebook.com/fema, and www.
youtube.com/fema.
enough. So feed both the vegetables and the benefi-
cial decomposers.
• Resolution 3: Learn to grow more vegetables in
the early spring and the late fall. This is called season
extension. It is quite reasonable to grow lettuce and
other greens almost year round if you use the right
techniques. Good tools include row covers, cloches
(small plastic-covered tunnels in the garden), raised
beds, and transplants. For home-grown transplants,
nothing beats a greenhouse or, equally good and quite
reasonable to make from scrap materials, a cold
frame. It is worth noting that tomatoes, cucumbers,
and peppers do not do well in a winter greenhouse
here since our light intensities at that time of the year
are so low.
• Resolution 4: Make a special effort to grow fruits
and vegetables for the Food Banks and Senior Centers.
They all need and value good quality local produce.
• Resolution 5: Take time to just sit in your garden,
soaking up the sunshine, colors, scents, and the in-
credible activity of birds and insects that makes your
garden such a delightful place to be.
Church Directory
V ERNONIA F OURSQUARE C HURCH
F IRST B APTIST C HURCH
P IONEER B APTIST F ELLOWSHIP
Carl Pense, Pastor
850 Madison Avenue, Vernonia
503 429-1103
Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 a.m.
Children’s Sunday School
Pastor John D. Murray
359 “A” Street, Vernonia
503 860-3860
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Sunday Worship Service 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday Prayer Meeting 7:00 p.m.
John Cahill, Pastor
939 Bridge Street, Vernonia
503-429-1161
www.pbfalive.com
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 a.m.
Thursday Prayer 7:00 p.m.
S EVENTH D AY A DVENTIST
Larry Gibson, Pastor
2nd Ave. and Nehalem St., Vernonia
503 429-8301
Morning Worship, 11:00 a.m.
Sabbath School 9:30 a.m.
A SSEMBLY OF G OD
Wayne and Maureene Marr
662 Jefferson Ave., Vernonia,
503 429-0373
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Morning Worship 11:00 a.m
S T . M ARY ' S C ATHOLIC C HURCH
Rev. Luan Tran, Administrator
960 Missouri Avenue, Vernonia
503 429-8841
Mass Sunday 12:00 Noon
Religious Educ. Sunday 10:30 a.m.
V ERNONIA C OMMUNITY C HURCH
957 State Avenue, Vernonia
503 429-6790
Sunday Worship 9:45 a.m.
Children’s Church (Blast!) 10:15 a.m.
Nursery 10:15 a.m.
High School Youth 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday Prayer 6:00 p.m.
Vernonia Community Preschool
V ERNONIA C HRISTIAN C HURCH
Sam Hough, Minister
410 North Street, Vernonia
503 429-6522
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Sunday Worship 11:00 a.m.
(meets in Youth & Family Center)
Home Group Meeting throughout
the week at various locations
N EHALEM V ALLEY B IBLE C HURCH
Gary Taylor, Pastor
Grant & North Streets, Vernonia
503 429-5378
Sunday School 10:00 a.m.
Morning Worship 11:00 a.m.
Nursery available
Wednesday Service 7:00 p.m.
C HURCH OF J ESUS C HRIST
OF L ATTER D AY S AINTS
Marc Farmer, Branch President
1350 E. Knott Street, Vernonia
503 429-7151
Sacrament Meeting, Sunday 10 a.m.
Sunday School & Primary 11:20 a.m.
Relief Society, Priesthood and
Young Women, Sunday 12:10 p.m.