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The INDEPENDENT, May 19, 2011
Can You Dig It?
By Schann Nelson
Columbia County Master Gardener
“May, May the merry month
of May” the old song sings and
if variable weather makes you
merry, May would be your
month for sure. From a snowy
day indistinguishable from No-
vember except by the green-
ness, to blazing sun when the
clouds clear, we have it all.
This makes if difficult for the
lowly gardener to determine what and when to accom-
plish certain tasks. I think one of the most important
things to remember is that plants can thrive on the
sun’s rays that penetrate a thin cloud cover (even
though it may not do much for your mood, especially if
you wind up with a bad sunburn) as long as it’s not
cold.
The list of things that can be done in May is seem-
ingly endless, with a big payoff later in the season if ac-
complished. I loved Tera Wolin’s (2010 Master Gar-
dener) article on slug control. [Why IS it that our most
pernicious pests come from Europe? I sure hope we
gave a few back!] I’ve had ducks and they are vora-
cious eaters of slugs – they also enjoy worms and, if
given free access, will trample the heck out of your
garden. They have no respect for young plants. How-
ever, even a short fence will control them. I like the
idea and keep ducks mostly in another area, letting
them dine in the garden at dusk. Our biggest problem
was that the ducks would find the driveway while
searching for small rocks, which led to them spying the
neighbor’s lush lawn. This would be OK except they
have to cross the road to get to the neighbors, and
ducks are not smart about cars and trucks. As to
Wolin’s grandmother’s method of hand control, YUCK!
Slug slime is one of the hardest things to get off your
hands – of course she would not have had access to
our modern iron phosphate, spinosad, and nematodes
(new to me but I’d like to try it) I will have to look up the
article http:www.slugcontol.rothamsted.ac.uk/Slugs
Brochure/pdf to find if there is a specific nematode and
where to get it. I can’t mow all around my garden so
slugs continue to migrate into the rich feeding area of
the garden; it’s a continuous battle.
I not only made it to the Master Gardeners Plant
Sale but I managed to keep my blinders on. I spent
less than $20 and came out with six tomatoes for me
and a gift tomato, 3 squash plants, 2 sprouted pota-
toes and a pound of seed potatoes. The tomatoes: 2
Oregon Spring for slicing, 2 San Marzano for cooking
and salsa, 1 Gold Nugget short season cherry tomato,
and 1 Isis Candy, a 1-1/2 inch tomato that is the sweet-
est I’ve ever tasted and worth growing even if it is a lat-
er season tomato; and a patio tomato for my Dad’s
new apartment lifestyle. Gone are the days of planting
12 to 14 different varieties. I never could keep track of
what was what and they ended up squished together.
The potatoes: Russian Banana, one of the most
prolific I’ve ever planted and the best tasting when
completely unadorned, and seed for Yukon Golds. The
squash: a Trombocino that, when staked, will produce
two foot (or longer) squash with delicious white meat
and a very small seed cavity; a Rondo, an Italian vari-
ety new to me that is supposed to produce round,
small zucchini; and a plain old acorn for later in the
season. The squash are the only thing that remains
under cover, everything else is taking its chances that
we are DONE with temperatures below freezing.
After seeing the results of adding a bit of woodstove
ash after planting last year, I decided to get the stuff in
the ground underneath the plants. I’ve also added a bit
of blood meal for the spinach and broccoli (NOT the
tomatoes). Splitting up the six-packs into individual
plants lets me work these amendments into each
planting hole. My measuring tool is a thin trowel and I
use a full scoop of ash and a scant half scoop of blood
meal. The climbing peas got the same treatment, but
worked throughout the soil with a rake.
Waiting for a prescription and reading the American
Columbia chinook season re-opens
Fishery managers from Ore-
gon and Washington re-opened
the chinook salmon season on
the Columbia River below Bon-
neville Dam, effective May 15.
Anglers will also be able to re-
tain steelhead and sockeye.
Better than expected returns
of chinook salmon prompted
the decision to reopen the sea-
son, which closed April 20.
A multi-jurisdictional task
force of government and tribal
biologists boosted their fore-
cast of returning chinook
salmon to 210,000, up from
198,400 chinook forecast last
fall.
“For the first time since
2007, we have a run update
that is going to let us open a
late-spring chinook season,”
said Chris Kern, assistant
manger of ODFW’s Columbia
River Fisheries Program. “This
also allows us to get an early
start on fishing for summer
steelhead between the I-5
Bridge and Bonneville. That
area doesn’t usually open until
June 16.”
The daily bag limit will be two
adult salmon/steelhead in com-
bination, of which only one may
be an adult chinook. Chinook
salmon and steelhead must be
adipose fin-clipped to be re-
tained; the fin clip requirement
does not apply to sockeye.
Fishing from boats will be al-
lowed from the Tongue Point/
Rocky Point line near Astoria,
upstream to Beacon Rock, ap-
proximately five miles down-
stream from Bonneville Dam.
Bank fishing will be permitted
all the way up to Bonneville
Dam.
Above Bonneville, the sea-
son remains closed but the
agencies will be reviewing the
opportunity to provide addition-
al fishing in these areas, pend-
ing updates later in May.
Horticultural Society magazine, I was astonished to
read that glyphosate (Round-up) has a lower toxicity
level than organic soaps and vinegar-based herbi-
cides. I don’t have it in front of me but, according to the
author, glyphosate breaks down into amino acids that
are truly harmless. After all, we are all a collection of
amino acids so it’s unlikely that any single one could
have any effect.
I’ve just had my first spinach salad, so I’ve already
paid for that six pack. We have some 12-15 small ro-
maine lettuce and at least that many broccoli pur-
chased for less than $2 per six-pack. Even with the
purchase of seeds, plants, slug bait, fertilizer and
mulch, the economics come out far in my favor, though
I would garden for the taste and the joy, in any event.
I have bush peas up about 4-6 inches and climbing
shelling peas coming up. Prewarming the soil and
keeping the bed very warm (under those shower cur-
tains I wrote about) has been tremendously success-
ful. This year I’ve bought all my seed locally – several
stores have seed racks – and generally have been
pleased with the results. The prices are the same
though I don’t think the quantity of seed is the same as
Territorial Seed Company’s typically generous one, or
more, ounces. Still I have a very small garden so the
smaller quantities are OK.
The biggest problem has been keeping my daugh-
ters huge cat out of the garden. The darn cat had
adopted the broccoli as her private bathroom so steps
had to be taken. After adding a couple inches of com-
post mulch (purchased, unfortunately) I added a series
of thin bent-over thin metal stakes, the kind used to
mark various underground or field lines. Bent in half
they look like croquet wickets, and I hoped they would
keep her out. It didn’t work by itself, from the evidence
of the following morning. However, the addition of sev-
eral largish rocks (my family seems incapable of going
anywhere without collecting at least a few precious
rocks) to prevent the scratching motion seems to be
more effective.
Get out and enjoy the variable weather!
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
Ralph Young, Pastor
957 State Avenue, Vernonia
503 429-6790
Sunday Bible Classes 9:00 a.m.
Family Praise & Worship 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday Prayer 6:30 p.m.
Thursday Laadies Study 7:00 p.m.
Nursery 10:15 a.m.
Vernonia Community Preschool
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.
V ERNONIA C HRISTIAN C HURCH
C HURCH OF J ESUS C HRIST
OF L ATTER D AY S AINTS
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)
Various Home Group Meetings
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.