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The INDEPENDENT, March 21, 2012
Can You Dig It?
By Schann Nelson
Columbia County Master Gardener
sentations such as “The World of Insects, Spiders,
and their Relatives” by local gardeners who call them-
selves The Bug Chicks. This will be held in the exten-
April 20, was shown on my sion classroom at 6:30 p.m.on March 22. Parent and
calendar as the first day of budding young scientist special night out? One-to-one
spring, but it sure felt like the time with a parent is incredibly valuable to a certain
drag end of winter. At least I age group. Get them started early, parenting points
hope it’s the end of winter. An- and exposure to adults in a learning environment.
other long wet spring would be Great times!
hard to deal with. Though I will
The newsletter also includes one page of sugges-
say that it makes the few warm tions from our local agent which are always complete-
sunny days truly glorious.
ly overwhelming. I feel great if I can get a few done.
I talked about a rough home This month’ newsletters is particularly full of mainte-
analysis of your soil a couple of months ago. If you get nance and cleanup tasks, planning, propagation/
ambitious and send your soil in for analysis, your re- planting, pest monitoring. Here are a few gems from
sults will include specific recommendations for the that list and my own projects:
amounts of basic nutrients to add to optimize crop
Clean, sharpen and oil garden tools.
growth. If you are just trying to figure out what to use
Since the soil will not be dry enough, start cool-sea-
to improve your soil, here is a way to translate fertiliz- son plants indoors (carrots, beets, broccoli, leeks,
er labels into something useful.
parsley, chives, radish)
Example: You are following a fertilizer recommen-
Plant onions as soon as possible, especially if you
dation for adding two pounds of 4 – 4 – 4 per 1000 are planting seed. If you plant sets, you can plant
square feet of garden. Fertilizer nutrients are always them in wet soil – known as mudding them in – and
expressed with a three part number representing the they will probably grow. If you didn’t get garlic in the
ratios of Nitrogen(N) - Phosphorus (P) – Potassium ground in the fall, plant NOW!
(K) in numerical form.
Begin mowing when dry enough – probably next
Choose a fertilizer with an appropriate analysis. month.
You could choose an 8-8-8 or a 10-10-10 but not a 21-
Finish pruning if necessary. Then clean up. Yuck.
4-4 as that would have an incorrect ratio of fertilizer
Get plants (tuberous begonias, dahlias, geraniums,
Calculate, or read on the label, how much 8-8-8 is fuschias) out of winter storage and begin to grow them
needed for 1,000 square feet. Divide the amount of ni- in potting soil, fertilize lightly. Another effective
trogen recommended for 1,000 square feet by the method, especially with geraniums, is to take cuttings
number of square feet in your garden.
now and start a whole raft of new plants to brighten
Find a way to spread this amount of fertilizer on your summer days.
your garden evenly, i.e. not in your paths but on your
Another hugely helpful thing you can start now, is to
garden beds. If your go in for rototilling it’s a bit easier begin a few simple yoga stretches. I really hate getting
to get everything even, but that carries its own prob- to that first gorgeous dry day, then working myself into
lems.
a Vicodin coma for the next three days because I sim-
If you don’t get the free, local extension publication ple can’t remember to START with stretching. A very
“Country Living” you are missing out on all kinds of lo- brief internet search got me a list of five easy exercis-
cal (well usually St. Helens) events such as the prun- es to increase core strength. Core strength involves
ing workshop (already happened) and monthly pre- the muscles that support your back. All of these
stretch-
es are
most ef-
fective
V ERNONIA F OURSQUARE C HURCH
C OVENANT C HURCH V ERNONIA
P IONEER B APTIST F ELLOWSHIP
if you
can pull
John Cahill, Pastor
Pastor John D. Murray
Carl Pense, Pastor
939 Bridge Street, Vernonia
359 “A” Street, Vernonia
850 Madison Avenue, Vernonia
in and
503-429-1161
503 860-3860
503 429-1103
flatten
www.pbfalive.com
Sunday School 9:45 a.m.
Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 a.m.
y o u r
Sunday School 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Worship Service 11:00 a.m.
Children’s Sunday School
lower
Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday Prayer Meeting 7:00 p.m.
a b -
S EVENTH D AY A DVENTIST
Thursday Prayer 7:00 p.m.
domen
V ERNONIA C OMMUNITY C HURCH
Larry Gibson, Pastor
a n d
N
EHALEM V ALLEY B IBLE C HURCH
2nd Ave. and Nehalem St., Vernonia
Ralph Young, Pastor
contin-
Gary Taylor, Pastor
503 429-8301
957 State Avenue, Vernonia
ue
to
Grant & North Streets, Vernonia
Morning Worship, 11:00 a.m.
503 429-6790
b
r
e
a
t
h
503 429-5378
Sabbath School 9:30 a.m.
Sunday Bible Classes 9:00 a.m.
e
v
e
n
l
y
Sunday
School
10:00
a.m.
Family Praise & Worship 10:30 a.m.
a n d
A SSEMBLY OF G OD
Morning Worship 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday Prayer 6:30 p.m.
Nursery available
slowly.
Thursday Ladies Study 7:00 p.m.
Wayne and Maureene Marr
Wednesday Service 7:00 p.m.
Nursery 10:15 a.m.
After
662 Jefferson Ave., Vernonia,
Church Directory
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.
Vernonia Community Preschool
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.
years of unsuccessful attempts at yoga classes, which
were great fun because I have VERY flexible joints, I
finally discovered in physical therapy that I had very
poor core strength. I had to start by finding my ab
muscles. I did this lying on the floor and poking at my
belly until I could see and feel my belly flatten and
tighten. Then I had to learn to breathe at the same
time. This is not easy after three children, one by ce-
sarean. I’m getting better, but I really have to concen-
trate to incorporate this into other exercises or daily
activities – like going over bumps in the van. I will de-
scribe my findings briefly but more complete descrip-
tions are readily obtained from a variety of sources in-
cluding local instructors, television programs and the
library.
The five positions are:
Lateral Stretch: Standing with feet apart and shoul-
ders relaxed, gather your core (abdomen) and slowly
lift one arm up at your side and overhead. Stretch that
side of your body to a point where you can still breath,
hold your abs and not tip your stretch forward. This
may mean that your stretch is going straight up to the
ceiling but that is OK. Work with your body. Repeat on
both sides until warmed up.
Standing Forward Bend: Begin standing with feet
shoulder width apart. Slowly lean forward, relaxing
arms and head down, to a comfortable position. Relax
your head between your arms. Gradually lift your arms
behind you until you can clasp your fingers. Gather
yourself, hold that core and BREATHE. After a few
breaths slowly unwind and give yourself a good wiggle
and shake.
Cat: Begin evenly balanced on hands and knees,
back in a neutral position. Pull in your abs and arch
your back up into a curve while dropping your head.
This should be a relaxing position (except for that
core). Slowly return to a neutral position and proceed
immediately to …
Cow: From the neutral position slowly arch your
back and lift your head to a position opposite the Cat.
Don’t overextend your neck; your eyes should be di-
rected at the horizon. Breathe. Return to neutral and
back to Cat. This Cat/Cow cycle can be done in a con-
tinuous motion and I find it very soothing after a day in
the yard. Another variation from either position is
adding a bit of tail wagging. Fun!
Supine Twist: Lying on your back, bend your knees
and, keeping them together, gently roll your knees
from side to side. This is by far the most difficult of
these stretches. Don’t be discouraged if you have to
use some props to get the stretch without hurting your-
self. Instead of trying to get all the way to the ground
you can set up a pillow (or two) on each side so that
you can successfully complete the stretch.
These stretches will let you begin the day ready for
anything the garden can throw at you. The same exer-
cises are also a great way to work out the kinks after
completing your day. Relax, and enjoy the work you
have accomplished for yourself and your garden. Re-
member, if you prepare now there will be fewer prob-
lems later – so true for so many things, gardening and
life in general.