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The INDEPENDENT, August 15, 2012
Can You Dig It?
By Schann Nelson
Columbia County Master Gardener
Whew-eee! A HOT Jam-
boree always makes for an in-
tense experience. Certainly
every time I drove through
town from early Thursday to
late Sunday the place was a
hoppin’ an’ a jumpin’!
The recent heat wave has
to be one of the only occa-
sions when I have been grate-
ful that the sun takes so long to get to my yard. The bit
of our garden that we managed to plant before the
main worker broke her leg/ankle is actually producing
mightily. Besides a HUGE cabbage and several nice
cauliflower heads, the cucumbers have supplied din-
ner components, at least enough to pay for the seed
packet.
Picked a huge bowl of lettuce, after dragging off an
overhanging bunch of those prolific weeds with tiny
yellow flowers that was thick enough to provide shade
to the planting below. These weeds reach a mature
height of 2-1/2 feet in my garden this year, I’m sorry to
admit. Because the available sun is also very direc-
tional this meant that they could fall over the planting
from the path and the bed next to it, and on top of the
lettuce. I’ve looked though my entire references and
can’t figure out which of several plants it’s technical
name is, though I’m pretty sure it’s one of the family
Compositae.
However, I did find another of my least favorite
weeds, Petty Spurge Euphorbia peplus. See picture
next column.“Seed is produced freely and apparently
is capable of immediate germination; for in an irrigat-
ed or sprinkled garden, these plants, like Chickweed,
are in evidence throughout the growing season.”
Gilkey, OSU, 1957
Like nearly all the landscape Euphorbia family they
contain a milky juice and are considered poisonous to
both humans and animals. One variety, commonly ex-
I try to always wear my long sleeves and good
gloves when I have to get out there and just lay these
big swaths of mixed weeds down. Besides the spurge,
I never know when I’ll hit a thistle, and everything
seems to be covered with spines. We’ve a killer infes-
tation of what I grew up calling Ladies Bedstraw. Per-
sonally, I’d want an awfully thick mattress ticking if you
were stuffing the thing with this stuff.
changed between gardeners, the Mole Plant Euphor-
bia lathyris, is known to cause a poison oak-like rash
in those sensitive to it. According to Helen Gilkey (who
has a building named in her honor at OSU) “the group
also contains rubber (no surprise) but also castor oil
and tapioca and which supplies the Poinsettia”. What
exactly does “supplies” mean in this context?
Even when Gilkey was writing, there was intense
debate as to whether these plants actually kept the
dreaded mole away. Many new varieties have been
developed as landscape accent plants with exagger-
ated white or red foliage.
Church Directory
V ERNONIA F OURSQUARE C HURCH
C OVENANT C HURCH V ERNONIA
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 9:30 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 Ladies 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 9:45 a.m.
Morning Worship 10:45 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.
I’ve noticed a lot more of it moving around town in
the last couple of years. Once the sticky barbed vines
and seeds get attached to you or your pet they are dif-
ficult to remove – thus doing an excellent job of dis-
persing their seed as widely as possible. But I don’t
have to worry about what it will be like next year in my
garden ‘cause it won’t be my problem. There’s a cer-
tain freedom in gardening without mulch. All the giant
weeds just get laid out in the paths to provide mulch
this year. Next year I won’t be here.
There’s a definite limit to the number of things I can
get moved, and a limit for places to put them. Some
will go out to the farm (the old family homestead),
some into pots, in addition to those already in pots,
and some will be left behind. Trees I’ve grown from
saplings. Sigh…
Out in the nice soft summer air, there’s a light cloud
cover but it’s warm. What needs water today? Are the
potatoes ready? (Yes, some) Can I put stuff in pots for
the market on Saturday? So much to do – so little en-
ergy.