Garden Prep this Week in Hillsboro, Sherwood, and Tigard, OR

I don't know about where you are at, but we are supposed to have some very nice weather this weekend. The weather people are talking about temps in the high 70's. April, May and June tend to be very changeable here in the Willamette Valley so we could be back to freezing next weekend who knows.

The season here this year is VERY late. Our cherries are not even in full bloom yet. They are usually in full bloom at least by my birthday which was last week even in a fairly late year so you can see how late we are this year. The warm weather this weekend should be perfect for the cherries.

It should also be a perfect time to get your garden prepared and some cool crop things planted. It's perfect for those root crops that you need to seed directly like carrots, beets and radishes. Carrots and beets take a while ( 3 weeks) to germinate so you can plant radishes as markers( plant them about 2" away) for them in your garden. Radishes come up in a few days and are ready to eat before carrots or beets are very big at all. That is also a very efficient use of garden space.

You can also plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, but I recommend plants for those. If you don't get some started yourself we will have them at the Hillsboro and Sherwood Farmers' Markets starting on May 2 and also at Orenco and Tigard on Sundays starting the following weekend. The OHSU market starts in mid May, but they are having a special Earth Day market on April 24th. Krista will be there.

Be sure to save some room for warmer weather plants too. Tomatoes can go in after ALL danger of frost is past. In Hillsboro that is usually about the 10th or 12th of May, but you can keep an eye on the weather as we get close. A warning: Hillsboro had a hard frost on the 18th of May last year. I think Sherwood and Tigard have a little earlier frost free dates than Hillsboro usually, but again I would keep a close eye on the weather.

Some plants really need to be planted when the weather warms up and NOT before. Those include peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and BASIL. We will have lots of those plants at the market when we get closer to the proper time to plant them.
Putting those types of plants in too early usually stunts them and they just can't seem to get going.

I am really looking forward to garden season this year. I have my raised beds all ready to go, and they are properly protected from the deer and my dog. We also have added a large garden space for corn, squash and cucumbers this year. We will be ready to enjoy all of those crops fresh from our garden this year. They taste so much better than what you buy at the store. Also, a few tomato plants can produce a $100 worth of tomatoes. Think what that will do for your food budget.

I am going to go get to work transplanting tomatoes now.

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!!

I don't know about where you are at, but we are supposed to have some very nice weather this weekend. The weather people are talking about temps in the high 70's. April, May and June tend to be very changeable here in the Willamette Valley so we could be back to freezing next weekend who knows.

The season here this year is VERY late. Our cherries are not even in full bloom yet. They are usually in full bloom at least by my birthday which was last week even in a fairly late year so you can see how late we are this year. The warm weather this weekend should be perfect for the cherries.

It should also be a perfect time to get your garden prepared and some cool crop things planted. It's perfect for those root crops that you need to seed directly like carrots, beets and radishes. Carrots and beets take a while ( 3 weeks) to germinate so you can plant radishes as markers( plant them about 2" away) for them in your garden. Radishes come up in a few days and are ready to eat before carrots or beets are very big at all. That is also a very efficient use of garden space.

You can also plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, but I recommend plants for those. If you don't get some started yourself we will have them at the Hillsboro and Sherwood Farmers' Markets starting on May 2 and also at Orenco and Tigard on Sundays starting the following weekend. The OHSU market starts in mid May, but they are having a special Earth Day market on April 24th. Krista will be there.

Be sure to save some room for warmer weather plants too. Tomatoes can go in after ALL danger of frost is past. In Hillsboro that is usually about the 10th or 12th of May, but you can keep an eye on the weather as we get close. A warning: Hillsboro had a hard frost on the 18th of May last year. I think Sherwood and Tigard have a little earlier frost free dates than Hillsboro usually, but again I would keep a close eye on the weather.

Some plants really need to be planted when the weather warms up and NOT before. Those include peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and BASIL. We will have lots of those plants at the market when we get closer to the proper time to plant them.
Putting those types of plants in too early usually stunts them and they just can't seem to get going.

I am really looking forward to garden season this year. I have my raised beds all ready to go, and they are properly protected from the deer and my dog. We also have added a large garden space for corn, squash and cucumbers this year. We will be ready to enjoy all of those crops fresh from our garden this year. They taste so much better than what you buy at the store. Also, a few tomato plants can produce a $100 worth of tomatoes. Think what that will do for your food budget.

I am going to go get to work transplanting tomatoes now.

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!!

Grow What You Eat!

Krista said that I should write this week about why growing your own food is a good idea so I will. There are so many reasons that I can't possibly name them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. THIS IS THE BIG ONE!! The food you grow is fresher and tastes better. You simply will not believe how good a homegrown tomato tastes!

2. It is satisfying and fun to grow something you eat. It is very liberating to know you grew this for yourself and your family. Kids especially love to eat something they helped to grow and going out in the garden to "graze" encourages them to eat healthy snacks (and gets them out of the house).

3. You know what was put on the food as it was grown. You can grow conventionally or organically, or anyway you like. You also know where the water came from that was used to grow it. My hot button for this is green onions. I grow them indoors in the winter because I simply will not feed my family green onions grown in Mexico. There have been too many cases of food poisoning from those things and they are so hard to wash. If the ones in the store are not clearly marked I make the produce people go look up where they came from before I buy them. Of course in the summer I can simply get them at the farmer's market if I run out of my own. We eat a lot of them.
I also substitute chives, garlic chives and welsh onions for green onions if I run low. Those are all easy to grow even in a pot on the deck.

4. You can actually lower your food bill, especially if you preserve what you grow.This year there is a water shortage in California. That means that a lot of summer vegetables are not going to get planted. Tomatoes and lettuce in particular could be in short supply and expensive.

5. You can eat varieties of produce that appeal to you and your family. We grow over 40 kinds of basil plants, over 30 kinds of tomato plants, over 20 kinds of pepper plants, and lots of different cucumbers, squash, corn, and of course herbs for you. You can see our variety lists on our website: www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com

6. This is the ultimate in being a locovore ( someone who eats only food grown within a certain radius of where they live). How can you get any closer than your own backyard?

There are probably at least a dozen other reasons to Grow What You Eat, but these some of my favorites.

It's time to really start to plan what you are going to grow this year. Next week I will talk about my experiences with small space raised bed gardening.


Grow What You Eat!

Krista said that I should write this week about why growing your own food is a good idea so I will. There are so many reasons that I can't possibly name them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. THIS IS THE BIG ONE!! The food you grow is fresher and tastes better. You simply will not believe how good a homegrown tomato tastes!

2. It is satisfying and fun to grow something you eat. It is very liberating to know you grew this for yourself and your family. Kids especially love to eat something they helped to grow and going out in the garden to "graze" encourages them to eat healthy snacks (and gets them out of the house).

3. You know what was put on the food as it was grown. You can grow conventionally or organically, or anyway you like. You also know where the water came from that was used to grow it. My hot button for this is green onions. I grow them indoors in the winter because I simply will not feed my family green onions grown in Mexico. There have been too many cases of food poisoning from those things and they are so hard to wash. If the ones in the store are not clearly marked I make the produce people go look up where they came from before I buy them. Of course in the summer I can simply get them at the farmer's market if I run out of my own. We eat a lot of them.
I also substitute chives, garlic chives and welsh onions for green onions if I run low. Those are all easy to grow even in a pot on the deck.

4. You can actually lower your food bill, especially if you preserve what you grow.This year there is a water shortage in California. That means that a lot of summer vegetables are not going to get planted. Tomatoes and lettuce in particular could be in short supply and expensive.

5. You can eat varieties of produce that appeal to you and your family. We grow over 40 kinds of basil plants, over 30 kinds of tomato plants, over 20 kinds of pepper plants, and lots of different cucumbers, squash, corn, and of course herbs for you. You can see our variety lists on our website: www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com

6. This is the ultimate in being a locovore ( someone who eats only food grown within a certain radius of where they live). How can you get any closer than your own backyard?

There are probably at least a dozen other reasons to Grow What You Eat, but these some of my favorites.

It's time to really start to plan what you are going to grow this year. Next week I will talk about my experiences with small space raised bed gardening.


Grow What You Eat!