Gardening with Chip

What are “floating row covers” and how can a gardener use them?

Row covers are spun-bonded fabrics of various weights per square yard. The lightest weight is .5 oz and the heavier weight that is practical for gardening is two oz. They are generally supported over beds with sturdy wire or a constructed wooden frame. If you are using them in later winter or early spring, the frame must be able to support a sudden snow fall. I have found that a piece of eight-foot-long woven wire fence is an excellent row cover support with clothespins holding the fabric in place. Use enough clothespins in case of big winds, or you might find the row cover on a power line.

Moisture and sunlight pass through the fabric onto a garden bed, with the thinnest one (.5 oz)passing the most moisture and capturing (but also losing) the most warmth. The .5 oz fabric is fragile, so I generally use one oz or greater fabric for winter/spring plant starting work. They operate as a cool mini greenhouse, but don’t have the risk of getting too hot on a sudden, very sunny day in early spring. They can be used for starting plants in nursery flats or directly seeded into the bed soil.

The best use for the thin row covers is insect protection for your early to late summer crops. They are ideal for keeping the cabbage butterflies (the white ones you see all over your garden) or the chard/beet leaf miner flies (which you will never see except for their larva and damage) away, if the cover is put up before either start to fly.

You do have to watch out for slug activity inside row-covered vegetable beds. They hide in soil cracks and love the row cover system and most of the vegetables. Plan some early whacking and/or baiting. You need constant observation to control these ravenous creatures. I have also used them to keep birds out of small blueberry bush fruit and even some big bushes, but they are harder and require lots of fabric to work. I have found that the heavier row covers (greater than .5 oz) will last for several seasons or more if you bring them into a dry place when not needed in the garden.

Using wood ashes in your garden

This part of Oregon and Washington still has quite a few people using wood for home heating. Over winter, you can accumulate a lot of ash. The ash contains significant amounts of calcium and potassium. These elements are valuable in vegetable and tree fruit gardens. The ash minerals will raise the soil pH in the process, which is also important for most vegetables and tree fruit. So how much can you apply? Most recommendations recommend 10-15 pounds per 1,000 square feet, every year. For a smaller garden space, that would be 1 to 1.5 pounds of ash in a 10 by 10-foot space.

This might sound odd, but I think it is important to actually weigh your ash to understand what volume gives you a pound of ash. The old saying “a pint is a pound the world around” works for water but not for ash which can usually be quite a bit lighter, so do some weighing if you have a scale that can weigh small quantities accurately. Remember to weigh the empty container first. Do not apply ash to acid-loving plants like blueberries, rhododendrons, azaleas.

Plan your garden and order vegetable seeds

This is the time to look at what you grew last year, and where you want to grow them this year. What varieties worked well (or not) last year. Seeds from the various companies can disappear quickly as orders from small farmers and home gardeners start coming in.

Take excess produce to the food bank, senior centers, or community meals programs. Cash donations to buy food for the food banks are also greatly appreciated. This is especially true now, since many of the federal food funds that helped the food banks have been cut. Sign up for master gardener training in either county. Very helpful information sources are your local Extension offices. The Columbia County Extension is 503-397-3462, and the Wahkiakum County Extension is 360-795-3278. The Extension Service offices offer their programs and materials equally to all people. Advice on future garden topics is always welcome by emailing me at chip.bubl@oregonstate.edu.