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Extension Perspectives

                      Waldo County Cooperative Extension's Monthly Newsletter                        

Fall Bulbs

Planting Spring Flowering Bulbs in the Fall:

• Bulbs prefer a sunny location with good, well drained soil.
• Soil pH should be between 6.0 and 7.0 Planting time is between the first frost until mid-November.
• Make holes (or a generous bed) at the depth recommended on the bulb’s package (usually 2-3 times as deep as the bulb is tall).
• If you use a bulb fertilizer, place it at the bottom of the hole and cover with ½ inch of soil. (Or use ½ inch of playground sand over the fertilizer for a buffer and to improve drainage.)
• Place the bulb into the hole with the point side up.
• Mix compost into the soil that will backfill holes (5-10%).
• Backfill with soil/compost mix and tamp down firmly but not too hard.
• Water well (and once a week if needed) to promote cool weather root growth.
• Bark mulch is optional but will provide a weed barrier in spring.

Bulb-Planting Tips:

• Larger bulbs have the best chance of good 1st and 2nd year blooms.
• Place medium and tall-flowering bulbs behind hosta, peony or daylilies to hide spent foliage.
• Plant bulbs 4-5 feet away from foundations, which can make the soil too warm.
• Deer love tulips but don’t touch daffodils or narcissus.
• If you cover your gardens with boughs in the winter, be sure to remove them in the spring BEFORE the bulbs come up.
• Enjoy the anticipation of spring color.

Guidelines for Using Manure on Vegetable Gardens

Publicity about illnesses due to E. coli has made people aware of the risk of foodborne illness. As a result, many people are asking about the safety of using manure in vegetable gardens.

Animal manure can contain bacteria such as Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli 0157:H7, as well as roundworms and tapeworms. These tiny organisms are called pathogens because they can cause disease. Pathogens can pass from animal manure to humans through direct contact with fresh fruit and vegetables.

To reduce the risk of disease transmission, food safety experts suggest that you take the following precautions:

• Use composted manure. Composting yard and garden waste with manure helps to reduce the risk of contaminating your garden vegetable with pathogenic organisms. Insuring that your compost pile reaches a temperature of 140 degrees F will further reduce the risk. Extension has several publications on composting that will help guide you to creating a “hot” pile. Commercially processed manure that is available in garden centers should indicate if it is pathogen free.

• Never use cat, dog or pig manure in vegetable gardens or in compost piles. Parasites that may be in these types of manure can possibly survive and infect people. You should also try and keep your pets out of your vegetable garden.

• Use water that meets safe drinking water standards to water vegetables. The same is true when you wash clean your produce.  (For water testing questions, contact your county Extension office). This is most important within one month of harvest. If you use old dug wells or rain barrels as a source of water for your garden, consider drip irrigation as a way to further conserve water and minimize contamination of your leafy vegetables.

• Wash and peel your garden vegetables. The risk for contamination is greatest for crops like radishes, carrots and leafy vegetables such as lettuce where the edible parts touch the soil or are splashed during rain storms or irrigation. Washing and peeling will remove most of the pathogens that can cause illness. Fully cooking the vegetables will also kill any remaining pathogens.

• Wash raw vegetables very well before eating them. Do not use soaps. When washing or rinsing vegetables, don’t use water that is 10 degrees or more colder than the produce.

If you use raw manure as a soil amendment in your garden, follow the following guidelines.
 

Note: people who face special risks from foodborne illnesses should not eat uncooked vegetables from manured gardens. Those who should be most careful include pregnant women, the elderly, very young children, and those with chronic diseases such as cancer, kidney failure, chronic liver disease, diabetes, or AIDS.

• Apply raw  manure at least 120 days before harvesting a crop that has the potential for soil contact (leafy greens, root crops etc). National Organic Program (NOP) standards allow a 90 day period for crops that don’t have direct contact potential with soil.

• Apply manure to your garden in the fall, incorporate it and plant a cover crop to hold nutrients over the winter.

• Never use raw manure as a sidedress to growing plants. Manure that is incorporated and distributed throughout the soil profile has a much lower risk of passing pathogenic organisms to the growing crop.

• If you still want to use raw manures in your garden, consider the source. Are the animals in the herd or flock healthy? Is there a parasite problem that requires regular worming? Does the farm use antibiotics as a regular component of their feeding program?

• Make sure your hands are clean when handling produce. Regularly wash your hands, especially when picking produce and bringing it into the kitchen for direct consumption or processing.

See University of Maine Cooperative Extension bulletin #1143 Home Composting

References: Van Bobbitt, master gardener/urban horticulture coordinator and Val Hillers, Extension food specialist, February 1998. 1

The Gardener's Corner by Kathy Hopkins

Ask Kathy:

Q: How can I winter over my geraniums other than on the windowsill?  I’ve run out of space.

A: If you have run out of room on the windowsill, you can dig them out of the pot and gently shake the soil off the roots.  Cut off all the flower buds so the energy will go to the roots and leaves in the spring.  Then put the plants in brown paper bags and store them in the cold cellar or alternatively, hang them upside down in the cold cellar.

In the spring, at the end of March or early April, take off all the brown leaves, trim off any dead stems and plant them in potting soil.  Put the plants in a window that faces the north until green leaves show then put in south facing window. 

You can plant them outside in containers after hardening them off.   This method should work at least half the time with geraniums and give you the opportunity to save special plants from year to year or expand your collection without a major investment each year.

RECIPES

Barley Lentil Soup With Turnips

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion diced
1 green pepper diced
1 cup celery diced
2 cloves garlic minced
6-7 cups water and/or broth
2 cups turnips diced
1 cup dry lentils
½ cup pearl barley
2 carrots peeled and diced
1 Tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried thyme
1½ dried sage Black pepper to taste
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, green pepper, celery and garlic.

2. Sauté for 7 minutes.

3. Add the water, turnips, lentils, barley, carrots, and seasonings and cook for 20 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.

4. Stir in the crushed tomatoes and cook for 20 to 30 minutes more until the barley and lentils are tender. Serve hot.

Servings: Makes 8 servings. Serving size: 1-1/2 cups.

Total Preparation & Cooking Time: 75 min. (15 Prep, 60 Cook)

Diabetic Exchanges: Bread & Starch: 1.0, Fat: 0.5, Lean Meat: 1.0, Vegetable: 2.0

Nutrition Information
Calories - 180, Total Fat - 4g, Saturated Fat - 0g, Trans Fat - 0g, Cholesterol - 0mg, Sodium - 200mg, Carbohydrates - 25g, Dietary Fiber - 10g, Sugars - 5.2g, Protein - 11g, Vitamin A - 2445iu (48%), Vitamin C  - 28mg (46%), Calcium - 73mg (7%), Iron - 2.7 mg

 Recipes from: Communicating Food For Health, Wisconsin Extension

Extend the Growing Season with Coleman’s Double-Covered Low Tunnels

by Jean English

Eliot Coleman has another great idea - one that will extend the growing season at far lower cost than the $1500 or so required for a hoop house. His plan, which he started experimenting with last year, involves planting pairs of 30-inch-wide beds of hardy crops on the first of October, covering them immediately with polyester row covers such as Reemay or Agribon (Coleman uses the 15-weight cover) supported by half-inch metal or PVC hoops; and then, in mid-November, setting greenhouse plastic over the row cover for added insulation. The double covering will take hardy, young crops through winter and provide fresh produce in early spring.

Coleman quickly set up one of these very low tunnels at MOFGA’s 2007 Common Ground Country Fair. First, using a [crow] bar, he made 12-inch-deep holes in the sandy soil. Then he set bent, half-inch-diameter, 10-foot-long PVC electrical conduit, from which he’d cut off the flanged end, into the holes along each edge of the side-by-side, 30-inch-wide beds. One foot of conduit was stuck into the ground on each side, leaving an 8-foot length curving over the beds. The hoops were spaced 5 feet apart along the length of the two 50-foot-long beds, requiring 11 hoops, costing about $22. (Ten-foot lengths of half-inch conduit cost under $2 each.) Coleman said he preferred to avoid PVC and use half-inch metal conduit, which costs about the same, but that he had not yet completed the simple pipe bender to give each metal hoop the desired curved shape. He added that Johnny’s Selected Seeds should have “a nice little pipe bender/former/bower by next fall at the latest.”

Next, Coleman draped 10-foot-wide row cover over the hoops and placed small grain bags filled with gravel on the edges of the row cover at each hoop, to hold the cover in place. Fabric extending at the ends of the row was bunched and pulled snug, tied securely with a cord, and the cord was tied to a wooden stake in the ground. The tension of the fabric created by pulling each end taut to the stake strengthens the structure.

Coleman and his wife, Barbara Damrosh, then showed how plastic would be draped over the row cover in mid-November, simply setting it atop the low structures, resetting the gravel-filled bags on the edges, and tying off the ends to hold it down. He noted a friend’s suggestion that the bags could be filled with sand or soil instead of gravel; soil could simply be poured onto the garden when the structure was removed for the summer.

The mid-November covering date helps prevent the air and soil under the structure from getting too hot. If a warm spell does occur after that date, the sides of the structure can be propped up for ventilation. “Try not to let the temperature go over 80,” said Coleman. If snow seems imminent before that date, put the plastic on early, since the fabric row cover isn’t strong enough to hold snow.

At a cost of $22 for the pipes to cover two 50-foot beds, you could cover six of them for $66. Six 30-inch-wide beds is the area covered by a 21- x 50-foot greenhouse. Using these quick hoops, the cost would be 95% less and the protection would be much easier to construct.

For vole control, Coleman builds small wooden boxes with a removable cover and with a mouse-sized hole on each of two sides. He places a set trap inside each hole (The Better Mousetrap, from Intruder, Inc., www.intruderinc.com) and adds a long handle for carrying the box. “Don’t use bait,” he advised. “Just spring the traps.” Voles eventually associate the smell of baits with the death of fellow voles; without bait, they encounter a “small dark hole that smells like vole” after the first vole has entered, and they enter the box and run into the trap. Empty the traps daily.

Sowing and covering dates and construction details will vary with locations, crops and weather. For example, Coleman suggested that on the day after Thanksgiving, when you need exercise, you might sow peas and carrots, and then add the plastic. The seeds will then sit in the soil over winter and should germinate in March. In early October, you might sow lettuce and spinach, which are very hardy as young plants, for March or April harvests. “You’re not gardening in winter,” he said, noting that many people say they don’t want to garden year-round; “you’re just planting in November, and [the crop] sits”—although you probably could sow spinach and lettuce under one of these structures a few weeks earlier and eat baby greens from the bed through winter, he added.

Crops likely won’t need to be watered, due to the lack of evaporation and to the high water table in winter.

Experiment, said Coleman. Gardeners in areas expecting a heavy snow load might want to use twice as many hoops. Try producing a lucrative, early crop of blanched asparagus by covering hoops over an asparagus bed with black plastic instead of clear. Make a taller tunnel by putting 2-foot-long pieces of rebar in the ground, burying 1 foot and leaving the other foot above ground. Slide the hoops over the top of the rebar, and drape wider row covers and plastic over these slightly taller structures. “Don’t go much higher, though,” he warned: “Wind could be a problem.”

Coleman and Damrosh often sow experimental plantings thicker than recommended, since they don’t know how crops will germinate under cooler conditions. If germination is good, they simply end up with extra baby greens.

He urged fairgoers to report results to The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener (c/o jenglish@midcoast.com) for compilation and publication in a coming issue. One fairgoer said to run a rope across the tops of the hoops, securing it to each hoop with a clove hitch; after a snow, simply pull the rope at one end to shake off the snow.

2008 North Country Garden Calendar Has Returned!

Parents Are Teachers Too program
If you are expecting or recently had your first baby, call 1-800-287-1426 for more information or to enroll in the PATT program to help your child get the best possible start in life.

Eat Well program
Could you use help in stretching food stamps, cooking and shopping for one or two, providing snacks for children? Contact UMaine Cooperative Extension Eat Well Program for a nutrition aid to help you.

Newsletters available from UMaine Extension Waldo County

• 4-H on the Move – Monthly newsletter covering County, State & National 4-H activities, news, and resources

• Eat Well - Quarterly newsletter featuring food topics, nutrition, health, exercise & food safety, emphasizing our EatWell program

• Perspectives - Monthly newsletter with upcoming programming and events in Waldo County, and informative articles from various program areas

• Publications Catalog – Listing all UMaine Extension publications available

Staff

Extension Educators:

• Jane Haskell: Business, Youth & Community Development
• Rick Kersbergen: Agriculture & Natural Resources

EAT WELL NUTRITION STAFF:

• Sandy Dubay, Regional Nutrition Education Professional
• Beth Chamberlain, Pat Fraser: Eat Well Nutrition Associates

4-H PROGRAM AIDE:

• Joyce Weaver

PARENTS ARE TEACHERS, TOO STAFF:

• Pam LaHaye, Coordinator
• Martha Powers, Diane Russell, Ellie Weider

SENIOR COMPANION PROGRAM:

• Ruth Emmet

EXTENSION SUPPORT STAFF:

• Sónia Antunes, Connie Clements

Also:

• Liz Stanley, Horticultural Aide, Knox-Lincoln-Waldo county
• Caragh Fitzgerald, Ext. Educator, Kennebec & Waldo county

 
Waldo County Extension Association
PRESIDENT: Barbara Gould
SECRETARY: Lucia (Chia) Murdock
TREASURER:

Michelle Gharst
Jacqui Lee
Andrew Marshall
Robert Nelson
Anne Rothrock