What to do in the Garden in October

 

Maintenance and Clean Up

✦ Dig and store potatoes; keep in darkness, moderate humidity, temperature about 40°F. Discard unused potatoes if they sprout. Don't use as seed potatoes for next year.

✦ Ripen green tomatoes indoors. Check often and discard rotting fruit.

✦ Harvest and store apples; keep at about 40°F, moderate humidity.

✦Place mulch over roots of roses, azaleas, rhododendrons and berries for winter protection.

✦Cover asparagus and rhubarb beds with a mulch of manure or compost.

✦Prune out dead fruiting canes in raspberries.

✦Harvest squash and pumpkins; keep in dry area at 55 degrees to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.Harvest squash and pumpkins; keep in dry area at 55 degrees to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Planting and Propagation

✦ Dig and divide rhubarb. (Should be done about every 4 years.)

✦ Plant garlic for harvesting next summer.

✦ Plant ground covers and shrubs.
✦ Dig and store geraniums, tuberous

begonias, dahlias, and gladiolas.

✦ Pot and store tulips and daffodils to force into early bloom, indoors, in December and January.

From Benton County Master Gardeners -
Membership meetings: 3rd Monday Oct. to May 7:00pm - currently on Zoom

The Evening Garden Club Lives On...

 

The Corvallis Evening Garden Club Lives on...

...via Zoom*

Program Schedule 2020-21--First Monday of the Month – 7 p.m. as always

October 5 Jennifer Klammer, Past President EGC, Gardens of Japan

November 2   Double Bill!
    Kathleen Rochester A Gazillion Petals: One very flowery week in the

    Netherlands and Belgium

    Dan Edge, Co-President EGC Front Yard—Xeriscape Conversion 

December 7 Virtual Greens Party

    Members will offer greens from their gardens for pick-up during the week         before, and will share their creations during the meeting

January 4  Vanessa Gardner Nagel, Designer, Seasons Garden Design,                 LLC, Evaluating and Implementing New Garden Strategies

February 1 TBA

March 1 Loree Bohl, Author and Danger Garden Blogger 

    Fearless Gardening (her new book)

April 5  Lucy Hardiman, Designer, Lucy Hardiman Perennial Partners,

    History of Gardening in the Pacific Northwest

May 3  Member Plant and Garden Tips Exchange

*For information on Zoom link please contact Dan Edge Daniel.edge@oregonstate.edu

for membership and other information: www.corvalliseveninggardenclub.org

Bulb-A-Palooza

 

Who:  

www.corvalliseveningardenclub.org

What:  Annual Fall Bulb Sale

Top Quality Bulbs from Holland packaged in a variety of choices: alliums, daffodils, species tulips, camas, saffron crocus and so much more!

Why: Support community gardening grants & horticulture scholarships

How: Order by email with no-contact pick up

Watch your listservs for full ordering information between September 10-14 -or- Request information from kathleen.rochester@gmail.com after Sept. 15

When:  Place orders Sept. 27— Oct. 6

Pick up and pay October 11-13, details when you order . First come, first served!

EGC Plant Sale

 

is holding a

Plant Sale 

September 25th & 26th

Sign up to attend by time slot and get ready to load up!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4EACA628A7FBC07-plant

Or email: Plantsalearg@gmail.com

We’re creating safe shopping for you with masks, small numbers, distancing, and good sanitation.

Many, many perennials, shrubs, trees, and vines available!

Tip: Fall planting is much better for the plants. Look forward to a happier, more beautiful spring garden.

Soil Testing and Crop Rotation

 

Fall is a great time to get your soil tested and think about rotating crops in your garden. Before you put in your garlic (mid-October for us), get soil samples from the different beds in your garden. Check out https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/catalo g/files/project/pdf/ec628.pdf to find out how.

These links will help you find out where to send your samples https://catalog.extension.oregonstate. edu/sites/catalog/files/project/pdf/em8677_0.pdf & https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/ec1478 so you can find out just the right amendments to add to your soil for next year’s crops.

Leaves like lettuce, herbs, kale, arugula, spinach, and broccoli, are first in the rotation because they need to get first crack at the nitrogen (N) in the soil. This is very important for our soil, which tends to lack nitrogen, unless you put in lots of nitrogen along with compost and/or animal manure in the spring, not the fall.

Fruits include tomatoes, melons, squash, peppers, and eggplant. These plants need phosphorus (P) to produce fruit and nitrogen is less important to them. However, fruits like tomatoes need extra calcium in the soil and, since it takes a while to break down from added lime, it is a good idea to add your lime in the fall where you plan to put your tomatoes next year.

Root crops, like carrots, beets, onions, and garlic, need even less nitrogen than fruits; instead, they need lots of potassium (K) to develop their roots. Our soil has lots of potassium because of the rocks that were broken down to form it, so your root vegetables should thrive if you make sure the soil is broken up enough for their roots to go down deep into the soil.

Legumes are mostly green beans and peas. These plants as well as many cover crops can help replenish the nitrogen (N) in the soil, and at the same time, need lots of nitrogen themselves. That’s why they have nitrogen-fixing nodules on their roots. So don’t skimp on nitrogen come spring in the beds where your peas and beans are going to grow.

Corvallis Backyard CSA

Have extra produce from your garden after you’ve thinned your plants? Consider do-nating to the Corvallis Backyard CSA whose mission is inclusion for all people in Corvallis. It does this by delivering produce boxes to families from different cultures

(Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American) while building mutually supportive relationships with the families. Contact Sandi Cheung sandi.cheung@gmail.co

m to find out how you can drop off produce that will be added to the CSA boxes. The boxes are delivered to families every Thursday.

Interested in learning other ways to support the Corvallis Backyard CSA? Check with rachel@shonnards.com or text/call 503-779-8570.

Food Action Team -- Edible Garden Group meets on Wednesday September 9 from 5-6:30.  For more information contact Rachel Barnhart at rdbarn4@gmail.com.

~ What to do in the Garden in September ~

Maintenance and Clean Up 

• Harvest winter squash when the "ground spot" changes from white to a cream or gold color.

• Mulch carrots, parsnips and beets for winter harvesting.

• Protect tomatoes; pick green tomatoes and ripen indoors if frost threatens.

• ✦Harvest potatoes when the tops die down. Store them in a dark location.

• ✦Stop irrigating your lawn after Labor Day to suppress European crane fly populations. 

Planting and Propagation

• Divide peonies and iris.

• Plant or transplant woody ornamentals and mature herbaceous perennials. Fall planting of trees, shrubs and perennials can encourage healthy root growth over the winter.

• Plant daffodils, tulips and crocus for spring bloom. Work calcium and phosphorus into the soil below the bulbs at planting time. Remember when purchasing bulbs, the size of the bulb is directly correlated to the size of the flower yet to come in spring.

• Plant fava beans, corn salad and multiplying onions.

• Plant a winter cover crop of annual rye or winter peas in the vegetable garden.                                Click here for more about cover crops.   

From Benton County Master Gardeners Association -

Membership meetings:  3rd Monday Oct. to May 7:00pm on Zoom.

A Chorus of Crickets!

 

A Chorus of Crickets!

With the spate warm evenings we’ve had in August, the rhythmic, steady, and incessant chorus of tree cricket chirps and trills fill the air during evening backyard dinners and late night strolls. These magical cricket choruses mark both the peak and the turning point of summer. The Willamette Valley hosts five species of tree crickets: Snowy, Western, Riley’s, Prairie and Four- spotted. Typically, the Snowy, Western and Riley’s Tree Crickets live in trees and shrubs, and the Prairie and Four-spotted Tree Crickets live in meadows. (From Boucher and Millbank, Neighborhood Naturalist, Summer 2019).

Crickets are in the insect order Orthoptera, the same order as grasshoppers, katydids, and locusts. Crickets and katydids have long, slender antennae, longer than their bodies, but grasshopper antennae are short and thick. Crickets and katydids are nocturnal, but grasshoppers feed during the day. Just how do crickets make those chirping sounds? Crickets and katydids rub a sharp-edge or “scraper” on the lower wing against a row of bumps called a “file” on the upper wing. Different species make different sounds, and, like birds, the males do most of the chirping in order to attract mates. Tree crickets are light green, providing perfect camouflage in plant foliage.

It’s been said that you can tell the temperature by counting cricket chirps, but does it work? Granted, crickets will chirp slower at cooler temperatures and speed up as temperatures increase, but different species chirp at different rates given the same temperature. Still, if you want to give it a try, Dolbear’s Law (1897) states that: (the # of cricket chirps in 14 seconds) + (40) = degrees Fahrenheit. So, before sultry summer evenings turn to chilly autumn nights, take a moment to marvel at our amazing tree crickets, those capricious, choral critters!

Loretta Brenner, Corvallis Evening Garden Club

For a fascinating video about finding crickets at night, and more tree cricket info go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27Rd6QyiwMand to Neighborhood Naturalist newsletter Summer 2019 http://www.neighborhood-naturalist.com/newsletter.html

For More Info:

“Tree Crickets of Oregon” B.B. Fulton, 1926. Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1456/49cb7d61bba5a14f2fbaf2936653fe0cf11b.pdf

Songs of Tree Crickets Article & Recordings

http://songsofinsects.com/crickets/snowy-tree-cricket

The Difference between Grasshopper, Crickets, Katydids, and Locusts and Insect Recipes

https://www.ohmybugrecipes.com/blog/coming-soon

For More Info:

“Tree Crickets of Oregon” B.B. Fulton, 1926. Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1456/49cb7d61bba5a14f2fbaf2936653fe0cf11b.pdf

Songs of Tree Crickets Article & Recordings

http://songsofinsects.com/crickets/snowy-tree-cricket

The Difference between Grasshopper, Crickets, Katydids, and Locusts and Insect Recipes

https://www.ohmybugrecipes.com/blog/coming-soon

A Chorus of Crickets!

 With the spate warm evenings we’ve had in August, the rhythmic, steady, and incessant chorus of tree cricket chirps and trills fill the air during evening backyard dinners and late night strolls. These magical cricket choruses mark both the peak and the turning point of summer. The Willamette Valley hosts five species of tree crickets: Snowy, Western, Riley’s, Prairie and Four-spotted. Typically, the Snowy, Western and Riley’s Tree Crickets live in trees and shrubs, and the Prairie and Four-spotted Tree Crickets live in meadows. (From Boucher and Millbank, Neighborhood Naturalist, Summer 2019).

Crickets are in the insect order Orthoptera, the same order as grasshoppers, katydids, and locusts. Crickets and katydids have long, slender antennae, longer than their bodies, but grasshopper antennae are short and thick. Crickets and katydids are nocturnal, but grasshoppers feed during the day. Just how do crickets make those chirping sounds? Crickets and katydids rub a sharp-edge or “scraper” on the lower wing against a row of bumps called a “file” on the upper wing. Different species make different sounds, and, like birds, the males do most of the chirping in order to attract mates. Tree crickets are light green, providing perfect camouflage in plant foliage.

It’s been said that you can tell the temperature by counting cricket chirps, but does it work? Granted, crickets will chirp slower at cooler temperatures and speed up as temperatures increase, but different species chirp at different rates given the same temperature. Still, if you want to give it a try, Dolbear’s Law (1897) states that: (the # of cricket chirps in 14 seconds) + (40) = degrees Fahrenheit.   So, before sultry summer evenings turn to chilly autumn nights, take a moment to marvel at our amazing tree crickets, those capricious, choral critters! 

Loretta Brenner, Corvallis Evening Garden Club  

For a fascinating video about finding crickets at night, and more tree cricket info go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27Rd6QyiwM and to Neighborhood Naturalist newsletter Summer 2019  http://www.neighborhood-naturalist.com/newsletter.html

 

 

For More Info:

“Tree Crickets of Oregon” B.B. Fulton, 1926. Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1456/49cb7d61bba5a14f2fbaf2936653fe0cf11b.pdf

 

Songs of Tree Crickets Article & Recordings

http://songsofinsects.com/crickets/snowy-tree-cricket

 

The Difference between Grasshopper, Crickets, Katydids, and Locusts and Insect Recipes

https://www.ohmybugrecipes.com/blog/coming-soon

From the Corvallis Evening Garden Club

For More Info:

“Tree Crickets of Oregon” B.B. Fulton, 1926. Oregon Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1456/49cb7d61bba5a14f2fbaf2936653fe0cf11b.pdf

Songs of Tree Crickets Article & Recordings

http://songsofinsects.com/crickets/snowy-tree-cricket

The Difference between Grasshopper, Crickets, Katydids, and Locusts and Insect Recipes

https://www.ohmybugrecipes.com/blog/coming-soon