Bits and Pieces: by Tina Clinefelter

I’d first like to announce that the Clinton County Master Gardeners will be opening a branch of their garden problem Hot Line at the Farmers’ and Flea Market on Tuesdays at the Clinton County Fairground. Please stop by our table and ‘set’ for a spell and chat about growing pains of the plant type. We will be happy to search out answers to your questions about garden bugs and thugs and will have informational brochures on a variety of subjects. Meanwhile I’d like to extend congratulations to Ruth Eoute for her splendid efforts to get this project off the ground and in full swing; it is fast becoming ‘the’ place to be on a Tuesday!
My next announcement is of a less happy nature – the demise of the square-foot garden project! I shall be putting it under wraps (literally) until next year when I hope to have more time to tend it properly. During these past few weeks I had little time to keep an eye on things and the blistering temperatures dried out the soil too quickly. One thing I have discovered is that the soil-less mix is too high in peat moss which becomes water-repellent when dry making it very difficult to re-hydrate. Back to the drawing board with this problem! I did manage to harvest some great lettuce but this soon became bitter in the heat; the spring onions did well, the kale did not; the patio tomato never stood a chance but the zinnias bloomed nicely, as did the alyssum. The basil was beginning to show promise before it became ‘dried basil’ and the green beans managed to produce a couple of recognizable pods. All in all it was a management and environmental disaster – not one of my finer efforts…
On quite a different subject I wanted to mention that it is worth a trip to the children’s library at Ross to see a collection of art pertaining to the summer theme of world-wide interests. The paintings were done by the mother of one of our local citizens and are quite remarkable!
Back to doom and gloom – I’d be willing to bet that with the current drought will come questions of ‘blossom-end rot’ on tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. This is a physiological disorder not a disease or insect problem, meaning it has to do with the improper uptake of calcium from the soil due to irregular watering. Water, at the rate of about an inch per week is necessary for good fruit set and growth and a mulch can lessen the evaporation from the soil as well as prevent other soil-borne pathogens from splashing up onto the leaves. It is also a good idea to avoid excessive nitrogen fertilizers at the onset of fruiting as this causes vegetative growth to increase at the expense of blossom production.
To close I have something in the ‘waste not, want not’ department: while I have advised in the past to rinse out the milk containers and feed it to plants, I just read that one can do a special favor to a favorite flower by rinsing out the beer cans and bottles and giving the garden a ‘pick-me-up’ or a ‘night-cap’!