Friday, May 31, 1991 — North Shore News - 15

Brew some green tea for the garden

SO, WHAT’S up in the vegetable garden? Not much if its
emergence is dependent on the appearance of some half
decent weather. Let’s look at a few ideas we can use to

help things along a bit.

First see if we can do something
about this cool weather. Hot caps
and cloches are not articles of
clothing donned by the fashion
elite. They are designed to keep
your plants warm.

A hot cap is simply a large cone
made of translucent material such
as waxed paper or plastic. The
idea is to allow in the necessary
light and shut out the cold. You
can fiddle about trying to reinvent
the wheel or buy one of the -om-
monly available, ready-made
brands on the market.

Your cloche can be complex or
simple, depending on how much
stress you like in your life. I
prefer the simple variety which
uses old coat hangers bent in
hoops over the rows. It is then an
easy matter to stretch a roll of
plastic film over the row and peg
it down at both ends.

Do not forget to open them up
when the weather finally starts to
warm up. if you don’t, you may
find that you have cooked your
vegetables right in their garden.
Propping up cone side will de che
trick with the hot cap or you can
lift up one edge of the cloche and
hold it up with a clothes pin clip-
ped to the wire frame.

Next, how about a little tonic to
use as a pick-me-up? Although I,
too, can appreciate a little sip o’
the sauce when feeling a little
under the weather, I would sug-
gest the more traditional brands
rather than the following brew.

Get yourself a clean, 50 gallon
drum, three feet of rope, a sturdy
stick, a burlap sack and four
cubic feet of cow, horse, sheep, or
goat manure. If all you can find is
chicken manure, two cubic feet
should be enough.

Fill the burlap bag with the

Geoff
Tobiasson

OVER THE GARDEN GATE

poop of preference and tie it
securely with one end of your
rope. Tie the other end around
your stick so that the bottom of
the sack is a few inches off the
bottom when suspended as shown.

Let it ‘‘steep’’ for one to two
weeks. Giving a good yank on the
rope a few times each day will in-
sure that you are getting the max-
imum potency out of your brew.

Once the water has turned a
nice dark, dirty brown, remove
the bag and empty it into the
compost heap; might as well get
as many miles out of your manure
as you can. Fill the drum to the
brim and cover it for safe keep-
ing.

You now have a fast-acting,

gentle, organic fertilizer. It has a-

full compliment of the macro and
micro nutrients needed for good
plant growth and is just the thing
needed to give your slow starters a
kick in the pants.

Gentle it may be, but weak it is

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not. You should dilute it with ap-
proximately four parts water to
one part brew for best, safest
results. Give your new transplants
and emerging seedlings a shot now
and repeat on leafy crops such as
lettuce, cabbage, etc. at three-
week intervals.

You should avoid applying this
stuff more than once to crops
such as tomatoes, peppers, egg-
plant, and other fruiting
vegetables. The nutrient with the
highest concentrations in this con-
coction is nitrogen and as this
nutrient is the green growth pro-
moter, too much can be counter-
productive.

It is great to use in the fand-
scape garden, however. Young
trees and shrubs respond almost
immediately to applications made
in April/May and repeated at the
end of June. Groundcovers such
as ivy, salal, and hypericum will
fill in at a much faster rate.

The last recommendation I have
for your slow-to-start vegetable
garden is a couple of good books.
If you can’t do anything about it
at least you can loose yourself on
someone else’s successes.

I recently acquired two new edi-
tions to Whitecap Books’ Pacific
Gardening Series, ‘‘The Complete
Guide to Vegetables: for A:na-
teurs and Experts’? by Judy
Newton and ‘Summer Delights:

A VARIETY OF
CHOICES IN
GARDEN
RETAINING WALLS

Cooking with Fresh Herbs’ by
Noel Richardson.

Judy’s book is about as good as
I have seen it get on the subject of
food gardening in the Pacific
Northwest. In it she includes an
overall look at vegetables and
vegetable gardening principles as
well as a detailed ‘‘Encyclopedia
of Vegetables’? full of specific
help on specific plants.

I was particularly impressed
with her sections on growing in
containers and extending the
growing season. Both were full of
helpful information to the novice

and expert alike. Her quick refer-
ence chart is the best I have seen.

Noel’s book comes off just as it
appears was intended; lean on the
growing techniques of and heavy
on the best possible use for fresh
herbs from the garden. My mouth
was watering before I finished the
first herb in the book, basil.

Iam sure you will find both of
these books informative and plea-
surable reading. If the weather
remains poor, get a book and get
comfy; If the sun begins to shine,
get busy.

LANDSCAPE
EDGING