Saturday, 17 November, 2018, Meeting Notes

[Colin Keizer]

We decided to try something new, and let you all know some of what we discussed at our most recent meeting. We will post the minutes at our Trellis NING site and other places.

Tacy, Colin, David, Mary and Lori were present.

As usual, we chatted about a variety of topics before starting the meeting.

- FREE and U-PICK signs for the Fall City Community Learning Garden and Pea Patch

- Conference call via Speaker phone at our Trellis meetings

We started the meeting with what was intended to be a brief discussion of the November gardening tips in a recent Old Farmer's Almanac email.

Most of us have potted plants we have dragged into home or greenhouse to extend the growing/harvest season a few days or weeks longer.

Most of us have at least a few collections of harvested crops that we are storing in garage, basement, root cellar or in the ground.

Several of us have cold frames and we discussed some of what is currently growing under them. Peppers and a few tomatoes.

Removing old, dead plants, especially tomato plants, seems to be fairly common practice, as is separating their blight-ridden carcasses from our compost piles and other garden locations.

Keeping other dead plants, like borage, calendula, a variety of “less offensive” weeds and some stover from wheat or other cover crops on the soil to protect it from winter rains and preserve at least a minimum of healthy activity is also practiced in several of our gardens as well as the Fall City Community Learning Garden.

We also briefly touched on several fall and winter harvest crops like carrots, beets and rutabagas.

Tilling beneficial crop debris seems to be less common, especially in fall. That is a spring activity, along with adding any required soil nutrients like soluble calcium and other soluble amendments.

There was some agreement that phosphate might be added in the fall, as the fall and winter rains, freezing and thawing will help to break up the bits of rock and make their minerals more accessible in the spring...and summer, and the next year or two. Phosphate is a longer term investment than calcium.

Removing debris, leaves and weeds from the soil closest to our fruit trees generated some stories about mice actually girdling young trees during harsh winters.

We all agreed that the point of keeping permanent firewood piles away from the house is to discourage mice, rats, termites and other undesirables from setting up housekeeping close to our abodes.

Compost piles rounded out the discussions with a lively session in which we added kitchen scraps, dirt, and leaf mold to the various recipes.

Last, there was a “show and tell” moment in the parking where we saw a pair of rake gloves.

Ask about Jabanero Surprise Twinkies for a funny story about bear, dog and other critter deterrent!