SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 305 • November 16, 2013

VIDEO ARCHIVE

The decorations are going up. As I drive through town I see more and more signs of the coming holidays. The stores seemed to have started celebrating a few weeks ago, but now the general populace is getting in the mood. If fact, we shot a story today for our final show on making holiday appetizers. With the holidays coming it is also a reminder that we only have a few shows left in our current season of Garden Time. We will be wrapping up our 8th season on the 30th of this month. Still, before we go, there are lots of things to do in the garden. Check out all our garden tips in this week’s show.

This week we featured...

Jan’s November Tips

Jan’s November Tips

The chill is back in the air and there is a rush to get things done in the garden; but is there? We found Jan McNeilan in her garden and she was doing a few chores, but in the middle of sharing her tips for the month she had a few thoughts about garden ‘work’. With the return of cooler temps a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed with getting things done. Her words of wisdom are to not stress the little things. This month she talked about raking your leaves into your garden or flower beds to provide protection from the winter cold. She also was cutting back her roses to keep the wind from whipping them around and damaging the roots. But in the midst of doing these little jobs, she was pointing out that she may not finish the projects and that was OK. You shouldn’t feel like gardening is a job. It is a hobby and once you stop enjoying it, then it is no longer a hobby. What is the worst that can happen? You end up doing the job later when there is a break in the weather. If you are still tackling chores and need a few more tips you can always check out the OSU Extension website at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/.

Dulcy Mahar Book

Dulcy Mahar Book

One of the best garden writers in our area in the past few years was Dulcy Mahar who wrote for the Oregonian newspaper. Dulcy made gardening fun for all her readers by using humor and charm in her columns. If things went well she would celebrate, if things didn’t go so well, we all shared in the pain. We lost Dulcy to ovarian cancer in 2011, and since then her fans have been clamoring for her columns to be reprinted. Some of them appeared in the Oregonian in the year following her death. Now her husband, Ted Mahar, has put together a collection of her columns and the story of their life together in the book, ‘Back in the Garden with Dulcy’. We sat down and chatted with Ted about their journey together and the mission of assembling some of her best writings for the book. This book became a labor of love as Ted sifted through Dulcy’s writings and the accompanying pictures. In the book you will find 140 different columns from the Oregonian and 140 pictures, many of them taken by Dulcy. What you will also find is inspiration with a dash of humor, which turns out to be one of her greatest gifts and her lasting legacy. You can find the book at most local booksellers or you can check out the publishers website at www.ROLMediaProductions.com.

Winter Garden Prep

Winter Garden Prep

What to do, what to do? The fall season means clean up in the garden, but are there other things that you should consider doing to get your plants ready for the colder weather? To find out what we need to do we went to one of the top landscape companies in the state, Teufel Landscape (800-4-Teufel), and chatted with Jim Pranger who walked us through some of the steps to doing some chores, from the ground up. First of all he talked about the importance of giving your lawn a good feeding right now. A nice balanced fertilizer will give your lawn some food to get through the winter and to help it start out the new year healthy. He also recommended that you get one with some iron in it as well to help battle that tough lawn moss that reappears each year. Jim also told us that giving your lawn one more quick mow will help clean up some of the debris from the fall and will keep it in shape. When you are cleaning things up remember to get all the leaves off your grass. These leaves can block the sun and harbor moisture and diseases. Getting the leaves off the lawn will prevent dead spots from showing up later in the season. While you are getting those leaves off your lawn consider mulching them or at least raking them into the beds to provide a covering for your perennial plants. Next spring, when the threat of frost has past, you can put them in your yard debris or your compost pile and let them break down into a great garden mulch.

Moving to the garden beds Jim recommended that you not be in too much of a hurry to cut back your plants. If your plants are sticking out and blocking access or presenting a danger, then cut them back. But if they are not in the way, then consider keeping them as they are. These plants can be providing food or shelter for our native birds and wildlife. They also provide some great winter color and structure to your garden when there is not much else going on. Roses, escallonia and shrubby dogwoods and some other plants do need a pruning to keep them from whipping around. Other plants like rhododendrons and azaleas should be left alone. These plants set their buds for next seasons flowers in the late summer, so if you cut them back now you may be removing the flowers for next year.

The next step up was to the trees. Fall and winter are great times to prune back trees. It is during this time that you can see the limbs that need cutting without having to hassle with the leaves. Look for clusters of branches in the center of your trees and thin those out to improve airflow. Also look for dead or diseased limbs, or crossing limbs that are rubbing on each other. These need to be pruned out as well. If you have a larger tree or you are in over your head, you may want to contact a certified arborist to take care of the job.
For answers to any of your landscape needs, feel free to contact Teufel Landscape!

Sun Gold Farm Squash

Sun Gold Farm Squash

The best fruit for fall is the squash! But which ones are the best? To learn more about squash, gourds and pumpkins we stopped by Sun Gold Farm. Sun Gold Farm (503-357-3851) is known around the area for the great produce that they bring to local farmers markets. Chris Hertel and his family have been farming for 5 generations and they know their produce. Chris says that currently they are growing about 20 different varieties of squash. Chris started by showing us a variety of spaghetti squash called ’Small Wonder’. These are called spaghetti squash because the inside meat looks like noodles when they are cooked. Chris recommends that you cut it in half, scoop the seeds out and roast it in the oven and then add a spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese and eat! This is just one of many types of spaghetti squash and you should try them all to see which one you like the best. We then moved to the acorn squash. The old standard is a dark green/black variety that everyone knows, but Chris pointed us to the newer style called ‘Cream of the Crop’. This one is much creamier and much sweeter than the its darker cousin. Another acorn style squash is the ‘Harlequin’. It is a sweet squash with a slight nutty flavor. This one you can roast and eat it, peelings and all. Chris then showed us his personal favorite, ‘Carnival’. It is sweet, but not too sweet. It has a butternut squash/sweet potato taste to it. The newest squash on the market is the ‘Aunt Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash’, even though it has been around for over 100 years. Chris said that a friend of his cut it up like a sweet potato and deep fried it like sweet potato fries and it was amazing. One of the most colorful squash was next, the ‘Red Kuri’. It is great for soups and some even use it for pies. In fact, a local chef even pureed a portion of the flesh to add little red specks to the pie. The next one was an old favorite, the ‘Delicata’. This one can be baked, microwaved, sautéed or steamed. Most people don’t know that you can also eat the outside skin. It is one of the easiest squashes to prepare.

We then moved to the larger pumpkins and gourds that they grow. Chris showed us one of the most popular pumpkins for pies called ‘Sugar Pie’. It has a drier flesh with very few strings so it does make a runny pie filling when prepared. Of course you can make a pie out of any gourd or pumpkin. A couple others that Chris recommends for pies are the ‘Pink Banana’ and the ‘Cinderella’. To prove how good they are for making pies, Chris actually made one for us. (Check out his recipe here). His sister Stephanie brought it in to show us. Sun Gold Farm also grows and sells birdhouse gourds and decorative small gourds (which can’t be eaten).

If you are looking to for Sun Gold Farm you can find them at Beaverton Farmers Market, the Hollywood Market, the Hillsdale Market and many others in the area.

The next big market event is the big Harvest Market happening on the 23rd of this month from 9am to 1:30pm. This event is a fun-filled day where people can pick up fresh fall veggies and get a jump start on their holiday shopping. It is also a fundraiser for the Tualatin Valley Gleaners. Stop by and see them at the Beaverton Farmers Market for this great event and try one of these incredible squash.
 

 
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