Springtime! The two-week extended forecast appears to be mixed weather with both sunshine, clouds and rain. Unsettled but quite mild with morning lows just below freezing. This is perfect March weather. Often we find ourselves unloading trucks and setting up the nursery in snow showers. Not ideal. Worse yet is when the valley gets a blast of Arctic air and overnight temperatures drop to -10 C for several days. This makes for all kinds of extra work moving plants around and finding space inside.
Cold snaps can be hard on young plants. If the sap has started to run it may freeze and injure the plant. In the orchards, the flower buds may suffer damage, as well. This shows up later on as a small or non-existent crop. One year, the frost ran through the orchard when it was in blossom and we had next to no fruit below six feet off the ground.
In any case, this is a great time of year to get your garden’s weeds under control. The soil is nice and loose so you can remove the overwintering ones quite easily. Other organic methods of weed control include tillage (if your soil isn’t still saturated), the use of ground cover fabrics and mulches of sawdust, bark chips or even rock. By keeping the weed seeds in the dark, they won’t be able to germinate. Fire, perhaps from a propane burner, can sterilize the soil surface and burn off existing weeds. This works well on asphalt, concrete or gravel surfaces.
This year, try spraying your weeds with vinegar. The mildly acidic solution burns the tops off the weeds on contact but is non-toxic to you. It may require a repeat treatment for the really strong weeds.
Before the nursery gets busy, we are moving some young trees around the farm to create more space by the greenhouses. Overspray from the orchard has collected on the sides of the greenhouse plastic and eaten away at the poly edges. Normally the greenhouse covers are warrantied to last four years but can be used for eight years. After that they are recycled. With the trees nearby they don’t seem to last past the four years. Having a bit more room around the structures will make them a little easier to work on and use, anyway. After all the weeds are dealt with and the trees moved, it will be time to work on the garden soil.
Evan Davies owns Beltane Nursery at 2915 Highway 3 in Erickson.
