Gearing up your green thumb

Saturday’s sunshine sprouted shoppers seeking solace at local garden centers selling seasonal supplies.

Six-year-old Magnolia Amador, 6, spent $41 of her allowance on a plastic garden lizard at Patt’s Garden Center in Clarkston.

“We’re planting all our flowers and we’re going to put this up and we’re going to name it Changing Colors because it’s a chameleon that changes colors,” Magnolia said.

She lives with her grandparents, Raynette and Jon Petrie, in the Lewiston Orchards. When she was born, the Petries planted a magnolia tree and now they have a couple of trees, along with several fruit trees they’re nursing to maturity.

The Petries are relatively new to gardening. Last year Jon built Raynette several raised beds and they planted nearly every vegetable they could get their hands on.

“We didn’t know what we were doing so we went kind of crazy,” Jon Petrie said. The garden produced corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, zucchini, pumpkins and watermelons.

This year, Raynette said, they’re going to try something new.

“This year we want to do geothermal gardening so we’re going to do half of the beds under the ground and then raise it so we can do gardening all year round,” she said.

The Petries lived in Korea several years ago when Raynette worked for the U.S. Department of Defense. There she and others cultivated a variety of fruit trees that helped supply the community food bank. It’s a project she hopes to continue here with her Lewiston garden.

“I like the idea of helping the community and I want to try to get back into that,” she said. “This year, hopefully, we can get it going and start giving back. I think people should do that. I think with the economy now, if we can start putting back into (the community) it’s good for the Salvation Army and the community food bank.”

Today, April 14, has been declared National Gardening Day, a call to action for people to get out and grow flower or vegetable gardens for their own enjoyment and the benefit of their communities.

Some of the activities suggested for National Gardening Day include organizing seed and perennial plant swaps with neighbors and friends; joining a garden club or starting one; visiting a local nursery or garden center; and sharing one’s experience with others at #NationalGardeningDay, #garden and #gardening.

Kate Patterson is co-owner of Patt’s Garden Center and said there’s always an uptick in would-be gardeners on weekends this time of year.

“It’s pretty typical so far,” Patterson said of the shopping trends. “Everybody’s buying all the pretty blooming things. And then there was a lot of damage from the zero temperature in the winter that we had. So people are replacing a lot of things — roses and shrubs and stuff.”

Patterson said it’s a bit too early to start planting hot weather crops. But the time is right for many perennials, shrubs, trees and annuals such as pansies.

If the weather turns extra hot, as it has the past several summers, Patterson recommends gardeners mulch their crops using bark rather than rock.

“And for landscapes, watering really well now. And you water deeply and less often in the summertime,” she said.

“Just lots of water or extra fertilizer early on helps (plants) establish a good root system before it gets really hot.”

Patterson said the joke among gardeners is: “you should shop early and shop often. This is the time of year when everything is looking the best and it’s fun to take a wander through and see what you see. Whatever speaks to you.”

Tana and Tom Truscott, of Lewiston, were wandering through Patt’s on Saturday — although their garden is well underway this year. Tom just finished building a second greenhouse and Tana starts most of her plants by seed.

Tana is an Asotin-Garfield County master gardener and does demonstrations at the Clarkston Community Garden where she is a member.

“Our purpose is to try new varieties and demonstrate techniques, such as row cover, mulching and heat cover crops,” Tana said.

That likely will be important this year if the mercury shoots into the triple digits.

“Well it will happen again, of course it will,” Tana said. Surviving the super hot weather will involve “mulching, using drip irrigation, getting your water right to the source of the plant — don’t waste your water. And row covers, even for things like tomatoes because people think tomatoes love the heat but they won’t put on their blooms and will just drop if it gets too hot”

Tom suggested shading crops like tomatoes if the temperature is too high, but don’t cover the plants too tightly or the pollinators will not have access.

“The main thing is mulching and having good soil that retains water,” Tana added. “And using a cover crop that we do in the fall.”

The Truscotts plant cover crops such as ryegrass and red clover as soon as the vegetable crop is harvested, letting it grow in the fall and then digging it into the soil in early spring to let the organic material decompose and enrich the soil.

Tana said gardeners can also choose heat-resistant crops. There are currently several heat-resistant tomato varieties that the Clarkston Community Garden will be demonstrating this year.

Another unusual heat-resistant crop is malabar red spinach that grows tall throughout the season.

“We demonstrated that it grows huge,” Tana said. “We had to put it on a trellis and it stays green through 100 degrees.”

For gardeners living in higher elevations, the Truscotts recommend using raised beds because they heat up quicker, and covering the ground between rows with weed-blocking fabric.

“You have to keep working at your soil,” Tana said. “Adding compost and manure. It’s a process that takes more than one year.”

Volunteers are at the Clarkston Community Garden at 1440 Fair St. every Tuesday until about noon. Demonstrations are held at different times but Tana said she will usually be there on Thursdays.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.