May 21st: How much water do your plants need? 💦

05/22/23 • 33 min

Welcome to Gardening in the PNW! If you like what you hear, leave a review and email me at [email protected] for a free seed packet snail mailed from my garden! Yup, I mean it. 🐌💌
Each week we cover timely gardening topics for gardening in BC, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. My zone is 8b; know your zone to compare your climate! Our flow goes: official gardening recommendations for the week, the soil temperature and weather for the week, what plants are in their prime, what happened in my garden, and The Dirt, a deep dive into one gardening item. This week we are talking watering - where, when, how! 💦
Official gardening recommendations from Warm weather plants are a go! Tomatoes, pumpkins, winter and summer squash, corn, beans, etc. should be going in the ground now. OSU recommends removing spent blossoms off azaleas and rhododendrons.
Soil temperatures: Soil temperatures are holding in the mid to high 70’s. What does this mean? Planting time!!
Next week’s weather: mid 60’s through high 70’s with overnight lows in the mid 50’s. Tonight’s low is 49 - which is a bit chilly for tomatoes and peppers. Average temperature for the next week is 62. If you are past germination, you can slow watering to 2-3x a week. Continue to vent your hoop and green houses even though it is a bit cooler.
What’s popping: First alpine strawberries of the season, full heads of lettuce. Laburnum, Wisteria, Horse chestnut, mignonette... first glimpses of roses, beauty bush, seeing pollinators handiwork on blueberries.
In the garden this week: Thinned turnips planted in April. Garden cleaning (removing invasive oxeye daisy). Great growth on transplants, lost only 1, true leaves emerging. Melons remain smaller.
The Dirt: How to water.
Yes, you can overwater! Water in the morning or evening. But, water over not watering. Water the soil, not the plant. Watering less frequently generates good root development.
Watering Math 🧮
Use your rain gauge!
Water 1” a week at 60 degrees and .5” more for every 10 degrees hotter average temperature.
Garden hose flow rates: https://www.gardenbloggers.com/garden-hose-flow-rate/
Garden nozzle flow rates are 2.5 - 5 gallons per minute (gpm). We should test this!

Measuring your garden bed:

garden plot = 4ft x 8 ft = 32sq ft = 4608 cubic inches for 1” water
1 gallon = 231 cubic inches

garden plot needs 20 gallons per week at 60 degrees
2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) need to water for 8 minutes per week / 4 minutes 2x per week / 2 minutes 4x week

Next week is an average week! Will you measure your garden bed to better gauge your water?

Hi folks! Recording PNW Gardening was a fun experiment, but as a hobby it was a lot of work... and cut into my gardening time. Thanks for tuning in from April 2023 - July 2023.

Measuring your garden bed:

garden plot = 4ft x 8 ft = 32sq ft = 4608 cubic inches for 1” water
1 gallon = 231 cubic inches

garden plot needs 20 gallons per week at 60 degrees
2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) need to water for 8 minutes per week / 4 minutes 2x per week / 2 minutes 4x week

Next week is an average week! Will you measure your garden bed to better gauge your water?

Hi folks! Recording PNW Gardening was a fun experiment, but as a hobby it was a lot of work... and cut into my gardening time. Thanks for tuning in from April 2023 - July 2023.

Previous Episode

May 14th: It's Tomato Time! 🍅

Welcome to Gardening in the PNW! If you like what you hear, leave a review and email me at [email protected] for a free seed packet snail mailed from my garden! Yup, I mean it. 🐌💌
Each week we cover timely gardening topics for gardening in BC, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. My zone is 8b; know your zone to compare your climate! Our flow goes: official gardening recommendations for the week, the soil temperature and weather for the week, what plants are in their prime, what happened in my garden, and The Dirt, a deep dive into one gardening item. This week we are talking TOMATOES! 🍅
Official gardening recommendations from Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide: Plant beans, Brussel Sprouts, Cucumbers, Eggplant (transplant), Ground Cherry (transplant), Peppers (transplant), Pumpkins, Squash - Summer and Winter, Tomatillos (transplant) and Tomatoes (transplant). Flowers: Direct sow Nasturtiums, Marigolds, Zinnia, and Calendula. Make Chive Vinegar.
Soil temperatures: Soil temperatures have gone bananas into the 70s and low 80s.
What does this mean? Planting time!!!
Next week’s weather: mid 80’s through Thursday dropping to 70’s by the end of the week. No rain in sight, so water your babies every day. Vent your hoop and green houses.
What’s popping:
Oranges are popping! Calendula, California poppies. Lupine and Columbine. Flowering Dogwood and a whole new set of Rhododendrons. March Spinach has bolted.
In the garden this week: Deer attack!, pumpkins and beans emerged, all my indoor starts germinated (including 7-9 year old zucchini, cantelope, and pickling cuke seeds) and got planted out: cucumbers, summer squash, fuzzy sunflower, winter squash. Worked at the p-patch with my son, planted peppers and tomatoes. Lots of happy volunteers: mignonette, purslane, ground cherry, sunflowers. Aphids. Dealing with shade (the people kind).
Deer proofing: Stakes, Netting, Zip ties, Chip clips
The Dirt: How to plant tomatoes: Get heavy duty cages - worth it for multi-season use, Fertilizer

Hi folks! Recording PNW Gardening was a fun experiment, but as a hobby it was a lot of work... and cut into my gardening time. Thanks for tuning in from April 2023 - July 2023.

Next Episode

Growing and Maintaining Roses 🌹

Today’s episode is for the week of May 28th, 2023. Want to beta test the watering calculator? Shoot me an email ([email protected])!
Each week we cover timely gardening topics for gardening in BC, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. My zone is 8b; know your zone to compare your climate! Our flow goes: official gardening recommendations for the week, the soil temperature and weather for the week, the Bloom Report, what happened in my garden, and The Dirt, a deep dive into one gardening item. This week we are talking roses - types, summer maintenance, and tying up climbers.🌹
Official gardening recommendations from Tilth Alliance’s Maritime Garden Guide: consistent watering. Looking for undesirable insect eggs, and protect beneficial eggs. Sow some later-harvesting brassicas like rutabagas, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, turnips, and cauliflower. Sow carrots, bulb ing fennel, beets, and Swiss chard. Results of my water measurements...
Soil temperatures: Soil temperatures dropped to mid 60’s and rose to mid-70’s. https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature
Next week’s weather: mid 60’s through high 70’s with overnight lows in the mid 50’s. Highs mid 60’s to mid 70’s. Lows are in the high 40’s - consider floating row cover or other insulation. Still no rain in sight. Average temperature is 62, but raises into next weekend so water for 70 degrees Sat and Sun. https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Seattle+WA
Bloom Report: Tons of alpine strawberries, Little Snowpea White. Lettuce continues. Herbs galore: oregano, sage, chive, and mint. Chive vinegar is a hit, making oregano salad today. More roses, foxglove, California lilac.
In the garden this week: Trellised a climbing rose, tidied my edges with a vertical brick edging, does tidiness lead to herbicides, garbage bucket trick, foxglove color variations (advice from Queen Valley). Do you know false dandelion? Pests are coming! White butterfly, slugs. Also seen: wolf spiders. Need produce? Try Helsing Junction CSA. Don’t get fooled by seeds for sale!
The Dirt: Roses are finicky, but worth it. Hard pruning in Jan or Feb, but ok to prune a lot and clear tight canes and dense or diseased foliage. Look for aphids. Fertilize monthly. Remove spent blooms. Dr. Huey is the most “popular” variety. Climbers - tie up leads at less than 45 degree angle, so blooms emerge from side branches.
Results of the watering test are...

Hi folks! Recording PNW Gardening was a fun experiment, but as a hobby it was a lot of work... and cut into my gardening time. Thanks for tuning in from April 2023 - July 2023.

Pacific Northwest Gardening - May 21st: How much water do your plants need? 💦

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to Gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Today is May 21, and I'm your host, Elise. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather this week, so I apologize if I sound a little more snuffly than usual. I think it's a combination of a spring, cold and serious allergies. 2s For those of you who are tuning in. For the first time, we cover timely gardening topics for gardening in the Pacific Northwest. So that's Vancouver, BC. All of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I live in