KPOV - Gardening: Get Good At It
What Are You Going To Plant?
May 24, 2013
Master Gardener Nancy Glick
On paper, it seems like Central Oregon should be a terrible place to grow vegetables!
Our growing season is less than 90 days. Cool summer nights often bring frost. The
soil is somewhat sandy and summer rainfall is limited.
But the successful Central Oregon gardener knows that these are almost perfect
conditions for a number of vegetables. Potato and other root crops have been grown
in Central Oregon for the past century and the warm sun and cool spring produces
great cool season vegetables like peas and broccoli. Our soils and climate are almost
perfect for carrots, potatoes, turnips, radishes and onions.
What do you and your family like to eat? Kids love to eat what they’ve grown. Will your
children like a pizza garden with tomatoes, peppers and onions? If you’ve been
curious about some unusual vegetables like kohlrabi, maybe this is the summer to
plant one or two.
Planting can start in April with the cool season frost hardy vegetables like lettuce,
peas, radish, spinach, turnips, kohlrabi and onion sets. If you started broccoli and
cabbage indoors or purchased plants, they could be put in the garden now after
hardening off. In late April and through May, plant the semi-hardy veggies like beets,
carrots, Swiss chard, parsley and potatoes. Plant carrots, parsnips and radishes
weekly in May for a continuous supply until summer.
If you direct seed these plants now, provide some shade when the weather warms in
June. I like the big plastic mesh trays you get when you buy plants – propping them
up on the sunny side of the bed can prevent the cool season plants from ‘bolting’ or
going to seed too soon. Traditionally, the warm season crops like corn and beans will
be planted before the lettuce and spinach are finished in the garden – the taller plants
will provide the shade and keep them cool a bit longer.
By mid May, you can begin to transplant peppers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and
leeks. On June 1st, you can plant frost tender veggies like corn and beans and vining
crops like watermelon, cucumbers, pumpkins and cantaloupe. Plant some flowers that
will attract the beneficial insects, parasites and predators that help control pests.
Good choices are sweet alyssum, candytuft, dill, fennel, tansy, cosmos, yarrow,
coneflower and sunflower.
When the night temperatures begin to rise in the first two weeks of June, you can put
out your tomato plants but be sure to have some protection for the occasional cool
night: row cover, blankets. Peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkins
like the heat but you have to choose varieties that will ripen before the cool nights
return in early September.
If you have a small yard, consider planting green onions, radishes, carrots, lettuce and
baby beets to get the most from your garden. Remember that vegetables like peas,
beans, zucchini and squashes take a large area so you may want to include trellising
the vines or planting bush varieties.
Central Oregon gardeners can enjoy a wonderful summer harvest by choosing
vegetables and varieties for our cool, shortened season. Oregon State University has
developed some vegetables especially suited to our climate. Good tomato varieties
are Early Girl, Legend, Oregon Spring and Siletz. A cherry tomato you might like is
Sweet Million, or the one of the yellow varieties: Sun Gold or Gold Nugget. When
choosing beans, consider the bush varieties like Venture, Oregon 54, Provider and
Tendercrop. Some of the pole beans OSU recommends are Kentucky Blue, Kentucky
Wonder and Stringless Blue Lake. Some of the summer squash varieties are Black
Beauty or Gold Rush Zucchini, Yellow Crook Neck and the Sunburst Patty Pan. Yukon
Gold, Norland and Viking Purple will produce ample crops in Central Oregon.
OSU Extension Service has many publications explaining how to plan your garden,
when to plant and harvest your vegetables and understanding the Central Oregon
climate. For more information or if you have any other garden questions, call the
Central Oregon Master Gardeners at 541-548-6088 or go to our website G-O, C-O,
M-G-A.com and look for the KPOV tab in the orange bar. This has been Gardening:
Get Good at It. Thanks for listening.