Say “Cheeeeese!”

It’s been a productive week. I finished articles on fruit tree pruning and dealing with fire blight, enjoying spring greens, plus keeping ground squirrels and their cousins out of your garden. I’m starting my weekly posts to Planters Place “Pest Patrol” blog so if you have particular questions drop me a note.

I still have an article on the wonderful world of cheese to write. Bill Kreiger of Cheese Louise in Washington is teaching several classes at the Missouri River Break mini-workshops on March 12 and 13. I spoke with him for over an hour last week, and learned so much about something we enjoy practically every day.

I’m teaching the class, Gardening Outside the Box, on Sat. March 13 at the workshops, and will explain how to use season extending techniques; different gardening methods (raised beds, lasagna gardening, etc.); and how to naturally deal with weeds and pests.

I’m also working on honing my video skills. It’s been many moons since I filmed anything, and it’s a challenge trying to film while kids are screaming and the wind is howling. But we’ll make it work.

In the garden – or rather the greenhouse – we’ve seeded peppers, onions, basil and a number of other varieties. It’s a little earlier than normal, but I have grand intentions of being in the garden in April instead of June. The fruit trees also needed pruned in very short order. I’m going to train the “Mount Royal” plum into an espalier shape along the privacy fence. It took a bit of a beating during the early cold spell, but I think most of it is alive. Time will tell.