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Sep 28, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Events:October 3 Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meetingThursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend. The speaker will be Bill Holmes, past President of the Cowlitz Beekeepers will talk on “Winter carbohydrates and the Bees.” Contact Linda Zahl at [email protected] for the Zoom link or you can attend in person at the OSU Extension Office in St. Helens. Newspapers are so importantI have always loved newspapers and felt it important to subscribe to them.
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Sep 21, 2024 | 
cgsentinel.com | Chip Bubl
Invasive plants pose a threat to farming, gardening, and important natural areas. While a few of the most noxious woody invaders got here by chance, the bitter lesson is that most were brought to North America as landscape or agricultural plants. Scotch broom was brought to Vancouver Island and has spread up and down the West Coast.
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Sep 14, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Invasive plants pose a threat to farming, gardening, and important natural areas. While a few of the most noxious woody invaders got here by chance, the bitter lesson is that most were brought to North America as landscape or agricultural plants. Scotch broom was brought to Vancouver Island and has spread up and down the West Coast.
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Aug 31, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Events:September 5 Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meeting. Thursday, September 5, at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend. Tom Cinquini from Sowers Apiaries will be our speaker. Tom is a very fun speaker. Contact Linda Zahl at [email protected] for the Zoom link, or you can attend in person at the OSU Extension Office in St. Helens. Weather topics This past week, we had quite a bit of rain. Most came in showers that passed through without dumping a lot of water.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Events: September 5 Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meeting. Thursday, September 5, at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend. Tom Cinquini from Sowers Apiaries will be our speaker. Tom is a very fun speaker. Contact Linda Zahl at [email protected] for the zoom link, or you can attend in person at the OSU Extension Office in St. Helens. Tomato season to dateWe had great tomato weather from mid- June, July and into August. Most gardeners have started picking some ripe tomatoes.
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Aug 10, 2024 | 
cgsentinel.com | Chip Bubl
It has really been hotThere are all sorts of weather records being broken by this extended heat cycle. We have had no days where the daily high temperature was less than 80 degrees F or above. This isn’t the Western Oregon I grew up in. For some vegetables, like peppers and squash, it is just dandy. It’s a little marginal for tomatoes since they don’t set fruit well on days above the mid 90s. Gardeners have been focused on watering.
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Aug 3, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Events: August 1: Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meetingThursday, August 1, at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend. The speaker will be Ryan Williamson of Sourwood Farms, [email protected]. Contact Linda Zahl at [email protected] for the Zoom link, or you can attend in person at the OSU Extension Office in St. Helens. August 8: Saving SeedsThis talk will be held at the St. Helens Library on 375 South 18th Street on Tuesday, August 8, from 5:30 to 6:30.
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Jul 20, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
July 17 – 21: Columbia County Fair. August 1: Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meeting. Thursday, August 1st, at 7 p.m. All are welcome to attend. The speaker will be Ryan Williamson of Sourwood Farms, [email protected]. Contact Linda Zahl at [email protected] for the Zoom link or you can attend in person at the OSU Extension Office in St. Helens. August 8: Saving Vegetable Seeds program. Chip Bubl, St. Helens Library, 5:30 p.m. Free and open to all.
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Jul 17, 2024 | 
cgsentinel.com | Chip Bubl
Vegetable gardening has moved in fits and starts this year. Some gardeners, depending on your location, might consider planting short-season corn like “Sugar Buns.” These take about 70 days to maturity corn. You don’t have to do that this year if you get the corn in the ground this week. Longer season corn should be alright. Here’s what to remember:• Plant enough seed in the rows so you can thin down to 8 to 10 inches between corn plants.
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Jul 5, 2024 | 
thechronicleonline.com | Chip Bubl
Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meeting has been cancelled for July since it would have been on July 4th. The seedcorn maggot can be a real problem with bean, corn, and squash family seeds. By the time the gardener realizes that something is wrong and looks in the seed furrow, the damage is already done. The maggot and seed alike may have disappeared. That happened to me this year with a planting of winter squash.
