SEELEY LAKE - Have you ever had ground squirrels eat all your freshly sprouted peas? Wondered how to get rid of black spots on potatoes? Asked if row covers will keep bugs off your vegetables? Master gardener and columnist Molly Hackett will soon be in Seeley Lake to answer your gardening questions. Hackett is the guest speaker for the Clearwater Resource Council's spring gardening workshop at the Seeley Lake Community Hall on Saturday, April 7 from 1-2:30 p.m. for our Clearwater Partners Workshop. Free and everyone is welcome.
Like many, Molly came to gardening slowly. "Unfortunately, I didn't have a mentor, so if there's a mistake to make, I've done it. I had vegetable gardens that turned into weed patches, and the same with my flower beds."
Hackett's family moved from northern Ohio to the Bitterroot Valley where her father fenced off an area to be their vegetable garden. Hackett said, "Unfortunately our property was dominated by geese and it got to be a joke. We'd plant the lettuce, and when it came up, the geese would go over the fence and eat it all, and leave nothing but goose paint behind!"
Later, Hackett married a Montana rancher and the family place had a huge vegetable garden. Her father-in-law always plowed the garden with his two draft horses and a small walking plow. The horse was old and good but single-minded. The horse would walk down the center of the row and manage to never step on a plant, but then every once in a while take a major bite out of the potato plants!
All of this motivated Hackett and she became a self-taught gardener. She eventually took the master gardening course and read everything about gardening that she could get her hands on.
Talking to her gardening friend and co-author Georgianna Taylor, they surmised, "All this garden information is wrong for western Montana. It's all written for gardeners east of the Mississippi, for gardens in wetter and warmer climates."
Hackett and Taylor started a column "Dirty Fingernails" for the Ravalli Republic and the Missoulian, published twice monthly on Sundays. They wrote two gardening guides, "The Compleat Gardener" in 1995 and "A Year in the Garden" in 2001.
Taylor has passed away, but Hackett still solicits questions by email or phone from area gardeners and answers all their questions, publishing some of them in her Dirty Fingernails column. If you want to reach her directly at 1384 Meridian Road, Victor, MT 59875, call 406-961-4614; or email mhackett@centric.net. Please include a garden-related subject line in emails.
Better yet – join us to meet and talk with Hackett in person at the Clearwater Partners Gardening Workshop on Saturday. Hackett will begin the workshop with an overview of pest management for your garden and then will open the floor for any and all questions!
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