Composting

Another busy weekend in the rear view mirror, where does time disappear to?

We had overnight guests, a funeral to attend, friends in for lunch,  dinner out with friends one night, then an unexpected trip up to Merritt to pick up my parents, but it all fit in somehow, as it always does. 

Inside the hoop house you can see the kale growing with it's frilly leaves.  I added more Endive and Lettuce to this bed.
 

I had two garden related activities that I really wanted to accomplish -  number one was to get some more endive, lettuce and peas planted out in the raised beds that have the hoop covers on them.   Done!

Our kitchen compost barrel was full to the brim about a month ago, and my handyman Chuckles made us a new one so that we could alternate them.  The old one (blue one) has been sitting on the ground for a month now, being rolled over each weekend to keep on stirring the contents.

The blue barrel, ready to be emptied, the new white one is on the stand behind.

 

Lovely rich worm filled compost ready for spreading.  All from kitchen scraps!
 

So number two garden chore on my list was to get this barrel emptied and spread the contents onto the gardens.  So, after having dinner with Mom and Dad at their place Monday evening, I went home and in the semi-darkness of dusk, and in the pouring rain I dug about two-thirds of the contents out of the blue barrel, into a wheel barrow and distributed it around all the flower beds in the yard around the house.  It felt good to get that much done, and I love my garden time, light or dark, rain or sun. 

Admittedly,  I like it more in the sunshine, but I will take it however I can get it!

A little about my kitchen composting -

We have been composters for many years.  Now many cities include kitchen compost in their regular recycling pick up, but we would never give this valuable stuff away!

On my counter I keep a fairly large plastic bucket with a good lid, into which goes all peelings, eggs shells, coffee grounds and filters, unbleached paper products and seeds, pits, leftover veggies, etc.  Never any meat products, bones, fat or anything of animal origin. 

Every day or two, I empty this into the big barrel shown in the pictures above.  The barrel in use has a metal bar through it, so it rests on the metal stand, and can be easily rotated.  Most times when I dump my kitchen bucket, I give the big barrel a spin, to keep everything mixed together. 

It's amazing how much veggie matter we generate!

We alternate the two barrels, so one can rest, fully compost and get emptied onto the gardens as we are filling up the other one, then we switch them, so every 6 months we have a fresh batch of compost to spread.  This amends the soil beautifully, and when it's ready for spreading it is full of fat worms ready to get to work in the beds.

Gardening is Cheaper Than Therapy

 

 

Tomorrow is the first day of spring officially, although here in the lower mainland of BC spring has been with us for a month or more!

I thought I should post you some new pics of the progress of the indoor Growlight Garden (IGG) and the mini hoop houses .

The IGG on March 3rd
 

The IGG on March 11th
 

These three photos I took this morning:

Closest tray is scallopini squash and roma tomatoes

Left tray is cabbage and peppers, right tray scallopini
and tomatoes

Peppers just germinating now, left tray compared to scallopini
squash in the right tray.
 

In order of germination I have started: cabbage, scallopini squash, early girl and roma tomatoes, ancho peppers and red horn peppers, and butternut squash.

It is obvious to me that I am going to want to transplant at least some of these seedlings into pots (peat pots?) soon as there is a real disparity in the heights of the different plants, and ideally I want to keep the grow lights about 10cm above the plants to discourage leggy growth. 

But since some of the plants (cabbages and squashes) are so tall already, and the red horn and ancho peppers only just germinated this past week,  10 cm above the squashes is a good 20 cm above the peppers!





























I also  noticed some very tiny white bugs two weeks ago, on the damp matting beneath each tray of plants.  They get quite agitated when the tray is removed and they are exposed to the light.  We looked at them through a magnifying glass (they are super tiny things) and then I Googled and found out that they are Springtails.  Called this because they have a hinged body with a powerful tail that propels them quite far, even these tiny ones we have are good jumpers!  Interestingly enough, much of the info I found initially was on marijuana growing blogs!

Magnified juvenile Springtail
 

I took the matting out of the IGG, washed it with really hot water, then dried it thoroughly, then put it back.  Since then, there have been very few Springtails, and I have been checking and squashing them daily, although by all accounts they don't really cause harm.  I am curious as to how they originated, it has to be from a) the peat pellets I put the seeds in b) the potting mixture I put aroung the peat pellets in the trays, c) the seeds themselves, but this seems quite unlikely or d) the matting that came with the IGG (also seems unlikely).

I have not taken a super recent photo of the hoop house interiors, it's been about 3 weeks.

Hoops were left open one day to expose to sunshine and fresh air

I am disappointed that the lettuce and endive did not germinate, so I plan to put more in this weekend.  I think the soil dried out a bit too much, which I didn't think would happen since the beds were wet when I covered them, and the interior of the hoop plastic always has lots of condensation on it.  I have watered them a couple of times, to no avail.  Maybe when I am there this weekend, I will find that they have finally sprouted.

Peas inside hoop house

Of course the peas are going like gangbusters, but they are doing the same in the bed that doesn't have a hoop over it, although I did protect it for the first few weeks with a sheet of corrugated clear plastic.   Now it is just totally exposed.

Peas in bed with no hoop house
 

The kale is now about 2-3 inches tall with the first of its frilly leaves. 



I have tilled the garden bed once, but I need to scrape off the grassy surface of the areas that I want to convert to garden this season.  I tried just hacking through it with the tiller, but besides being very difficult and hard work, it only results in a lot of grass roots being broken up and mixed into the soil which will lead to more work (weeding) soon.

We plan to fence the garden this season as well as expanding it.  It was pure providence that no little critters disturbed it last year, no bunnies, no deer, quite amazing! 




Garden Plan
 

The garden plan was laid out in February, shown here.  It has already been somewhat modified, and probably will be again before everything is planted.

I am going to try some companion planting to see how that works out this season, and I am especially excited about the corn/pole beans/squash combo, as the beans grow up the corn stalks.  But, do they choke the corn and stop it from producing I wonder? 

I am not going to subject all my corn to this just in case!

 

 I saw a cutesy sign in a home décor shop last night out walking Bogey, it said:

Gardening is cheaper than therapy - and you get tomatoes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's Here!

Yippee, my seed order arrived yesterday!

In an enormous box, since I also bought a growlight  garden in order to start seeds and keep a supply of fresh stuff around in winter. 

Growlight Garden
 

Although Chuckles was a little condescending about it, he helped me assemble it and seems interested in the possibilities.  But he claims he could build a better grow light garden!  I don't dispute that, it's just the amount of free time he has in a day (none) and the number of projects on his to-do list (about 800 and counting).  Which is why I didn't tell him ahead of time I was making this particular purchase.

The seeds themselves inspire all kinds of daydreams on my part, which is why I told Chuck he could use the bobcat to strip off the grass layer on the garden area so I could start tilling  and amending it this coming weekend.  Any job he can do that doesn't involve the renovation of the shop is a welcome change, so he is thrilled at the prospect.

We could also start fencing the garden area, which didn't get done last season.  We have the fence posts, just need a post pounder and some wire mesh. 

Dad examining some Iris
 

Meawhile, last weekend on our Saturday outing I took Mom and Dad to Tanglebanks Nursery and we had lunch at their Bistro.  A friend of mine came along for the adventure.


The food was very good, some interesting choices on their menu, and the place quickly filled up!  I will definitely make it back that way once spring arrives and they have more stock in their yard.

Mom was very smitten with these Primulas
 

They did have some lovely primulas on display, with enormous petals and even some with frilly petals which I have never seen.

 



Meanwhile, back at the country estate there was some trenching, pipe laying and trench filling happening.  These pics were first thing in the morning, when the morning mist was still swirling about.

 

Mini-Hoop Houses

The urge to garden got to me!  After weeks of reading through my seed catalogue until it was dog eared, and checking out Pinterest and Facebook for fresh ideas, I needed to get some dirt under my nails! 

After the torrential rains of Friday and Saturday, Sunday was a perfect day, balmy and bright, warm enough to work outside with just a light sweatshirt on.

Chuck and I got busy and made some mini hoop houses for our raised beds.

 Hoop houses are now trendy, as full sized greenhouses and as what we used to call cold frames back in the olden days, when I was a kid.



The Materials Assembled
 

 

Taking shape

 Using some PVC tubing, poly and scrap wood from the ongoing workshop project, we made covers for three of the beds.  In a couple of hours we turned the raised beds into little greenhouses, into which I have now planted Endive, Grand Rapids leaf lettuce, Kale and Peas. 

Adding the Poly
 

 

It's a bit early, I admit it.  However, there's a 50 50 chance by my estimation that we could get through the rest of winter without another freeze, so I think these little crops might work out, and soon we could be munching on some fresh greens.

And if not, well I had a marvellous time with my sleeves rolled up, in my gum boots, digging in the dirt with the sun on my back and Bogey chasing the odd stick I stopped to throw!

Garlic sprouting
 

A quick trip to the back garden yielded this great news - the garlic planted in October is all up now.  We can look forward to another (bigger) crop of garlic this year.  I am going to put more in this spring to see how it performs alongside the fall planted crop.

Where I Am From

I came across a writing exercise this morning.  Called Where I am From, it directs your to fill in the blanks to create your own story about how you came to be you.  On a different day, I would probably complete it differently, and to that end I have downloaded the template and will revisit it again in the future. 

I added a few pictures and voila!


Where I Am From

I am from new shirts from Woodward’s dollar forty-nine day, from scotch mints tucked beneath the couch cushions.  Newborn kittens in the hayloft.

I am from the stucco and beam farmhouse with the sliding patio front door and wild pink flowered wallpaper in the kitchen.  From aromas as welcoming as stewing chicken or as repugnant as canning salmon.   Pipe smoke.

I am from music.   Mom singing in the kitchen, or the garden, or the barn.   Records.  Soundtracks from The King and I and My Fair Lady.  My piano. 

I am from paperwork and party lines and a home based business .  The dining room desk with it’s clutter.  Typing Dad’s correspondence on the clunky manual typewriter.  The mistakes never forgotten by the carbon copy.  The expectation that you would answer the telephone politely, in case it was a business call.  Take proper messages, written down. 

I am from the tall sweet grass in the field, where we would lay down and name the cloud shapes as they drifted past.  From the cool of the tree canopy at the back of our farm on hot summer days.  From the outdoor swimming pool where we trained most mornings at 6am. 

I am from overseas phone calls at Christmas and a family of giants.

From Edna and Jim and Jennifer.


I am from the bargain rack shoppers and the good night kisses.

I am from dogs and cattle and horses and chickens.  All with names, and personalities.  From parades around our side field where the parents would sit in their folding lawn chairs,  watching us kids circle the field, riding horses with flowers braided into manes and tails, towing dogs with painted toe nails and floral collars, pulling wagons with the littlest kids inside or maybe riding a bike with a playing card clothes-pegged to the spokes.

From “I will come up to tuck you in” and “you get as much out of something as you put into it”. 

I am from the bonnets and white gloves of Anglican Sunday School, the satin gowns and purple robes of Jobies.  From the pile of books on my bed borrowed from the book-mobile, where I discovered “The Religions of the World” which I read cover to cover while sick in bed.  I was about 11. 

I'm from pond skating in Port Arthur ON, by way of a red door in England near the train bridge and an apartment in Bombay with turkey’s on the balcony.  I am from spicy curries and rich beef stews made from our own animals that we raised and garden veggies that we produced.

I am from the ships engineer who was lost at sea; from the kind man who was illiterate but still tried to read to his eight children, substituting the words “apple cart” for any word he was unable to read; from the desperate young mother of four who died from infection from a self- induced abortion.

I am from home movies, flickering soundlessly in a dark basement, from letters from my grandfather to my father and from my father to me, from creased and bent black and white prints of my sister and me posing in the snow, and framed portraits of my parents through the years, side by side.

 

 

 

 

Veggie Garden Review

The Veggie Garden In Review

Even without the fence we planned to build, the garden thrived and

didn't get eaten by bunnies or deer.

 

I've been looking at the seeds I ordered and planted, and trying to make plans for what to get for next season.  Mostly I was pretty pleased with my  first effort, considering I planted quite late (May long weekend), and basically created the garden in a single day, from a corner of a former horse pasture.  

 

Bush Beans – Carson – yellow beans.  These were very productive at first, but flagged a little through the heat, but once the weather cooled they came on strong again and lasted well into the fall, probably the first week of October they finished.  I got about 12 ft of row from 1 25 g packet of seeds.   I would need at least twice that to preserve any as we ate all fresh except for some given away.

Pole Beans, Fortex Filet – these were great  green beans, they get really long, and are very tender.  They were very productive.    I also planted some seeds from my 2010 garden, which turned out to be a few scarlet runners, which didn’t do well at all, and then some other beans which I think may have come from the in-laws garden, which did better.  I would like to plant more of the Fortex Filet beans next year, especially if preserving any.

Beets were a dead loss.  I only planted the Cylindra which I bought because their cylindrical, uniform shape appealed to me.  However, the greens didn’t develop very well, and stayed very red and tough.  The beets themselves also were very small.  Very late in the season, as I was dismantling the garden, I dug up the rest and there were a few decent sized ones, but overall I would not say these could be defined as successful by any standard of measure.  Not sure if it was the soil composition, the late planting date or just not a seed I was happy with.

Lettuce, Carrots, Beets, Radishes, and Cilantro Bed

 

Carrots did well but the 2g packet of pelleted seeds I bought did not go very far.  I got a 4 ft long 4” wide swath of carrots.  I would definitely go with the pelleted seeds again, but need about 4-6 times as many. 

Corn Sprouting

Corn maturing

Corn Ready for the Pot!

Corn was a success!  From the 15g packet of seedsof Jubilee Super Sweet I got seven 6 ft long rows and yielded about 30-40 cobs of corn.  The first picking wasn’t very sweet, although it looked beautiful and had a nice firm texture.  Later pickings were much sweeter but the texture was mushier.  I would grow this again and plant earlier.  Probably better soil will help.

Lettuce .  I planted Buttercrunch and Coastal Star.  Both grew well in the early months, but the transplants didn’t do well once the heat of summer arrived and we weren’t there to water often enough. 

Onion sets did very well, but I am not sure that the tiny onions that we yielded were worth the effort.  How do you grow larger onions?  Different kind?  Must look into.

Onions and Garlic ready to use

 

Garlic and Daffodils planted together

 

The garlic was fantastic.  I grew Russian Red.  We enjoyed the scapes in the spring and the bulbs we harvested were large with enormous cloves with a nice sweet garlicky flavour.  I only planted two of the small raised beds, but have already planted a much larger crop in the main garden for next years harvest.

Parsnips flopped.  None even sprouted. 

Peas were great.  The 25g packet of Green Arrow peas planted about 20 ft of row in two plantings.  I planted these in the back garden and they were affected by pea moths, which I now realize is most likely to happen when you plant them later and they flower in June/July.  The peas planted in the raised bed planter from seeds from my previous garden were less affected because they were planted earlier.

Tomatoes – did very well, especially the early girls.  The romas were pretty good and the beefsteaks did the poorest, as the plants did not get very large.  Big yield. As in 100+ lbs.

 

Basil crop was great.  I planted some good sized plants from a local nursery.  They really took a while to get going, so much so that I bought a tray of seedlings and put a seedling in beside each of the plants.  Once the hot weather came along it all took off.  I made two large batches of pesto, yielding about 24 meals worth, which I froze in muffin tins then transferred frozen into ziplock bags.  Each muffin sized puck is plenty for one meal for two with pasta and veggies.

 

 

 

 Red Currant Bush

 Red Currant Jelly in Progress

 

The red currant bush was loaded again this summer.  I used some of the frozen currants from last year along with some of this years crop to make jelly.  Then I carefully froze each successive picking in a big yogurt container which I then stupidly left out of the freezer by accident ruining all of them. So we are enjoying the jelly sparingly as it will have to last us for at least two seasons!

 

 

 

 

Gardens Shaping Up

When we come out to the country estate, time whizzes by at the speed of light.    Notice I said "come to the estate".  First words of the blog ever written while actually at the country estate!  A combination of using my cellphone as a Wifi connection and a rainy period between garden work and dinner prep created the perfect storm of opportunity to write while here!

Remember the Suzuki?  Hunting buggy and gardening machine at the country estate?  Well, it's gonna be sold, because Chuckles has found a newer, better, road worthy Jeep that he bought for a song and spent a few hours tinkering with to make it run well.  Well, after weeks in the city being prepped for it's first highway drive, Chuckles drove it out to the country estate last Friday.  It will be so handy to have a second insured vehicle at the property, without having to drive both our vehicles out weekly - which we rarely do as it costs a fortune in gas with our gas guzzlers.

 

 

The Jeep is here! 

 

 

 

 I have been very fortunate to be the recipient of many of the plants left over from the WI plant sale in Pemberton since Chuckles parents are very involved with that (and many of the plants for sale come from their garden in the first place!)  This year I got a lot more hostas, hens and chicks, flowering red currant bush, soloman's seal, iris, and probably more that I have forgotten.  I created the bed pictured below for most of the hostas.

 

 

 

 New Hosta bed

 

 

 Unrelated to any text in this blog, here are my first two poppies blooming.  I have always wanted a poppy and it was my good fortune that there was one in the driveway bed.  Although it was sickly when we moved in, I have amended the soil in this bed with the lovely composted horse manure we also inherited with the property and voila!!

 

 

We borrowed a friends bobcat a couple of weeks ago and have used it for raising the walls on the shop, filling up new beds with composted manure, clearing the garden area and putting load after bucket load of composted horse poop on that area too.

I now realize that I have been waiting my whole life for a Bobcat to come along.  Who knew that a Bobcat could be so fulfilling?   It is a fantastic tool that does many things, quickly, and with no muscle required!   Chuckles has been using it to move around piles of wood that have come off the barn and will be used in the re-construction of the shop.



 

The wonderful Bobcat.  With it, just two men were able to raise these wall panels and put them in place!

 

 

The bobcat hard at work clearing the veggie patch.

 



 

The raised beds built by Chuckles, filled by the Bobcat and planted by yours truly with tomatoes and peppers

 

The veggie beds are shaping up!  Now we have tomatoes (early girl, roma and beefsteak) peppers (red and green so far) garlic, peas, cilantro, lots of lettuce in varying stages of development - we are eating our first head now; pole beans, bush beans, radishes, multiplier onions, beets, carrots, corn, potato (1 plant from my mom - she said it was a chrysanthemum but now there is enough foliage to confirm - a potato!

 

Garlic to be envied - Chuckles Dad (the gardener whom I respect most!) says our smallest garlic plants are bigger than his largest ones!  (It's the manure)



Another friend brought by a machine and dug the trench for the water line from the barn to the garden area and Chuckles mounted a tap on a post.  It's fantastic that we have water right there at the garden, it's the only way we could manage a garden this size living here only part-time as we do. 

I have been keeping a garden book  and documenting what is planted where, and what things are blooming when.  Note to self - must learn more of the names of these plants, bushes and trees.

 

A recent entry in the garden book

The rhododendrons are just spectacular right now, as one finishes another begins blooming and there are at least 10 of them along the driveway and in the front yard.  Every colour is represented!  As well, there are three Laburnum trees with their yellow blossom bunches in full flower right now, so
stunning.

 

There are several rhodos around the perimeter of the front yard in various stages of bloom

 

This rhodo on the edge of the driveway reminds me of cotton candy



Another Friday

Egad!

I haven't even logged in with last weekend's progress report on the shed and here we are, another Friday!

So, last weekend was gorgeous and sunny and we (when I say "we" I really mean Chuckles) slaved away on the shed and got the whole roof on, as well as the drip rail around the bottom of the siding.  After the sun rose in the sky it was T-shirt weather!  I was the go-fer, swept up the inside of the shed and picked up all the debris left outside from the prebious weekend's construction
on Saturday morning first thing.   Then I held the ends of the drip rail while Chuck fastened them on, steadied the ladder for him and kept the meals coming.    Actually we went to the Mexican restaurant on Saturday night - love the Chile Rellenos so much!!

On Sunday I moved the truck around for him as he stood on a platform he built in the truck box.  Faster and easier than building a scaffold!

 

 

 

 

Leo was VERY happy at the country estate.  He could not stop carrying sticks around and he was so busy he forgot to eat until we got back to the city, then he gulped down some dinner.  We went for a walk each morning and then he amused himself outside until dark.  Occasionally Chuckles or I would toss a ball or a stick for him but mostly he just followed his nose.

 



 

 

 



 

In between helping on the shed I started on a little project I have been wanting to do for some time. Filling some wrought iron containers I have had for ages with moss.  Inside the moss I put soil,  and I am going to plant some succulents around the outside and probably primulas in the middle.  I have three of them in total.  Here is where they are at so far.  They will be cute on the deck I think.

 

 

 I also have spread this tarp on part of what will be the veggie garden.  The tarp should kill the grass to make it easier to remove it and then I can till the soil and add some compost.  In the photo, middle left you can see a stack of 4x4 posts which we are going to use to build some raised beds.  I have the fence posts from the horse turnouts we dismantled, so we just need to get some wire to fence this area to keep the bunnies and deer out.  In the background is our camping collection - the Alaskan camper used on hunting trips and our travel trailer wrapped in a tarp beside it.  That riding ring is coming in handy as a parking lot!

 

 

Leo has gone home now.  On Wednesday his "parents" came to pick him up and both of us have missed him.  It's weird how in two short weeks we got so used to him being around!  We both keep thinking things like "after work we'll walk Leo on the Spirit Trail" or looking for him in the shop.  He was great fun!

 



 

 It's a spectacular day today, so I hope this will last for the weekend and we can make some more progress on each of these projects, but mostly the shed!