It's Spring in January

Today my mind is finally turning to the garden.  I've been studiously ignoring it all winter even though I know there are so many unfinished projects out there waiting for me.  We have had a little winter cold this year, but all in all, it's been pretty mild.  Only one snowfall which quickly disappeared.  There will be more - it's only January!  But this is what we come to expect on the West Coast - and in particular in the Gulf Islands.

Today I ordered my seeds from West Coast Seeds and T & T Seeds.  The latter was on my list because it was where I finally located Health Kick Tomato seeds.  My plea to West Coast Seeds went unrewarded!  That done, it was time to hit the garden.

I finally got the raspberries pruned and in shape.  They look very vigorous and this year I cut them about 5' tall.  Hopefully this will help to keep them in bounds.  As I headed up to the garden to dispose of the old canes I noticed that Abraham Darby (rose) is looking very fine!  He obviously is flourishing in his new home.  This rose has lost no leaves during the winter and there are even a few buds in evidence.  Then I saw how the King Edward Currant is breaking bud.  It was time to take a "spring signs tour"!

King Edward Currant buds getting ready to open

There are some plants I expect flowers from during the winter, so I grabbed my camera to take the census.

Viburnum flowers for the Anna's Hummingbirds we see in winter.

One of our viburnums (we have several varieties) starts blooming in November.  By January, it's starting to really show off its pink blossoms.

Purple Helebore

Then there's the purple hellebore that a neighbour gave me many years ago.  I planted it down below the house at the edge of the woods where it often gets forgotten.  It certainly never gets watered - or even weeded - but it seems to thrive down there and thrusts up its blossoms every year.  At this time of January, it's just getting going.

Hazelnut Catkins

We have 4 hazelnut bushes and the 2 older ones are dripping with catkins.  The 2 small ones are too young to have catkins yet, but they have a delicious secret hidden in their roots.  They've been inoculated with perigord truffle spores!  We can expect truffles in a couple of years.  When I edited the picture of the catkins (above) I notice you could make out the tiny dark pink flowers.  Look really hard - they're not easy to see!  Click on the picture to make it bigger, look where the catkin joins the branch and you'll see the flower.

Oriental Poppy

Oriental poppies are also sending up leaves at this time of the year.  This particular poppy is a pale pink one - name unknown.

Flat-leafed Italian Parsley Seedling

I've been picking herbs throughout the winter and the Italian parsley I planted a number of years ago freely sends its seeds out to create new plants.  It casts so many that I'm always pulling up plants but there are always more to help out the kitchen.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Tour finished, I picked a bouquet of Bright Lights Swiss Chard for tonight's dinner and headed in for a cup of tea.

Three Sisters Garden - Part I

On the weekend, I was talking gardening with my daughter and daughter-in-law.  I told them about a long Three Sisters Garden that Jollity Farm had planted.  A Three Sisters Garden is a native indian creation.  It combines corn, beans and squash in a harmonious companion planting.  The corn is planted first and when it's about 4" tall, the climbing beans and squash are planted.  Corn provides the framework for beans to grow on and the beans provide strength to keep the corn from being blown over.  Beans add nitrogen to the soil which corn needs.  Squash covers the ground, crowding out weeds, keeping in moisture and repelling marauding raccoons with its prickly vines.  Similarly, corn and beans together are almost a perfect food.  This garden can continue in the same place for many, many years without crop rotation, maintaining its fertility with the happy blend of plants and their products composted and put back on the soil.

This got me thinking.  I'd grown corn and beans together many years ago when I was just getting started gardening. The experiment wasn't particularly successful but I think in light of some of the things I've learned about gardening and soil health over the years, I'm ready to try it again.

This kind of garden needs some room and the kind of raised bed gardening I've been doing doesn't quite fit.  I do, however, have the oldest section of my garden which has two wood framed 4x6 raised beds that are nearing their end as the wood is finally rotting.  If I take them over, I can turn this whole area into my Three Sisters Garden.  Eventually, I'll remove the wood from the beds and face the area with rocks, but for now, I'll just make do.

Before

Here's the "Before" picture.  There are still leeks growing in one bed and for the time being I'll leave them be.  This is February, after all, and I won't need the bed for a few months yet.  In the meantime, I can tidy up!

After tidy-up

Now the beds are dug over (except for the leeks).  The tires in between the beds are filled with soil and were used to grow cherry tomatoes in.  I'll take them away and fill in the area between the beds with soil as well.  This weekend, I have a yard of SeaSoil coming and some of this will be generously added to the beds.

For more information on Three Sisters Gardening, check out the Renee's Garden website, which explains it clearly, offering plans and seeds.

All that's left for this post is to show the latest signs of spring!

Salome Narcissus

Purple Hellebore planted in the forested area of our property