May Garden Update

We've just had a spell of very nice weather and the garden is all the better for it.  Things are sprouting.  Things are growing.  Things are getting away from me!  As in weeds...

The hummingbirds are at the feeder in full force - in fact one evening we thought there might be as many as 30 all vying for a spot on a perch - but who could count! Now that there are lots of flowers in the garden, competition isn't quite so fierce.  On the deck, my herb pots are doing nicely.

I've even used some of the oregano, chives and tarragon!  All of the parsley seedlings have made it - and I transplanted a lot since parsley doesn't like being moved.

The two cherry tomatoes have been very happy under their hot caps, which I've removed on nice days and replaced at night.  They're bigger than their mates in the potting shed and will soon have grown too much for their hot caps.

In the potting shed, the tomatoes are also growing well.  We are expecting some cool rainy weather for a couple of days, but after that, I might plant them in the garden, protected, of course, with hot caps.

Fruit trees are in full flower and the mason bees are doing their jobs pollinating.  I was worried that there wouldn't be many bees this spring after a bird pierced nearly every straw looking for meals.  We have plenty of bees to go around, however,  and nearly all the holes are full.  This year when the bees have finished I'll turn their houses sideways so they will be left alone.

Lettuces, snow peas, gai lan, radishes - all are doing well and we'll be eating radishes with our next salad.  I've planted sunflowers in the zags this year and all are up.

The Pacific Russet potatoes in one of the new 4x4 beds have been hilled up once and today I added a good 4" of chopped maple leaves.

In the potato grow bags, the German Butter potatoes are sprouting and soon will have more soil added.

And our favourite rose, Abraham Darby, which was transplanted last year to its new location has never looked so good!  All in all, spring is progressing well.

April Update

April is a very busy month in the garden.  It's a prime month for planting so many things.  I've now put up the zig zag pea fence in the bed which has radishes, gai lan, and lettuces.  I was going to plant multiplier onions in between the zags, but fortunately checked for companion planting and discovered that onions are definitely not planted near peas!

Yesterday I transplanted the Copra onions outside.  After setting in over 90 tiny plants, pieces of fencing were carefully set over them to prevent cats from digging them up.  Once they're established, the fencing can come off.  Today I'll be planting out the leek seedlings.

The Pacific Russet potatoes are nicely up and have received their first weeding.  When the plants are about 6" high, I'll start adding more material.

The first pink stalks of asparagus are thrusting up.  The sun will soon turn them green and before you know it, we'll have enough for a meal!

The strawberry plants are also thriving - in spite of the heavy dusting of pollen on their leaves!  This is a rough time for someone with allergies what with masses of pollen from all the maple trees around us and the spores from the sword ferns!

In the potting shed, the tomatoes are looking very sturdy.  I'm rapidly finding homes for some of my excess and will have to put name tags in pots so I remember who is getting what.

We have the circulating pump and UV light going on the pond now and the water is clearing up.  Pond plants are blooming and the water lilies are starting to form leaves on the surface of the water.  I recently purchased a yellow water lily for the back of the pond and hope that it's securely sitting on its ledge and not in the bottom of the pond!

King Edward flower currant is a busy place these days.  The Rufous Hummingbirds are back in force.  In addition to a large feeder hanging on the deck, the flowering currant usually has at least half a dozen birds battling for supremacy.  It's so massive now that I think I'll have to start cutting it back before it shades out the potting shed.

Container Herb Gardening

This is all the result of my husband not knowing one herb from another.  We are starting to use fresh herbs in the kitchen on a regular basis and my husband has been asking me to get them for him because he says he doesn't know which is which!  Then I discovered some beautiful brass herb markers in the Lee Valley catalogue.  Thus the idea of having an herb garden on the deck was born.

Our deck is a large one and I've had pots of flowers on the deck before.  Unfortunately, they started rotting the cedar planks, so away they went.  Lee Valley also has some wonderful deck protectors.  They are round grids with little feet on them which allow the pot to drain but create a space between the deck and pot, thus reducing the likelihood of rotting deck planks.

Today I assembled all the things I'd need and planted the first of my herb pots.

The first order of business was to cover the drainage holes of the pots with broken pottery shards.  Then I put a complete container mix in the bottom of the pots, topped it up with a combination of compost and SeaSoil and mixed the two together.  Finally I put more container mix on top, wetted it thoroughly and planted the herbs.  The final act was to place the herb markers and give the plants a drink of water.

Today I planted mint, Greek oregano, French tarragon, English thyme and Canadian parsley seedlings from my own garden.  I'll add a few more pots to the collection such as basil, and I'd like to grow some of the scented verbenas.  Another plan is to make some of my own herbal teas and it would be handy to have some of the ingredients close to the house.  Two more very large pots were readied for cherry tomatoes.  It'll be nice to relax on the deck, cool drink in hand, and nab a ripe tomato or two while taking in the wonderful scent of fresh herbs.

Potato Grow Bag Experiment Part 2

Today I bought the potatoes for my potato grow bags.  I managed to find German Butter Potatoes which are a delicious yellow potato - just perfect for potato salads.  Most of the resources I consulted regarding potato grow bags suggested 4 or 5 potatoes per bag but that sounds like a lot to me.

I planted 3 potatoes per bag.  As they're small, I didn't cut them; just planted them whole with the strongest spouts at the top about 6" deep, then smoothed the soil over the top.  When they get about 6" high above the soil, I'll start adding more material to the bags.

Then I checked out the first potatoes I planted in one of the 4x4 concrete beds and they're up!

And just because it's spring and it's a beautiful day outside, I snapped some of my favourite narcissus flowers.  I thought they were called Grandma's Hat, but after looking them up, I've no idea what they are.  But they're definitely beautiful!

Potato Grow Bag Experiment - Part 1

First, my apologies because this post will have a LOT of pictures!

My daughter expressed an interest in growing potatoes in 5 gallon pails.  I'd heard of growing potatoes in tires, paper bags and plastic garbage bags but pails didn't sound like an answer to me so I did a little online research.  I came across a site that described making potato grow bags from landscape cloth.  And I just happen to have rolls of landscape cloth, so I decided to give it a try.  The remains of one roll gave me enough material to make 8 bags.  4 I kept and the other 4 I'll give to my daughter and daughter-in-law.  It's pretty easy!

My landscape cloth came in rolls 36" wide.  I cut 48" lengths and sliced them in half down the length yielding 2 strips 18" x 48".  Next up comes the sewing machine, but it's so simple a rank beginner can do it.  Just be sure to use polyester thread so that the stitching won't rot.

First, stitch the ends together in a half-inch seam with the shiny side of the fabric inside.  The pictures are taken from the back of the sewing machine so you can see the result and I used yellow thread on the last bag so the stitching would show in the picture.  It helps to go back over your stitching at the beginning and ends of a line so that the stitching doesn't unravel.

Next, fold the seam to one side and stitch it down.  This reinforces the seam.

Finally, on the bottom of the bag, fold the bag in half and make two 3" darts on each bottom corner, then fold the other way and make two more 3" darts - you will now have a dart at each corner.  This allows your bag to "sit".

Your finished bag will have an open square in the bottom.  Okay - bag done - time to set it up in the garden!

The spot I chose is below a small step, not in the way of any cedar roots and receives lots of sunshine.  It was on a slope, so I had to cut away the top of the slope, leaving the sod just below the cut portion to level it out.  Next I placed cardboard to keep the weeds and grass down.  I'll later cover it with some kind of mulch so it looks a little better.  Thick layers of newspaper would work just as well, but we'd just taken our newspaper pile to the recycling depot.

The bags were set in place, each anchored with a small rock to keep the breeze from blowing them away and holes cut in the cardboard to match the holes in the bottom of the bags.  I folded over the tops for now.

Each bag received 2 shovels of compost.

Finally each bag got 2 shovels of garden soil.  I moved the soil around so that the bags were steady.  The tops are still folded over so there's room for more soil.  Now I need potatoes!

To be continued!

Repotting Tomato Seedlings

Today is a mizzly (that's a word, right?) overcast day and while it's cool, it's not cold.  Perfect weather for repotting tomato seedlings.

Health Kick tomato seedlings ready to be repotted.

I seeded them 2 months ago and nearly all the seeds have come up.  They're a little on the leggy side but that's just fine.  Tomato seedlings should be replanted to just below the first seed leaves.  They'll develop roots on all the reburied stem sections, making the plant stronger in the long run.

Tools assembled

My potting shed is a bit of a mess after a winter of neglect, so the first order of the day was to tidy up the bench and assemble all the things I'd need for the job.  The repotting tray is one of a pair I picked up on sale at Lee Valley for $5 each.  The labels were cut from a milk carton and will be marked with a grease marker.  I fill recycled pots with a purchased potting mix and wet thoroughly with a 20-20-20 solution.

tomato seedling ready to put in the pot

With the invaluable plastic knife, I make a good-sized hole in the pot and slip a seedling in, firming gently in place.

Firmed in - ready for backfill

Then I carefully add more potting mixture around the seedling covering the stem to just below the seed leaves and tuck in a label.

Repotting complete

Finally, all the seedlings are repotted and the bench is tidied up.  There are still onion, leek, kale and lettuce seedlings, but they'll all be replanted outside in April.

Seedlings waiting for the sun to come out

Now we just wait for the weather to warm up.  There'll be lots of plants for me and leftovers for friends.  I hope I can remember everyone I promised plants to!

Shiitake Mushrooms

We love to try new things.

We once had an olive tree.  It wasn't a huge success as we didn't have an area with decent soil that got a lot of sunshine.  You can grow olives in the Gulf Islands as there is an olive grove on Denman Island.  Our little tree, however, didn't survive its second winter.

Then there are the Perigord truffles we're waiting for.  We have 2 hazelnut bushes which have their roots inoculated with truffle spores.  In a couple of years we can expect to start harvesting truffles and hazelnuts.  And apparently we won't need a pig or a truffle hound because ripening truffles kill off the  green growth above them.  We just look for brown patches in the fall!

This spring we're waiting for shiitake mushrooms.  We've grown them before - along with oyster mushrooms.  We had a real battle with slugs however, and our harvests weren't as large as we'd like.  Oyster mushrooms are grown on sections of logs which are half-buried in the ground.  These were just about impossible to keep the slugs off and we've given up on them.  We only got one really good harvest.  We think we may have spread spores through our forest however, because a dead alder tree sprouted a wonderful crop of what looked to us like oyster mushrooms.  We just weren't brave enough to try them!

Oyster mushrooms growing in the wild - we think!

Last spring we found another supplier of shiitake mushroom spawn in Aldergrove - Western Biologicals Ltd.  As our old logs were spent, it was time to give it another try.  It's really rather easy - except for the slug part.  You start with green, healthy logs about 4 to 5" in diameter and about 3 to 4' long.  Spring is the time to cut the logs just before the buds break.  The sap will be rising in the trees with maximum nourishment for the mushroom spawn. You drill holes in the logs about 6" apart and insert the spawn plugs, sealing the holes.  Part of our problem the first time was with the beeswax which was recommended for sealing.  It cracked and fell off.  Western Biologicals recommended we seal with latex and it's still in place.  Our logs were set in a shady place so the spawn could spread throughout the logs.  We placed them under our deck where they could also be splashed by rainwater from above.  Then it's just waiting as we wouldn't expect anything to develop for a year.

Mushroom logs racked and waiting

As the time approaches for mushrooms to start popping out, it's a good plan to "shock" the logs and so my husband soaked them in a barrel for a day and then set them back on their rack which has copper netting placed at all access points to keep the slugs off.  We're hoping to see some signs of life within a week or two.  You can expect to harvest half a pound of mushrooms from one log each year. Can't wait!

Shiitake mushrooms sprouting from our first alder logs