Small Space Gardening

Selling Sweet Peas for the Sharing Farm ...

2011-08-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Bunches of Sweet Peas have become a yearly Sharing Farm fundraising project since 2008.

The work begins in early spring with drama of keeping the hungry mice at bay when we plant trays upon trays of sweet pea seed. As the soil dries out the ground is prepared with carefully weeding, tilling and fertilizing and planting up hundreds of seedlings along the trellis, then keeping the hungry slugs away.

Finally, by mid July, the fragrance and brilliance of the sweet pea blooms climb the trellis, to please the eye and tantalize the nose.

In previous years, the bunches were sold through the Steveston Farmers’ Market, by the Farming Students.

This year the Farm has not taken a booth at the market so we had a situation on our hands. Beautiful sweet peas, but no where to outlet them and our Fundraising opportunity at risk.

This was the topic of conversation one day, among the volunteers and the idea came up to approach our neighbourhood supermarket, Save On Foods, to see if they would care to partner with the Sharing Farm to sell the beautiful bunches.

They were approached on Friday and by Monday the bunches were displayed at the entrance; before the display was even up three bunches were sold.

So do look out for our sweet pea display and support the work the Sharing Farm does in our community by taking home an inspiring bunch of sweet peas flowers.

A technique for planting many, many, teeny tiny seeds ...

2011-08-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

This spring I faced the challenge of planting up a large quantity of patchoy seed ... fits the 'small as a grain of mustard seed' analogy.

When you are planting trays which consist of 100 cells per tray hence the dilemma.
Big fingers, little seeds, many cells ...

So I hit upon a little technique using a bamboo skewers ... still takes patience ... but works quite well. Not even necessary to dampen and flick the skewer with each new seed.

I made a little Youtube video of the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA5bLjovfGE

(Copy and paste the link to your browser.)

See if you find it useful.

Finding a good place to dry garlic when living in a small space ...

2011-08-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

In mid July, I finally harvested the garlic I had grown in my commumity plot. The garlic had been planted in October. Nine months, folks, to create a head of garlic from one clove ... Appreciate it ... as longs as it takes to gestate a baby!

Now the garlic was harvested, the next task was to hang it to dry. Somewhere dark, cool, and out of the rain. I decided that under the front staircase fit the bill.

Getting out from under the stairs after hanging the garlic was not quite so easy.

The good, the bad ... the happy, the sad, of growing tomatoes

2011-08-02T15:36:00.001-07:00

Miguel, had to leave for his home country of Guatemala in a hurry due to some family crisis leaving his garden in our care. I took it upon myself to prune his tomatoes heavily as I have learnt from experience that the wet, cool weather we were presently experiencing brings "THE BLIGHT", the terror of west coast tomato growers. All was going very well. I was cutting though the jungle of closely planted tomato bushes, creating airflow and minimizing the tangle of overkill shoots upon shoots that overzealous tomato plants are famous for and then ...

I came across a plant showing the classic signs of "THE BLIGHT" ... stems turning black infiltrated by the disease moving along the healthy green stems. So I ripped the entire plant from the ground and threw it out.

We had cleaned up all cuttings and the infected plant and threw it all into the trash rather than the compost so as not to spread the infection, when we hear this fury coming towards us. Unfortunately, it was not one of Miguel's plants I had pulled out, it belonged to another resident who shared the box with Miguel. She was coming towards us at full sail, bellowing like a bull and shaking with indignation. I had ripped out her tomato plant with the little cherry tomatoes on it that she had been nurturing so tenderly and awaited with great anticipation.

Well, Dorothy jumped into the fray and the two went at it in Chinese and with me humbly apologizing, empathizing and explaining in turn, to no avail. It took half an hour for her fury to abate enough before she could accept what had happened. I had to pull the garbage bag out of the dumpster and find her plant ... the one with the cheery tomatoes and show here the black stems before I saw a glimmer of understanding in her face. It will probably take longer for to actually forgive me. I learnt a powerful lesson ... come between a gardener and her treasured tomato plant at your own peril!

The Trouble with Tomatoes

2011-08-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, you know my thoughts on tomatoes if you have read any of my earlier postings on the subject.

Miguel, who arrived from Cental America, approaches growing tomatoes as the weeds they are in his tropical world and as I did when I first migrated from Trinidad.
He loves his tomato plants ....

He wisely kept them covered with a plastic sheet in the cooler, earlier months. I really like his support system ... a grid of interlocking bamboo posts. He planted many
tomato plants and close together. It reminded of the culture we come from, where we create from what we have before thinking of making a ready made purchase. An attitude that fosters ingenuity.

Cultural Sharing ....

2011-08-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

These Grow Project sessions have been interesting on more than one level. I also enjoy the cultural exchanges that start our day. Our participants are from different parts of the world ... the Philipines, Japan, Cuba and Guatemala.

We start with a little refreshment ... Emiko brought a special Japanese snack and tea to share which results in interesting conversations around food from our different cultures.

Emiko was also very proud of the "kabu" turnips she grew and shared the best way to eat a fresh kabu is sliced thinly with a sprinkling of salt, sugar and rice wine. She prepared it in this traditional fashion and brought it for us to sample ... Yum!

Our youngest member ... Emma

2011-08-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Emma, who is home on holidays, discovered the Grow Project happening every Friday morning in her complex. That week she helped us plant cucumber plants and carrot seeds. Since then she has joined us and participated in what ever we are doing.

I think she is very lucky to have this opportunity to learn all the various aspects of growing food ...

The Grow Project ...

2011-08-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

One thing leads to the next, they say....

I was approached at the beginning of this season to start working with residents of a Coop Housing. This complex has an ideal situation. A large central court yard with raised boxes. The boxes were cleaned up and new growing medium installed and then I began working with a few interested residents and committed volunteers already involved with an ongoing cooking program happening through the communal kitchen.

The Grow Project actually grew out of the Cooking Program with the intention of both growing organic veggies for this project and to support and share learning with residents who would like to grow food for themselves.

Despite the surrounding buildings blocking direct sunshine for much of the day many of the varieties we grew have flourished.

Our first harvest for the Community Kitchen. The volunteers look quite proud of the results.

Time to Catch Up ...

2011-08-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

My last entry was November of 2010, so you be justified in thinking I had packed it all in ... not so ... I have been very busy ... just in different ways.

My Balcony Garden has moved next door to my neighbour, Craig as my balcony has been under repair for the last month ... summer maintenance in a town house. So not much happening there this year.

However, I am still doing Urban Agriculture through RUF (check the RUF Blog on the front page). I am still learning lots though the Sharing Farm where I manage the greenhouses and work with the volunteers.
This is the second year of growing food through South Arm Community Centre with teenage volunteers. This year, 2011 we started a new Urban Agriculture program called the Grow Project in a Coop Housing Complex.

So there is lots to share, both through the Richmond Urban Farmers (RUF) Blog and the Balcony Gardening Blog. which I will use for now for all my other activities. I will be updating both as I have the time ....

Urban Agriculture and our CSA

2010-11-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

My other sphere of activity is Urban Agriculture and our very small, experimental CSA. Three of us started doing Urban Agriculture (growing food in other people's back yards) mid 2008 with the intention of learning how to grow our own food and how to pay for the experience by selling some of the shares of the food we are growing.

We continued the experience again this year and supplied between 4 and 12 shares of the harvest per week. We were able to grow a range of food: kale, swiss chard, radishes, beets, turnips, potatoes, lettuce, squash, zuccini, tomato, basil, peppers,carrots, beans, sugar snap peas and flowers.

The most labour intensive part was launching the gardens in the spring: weeding, fertilizing (lime, alfalfa pellets, rock phosphate and potash), rototilling, setting up climbing structures for the peas, plastic tunnels for the tomatoes, starting trays and trays of seedlings and planting. But ... once that was done, we did not do much else and the seedlings had to fend for them selves and outrun the weeds. When we began harvesting for the boxes, we organized the work load in a way that worked for each of us. I went in the day before and did the harvesting of most of that week's order and washed and bundled. Then the rest of the team harvested anything I did not get to and portioned out the shares and delivered.

Arzeena will be moving on next year. She has bought her farm and that will be her focus in the new year. Luc and I will carry on with one garden and will supply a smaller number of clients and our own needs.

I am very grateful for this experience of learning to be self sufficient in organically grown food. All in all I have found it to be a most rewarding experience.

The Steveston Farmers' Market

It is now impossible to cover one topic in this blog. I am finding that the interconnection between all my agricultural endeavours are becoming very entwined. Take the Steveston Farmers' Market as an example ....

What a great little market! I found myself there at quite a few of the markets this summer and for a variety of reasons. I was present at the first market for the season. I accompanied the student farmers and helped them set up their very first farmers' stall! For me the visual presentation is all important. Human beings love beauty! If you want to catch the customer's eye make your stall beautiful!

Label everything clearly and with prices ...

Offer a lovely range of fresh veggies and flowers of course ... we eat with our eyes first!

The Farmers' Market allowed me to first have an outlet for my "pain in the butt" tomato plants. Next when the pole beans began spitting beans out in great abundance, I was able to get up bright and early, run to the garden, pick beans ad nauseum, bundle them and take them to the market. They sold very well in deed. Folks know a deal when they see it. Imaging $2 a bundle for the freshest, tastiest beans ever! When we had a plethora of lettuce we were able to do the same ... to market, to market. That day I also harvested a lots of surplus basil expecting to have it snapped up. I was sorely disappointed. I had to go home and make lots of pesto which we shared between us. That buffered the disappointment.

... and our garlic. We grew and harvested lots of garlic this year. We had so much we had to divy it up between us to dry it.

Then I tried my hand at braiding the garlic and I took the braids to the market to sell. I am still trying to work out a price that people will pay. Customers are spoilt by cheap Chinese garlic and are not willing to fork out $20 for a braid of 10 large garlic. Maybe downtown but not in Richmond.

and I made a little label ...

So it is wonderful to have access to the collaborative booth of organic farming students. They have been very supportive of our little local agricultural efforts. I hope I have been able to serve them too in some small way.

2010 Growing Season in Review ...

2010-11-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

What do you do as a gardener, when it is minus 3 and snow is on the ground?
You look at the photos you took during the year, see the photo of apple chips and remember there a few left in the cupboard and eat the rest of them ... Then you decide that you are not a very disciplined blogger and need to make up for failing to make any entries since spring by reviewing 2010 growing season ... if you can remember how.

I love Asian Greens

I really do. I have two experiences to tell of this year.
They were one of the first crops I grew on my balcony. I planted the gai lan closely in the boxes and they did not grow very tall before they began to bolt but they allowed me to harvest my dinner fresh and supplied me with about three meals.

By mid June I was harvesting a small variety of pac choi (patchoy), Toy choi, I do believe. The great thing about Asian Greens is they like the cooler weather so you can begin growing them very early in the season. I probably started them indoors in March planted them out as seedlings and was harvesting them about 5 weeks later. They are fast growers and you can eat the whole plant. What is more delicious and easy to cook than stir fried, freshly harvested baby patchoy? Even better because you grew them yourself. I swear they taste better when you grow them yourself! ... and in the compost from your own recycled veggie waste! On your balcony! Satisfaction on many levels ....

Growing Asian Greens as a Fall crop on the Sharing Farm ...

My other experience has been growing Asian Greens at the Sharing Farm where I work two days a week. The Farm supplies the Richmond Food Bank and a few of the local Community Meals run through different neighbourhood churches with fresh veggies grown using organic methods. Asian greens, particularly different varieties of patchoys have been a great way to extend the growing season. It is now November and again with about five weeks from seed to harvest we have pulled many pounds of patchoy out of the hoophouses and greenhouse. The only discouragement was finding small slugs tucked deep into the heart of the larger upright variety. Smart slugs.

The great Tomato Project of 2010

Well my verdict on that particular project would be probably not something I would undertake to do again. Just to recap ... I started and nurtured 75 tomato plants ... three heritage varieties. A lot of work! and a difficult project when you live in a town house with no decent sun exposure. I have to move tout bagage over to my Urban agriculture site when it came time to pot up 75 seedlings into 1 gallon pots. Then I had to set them up under plastic so they would not get early blight. And I had to find an efficient method of giving them their fish tea and water them. Then how the heck to you sell 75 1 gallon tomato plants to recoup your investment? Not on Craig's List! Did not work for me. I did manage to sell some of the plants at the Steveston Farmer's Market.

Lucky for me, this year, the first intake students studying Organic Farming on the Sharing Farm, ran a stall at the Steveston Farmers Market and I was able to link up with them in a few ways this year. More about that coming up ... back to the pesky, spoiled rotten, high maintenance tomatoes! You can tell I have a love hate relationship with tomatoes.

As a last recourse I ended up planting out about sixty plants in two different sites. Then they had to be staked and I was not prepared to invest more money in 8 foot bamboo poles and what I used as stakes were most unsuitable so I was forever trussing and propping. Then ofcourse, the weather did not cooperate either, too cool, not enough sunny days and there were no tomatoes for harvest until very late in the season. I was getting a few tomatoes late in September. I had them all lined up on my kitchen table in graduations of ripest to greenest.

They do look quite lovely ... I must begrudgingly admit. How about this baby?! Quite the looker, hey? That's a Black from Tula.

You will notice the cracking in some of the tomatoes. Well, for those that are interested that is another of the many things that happen to tomatoes. When heavy rainfall comes along and the tomatoes drink it up, they swell and their skins pop! Just great! Inevitably that is where mold settles and rot begins.

There are just so many fresh tomatoes you can eat and give to your family. So I did do some canning which I will tell you about shortly ...

Wet and Windy Spring ...

2010-05-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

We had a couple storms move through in April. For the first time I experienced having the little greenhouse on my deck blow over, with all the trays of seedling in them ... twice. I finally secured it to the railing which did the trick.

In April I harvested two meals from my containers - one of a small variety of patchoy "toy choi" and another of gai lan .. another asian green. The Asian Greens are a great option for container harvesting they can be grown close and they are fast growers. They do best in cool conditions. Good for spring and fall gardens.

As soon as I harvested the containers I planted out another round of broccoli rab and spring rab which I had waiting in the wings ready to replace the previous crop.

I started a few bush cucumbers from seeds and planted one in each pot and they have not budged. It is still too cold and dreary most days for them to get too enthusiastic.

This is how far along the broccoli rab is after 11 days.

Other Harvests this Spring

I managed a first shearing of salad greens and started another two pots of the mix.
However, even these good old reliables have been quite reticent this year. I finally discovered why ...

Portable Garden

I started my "Community Garden" selection from seed: swiss chard, bush cucumber, spring onions, patty pan squash. Here is my potential garden loaded into the back of my car ... and off loaded a number of times as I have not managed to plant them out as yet.

I have prepped the plot, however, and the sugar snap peas and the fragrant sweet peas are in and trellised. Whew!

New Endeavour ...

This year I decided to try growing tomatoes for sale. I started a tray of three varieties of tomatoes on the recommendation of an ardent amateur tomato grower:
Black from Tula, Brandywine and Cherokee Chocolate.

All is well, having 75 tomato seedlings in one flat but as they grow and need to be potted up from 1" square to 4" square, space and medium becomes an issue, when all you have is a town house deck. Don't talk about then potting them up further into 1 gal. size pots! Fortunately I have been able to ship them over to one of the Urban Agriculture gardens. I have set them up in an available corner, under plastic.

My plan is to make them available for sale towards the end of June as organically grown, well established, well fed tomato plants. With a head start like that, once we have any sort of summer weather, they should be good producers ... We'll see.

It's Time

2010-03-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

The first seeds, planted outdoors on my balcony, to germinate, have been the arugula. I first noticed they were up on the 16th of March, 2010. The temperature was 2 degrees C. A few days later I noticed Deer Tongue lettuce and the Asian greens: Gailan and Tat Soi. They proceed bravely through Frost's realm and can be cut down by an icy visit. The danger zone could extend to the end of April, however, I will experiment and see what the seeds decide. If they consider they want to give it a go, who am I to say otherwise.

I have been awaiting the onset of the growing season impatiently. As I wait I prepared the balcony garden by applying a layer of mostly finished compost, mixing a batch of potting soil and filling the clay pots and setting them out and I cleaned up the perennials, cutting off dead leaves and such ...

Mixing in a layer of compost on 28/2/10

On the 5th of March I decided to plant some seeds and see what would happen.
I wanted to see what the seeds would consider the right time to sprout and the arugula probably sprouted around the 14th of March and I noticed they were up on the 16th.

This is what I find fascinating ... the seed, which is so tiny, particularly a seed from the Asian green family, knows! ... that built in intelligence experiences the correct conditions and it's 'all systems go'... Life is afoot.

Last year I took a similar photo of the earliest sprouted seeds and the date was 2nd of April, about two weeks later so each new growing season is unique and required our judgement and observation.

What Do I have on the Go Indoors?

I have started a tray of tomato seedlings - different varieties. A tray of Chinese cabbage - Wa Wa Sai which are ready to go in the ground. A tray of Trinidad Pimiento peppers and a tray of onions which I started from seed.

The tomatoes are now at a point where they need to be repotted into individual 4" pots and watered with organic fertilizers.

On the Sharing Farm ...

I work part time in the Greenhouse at the Sharing Farm in Richmond. The Farm grows food for the Richmond Food Bank and other community projects. The volunteers that come have been immersed in transitioning from winter to spring - harvesting any remaining food from the greenhouse and hoop houses, pulling out plants that had overwintered in these locations as they were beginning to bolt (flower and seed), preparing the boxes and beds for a new season by adding and tilling in a layer of manure and starting a range of cool weather loving seeds - Asian greens, lettuces, swiss chard and spinach. We are well on our way into spring with most the boxes planted and the seedlings up and coming.

We have had our share of setbacks. We would plant a box, come back in a few days and the seedlings would have disappeared. Did we plant them out too young, was the soil surface drying out and the shallow roots, unable to access water, succumbing? Were flocks of sparrows entering the greenhouse and helping themselves? Was it the pill bugs roaming around in the manure we had added or .... was this fellow to blame!?? Does he look like a likely culprit?

Mr. Pheasant the boldest fellow ever!

No one is above suspicion ... so Out you Go! too much to loose here.

In Conclusion ...

At the moment the season cannot happen fast enough and I am chomping at the bit. In a bit I will be wishing that we could slow it all down, so I will just remind myself to be here and now, get in step and enjoy the unfolding process.

Bringing Sustainability into Christmas Festivities

2009-12-31T18:40:00.000-08:00

I enjoy celebrating the year's end. This time of year marks the end of the planet's yearly perigrination around the sun and the powerful impact that bob and weave has on our beautiful blue planet and all our lives. So I begin the celebration by marking the winter solstice.

As a gardener, and grower of food, I am strengthening the awareness that ruled our ancestors existance. Their survival depended on being accutely attuned to the shifts in nature that exerted life and death influences on their hunter gatherer and then on their agrarian way of life. It is only since the industrial revolution that we have fallen under the delusion that our navel string to mother earth has been cut and that we no longer need to care for and respect the natural systems that provide all our basic needs. Folly indeed to allow ourselves to be lulled into such a false sense of security. When I trace the origin of my vital supplies, past the middle men, I clearly see that my needs are provided by, so generously and so ingeneously by the beautiful planet I live on.

"... the earth, gentle and indulgent, ever subservient to the wants of man, speads his walks with flowers, and his table with plenty; returns with interest every good committed to her care."
PLINY THE ELDER

Christmas, the holiday of my Catholic upbringing has influenced the way that I express the celebration. The Christmas tree, the nativity scene, the twinkling lights and baubles, the gift giving are all fond images from my upbringing. I recognize and respect the holiday as a celebration of Christ's birth and the impact of his teachings.

The source of my inspiration, realizations and creative expressions, however, come from my practise of tuning in to my "heart" - the interconnected source of all.

I value this time of the year as a time to strengthen my role in the family as hearth keeper. A time to focus loving energy into family and home.

Here are some of the ways I thought of for expressing meaning, richness and sustainablity in my year end celebrations.

I made sorrel, a traditional West Indian Christmas drink made from dried flower sepals, bottled it in recycled wine bottles and gave it as gifts.

As a family we enjoyed a wonderful traditional Caribbean meal of pigeon peas, calaloo, stewed eddoes and ochras and macaroni pie.

I had fun creating momentos of my daughters' summer trip to Mexico using their photos mounted on bits and pieces found at V.V. to create a collage.

My daughter made donation to a African NGO on my behalf and I made a donation on thier behalf.

They both gave me gifts from local artisans and a Hatian artist.

I planted spring bulbs for each of them in containers I found a V. V.

I scored a wonderful plaid, woolen shirt for $10 from a thrift shop and patched the moth holes and worn patches. A warm gift for the daughter who lives on a farm.

We enjoyed community by inviting neighbours to participate in making (and tasting) 150 pastels, a Trinidadian Christmas treat similar to tamales.

I made a wreath for the front door and cedar garlands using clipped greenery foraged around the neighbourhood and trimmings from the Christmas tree farm.

My daughter decorated a number of her gifts with pleated late return fines bills from the library! Very effective.

We fanned the family flame by reading writings by my Dad, where he reminises about living on a coconut estate as a seven year old boy while my daughter knits her Christmas gifts.

I used one packet of white tissue and one of coloured tissue to wrap my gifts over a base of recycled white newsprint collected throughout the year. We made a point of folding all the wrapping paper and putting it into the recycle bag once we had opened our gifts.

Lastly, I discovered that the little pairs of juncos that visit our deck prefer pecking food from the ground rather than flying up to feed off the hanging suet block so I cook them a batch of cornmeal made with olive oil and butter which I roll into balls. I replenish the tray about one ball every other day, which they peck away at.

Recipe for Corn meal balls for birds

2 cups water
1 cup corn meal
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup olive oil

Boil together until corn meal cooks and pulls away from the sides of the pot.
When dry enough turn out on the counter to cool. Knead the dough and roll into balls. Store them in the fringe and put a ball out for the birds as needed.
Good entertainment for cats and humans.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Herb Harvest ... Seed Saving ...

2009-12-31T17:29:00.000-08:00

Summer Savory

I cut back my summer savory plant in summer and put it to dry in a paper bag. When it was properly dry I rubbed the stems and refilled the herb bottle. Now I am re-stocked with summer savory for another year.

Seed Saving

I remembered to leave some of the sweet pea seed pods to mature and dry on the vines this year. I collected the seed and stored them in the feezer for next year.

Herb Harvesting

I have had an unfulfilled desire since moving from the Caribbean. There is wonderful flavour pepper we grow back home which we refer to as a seasoning pepper or flavour pepper. I did a little research recently and it seems that it is only grown in that part of the world. The beauty of this pepper is it is very flavourful and mildly hot.
I have always missed having that pepper available and have tried acquiring the seeds unsuccessfully. This summer I did get some seed from my sister-in-law who lives in Florida from a plant in her garden which originally came from West Indian seed, however these peppers have reverted to being flavourful but very hot.

Traditionally, we make a special Trinidadian Christmas dish called "pastels", a cornmeal envelope of seasoned meat wrapped and steamed in banana leaf. I made my yearly pilgramige to the Caribbean store in New Westminster to buy the ingredients and discovered that they import flavour peppers and freeze them, so I stocked up. They are all gone now, incorporated into the pastels, but I saved, washed, dried and froze the seeds and will try growing them next year. I look forward to seeing what happens. My theory is that West Coast summers are neither long enough or hot enough to generate the flavour in the peppers that I so fondly remember. I hope I am wrong.

Delicato Squash

My daughter, recently introduced me to the delights of the Delicato squash! Yummy! She prepared it coated in a freshly roasted Indian spice mix, cut into small pieces, skin and all and roasted in the oven. I also saved the very generous supply of seeds from that Delicato squash as well.

However, I also discovered that the genetic purity of the squash family is easily corruped. If other varieties are growing nearby they easity cross pollinate and offspring end up as hybrids, rather than replicas of the parent. We will find out whether this particular Delicato was involved in any dalliances over summer!

Roasted Veggie season

How pretty a combination fall veggies look chopped up and ready for the roasting.

Apples ... Fall's Gift

2009-12-31T17:03:00.000-08:00

Once again this year I stopped in to Mariposa, the very large fruit stand off Highway 3 just outside of Osooyos. I bought a very large bag of apples, large heads of garlic for planting, many varieties of peppers and the last of the sunflower heads packed with seed.

My plan was to can apple sauce and I did. I was lucky to find a wicked little gadget on sale for $12 which peels, slices and cores all in one blow and I made good use of it.

Apples reconfigured as apple sauce.

Summer Review ...

2009-12-31T16:11:00.000-08:00

Looking back at the photos I have taken is a great way to remember the experiences this summer brought. Its amazing how quickly they pass from memory and one is on to the next thing. What a fabulous summer 2009 has been for growing tomatoes and basil! The tomato sauce I canned is all gone now but it was sure delicious while it lasted.

Some of the pleasures enjoyed this summer have been ...

Eating sugar snap peas off the vine.

Picking blueberries....

Harvesting for the home from our Urban Farming Garden....

Beautiful meals from summer delicacies....

Discovering a summer garden in full bloom growing on an empty lot along a country road....

We so enjoyed our afternoon visit in this garden on the side of the road, walking through the path ways, admiring the compositions from different angles, naming the flowers we knew, discovering new varieties we didn't, taking loverly photos and appreciating the gardener's gift. When I got back the photos, I returned and put some copies into the mailbox across the road and included a thank you note.

"Earth laughs in flowers."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

It ain't over yet! ....

2009-08-19T11:35:00.001-07:00

Summer has been quite hectic. That little heat wave we had kept me on my toes. I was watering the small clay pots of herbs,flowers and salad greens daily and the very large pots more than the usual once a week. It is worth the effort however, because it is even more effort trying to help your garden recuperate. Even more drastic, replacing the plants entirely.

So now that is over and my hosta tells me, as its leaves die off one by one, fall is around the corner, I feel myself relaxing. However, there is more to come.
Think of fall as the flipside to spring. Remember spring vegetables? The selection of veggies that prefer cool weather? salad greens, lettuce, radishes, asian greens etc. You can have another go around with them. The conditions are not quite the same as the light and temperature are decreasing rather than building, so vitality is diminished.

Some seedlings such as things you hope to overwinter should have been started mid June/beginning July. Things like the cole family ... kales, brussel sprouts, broccoli raab. They need to be well established seedlings by now if they are to make it though the winter.

If you missed starting seedling end of June beginning of July, for fall/winter this year, never mind, make a note in your calendar for next year. While you are at it, remind yourself to buy the seeds you will need for fall plantings at the beginning of the year. Lettuces such as Continuity, Rouge d'Hiver and Winter Density also Winter Mesclun Blend. The shop may be out if you think of doing this in fall.

Perhaps you can still grab the opportunity and find a source of healthy fall seedlings to buy and you can still try your hand at fall plantings. Start some salad greens, asian greens and lettuce.

I started some scallions, kales, broccoli rab, bulbing fennel and planted some of it in yesterday. The lettuces I started a few weeks ago, seeding straight into a large clay pot as mesclun and transplanted individual plants into other pots.

I am still waiting for some of the bins to be vacated by the tomatoes, which are taking their own sweet time to ripen up. While the fall/winter plants wait their turn in the large containers I have potted up the seedlings to larger seedling containers so as to support their continued healthy growth.

Of course we are talking about overwintering on a balcony so quantity is out of the question.

I have jammed the scallions in cheek by jowl and hope for the best and have been a little more generous to the bulbing fennel. The one kale plant I planted has a bin all to itself. Kale plants survive winter and can get very large and produce lustily. I expect good returns on my investment.

So ... take a breather ... take time to chill with a friend ... enjoy the fruits of your labour ... and then get back at it ... try your hand at extending the season.

Ah! Summer ...

2009-08-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

I was very conscientious this year. I tried hard to be committed as a garden caretaker. Between my consistent efforts and the amazing warm and mostly dry weather we have enjoyed this summer, I am very satisfied with the results.

The bounty of summer ... a gardener's pleasure and reward.

Sweet Peas from my Community Garden

I made a decision in spring that this year I would not bother with sugar snap peas in my community garden ... instead I would indulge lavishly in sweet peas! Those saturated colours and glorious fragrance. I am greedy and indulgent when it comes to bringing this natural and free beauty into my surroundings. I pick a large bunch of sweet peas for my bedside table weekly.

Beans ... Beans ... good for your heart

Bean plants are most generous. They spit out beans by the bushel full. Beans started pouring in from my community garden and the urban agricultre gardens. There is only so much beans you can eat so you begin wondering how can you put all this plenty to good use. I decided to tackle the situation in two ways: make pickles and blanch and freeze. I wanted to prepare the beans in ways that we would be sure to use them. I remebered that my girls enjoyed the pickled beans that are served in Milestone's Bloody Marys so I figured that was a safe bet.

I pickled the beans in apple cider. I figured that might be a healthier option as a vinegar. I flavoured with garlic cloves and hot chilies.

To blanch you drop the cleaned and trimmed beans into boiling water for a quick minute and fish them out and drop them into an ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain them and pack them in freezer bags and store in the freezer. Pull them out on a wet and gloomy day and make a wonderful minestrone flavoured with basil pesto.

Basil and Tomatoes

This was the year for those two buddies ... Basil and Tomato.

I picked the right year to dedicate to tomatoes. Up until this year I felt we are rather silly to try and push the boundries in this Pacific Northwest climate by growing tomatoes. Well, the act of faith paid off, all conditions aligned in favour of tomatoes and basil in 2009 summer.
The ones that did best were the large varieties that I grew in my neighbour's driveway. The bushes were not prolific but turned them out one by one and with five bushes, it has been just enough for us. My husband and myself.

At the height of production I ended up with a tray full of tomatoes (some from my community garden) and I made a litre bottle of tomato sauce and put it away.

Harvesting my Favorite Herb

I have grown quite fond of Summer Savory ... not a herb you hear of much.
It is particularly good in egg and cheese dishes.
This year I started three seedlings in a bulb pot. They grew as well as they could manage under the confined conditions and as they began to bloom I cut them off at the base and stuffed them into a brown paper bag to dry. When the leaves dry and begin to fall off I will rub off the stems, still in the bag and empty the fragrant leaves into my specially labeled dollar store bottle, which is presently empty as last year's harvest has been all used up.

Enjoying the Bounty

You know ... you don't need much to feel totally wealthy. A bowl of free cukes picked straight from your balcony vine ... we found three fat ones this weekend .. right when the girls were visiting ... and beautiful, full, ripe tomatoes plucked from your own bushes you have been tending carefully, seasoned with olive oil and fresh picked basil leaves. Sitting in the sunshine, relaxing, surrounded by folk your love, eating, enjoying and chatting! Bliss.
Ahhhhh! .... summer!

A Hearty Welcome to Summer ...

2009-06-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Summer Solstice Celebration
This transplanted West Indian has adopted a Pacific Northwest way to mark and
acknowledge our planet's bob and weave around the sun. Gives the neighbours something to wake up and talk about, I'm sure. For myself I feel I am giving respect where respect is due. I am acknowledging and syching my psyche with the annual plantetary transitions that impact us earth creatures fundamentally. A basic reality temporarily, lost from view in our urban, technological world.

The Summer Garden is Planted but it still feels like Spring
All the elements are in place to receive the best of summer.
With the hubby's kind help, three more Ikea metal bins have been attached to the outside of the bannister. With this new space available for growing food I now have planted three types of tomatoes - Juliet, Tumbler and Patio, companion planted with basil. A bush cucumber is cascading downwards, encouragingly full of flowers and baby cukes, cohabitating with a melon, either Minnesota Midget or Earligold, I have lost track. In the final bin I did a scattering of toy choy which I have thinned to about twelve plants. I will be enjoying them soon as they are fast growers. The extended cool weather has made it possible to grow a second crop of toy choy in this way.

Compost as Mulch
I have added a layer of three quarter done, home compost as a mulch over all the pots. I have also conscientiously been adding seaweed and fish emulsion to any hand watering. Compost tea drained from the compost bins and another batch made from comfrey have been fortifying the waterings of my backyards plantings.

Salad Ingredients
I purchased a few more clay pots which are placed along the balcony railing secured by a nail through the drainage hole. I will have more room for salad greens now. I am growing a variety of individual lettuces in two pots, which I harvest as "cut and come" again. In the the third container I am growing the lettuces as mesclun to be sheared at intervals. I have reseeded more arugula, my favourite, which is coming along very slowly.

An observation about growing Mesclun this year
I don't know what it is but I have had very poor success with growing mesclun mixes from West Coast Seed this year. I have reseeded my large clay pot, dedicated to meslun, mostly West Coast Market Mix and Provencal Mix about three times and nothing has come up other than a few mustards! I don't know what is going on. Last year mesculun mixes were the centre of my container gardening.

I notice that seedlings were sprouting only close to the wall of the pot so I am covering the pots with plastic wrap so as to retain the moisture incase the problem is that the surface of the medium is drying out as the seeds are at their most vulnerable germination stage.

This is the year for lettuce
I have successfully grown the WCS Super Gourmet Salad lettuce blend, planting more every two weeks. I don't know which of the five different lettuces in the blend are actually growing as it seems to be to be only two green types are growing: one with a straight edge and one with a fluted edge. But they are prolific and vigorous and tender eating. My cool porch has also delayed bolting and bitterness brought on in lettuce with the arrival of warmer weather.

My most recent planting of lettuce has been of warm weather tolerant varieties,
in anticipation of warmer July weather: Buttercrunch described as "not bitter in summer" and Anuenue described as "heat tolerant". We shall see ...

Herbs
Last winter seems to have dipped low enough to wipe out the population of Rosemary in may coastal gardens. I lost my little potted plant which I have now replaced. Can't do without a Rosemary plant close at hand. I have also acquired Summer Savory, which is another favourite. I love the flavour in cheese and egg dishes. I pulled out the plant at the end of last year, it is an annual, dried it and bottled it up. I am about at the end of my supply of dried herb and look forward to harvesting and drying this year's plant. Dill is another must have ... great with salmon and boiled potatoes and butter. I find it grows so slowly though on my cool balcony, there is never enough when I want to use it.

Tomatoes
Once again I have planted a variety of tomatoes in buckets and hung them from the picket fence in my shady back yard. Not the best conditions as tomatoes need lots of sun. The plants are very healthy, growing lots of foliage but not much in the way of fruit so far. I realize that I need to give them a jolt of phosporus so encourage fruit set. I read on the internet that "Urine is the most concentrated source of phosphorus," hmmm!...

Strawberries in Hanging Baskets
I had another go at growing stawberries in hanging baskets. The first fruit, nurtured on cow manure were plump, fragrant and delectable as a strawberry should be. Later berries got smaller and smaller so I will be trying for a second flush with lavish waterings of compost teas.

Coveted Tomatoes
This year I am upping the odds of growing tomatoes by negotiating with my next door neibour to use her driveway while she is away in China for the summer. I have planted large tubs of tomatoes, melons and zinnias to be exact. The driveway is west facing ... long afternoon sunshine! ... combined with a watering of urine .... hummmm .. imagine the possabilities ....

Self watering containers
Also in the back yard I have two large selfwatering containers, one with potatoes which look lusty and vigorous and one of Sugar Ann sugar snap peas which I replanted lavishly, twice, and have rewarded my efforts dismally. I believe I have harvested two peas to date.

The Belles of the Balcony
The spotlight and congratulations go the geraniums, they are pushing out the flower buds at an alarming rate, they are surely exhausting themselves and summer has only just begun!

Ever hopeful, we forge ahead.

Here we go again!

2009-05-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

Starting Seeds Indoors
In mid March I got the urge to "jump the gun" and get something growing. I started some trays of warm weather seeds indoors. These are plants that need a longer growing period to produce fruit. As it turns out I did it more for the discipline and the practise, as I find, two months later, a whole variety of strong seedlings are available on the market. However, now I know that I can successfully start and care for healthy seedlings on my own. I also know that my seedlings are untreated - West Coast seeds - and nutured on my potting mix which contains organic fertilizers and compost and fed with fish fertilizer and liquid seaweed.

I started Tumbler tomatoes, chilli peppers from seeds of peppers I bought in the Okanagan last fall, trays of different varieties of zinnias and cosmos, bush cucumbers, flowering sweetpeas and a compact variety of edible sweetpea called "Sugar Ann" and two varieties of melons ... probably cantelopes sold by West Coast seed so hopefully they stand a chance of producing some fruit before the first frost.

My kitchen table became the dedicated seedling nursery, the sunlight from the east supplemented with full spectrum flourescent lights suspended inches from the seedlings. A poor substitute for sunshine but we do our best.

Seedlings on the 4th April

The next step was to pop the seelings from the seed trays and upgrade them to larger pots so they could continue to grow without becoming stressed as we continue to wait for the outdoor temperature to stabailize over 10 degrees C. At that point they can be put out in the ground. Now that the seedlings have a few true leaves, it is time to supplement their diet with waterings of liquid fish and seaweed fertilizers to support their continued growth. Now space really becomes an issue. Time to move trays outdoors.

Seedlings on the 26th April

From the kitchen table the seedlings graduated to the small plastic greenhouse on the balcony and when that was full to capacity, onto the balcony floor covered in clear plastic supported by bamboo skewers.

Cool Weather Veggies
Sometime at the end of March I started cool weather seedlings outdoors. Lettuce, curly cress, arugula, sui choy, mesclun mixes and radishes and they are coming along steadily.

Cress and arugula - early April

Patchoy and Lettuce today.

Edible Sweet Peas
I planted out a first pack of Sugar Ann sweetpeas, a short variety and one seed sprouted from that pack. I dug around in the soil to try and determine what went wrong and I still don't know. Perhaps a crafty crow was watching me plant the seeds! So a started a second pack in trays and did get some sprouting which I planted out. I pruned last year's branches off my potted bamboo and they will provide some support, though this variety, if the pack is to be believed does not need staking.

In the other large container I planted an early variety of seed potato purchased right here in Richmond from the grower W@A Farms - 604-278-5667.

Bought Seedlings
I hedged my bets ... whatever that means ... and bought some commercially grown tomatoe seedlings. I am like a moth drawn to a flame where tomatoes are concerned, I feel like Charlie Brown who believes, once again ... and again ... and again, that this time Lucy will allow him to follow through and kick the damn football rather than pull it away a the last minute, causing him, once again to land on his big head! However, I have an objective this year. My daughter will be getting married in September and I would like to grow and supply some of the produce hence the different varieties of tomatoes!

I have planted them into larger pots using my potting soil and been watering faithfully with liquid fertilizers and hauling the trays in an out to avoid dangerous temperature fluctuations and rain! It is a kind of madness ...

My Allotment Garden
I have been working hard on my allotment garden. Got the hubby to help me build raised beds this year. Which meant I had to fork up the entire bed which is when I understood why I had such a dismal year last year. The ground is dense clay about 8" down. So I have been forking the whole thing over.

Drove around with six bags of Boy Scout manure - I hope they are not being literal - in my car for about two weeks until I had finished forking. Collected about three bags of seaweed and have three buckets of compost from home waiting to line the bottom of each tomato hole ... it is insanity.

Now I wait for the lilacs to finish blooming because according to timeless, gardening wisdom based on experience (phenology), this is the environmental indicator that conditions are right for planting warm weather veggies ... no one, of course, is willing to offer any guarantees.

Richmond Urban Farmers
Three of us embarked on a voyage of discovery mid summer last year and acquired three neighbourhood yards and began growing food. This year we will have our first full growing season. We have plunged in with the verve of newbies and to date have prepared and planted up two of the gardens with all the cool weather veggies, are completing the newest garden today and look forward to putting in the warm weather crop at the end of May.

This last garden, Seema's garden, is interesting because it was a full lawn at the end of last year and we have composted straight over the lawn with layers of cardboard, seaweed, bags of fall leaves and a load of City compost. The grass will take another year to properly breakdown before it can be rototilled so this year we are digging individual holes, ammending with soy mash and planting vines and warm weather crops. This experience is detailed in a dedicated blog - www.richmondurbanfarms.blogspot.com

I lurch forward, with hope burning eternal, into another growing season.
Let's see if Lucy really allows Charlie Brown kick the ball ... this time ...

Here we go again!

Fall Leaves ... an under valued FREE resource

2008-10-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

The fall parade is upon us and the trees are having their farewell moment in the spotlight as they display their fall colours and shed their leaves.

Composters Alert! Here is your opportunity to benefit from all the hard work done by others. On a Sunday afternoon, jump in your vehicle and cruise the neighbourhood. Look for subdivisions with leafy trees. I have a personal favourite.

I have no idea what they are! They are the first trees to bow out in fall with a magnificent display of sunny yellow. I anticipate and greatly enjoy the show every year, however, from a discerning composter's perspective, I appreciate the small compound leaves, that do not mat in the compost bin and break down quickly, contributing their carbon to the mix, just as much!

So now is the time to get out in your neighbourhood, late on a Sunday afternoon, and toss neatly packaged bags of leaves into you trunk! (If all is in your favour, it will not have rained for a couple of days before the homeowners decided to undertake this yearly chore and the leaves will be dry.) Collect what you might consider to be a year's supply for you to add to you compost with each new addition of kitchen waste. Such a mix will break down to give you a well rounded blend of nutritious plant food in a few months.

I have upped my year's supply to four bags. I find that is what I need to take me through until the leaves fall again next year. This year I had to resort to a bag of grass clippings, when I ran out too soon. Grass clippings are great if you are sure that your supplier has not added any nefarious substances, which I was not.

I acquired a pretty blue rain barrel with no lid which I will use this year to store two bags of leaves. That way the leave will be better ventilated and can dry out. I will open the top of the other bags to air them out as the the leaves are still damp. It is a good idea to punch random holes in the sides of the bag so moisture can escape. You want to avoid encouraging mold. The open top of the bag of leaves doubles as a great nest for friend Mottlee when he spends those cold, winter night outside, which he so seems to enjoy.

FALL BOUNTY:

I stopped at a huge fruit stand somewhere just out of Keremeos called Mariposa Orchards (250-499-2749) on the long drive back from Kelowna to Richmond about two weeks ago. I spent over an hour there inspecting the wonderful fall bounty - huge crates of multiple varieties of peppers, apples, pears, potatoes and onions. All kinds of pumpkins, squashes, gourds and translucent ears of popping corn in pale yellow and pink. A huge array of jams, jellies and honeys. The Okanagan is a bountiful indeed! What a feast for the eyes!

As I was planning a Fall Feast and celebration for my hubby's b/day a week later, I decided to stock up.

A Gift for my Feathered Friends:

Actually two gifts. I also bought a bottle gourd in Keremeos which I plan to dry, drill and turn into a bird house and make it avaialble as a FREE residence for a lucky neighbourhood couple to raise a little family.

I also purchased a wonderful large sunflower head, chock full of white seeds neatly packed in swirls around the sunflower's face. Have you ever looked closely at a sunflower's face? Inspiring and wonderous. Inspires hope in universal intelligence and creativity!

I pierced the back of the sunflower with a skewer and suspended it from a leather thong and hung it just outside the kitchen window where I can observe who comes for the seeds. I have not been disappointed. Despite the threat of two cats lurking about, two brave little chickadees have been flying in, and methodically removing seeds, one by one. Soon the sunflower will look like a Yin Yang icon. Half light, half dark.

Salad Greens:

The clay bowl of salad greens I replanted in early fall have grown but quickly bolted. All the cruciferous ('with four equal petals arranged crosswise')family - patchoy, etc, (or is it cole family?)seem to be aware that their days in the sun are short lived. The bees have been coming by and enjoying this small,late season supply of nectar. I also added some, not all (left some for the bees) of the flowers to a festive salad, they are quite sweet.

Fall is Bittersweet:

Every season has its gifts, bounty and beauty. It is a question of paying attention so one can see them coming.

Happy Fall!

2008-10-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

The Cucumbers

The cucumber seeds I planted on the 4th May, transplanted into the container on the outside of the porch railing, yeilded the first cucumber on the 3rd August. Three months to make a cucumber. I would consider growing cucumbers a success. The vine produced about 6 large crisp cucumbers in total. As each brahch grew longer and each successive fruit grew further along the end of the vine I would have to haul the strand up carefully to be able to harvest the cucumber dangling off the end. Reminiscent of Repunzel but I got a cucumber rather than a prince.

I like the lavish look of large cucumber leaves tumbling over the balcony railing.

Next year I might fix more containers to the outside of the porch and consider growing another variety of cucumber in one of them.

Cucumber pickles.

I went to a little class on pickling by Andrea Potter. We used a brine solution rather than vinegar. This allows for friendly bacteria to multiply and create the acidity. Eating these pickles adds probiotics to your gut. Pickling is a way to preserve surplus food for winter.

I bought young cucumbers from a local farm market and decided to try my hand. I found some wide mouth jars with tight lids at Valu Village. The bottles of pickling cucumbers sit on my counter and I am watching their progress. To date the saline solution has gone cloudy and the cucumbers which were originally jammed together have shrunk a bit and are floating a little higher in their brine. Occasionally I remove the lids and skim tiny floating islands of fluffy white mold off the surface and taste the brine. The acidity is growing and when it is to my liking, I will put the bottles into the fridge which technically should slow the bacterial activity. I will be sure to eat a pickle first before giving the bottles away to my pickle loving daughters .... just in case.

Another great find at Valu Village was an enamel sterlizing pot for making preserves. I bought it for $15! I was planning to make a green tomato relish but it just was not to be.

Tomatoes

I had better success with tomatoes this year. The buckets hanging from the fence eventually produced copious numbers of small, pear shaped, yellow tomatoes. They are a pretty addition to a salad ... scant acidity ... a bit "cottony" in texture but visually delightful. I mixed the yellow and red tomatoes to make cooked salsas with lots of cilantro to accompany scrambled eggs for Sunday brunch.

The tomato plant on the outside of the balcony was my "starchild". The tomatoes were tasty and I enjoyed the ones that ripened. I did not cover this plant with plastic with predictable results. This one plant was loaded with fruit of many sizes and the race between fast approaching cooler weather and unripened fruit was tight. I tried to speed up the ripening process by pruning off about half the leaves so as to concentrate the vital energy into ripening rather than growth and to expose the tomatoes to the weakening rays of the sunshine. That helped a bit. Got a few more ripe tomatoes before the blight struck. Grey, soft spots on the leaves, spreading to the stems and into the tomatos showing up as speckled brown areas on the surface.

As a last resort I amputated the limbs, removing all the green tomatoes that appeared unblemished and envisioned a sweet and sour green tomato relish flecked with red pimiento peppers. This looked like a positive outcome! ... particlarly when I came across the canning pot at Valu Village. Then the brown mottling surfaced on the salvaged green tomatoes and I conceeded defeat to the blight. The tomatoes went into the garbage ... I did not even dare to compost them.

Next year I will shelter the tomatoes on the balcony with plastic too.

The Potatoes

The fingerling potatoes are waiting to be harvested. I really want to make an occasion of the harvest. My plan it to accomplish a number of goals. I want to film the occasion as the final segment to the planting sequence filmed earlier in the year. I wanted to invite my young neighbours to join me because children bring new levels of delight to unearthing potatoes. To date I have done neither ... and the fingerling potatoes wait patiently under the soil

The potato plant was the visible indicator as to what might be happening underground ... I say might, because we may plunge into the soil with greath expectations, camera rolling and be sorely disappointed. So I can only hope that the lush, leafy growth above ground was worth the dead lawn in its shadow and we will uncover a generous proliferation of little brown nubs.

Pictures taken in August, September and October.

The "Watermelon for Everyone" was Nothing for No One:

In the enthusiasm of the moment, I invited two young neighbours to join me in planting a large tub with watermelon seeds. We enjoyed the ritual. They whispered promises of care and cast encantations and blessings for abundance and good health. We placed the pot, at the beginning of the summer holidays on my Chinese neighbour's front step (she gave me permission as they would be away in China for the holidays) where it would receive lots westerly sunshine. The plants grew lustily and we were filled with hope. I, of course, knew there was one fatal flaw in the effort. The seeds were planted much too late. The children however, faithfully watered the seeds and delighted in seeing way too may of them pop up through the rich brown soil. Steadily expanding over the rim of the pot and flowing slo-mo down the sides. We did get flowers and even four tiny pale green stiped, round "promises" before the first frost halted the process.

We had a discussion about what we learnt and next year we promised to start the seeds much earlier. Next year we will have watermelon for everyone.

The Big Carrots

As with the potatoes I am hopefull that there are large, straight carrots growing ever longer under the proud, green leafy plumes.

Fall is Upon Us

Fall is tinged bittersweet. The garden is going to sleep. The first to bid adieu is the hosta. The leaves are yellowing. The rest will follow in succession.

To temper the blow I have already invested in bulbs. Something to look forward to. Hope.

I like to envision little vignettes. I mix and match my bulbs according to the pictures on the boxes. I look at the "due dates" ... early, mid and late spring. I look at heights and imagine small, medium and tall then I planted them in layers in clay pots according to the size of the bulb. From the largest the deepest to the smallest the shallowest. I crown the lot with cheerful violas and place the pots where I can see them from the kitchen window and down the front steps.

When the drizzle drones on and grey clouds erase the memory of sunshine I will think of the bulbs and remember the promise of Spring!

Summer At Long Last!

2008-08-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Thumbelina Carrots
I finally harvested the Thumbelina Carrots on the 24th July. They took four months to reach maturity. One month longer than stated on the package. However I weighed the crop produced in an 8 inch round pot - a half pound of small, sweet carrots!
Not bad results at all.

So now I am going to be even more ambitious! On the 1st of August I filled a large 5 gallon (?) garden centre, black plastic pot with my potting soil mix and planted two kinds of full sized carrots - Chardonay and Red Nantes - not for any particular reason other than I had them on hand. I planted the seeds individually about one inch apart and they are already sprouted. There are about fourteen seedlings per pot. The height of the container should give them lots of room to grow downwards. We'll see what happens. Should get a late fall harvest of carrots. I have read that carrots can stay in the ground over winter and pulled as needed.

The Tomatoes
The tomato plant on the outside of the balcony is thriving! Lots of health leaves. The tomatoes are coming up. They seem to be a small variety of tomato. I see lots of flowers but I worry that all those flowers are not getting pollinated. I have noticed what looks like a small wasp visiting the flowers. I did resort, at on point, to playing cupid and used a Qtip to facilitate the process of spreading the pollen around. Tomatoes are growing. I am waiting for them to ripen on the vine. One fell off on its own and we ate it. It had that tomato flavour I remember.

The tomatoes in the containers at ground level hanging on the fence are growing well. You can tell that they are not getting as much sunshine, different varieties of tomatoes are coming up but not are ripe as yet.

On the 9th of August I decided to take no chances and covered the tomatoes downstairs with clear plastic. Brian Minter mentioned mid August onwards is when that the deadly fungus hits, the combination of cooling temperature and the occasional rain. I opened out clear garbage bags and pinned them with clothes pegs but did it in such a way so that it is opened on one side and there is lots of air flow.

I think we push boundaries trying to grow tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest. So we do so knowing it is risky business. Last year, here in Richmond, all our tomatoes were wiped out by fungus early in the season. I particularly felt for a Russian gentleman in our community garden who committed fully to growing only tomatoes both last year and this year. Lost every one. and this year too.

So, we water from the bottom, not the leaves. Clip the lower leaves so the spore, which are carried in the soil don't splash up on the leaves. We cut off the suckers growing in the axils or all the energy is concentrated into the main crop of tomatoes. The hope is that the tomatoes will have gotten to their full size and ripened before the first frost. In mid August we cover the plants with plastic to spare ourselves the disappointment of loosing all our patient work to rampant mold! All for the love of an organic tomato!

I went to the Tuesday Farmer's Market on Saltspring Island in the Straight of Georgia last week,the first week of August and their tomato harvest is in full swing. Lots of lovely ripe tomatoes. They seem to get more sunshine and they are also drier.

The Cucumber
Got one whole cucumber off the plant so far and lots of little cucumbers coming up.

Fall Plantings
Now is the time to get more seeds going for a fall harvest.
At the same time as I did the full sized carrots, 1st August, I did more arugula, West Coast and Provencal mesclun, spinach, a five variety lettuce mix, collard greens and Italian broccoli.

Strawberries
Good thing I used my Qtip on the strawberry flowers. We have strawberries! They are not growing in ideal conditions as they are in small half pots on the wall. They would probably do much better in a larger pot. They have a dense, fibrous root ball.

Summer Care of the Perennial Container Garden
The perennials were really starting to feel the heat towards the end of July. They let you know by dropping pathetically. So it is important to keep up with the watering. Water more frequently and deeply. No skimping! I usually water the small containers every two to three days or when I notice that the surface of the potting mix has dried out. I do find, however, that since I used coco fiber as the basis of the last batch of potting mix, it hold the water very well and I do not water as often. I try to keep up with the watering because I don't want to stress the plants out because it shows up in their growth. I aim for ... Thrive not Survive!

At the beginning of July, I dug into my one of my compost bins and harvested some lovely compost and added it to the surface of the pots as a mulch. That really gives the plants a boost. It keeps the root ball cooler, hold in the moisture and adds more nutrients to tide them into fall.

I also tidied up all the plants at this time. Deadheading the flowers, cutting off dead leaves and straggly stems. This refreshes the look of the garden as a whole and encourages a new growth spurt. So I am looking forward to another flush of new leaves and perhaps even flowers.

Compost
The garbage bin of compost that was full and left to digest at the end of March was ready for harvest at the end of June. That is three months to decompose down to compost.

When I emptied out the garbage bin into another container, I placed the container in the sunshine to encourage the worms to migrate downwards. Then I was able to remove the top layer of compost and put it to good use. I removed the compost layer by layer until the worms were in the bottom of the container. I then relocated the worms into a new garbage bin so they could take up residence and get to work chowing down on all those delicious veggie scraps.

Refinement to my compost bin
As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I compost in adapted plastic garbage bins. Up until this point none of them had holes in the bottom which meant that the compost tea would saturate the bottom of the bin and cause anaerobic conditions. Not ideal for composting. I recently acquired the perfect planter from a client that had no holes in it and bottom of garbage bin fits snugly into the top quarter of container. So I drilled drainage holes into the bottom of the garbage bin (and one in the top of the container, under the bottom of the garbage bin) so the compost tea can drain from the garbage and collect in the container. Now I can use the compost tea as a liquid fertilizer and aerobic conditions with be maintained though out the garbage bin. I will further improve the set up by settling the base of container into the gravel floor to stabilize it. At present the set up is top heavy making it awkward turning the contents with the garden fork.

Compost Teas
I have been using the Stinging Nettle and Comfrey and Compost teas as tonics for my plants over summer. This year I have fertilized with liquid seaweed, the layer of compost the teas and epsom salts which I added to the tomato plants to encourage flowering and fruiting. I have to keep my eye out for a source of comfrey leaves as I need to harvest more to replenish my supply.

Bringing in the Harvest

2008-06-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Mesclun
I have harvested the "Spice It Up" mesclun mix from Salt Spring Seeds, that I planted on the 2nd of April, three times so far and it looks like it might "come back for more".

I have planted two succession plantings of different combinations of mesclun - one on 17th May and one on 7th June. So there should be a steady supply of greens.

A local source of Liquid Seaweed
About two weeks ago Onami brought me two bottles of Liquified Seaweed Stock Solution made by Multi-Crop Industries Inc. a product from Cowichan Lake, Vancouver Island. ReindeersNatural@yahoo.com and I watered all the plants with this natural fertilizer to keep them going strong.

Harvesting Lettuce

I harvested from the lettuce bowl twice, once as cut and come again and yesterday I mowed down everything: all the lettuce, the individually planted kale, arugula and mustard and pulled up the rest of the radishes. I washed them all, drained them in a laundry bag and packed them into containers from EarthBound Organics Salad Greens.
I have been enjoying this ready supply of fresh greens in pita sandwiches and salads.

Carrot Tops Galore

The carrots greens look tall and health. They were planted about 60 days ago and according to the package should have been ready to harvest. I did pull out two to see what was going on under there and they looked about the right size for "Barbie". They tasted great, however. Nibble, nibble.

Local Weather Report

The weather continues to be rainy almost daily and today's temperature is 10 degrees C. Perfect weather for cool weather veggies like lettuces and other greens.

New Potting Medium

Well, not so new. Being from the West Indies originally, I think of the fact that the family, two generations ago owned a coconut plantation in Cedros. I think of all the potting medium we could have made and sold around the world out of all those discarded coconut husks! In those days the coconut fibre was used locally for mattresses and for door mats.

I was given a block of compressed coconut fibre to test as an alternative potting medium to peat. I placed the block in a storage container and turned the hose on it. By the time the block had broken up and absorbed the water (in no time at all) the 2.4 cu. ft. container was heaped high with loose, small particles of coconut fibre. I added a couple bags of worm castings and some oragnic fertilizer to the mix and am trying it as a potting medium. A couple things I like about this product is that it is an alternative to peat. Coconut fiber is a by product from the coconut industry which comes from underdeveloped countries so it supports their enterprises. It is a sustainable product as the coconut trees keep making coconuts. However it does need to travel far to get here. There's always a downside.

Hot Weather Veggies - What about them?!

Well, they are waiting and waiting and waiting in the wings. Getting long and lanky. Stretching to the sun if the sun won't come to them.

Potatoes

I planted out the pototoes in self watering containers. I read about them online and tried my hand at making them myself. The PVC pipe sticking up is where you aim the hose to fill the reservoir, the space between the two containers. Two holes are cut in the bottom of the inner (upper) container, one for the PVC pipe so it can enter the reservoir space and one for a funnel that sits in the hole with the end resting in the water in the reservoir. The medium packed in the funnel, wicks water up the end of the funnel, into the medium and is absorbed by the roots of the potato plant. Watering on demand. However so much water is falling from the sky that I have not really needed to fill the reservoir very often so far. There are two holes drilled in the side of the outer (lower) bucket at the height of the upper level of the reservoir which act as an overflow.

Tomatoes

As for the tomatoes they are planted out in olive oil containers and hang on the fence. They do get rained on which is usually a "no no" but as someone explained to me that becomes a problem when the temperature warms up in July (?) and the warmth and damp becomes conducive to molds. Then you have a problem! and they should be placed where they cannot be rained on. So the tomato plants are safe for now.

Notice that one of the containers is a self watering one. A good idea if the weather ever does warm up as tomatoes need regular watering in hot weather.

One Month Later - 18th May 2008

2008-05-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Cool Weather Veggies

The veggies I planted in early April have all sprouted and are coming along lustily!
We have already begun harvesting radishes ... so radishes take as little as six weeks
from seed to a harvestable size. We pluck them out as we need them. As they are planted very close together, this leaves room for the ones coming up to fill out. Radishes are so cute!

We have also trimmed the first three inches of salad greens on the 12th of May (just over five weeks)and eaten them. After harvesting I watered the plants with a weak compost tea so the plants would have the necessary nutrients to continue growing. They will be ready for another trim very shortly. Yesterday another pot became available and I planted a second round of mesulun - West Coast Market Mix. This is called "Succession Planting". When one planting has burnt out another crop is coming on line so there is a continuous harvest.

I thinned the Thumbelina carrots to give the roots room to develop. I sprinkled the surface of the medium with coffee grounds in an effort to fool the carrot rust fly. They lay their eggs and the larvae tunnel through the carrots. I have read that they pick up the scent of their favourite host, carrots, when the seedlings are thinned. Coffee grounds are an attempt to disguise the smell.

The lettuce mix is in a larger pot and planted quite densely. I removed a clump of seedlings and planted them out individually in the back yard flower bed. This should be a good place for lettuce as it is quite cool with filtered light, which lettuce prefer. These lettuces, planted in the flower bed, will grow to their full size. The densely planted lettuces in the large clay pot can either be mowed down with a sissors and added to the musclun salad mix or I can harvest individual outer leaves from as many lettuces so as to satify the amount of lettuce I need for the meal. A method now refered to as "Cut and Come Again".. In that way the plant continues growing. I make sure to water the lettuces regularly as they become bitter if the weather becomes too hot and they are stressed by a lack of water.

The Strawberrys

The strawberry plants are being harrassed unmercifully by aphids and thrips. I have sprayed with water and a few added drops of non-toxic, biodegradable dishwashing liquid on two occasions so far and it appears I will have to continue to do so. I see lots of flowers, which is hopeful! I make sure to water the strawberries regularly as they are in quite tight quarters. I also added a teaspoon of epsom salts.

Epsom Salt, magnesium and sulphate, are important trace nutrients in the production of fruit and flowers. I will up the quantity to 1 tablespoon per liter in the future. Visit www.epsogrow.com for more information.

Mix 1/2 cup per gallon of water; then water with mixture at your normal rate every four weeks. For added benefit, lightly spray leaves with a mist of this solution every time you fertilize with Epsom Salts.

Warm Weather Veggies

We had two glorious days of sunshine so far this weekend. On Saturday the thermometer placed against my living room window topped 42 degrees C without a breath of air to boot! The Nasturtiums seedling in the hanging baskets at our entrance literally seem to have stretched in that one hot day!

On the 15th of May I made the rounds of various greenhouses and bought a few warm season veggies: three varieties of hot peppers, soy beans for edamame, walla walla onions and a few cabbage which need a long growing period. Buying seedlings gives plants a jumpstart so they can have enough time to come to fruition before the sun disappears over the horizion. I have successfully grown a wide range of seedlings from seed on a south facing window in the past. However there is no south facing window in this townhouse so I won't waste my time to try and start seedlings indoors under these conditions.

I will be planting the warm weather veggies in my community garden plot where the southern orientation is favourable to taking full advantage of growing summer veg.
I will also be direct seeding in the community bed so I will have succession plantings.

I started a few warm weather veggies on the 4th May: broccoli now 3" tall, a beautiful white pumpkin with gorgeous thick orange flesh. I saved the seeds from a pumpkin I ate last year and a 2' cucumber called Salad Bush recommended as good for container growing. I water the seedlings with compost tea as they are in small cells and I don't want them to run out of nutrients before I can get them in the ground.

Something New for the Entrance to the Townhouse

Every year I seem to get a new inspiration for the front staircase. This year in honour of the thrust in growing veggies, I have planted a combination of purple skinned kholrabi (which I find visually interesting - little smooth skinned globes on skinny pedestals and a shock of leaves) with "Siam Queen basil" purple tinged leaves and green leaved bush basil and orange calendula flowers (the petals can be added to salads as can the nasturtium flowers and leaves - peppery!. That is one pot. The other pot has "Red Sail" lettuce - red tints on crinkled green leaves with deep green, bold Collard Greens and orange nasturium flowers. I will be interested to see the result!

Welcome to my Balcony Garden

2008-04-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

7th April 2008 - Richmond, BC

I am creating this blog in case it is helpful to others and so I have a record of the garden's evolution.

I began this balcony garden in 2005, so this is the third seasonal round. I did it because I wanted to look out of my kitchen window and see beauty and because living in a town house, the postage stamp garden is part of the common area and under strata regulations.

The success of the garden so far is the due to the initial planning stage that took into consideration what would be necessary for long term success: large containers, taking care to select plants who's needs matched the conditions (eg. hours of sunlight) available on the balcony.

The Role of Compost

I cannot stress enough the importance of compost for the continued, long term success of my garden. I turn out about 4 batches of compost a year in modified, inexpensive, plastic garbage bins. The compost is from the waste generated from food preparation in our kitchen.

I have a compost centre, downstairs under the balcony overhang. Everything I need to compost successfully and produce balanced compost is on hand in about a 1 meter by 2 meter area. I add compost during each season. In winter as a mulch to protect the plants from the cold. In spring so the new growth has the nutrients it needs to flourish. In summer as a mulch to preserve moisture in the soil. In fall after the fall clean up, in preparation for dormancy.

Spring on the Balcony

The Spring Parade starts early on the Balcony. First up are the residents of my "winter" container. Most the plants in this box are evergreens ... they have a presence year round. This is the container that is visible year round from within the home, so I selected plants so that box always looks alive and active. First up, probably as early as February, was the Hellebore flowers. Ninteen stems in all, each with a number of flowers. Now the flush of large new leaves are emerging.

In a neighbouring container the four little daffodills sent up a flower each and the Brunnera slowly is emerging with netted blue grey leaves and clusters of tiny sky blue flowers.

Caterpillars Be Warned

I must say that I have been most anxiously awating the emergence of the scarlet, baby leaves of the Japanese maple tree. Every year so far, the tree is invaded by leaf rolling caterpillars that devour the first flush of leaves. Perhaps I should let the caterpillars have the first set of leaves but I won't. I have sprayed with BTK, a bacterium that infects and kills the caterpillars when they eat the leaves. BTK is made by Safers and is considered an organic method of pest control.

The "spring" container, which you have to go out onto the balcony to see, already looks lovely. The Bergenia and the tiny yellow and green leaves on the variegated honeysuckle (lonicera), both evergreens, have been maintaining a pretty presence. The bergenia with large deep maroon leaves coloured by the cold. A few weeks ago it pushed out sturdy stems of hot pink bells. The Jacob's Ladder began emerging feathery leaves in early March followed more recently, about the end of April by the fernlike, leaves and tall flower stalks of the Bleeding Heart.

Then the small clay pots on the railing hold the white violas that preformed valiently all winter long but really took off as the temperature began to warm up. Slowly the tulip and daffodil leaves, planted last fall, began pushing though the thick layer of compost and fortuitously the scarlet of the emerging tulips understoried with white violas, backdropped with flowering pale pink cherry blossoms and matching scarlet Japanese maple leaves in the foreground all combined, by happy serendipty to create a pretty picture.

Starting Veggies

Some vegetables tolerate cooler weather well and some actually prefer it, such as lettuces, spinach, radishes and chinese vegetables. I have to say I am no expert at growing vegetables and am in a steep learning curve at the moment. I started the first year with herbs. The second year with potatoes grown in buckets for a children's program. Last year with lettuces and salad greens and figured that I this year I would let fly and see all the different things I can grow.

To date I bought some inexpensive clay bulb pots, which have straight sides so the top and bottom circumference are the same. In them, on the 4th of April, I planted spinach, beets, radishes, swiss chard, carrots and salad greens seeds. I have placed a clear plastic bag over each pot. The bags are held aloft with a bamboo skewer, so the rain from spring showers we are having, run off. The bags help to temper the temperature fluctuations and keep an even moisture level. I will remove them as the seelings begin to germinate and get strong.

Potting Soil

I use my own mix of potting soil. I mix a base of peat moss with compost, vermiculite and organic fertilizers and store it in inexpensive garbage bins in the garage. Whenever I need potting soil it is available in quantities.

Planting seeds is very simple. Others might have a better strategy but what I do is, I put a square of black landscape cloth over the pot drainage hole so the soil does not wash away and usually a curved shard of pottery to keep the hole clear so water can drain. I fill the pot with potting soil (the level will settle) and I scatter small seeds over the surface then sprinkle more potting soil over the seeds. I then water them with the spray hose in the kitchen sink (though rain water is better). It has a gentle spray which minimizes the seeds floating away. Larger seeds like swiss chard I place individually and push down about 1 cm into the soil.

A Lesson Learned

It seems that ensuring there is adequate moisture for the germinating seeds is key. I recently planted up three trays of lettuce in small individual cells and not one germinated. The diagnosis seems to be not enough moisture at a critcal point of seed germination.

Dealing with Unwanted Visitors

I like having visitors to the garden. Little snails visit, grazing on the algae growing on the clay pots. They are very cute. If they begin muching on leaves though the welcome mat is withdrawn and they are tossed overboard.

Aphids appear in droves every spring. Usually they congregate on the new shoots sucking the sap from the tender tissue. I keep them on their toes by wiping them off by running my fingers along the stem and then crushing them or spraying them with a blast of water.

At present, I notice that thrips are gathering on the strawberry leaves. They are also sap suckers and will weaken the plant so I may spray with soapy water.

Pollination

I have had very poor results with the strawberries. My diagnosis is that the flowers which the three plants produce readily are not being pollinated. So I am going to test this theory and cross pollinate them myself, spreading pollen around the flowers as they open with a Qtip. I have also been very generous with the compost and I drenched them with a foul smelling tea made from comfrey leaves so they cannot say they are not well fed.

Other Methods of Adding Nutrients to the Garden

Happily in summer of last year I came upon a large and lush patch of comfrey growing wild at the community garden. Comfrey (and nettles in spring) can be soaked in water until they decompose and the resulting putrid smelling "tea" can be diluted and used to add extra nutrients to plants. From what I read, comfrey plants have very deep roots and pull up minerals from deeper in the soil. Those nutrients, stored in the leaves then become available in the tea. I love using these "free" resources whenever possible.