A Hearty Welcome to Summer ...

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!

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

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!

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!

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.