From Tiny Things Come Great Salads Spring, despite all signs to the contrary and world sanity otherwise crumbling around us, will arrive shortly whether you’re ready for it or not. Admittedly not for several more months in MY neighbourhood but with the garden-in-a-closet I’ve made, year-round planting is a reality and I’ve learned to ignore the calendar to some extent. No … Read More →
Small (Cheap) Beginnings Grow Into Big Yields I wandered past an old post here where I planted a few discount lilacs. I seem to recall them being end-of-season markdowns around $8 each but that memory is fuzzy. You can see above what five years of full sun and good topsoil can do. All of them are easily six feet tall and burst … Read More →
A slow day's worth of peas. Usually double this every morning. Summer has finally shown up around here – late as usual. It’s not been the heatwave material other parts of the planet have seen this year but we’ve had a few respectfully hot days above 30C here and there (usually with a week of refreshingly cool, rainy grey days in between) so the tomatoes are … Read More →
Be Different, Start From Seed I’m regularly asked ‘how do you personally start plants from seed?’ Having just gone through the annual ritual I thought I’d document the method I’ve developed over the years. During my busiest seasons I’ve had as many as a thousand seedlings at one time with my little plant factory approach. Lots of incremental changes and … Read More →
One Pot Wonders If you swear you can’t grow anything, have no space, no time, or any of the other gardening-averse excuses, just go plant some peas already. While a giant trellised row with automatic irrigation would be my preference, any neglected pot on a modestly sunny stoop will work and yield a perfect handful for stir-fry every … Read More →
Mizuna, Romaine, & Bread Makes For Salad Days Mizuna is one of the odder greens I grow in abundance this time of year. Think of it as “Japanese mustard greens” for cooking purposes or a milder sort of rocket (arugula) for salad mixes. It’s a brassica so all the usual garden advice surrounding them applies but honestly it’s one of those greens that … Read More →
Potent, Ugly, Best Grown At Home You want an edible plant that’s impossible to kill in most any climate? Horseradish is your answer. If you’ve ever used ‘prepared’ horseradish from jars at the supermarket in your coleslaw, tartar sauce, or to dress a bit of roast beef, you only know half of the flavour. Freshly made from home grown crops has … Read More →
Snowballs on a Stick I haven’t had much chance to swing at landscaping efforts out at the farm this year. That gets expensive and I have other more pressing priorities. I’m also still facing weekly flood or drought out there since I don’t yet have a well and am at the mercy of the creek and hand-carried buckets. Back … Read More →
Tiny Plows Not Required (video below) Seeds are pure magic. Tiny capsules grow into giant plants seemingly from thin air. It’s nature’s version of a never-ending rainbow handkerchief out of the magician’s pocket. All the nutrients needed for the first few weeks are packed in there tighter than vitamin sardines and if you can jump start the growth process … Read More →
A Favourite Christmas Orchid Now Two Years Old Not much to report this Christmas Eve. Or Hakuna Matata or Festivus or Midwinter Pagan Day or whatever else you’re supposed to say this time of year to avoid a kerfuffle. As if I’ve ever been politically correct. The weather is unseasonably warm, around +5C, so much of the snow is gone and it’s raining … Read More →
Applesauce Cleanup On Aisle Three The leftovers of a few storms landed on our doorstep this week and sadly, I lost an apple tree in the mayhem. At least it was a roadside specimen that was in a hard to pick location. The ground there along the drainage ditch stays fairly soaked which I suspect softened the soil enough for … Read More →
Glaze Naked Means More Apple Taste, Less Surplus Sugar I came home from the farm with another armload of apples today. They’re ripe at the top of the trees so next week it’s probably cider time with most of the crop. An unexpected bonus of the huge hoarkin’ truck is that I can park on the drive right next to one of my biggest … Read More →
If there were ovens in the wild The farm neighbour told me of a grand discovery across the road last weekend… blackberries. Something which I have a fond history with in fact. Seems they found a patch back in the brush on their side which means if I don’t already have some hiding on the edges of my own chunk of forest, … Read More →
Even my gnome seeds have sprouted * A rainy afternoon here. Nice and cool around the 15C (59F) mark so I headed out to the farm to dig more holes. The clethra graciously gifted to the farm from the neighbours (thanks Mike!) are in the ground right next to the lilacs along the driveway. Even in just the two weeks since getting … Read More →
Canada Day Special - Pretty in Pink While They Last Happy Canada Day my fellow Canadians as well as to all you foreign interlopers. Not much to report on this year but I managed to make a day of it. With charcoal and tongs in tow, it was out to the farm to fire up the grill for a nice piece of halibut fresh from … Read More →
Fashionably Late Apple Blossoms I haven’t talked much about the farm lately primarily because without better funds in hand, I’m hesitant to make any big moves. Still, there is always room for little steps and I spent today planting for the future after being reminded that Mother Nature waits for no one. In fact she’s usually tapping her foot … Read More →
Desktop Greens Coming Soon With the snow still raging outside, the cost of Canadian food is rising inexplicably and ridiculously compared to the rest of the world. It’s time to take salad matters into my own hands. Herbs too for that matter. Maybe even some micro-greens like radish, mizuna, or amaranth. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve been … Read More →
Happy Cats + Happy Cooks = Happy Christmas In the dead of winter I try to appease my inner gardener in lots of ways. I watch Gardener’s World reruns until I sound like Monty Don, I attempt to build beehives, and I pour over seed catalogues filled with their visions of future perfection in the dirt. I suspect a huge percentage of seeds … Read More →
The final paint job will be better I’ve been struggling with finding a solution to my home building needs. With the recently plummeting Canadian dollar, the timber frame kits previously mentioned I found down in the States have effectively become 25% more costly to Canucks like me in just a few short months. That means I’m back to exploring other methods of … Read More →
Pretty. Tasty. Insanely easy to grow. The first hints of fall are showing up early in the mornings. A little gust of cool air here, the occasional drop of leaves there. Apples are growing fat and sweet. Deer wander past holding ‘to let’ brochures looking for winter apartments in the forest. All it all it’s been a mild summer here but … Read More →
A Nickel of Pest Control I love when homemade solutions to a problem work better than the commercial answers, especially when the former is a mere fraction of the cost. Thus was the case when the late summer harvest brought a tiny menace to my doorstep. In August with garden produce in full swing and the heat at its peak, … Read More →
Actual Neighbour Eggs There’s an old saying that goes “you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family”. Somewhere in between those two extremes are neighbours. Certainly you can select your neighbourhood carefully but it’s never a sure bet on what might move in next door. I can barely fathom how people co-exist in high rise … Read More →
Hot Enough to Notice I get a lot of flack from fancy food types about my love of pepper jelly. That condiment forever relegated to the 1960’s poured over cream cheese and served on crackers as atomic age chic. And it’s true that the myriad insipid versions out there are about as exciting as a Nixon speech. When you … Read More →
That's a BIG Sack 'O Taters Atlantic Canada would make Samwise Gamgee proud. We’re just covered in ‘taters’ as he’d tell Gollum. Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick supply not only most of Canada’s spud needs but plenty cross the border to feed the eastern US. From ordinary bags of them in the market to McDonald’s insatiable industrial french fry demand … Read More →
