I’ll admit that I’m not much of a blogger. I don’t write and post my daily moment-by-moment thoughts, nor do I update my status throughout the day. I just don’t understand how people can do that, and still get their non-blog life accomplished in any meaningful way. It’s impressive, but baffling.
Another factor is that I don’t appreciate posted work that is so raw as to be endlessly repetitive and confused. So I do at least one edit before posting. However, as any gardener/farmer/writer knows, by the time someone is finished settling an idea as a written piece, there is already a line-up of projects to do – and to write about. And so I often convince myself to delay the writing until that next stage of the garden or construction is complete before putting down in words. Another month goes by with nothing written, again and again.
So this will be an attempt to catch up on a few of my own notes. It’s raining lightly this afternoon, just enough to keep me from pulling out my carpentry tools and continue building the small cottage for my brother and his wife on their neighbouring property.
I’ll go back a few months and when this year’s summer garden began.
In early February, I took the Ferry to Comox and met with Larry from Denman Apples. He had come from his orchard on Denman Island, bringing a selection of 16 apple, plum and pear trees (some 1 –year whips, others that were 2 or 3 years old with a nice branching pattern already established). These were all bare-root stock, so I had to get to work digging holes, mixing in a certain amount of compost and fracturing the surrounding walls of the hole with a pick, before putting all of them in the ground.
On the open area of this property, we now have about 50 fruit and nut trees growing, with about 2/3s of that, mature enough to produce a good amount of fruit each year. The others will be 1–4 years from producing much fruit – depending on their age, and on the type of root-stock selected to grow on. Few things feel better to me than planting a fruit or nut tree, or some sort of perennial producer such as blueberry bushes or asparagus, knowing that they are now in the ground and soon will be giving us fresh and wonderful food. Many of them will be doing this for the rest of my life. Plenty of reason to start planting today.
Here, on the so-called Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, garden season can continue all throughout the year -even without a green-house or cold frames, although they will definitely add a large amount of production and variety to the garden harvest during the winter months. That said, work on the summer gardens usually picks up energy during March or April, depending on the climate patterns during that particular year. This year has been a particularly cool and cloudy and somewhat wetter spring season, with many flowers, trees and plants hesitating before showing themselves. Without a greenhouse or cold-frames to help out, many gardens have been 3 or 4 weeks behind the average season.
After last year’s experience, I realize that growing food is a lot easier if I exercise a little more patience rather than eagerly getting the seeds started indoors and then hoping (usually in vain) that this year the heat and sunshine will come earlier than normal. That said, I still planted many seeds, (peas, tomatoes, kales, scallions, broccoli, herbs, etc.) indoors in late March. Another few weeks delay would have been wise, but I just can’t wait that long. I usually start them by on a table in front of a large window in the house. The room is warm and cozy with the woodstove burning for heat.
March is a mostly a good month to be planning the garden,, sorting through the big bag of saved seeds to check inventory, and working compost and manure (as much as you can gather) into the beds. Last fall I seeded many of the plots with fall rye and legumes. These should be turned into the soil to break down. Usually it takes 4-6 weeks to break down to the optimum level for planting new vegetables
By the end of the month, I had about 8 flats of seeded containers resting in my warmest and brightest window. Since my house is an off-grid location (ie. I have no power hook-up to BC Hydro) I do not use grow lights, and the heat comes from the woodstove in my small house.
Another factor is that I don’t appreciate posted work that is so raw as to be endlessly repetitive and confused. So I do at least one edit before posting. However, as any gardener/farmer/writer knows, by the time someone is finished settling an idea as a written piece, there is already a line-up of projects to do – and to write about. And so I often convince myself to delay the writing until that next stage of the garden or construction is complete before putting down in words. Another month goes by with nothing written, again and again.
So this will be an attempt to catch up on a few of my own notes. It’s raining lightly this afternoon, just enough to keep me from pulling out my carpentry tools and continue building the small cottage for my brother and his wife on their neighbouring property.
I’ll go back a few months and when this year’s summer garden began.
In early February, I took the Ferry to Comox and met with Larry from Denman Apples. He had come from his orchard on Denman Island, bringing a selection of 16 apple, plum and pear trees (some 1 –year whips, others that were 2 or 3 years old with a nice branching pattern already established). These were all bare-root stock, so I had to get to work digging holes, mixing in a certain amount of compost and fracturing the surrounding walls of the hole with a pick, before putting all of them in the ground.
On the open area of this property, we now have about 50 fruit and nut trees growing, with about 2/3s of that, mature enough to produce a good amount of fruit each year. The others will be 1–4 years from producing much fruit – depending on their age, and on the type of root-stock selected to grow on. Few things feel better to me than planting a fruit or nut tree, or some sort of perennial producer such as blueberry bushes or asparagus, knowing that they are now in the ground and soon will be giving us fresh and wonderful food. Many of them will be doing this for the rest of my life. Plenty of reason to start planting today.
Here, on the so-called Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, garden season can continue all throughout the year -even without a green-house or cold frames, although they will definitely add a large amount of production and variety to the garden harvest during the winter months. That said, work on the summer gardens usually picks up energy during March or April, depending on the climate patterns during that particular year. This year has been a particularly cool and cloudy and somewhat wetter spring season, with many flowers, trees and plants hesitating before showing themselves. Without a greenhouse or cold-frames to help out, many gardens have been 3 or 4 weeks behind the average season.
After last year’s experience, I realize that growing food is a lot easier if I exercise a little more patience rather than eagerly getting the seeds started indoors and then hoping (usually in vain) that this year the heat and sunshine will come earlier than normal. That said, I still planted many seeds, (peas, tomatoes, kales, scallions, broccoli, herbs, etc.) indoors in late March. Another few weeks delay would have been wise, but I just can’t wait that long. I usually start them by on a table in front of a large window in the house. The room is warm and cozy with the woodstove burning for heat.
March is a mostly a good month to be planning the garden,, sorting through the big bag of saved seeds to check inventory, and working compost and manure (as much as you can gather) into the beds. Last fall I seeded many of the plots with fall rye and legumes. These should be turned into the soil to break down. Usually it takes 4-6 weeks to break down to the optimum level for planting new vegetables
By the end of the month, I had about 8 flats of seeded containers resting in my warmest and brightest window. Since my house is an off-grid location (ie. I have no power hook-up to BC Hydro) I do not use grow lights, and the heat comes from the woodstove in my small house.
