Garden

August 25, 2010

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It Came from the Compost Bin

I’m not even sure how a whole sweet potato got in there in the first place, but this one really wanted to grow.

That giant pile of wood chips in the background is the result of a large weed tree that fell down and flattened a portion of our community garden, including our ramshackle compost bin. But Davin, our resident Compost Technician keeps plugging away at it, undeterred. Proof positive that one does not require a proper bin with four sides and a top to turn garden and kitchen waste into compost.

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August 23, 2010

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Yardshare Stitched Panoramas

Click on the images to see full-size.

Davin took these photos of the Yardshare Garden the other day, using his iphone and an app called AutoStitch. The first image is a somewhat inaccurate representation of the garden as I believe what you are seeing is approximately 360 degrees in a straight line.

What is a yard share, you ask? Well, it works something like this: A neighbour has a yard, or a portion of a yard that they are not using, and they offer it up to gardeners in their community to use, typically with an agreement to share the bounty.

Hyperlocavore is one place to start if you are looking for a yard share in your area.

And I’ve added a Yardshare Garden tag if you’d like to follow along with the food we’ve got growing in ours.

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August 12, 2010

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Spotlight on ‘Trionfo Violetto’ Pole Beans

Back in June I wrote in my Globe & Mail column about growing beans. Within the piece I mentioned a favorite pole variety ‘Trionfo Violetto.’ It’s been years since I have grown this particular variety and now that the plants are in full swing and producing a little crop of beans daily, I can’t understand why I had set it aside and turned to other, inferior varieties for so long.

First are the dark, pinky-purple flowers depicted in the photo, above. And the way they are set off against the green foliage with a hint of burgundy that almost seems to be applied with a water-color brush.

All of this accented against slender, dark stems, and long, thin, purple beans that are delicious fresh off the vine. I can buy all manner of green beans at my local Farmers’ Market, but the French fillet-style beans are less popular and cost a small fortune.

Stunning, prolific, and delicious. Next year I will double my planting efforts and stop trying with other less interesting varieties.

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August 9, 2010

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Mantis Visit

Last week we found an adult praying mantis hanging out on the raspberry bushes I’ve got growing in a massive planter box on the roof. I’d like to think it is the offspring of one of the baby mantids I hatched and released last spring but that’s highly unlikely since mantids don’t tend to stick around that long and we didn’t see any egg casings nearby.

More here about mantids in the garden and hatching an egg case (aka ootheca).

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August 5, 2010

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Dragonfly

I was surprised by a beautiful Green Darner (Anax junius) the other day while moving some pots on the roof. I must have been out there puttering around for two hours before I noticed it quietly resting on a white sage (Salvia apiana) plant. I hope it caught some mosquitoes.

This isn’t our first dragonfly visit of the year. It’s always surprising who and what will find our little oasis in the sky. More of these and less raccoons please.

On the white sage: It’s not hardy here in Toronto, but I’ve managed to overwinter this one successfully over several seasons now by simply cutting it back hard and forgetting about it. You know, I’m not really much of a fan at this size — they are much more beautiful when they are grown as bushes, but alas I can’t really achieve that here without a bigger pot and more space. I’ve kept it in a sunny window giving it water here and there through the winter and I’ve set it in the hallway where it is cold, the windows are north-facing, and it received almost no attention. We even went away for a month last winter and friends were not instructed to water it. This plant lives on no matter what.

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