Garden

March 31, 2006

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There’s Some Livin’ Going On

We’ve been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures here in Toronto which have pushed me to get out and do some early-season garden work. I can’t recall being this eager to get gardening but I suspect that I am always this excited, it’s just the lapse of time between fall and spring that has me convinced my excitment is bigger and better than ever!

It began a few days ago when I got up the drive to clean the street garden. What a mess! I can say with all certainty that it has never been so disgusting. The impetus for this sudden clean-up was the shocking discovery that several clumps of crocus blooms were buried underneath empty liquor bottles (Vodka being the liquor of choice), cigarette filters, and burger wrappers (All I’m going to say is that certain unnamed fast food chains should be sponsoring this clean-up). Thanks Toronto! I know how hard it is to walk those ten extra feet to the garbage/recycling can. SO HARD!

Here’s the evidence: Before | After

I know it doesn’t look like much but that represents the sweat of 2 adult people, 2 garbage bags, a nearly full recycling bin, and some plant material. The fence is toast. This year I’m thinking about getting some rebar and using that for posts. Try and knock that over drunk guy who tramples through the garden to urinate against the wall at 3 am! Or drunken dude that falls into the irises and completely smushes them with his entire drunken body ruining a beautiful display of just-in-bloom flowers!

So then I acquired more seeds.

Lettuce: ‘Lolla Rosa’ – A bright red lettuce.
Calendula ‘Antares Flashback’ – Multi-coloured blooms with reddish undersides. I love calendula because you can just toss some seeds in the garden and they’ll come back up by themselves. You can eat the petals or use them to make skin salves.
Nigella ‘Cramer’s Plum’ – White flowers with plum coloured pods.
Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
Sugar Pea ‘Carouby De Maussane’ – Flowers are purple instead of the usual white.
Mexican coriander – In trade.
Tomato ‘Pera d’Abruzzi’ – Also in trade.
Beans ‘Scarlet Runner’ or ‘Painted Lady’

I have been growing chives in a galvanized metal tub out on the rooftop for several years. They are just starting to come back up. I can also see anise hyssop, and wormwood making an appearance.

I made a quick trip to the community garden today on my lunch break to check on early spring progress. I picked a few beans (see above) that were left on the vine over winter.

The onions were in full swing:

Lemon balm was poking through the soil in more places then I would appreciate, as is their way:

My visit was cut short by an unexpected rain shower that continues as I write. While it put a damper on our sunny, warm weather, it does ensure that I’ll be able to get out there soon to plant some peas, greens, and the bulbs I neglected to get into the ground before it froze (oops). Spring is starting.

The Lazy Gardener’s Seed Starting Chart

Guest post by Maggie Wang

Calculate seed sowing and planting dates in seconds with this even handier version of the Handy Seed Starting Chart.

Download the seed starting chart file. If you don’t have excel, you can download a free open-source office suite with a spreadsheet application at openoffice.org or Google Docs.
Enter the “Frost Free Date” for your region in the yellow box at the top. See almanac.com
Before you can say, “Presto chango” the spreadsheet will quickly calculate all sowing and planting dates and place them in the appropriate fields.
Print your chart and hang near your seed starting set-up or tape it into your garden journal. It is that easy!

You can also download a do-your-own-math PDF Seed Starting Chart for the mathematically inclined.

Maggie Wang is a full-time video game developer and part-time illustrator fascinated by numbers, cats, computers, fitness, karaoke, growing stuff, and cooking healthy foods that don’t taste like sawdust.

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September 30, 2005

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Fertilizing the Organic Way

Guest post by Niki Jabbour

The real secret to growing healthy plants is to feed the earth. If you wish to garden organically, you must begin by considering your soil and what you can do to improve its health, fertility and boost its organic matter. The ideal garden soil is dark in colour, smells a bit sweet and is loaded with earthworms.

Soil Amenders

By working soil amendments such as compost and manure into the garden and feeding plants with organic fertilizers you will build the soil and replenish spent nutrients.

Carla Isnor of Halifax Seed says that a garden can only benefit from a generous seasonal application of organic matter. “It’s important to continue to improve your soil every year. Always put some of your annual gardening budget into the soil. A garden has to be built from the ground up.”

Access to good quality compost is closer than you think. You can easily recycle your kitchen scraps, grass clippings and leaves by turning them into compost, black gold for the garden.

Compost may be created in a free-formed pile or enclosed in some type of container. Either way your composting area should be located in a sunny spot that is out of sight, but conveniently close to the house.

Still don’t have time to compost? This fall gather leaves in garbage bags, poking several holes in the top and bottom of the bags. Add a few shovelfuls of grass clippings, garden soil and a sprinkle of water. Shake the bags well and check every few weeks to see if they have dried out. If so, add a bit of water and shake again. Come spring, open the bags to find rich, dark leaf compost, a wonderful soil amendment or mulch.

Manure has been a traditional soil amendment for many years and should be composted prior to incorporating it into the garden. Fresh manure is very high in nitrogen and may burn your plants.

For the urban gardener bagged manure is convenient to transport and easy to apply. Composted cow and sheep manure are readily available at most garden centers and allow a relatively quick and mess-free application of organic matter to the garden. Many nurseries are also offering bags of mushroom compost, an excellent soil additive that is rich in organic matter and nutrients. For those of us close to the ocean, seaweed is an invaluable and inexpensive slow release soil amendment. It contains over 60 minerals and several plant hormones.

Seaweed is also rich in micronutrients such as iron, copper, boron and zinc. Add freshly rinsed seaweed to your composter or till it into the vegetable garden in the autumn.

Organic Fertilizers

When it comes to feeding your plants, organic fertilizers offer a slow, steady release of nutrients that are derived from plants, animals or natural minerals. Because they break down more slowly than synthetic fertilizers, organics usually only need to be added once or twice per season. They also are less likely to burn plants or leach into groundwater.

Bonemeal and Bloodmeal are perhaps the best known organic fertilizers and available at virtually every garden center and nursery. Bonemeal is a rich source of phosphorous and calcium and can be worked into the flower and vegetable gardens in the spring and fall. As it stimulates root growth, Bonemeal should be sprinkled into the planting hole when transplanting annuals, perennials or shrubs.

Bloodmeal is a good source of nitrogen and releases its nutrients relatively quickly. It is ideal for encouraging lush green growth in leafy vegetables or foliage perennials.

Fish Meal and Kelp Meal are also good organic sources of nutrients. Fish Meal contains varying amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but has been known to attract cats, so if frisky felines are a problem in your garden, use with caution.

Kelp Meal is essentially seaweed in a granular form and offers most of the same benefits as fresh or composted seaweed. Besides using it in the garden, sprinkle it on the compost pile to speed up decomposition.

Niki Jabbour is an Ornamental Horticulturist and a writer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fertilized by sea breezes, her gardens are comprised of a colourful mixture of perennials, annuals, vegetables, herbs and flowering shrubs, with a few patches of clover and chickweed thrown in for good measure. A member of the Garden Writers Association of America, Niki is also the weekly gardening columnist for the Halifax Daily News and the Chester Clipper.

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September 25, 2005

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Adventures with Plant Sitters

Guest post by Ariane Khachatourians (a.k.a. midge)

Whether you are away for a quick weekend at your folks’ house, or decide to take a month-long vacation abroad, plant-sitting is one of the necessary evils of being a gardener. It is always nerve-wracking to leave your little green babies under the care of a friend or neighbour, and each time, all you can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Not only can plant-sitting be a big favour to ask, depending on the size and diversity of your plant family, but it can also be a big risk, putting years of tender loving care on the line for some time away. Unlike pets or children, unfortunately, it is simply not an option to bring your plants with you. Also, unlike pets and children, plants often are not able to send out a distress signal until it is much too late. Still, if you have plants, sooner or later, you will have no choice but to leave them in the hands of a hopefully capable caretaker. Here are a few things to consider when leaving your plants with a plant-sitter while you’re away:

Finding a qualified plant-sitter

When selecting a potential plant-sitter, it is important to ask yourself a few crucial questions, such as:

Is this person reliable? Are they perpetually late or extremely disorganized? If so, perhaps they are not the best choice. If they are generally organized and on top of things, that is a great start.

Is this person a gardener? Your potential plant-sitter does not need to be a master gardener to be able to keep your plants alive for a couple weeks, but to get an idea of their capabilities, look around their house. Do they have plants at all? Are their plants healthy or are they shriveled, dry, and infested with mites? Do they have an outdoor garden at their house? Is it healthy? Observing the condition of your potential plant-sitter’s own garden and houseplants will give you a good idea of whether they will be able to gauge the basics, such as how much and how often to water, and catch more advanced problems, such as stem rot or insect infestations.

Finally, and equally important, is this person trustworthy? It may not be a good idea to leave your home in the hands of that lady down the street who you don’t know that well, but has pretty flowers and seems nice. You are, after all, going to hand over the keys to your home, and therefore most of your earthly possessions to this person! Of course, with most people, there is nothing to worry about, but if you leave your home with someone you don’t know well and something goes wrong, you will really only have yourself to blame.

Give detailed instructions

Even a competent plant-sitter does not know what your plants are used to, and will need some guidance. Write down a list of the locations of all the plants that need tending, and how frequently they need to be watered. But don’t stop there…give an idea of how much to water each time since over-watering and under-watering can be equally damaging, especially over a longer period of time. Make sure to give details for any plants that are sensitive and require special treatment. If you want to be extra cautious, encourage your plant-sitter to contact you if anything goes wrong.

Upon return, assess the damage

No matter how good the good plant-sitter, some damage can be expected. While away for a week and a half, I left my plants in the hands of a friend who is a keen gardener with house plants and a vegetable garden of her own. I suggested she water them a couple times, once at the start of the week once at the end, and to give the outdoor ones a little extra if it got hot out. When I got back, the indoor plants had been extremely over-watered, which I could tell from the water-logged dirt and the water stain on my window sill where one had overflowed.

The outdoor plants, on the other hand had not been watered enough, and one in particular, the chocolate mint that was in a smaller pot, seemed to have been missed altogether, and was a dried-out shriveled mess. I watered it consistently for the next few days, and one stem survived, so I think it will pull through, but it took some fairly heavy damage. Note the before and after:

Finally, be gracious!

Despite a little damage here and there, I am ever grateful to those who have cared for my little green family while I’ve been away, as without a plant-sitter, they would have surely perished. Make sure you pass on the plant karma and return the favour if you are ever asked, and give a big thank you to your plant-sitter, even if the plants are a little worse for the wear. Particularly if your plant-sitter was on duty for more than a long weekend, a small gift—baked goods, a case of beer, or a souvenir from your trip—is always much appreciated and is a very nice gesture, especially if you ever want them to do you the favour again!

Midge is a prairie gal who moved out to west for university in 1998, and never left. She now avoids working on her thesis and nurtures her eccentricity through knitting, music, reading, painting, photography, cooking, trying to embrace exercise, and of course gardening. Check out her plant journal on this site.

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August 23, 2005

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Everything’s Gone Massive

The more I garden the more clearly I understand that gardening is a continuous learning process. The last few years have been excellent reminders of that. Last year’s weather was unseasonably grey, cool, and wet and I had to adjust and strategize to work within those limitations (and positives). This year has been incredibly hot, bright, and dry and so again I have had to make a complete 180 and adjust everything I did last year to cope. It’s been quite an education.

It’s fair to say that this year has been a lot of work. Maintenance on the rooftop has been the greatest challenge and has been where the bulk of my energy went. As a result something had to give and as usual it was the side garden. It’s currently incredibly overgrown and in desperate need of attention. I sorta-almost-kinda get why people with money hire in gardening help!

On the flip side my rooftop deck has been thriving as a result of the hot weather — it’s a jungle out there. The tomatillo plants are twice their usual size! I have to push leafy stalks to the side to gain access to plants on the fire escape. The tomatoes are producing in vast quantities. It’s almost time to do a rundown of this year’s harvest. I know it’s early but to be honest most of my rooftop plants are close to done for the season. If I get it together I can have most of my deck cleaned up well before it gets cold. That would definitely a first!

And now — because I am lazy and tired of writing — the pictures.

I’ll be roasting these babies (Black Plum) in the oven tonight for delicious roasted tomato sauce.

Most of this is from the rooftop container plants but some of this (namely the monster zucchini and yellow ‘Taxi’ tomatoes) is from my community plot. I don’t like to over-grow my veggies but recent rains freed me up from frequent trips to the community garden and that massive zucchini blew up in size in the meantime. There were lemon cucumbers but we ate them with last night’s dinner.

I get a few of these every year. I don’t think they liked the intense heat because they waited until the temperature cooled some to show themselves. They never do enough damage to bother.

mantis
I’ll let this guy take care of business.

The anise-hyssop loves the heat. Some days this plant is area is teaming with pollinators.

‘Purple Beauty Peppers: I’m so proud of this plant. It’s been producing well and is still making more. It’s a tasty variety. I will definitely grow this again.

Green Sausage Tomatoes: I’m not a fan of these and the plants have been incredibly prolific. I harvested a ton the other day and made up a batch of Green Tomato Chutney (the recipe is in the YGG book). It’s good on crackers with cheese.