Category: Vegetables

Categories
Vegetables Winter

First official sowing of 2013

Timing

Although I have been working in the garden for several weeks now and throwing seeds into the soil randomly to see what would grow, my first official seed sowing was this weekend on February 16, 2013. This is about 4.5 weeks earlier than last year, and the purpose is just to experiment with the micro-climate on my patio.

Soil

Over the winter I have been watching some interesting YouTube gardening videos and have picked up some tips especially for container gardening. This year I am focusing on building my soil and amending the existing Sea Soil in my containers with the following:

  • Fresh Sea Soil compost (to add organic matter and maintain soil structure)
  • Vermiculite (a natural lightweight mineral substance to maintain moisture)
  • Worm castings (for nutrients and hopefully beneficial microbes)
  • Rock dust (to add/replace trace minerals beyond the usual N-P-K in fertilizers)
  • Dolomite lime (a few tablespoons, much of the soil has been in the containers for years and has never been limed, so is likely quite acidic)
  • Dry ‘organic’ fertilizer (a few tablespoons, just because I have it and to replace some N-P-K)
  • Crushed egg shells (run through the Magic Bullet, in theory it should add calcium to the soil, but I’m not sure it it is in a form that is available to the plants – the granular texture will also help with drainage)

Seeds

I sowed two containers of Oregon Sugar Pod, with both seeds that I had from last year and new seeds I purchased.  As I did last year, I planted in a hanging basket and a 12″ pot, and used innoculant to promote the nitrogen fixing ability of these legumes. I decided not to use the Little Marvel seeds… at least not yet, as I had to re-sow a couple of times last year, so obviously they do not hold up to the cold, damp winter weather as well as Oregon Sugar Pod. I also moved the 12″ pot closer to the house so it is warmer and slightly covered — because perhaps the location of the container last year slowed germination.

 

I also sowed some spinach, as it is a cool weather crop which tends to bolt when the days get too long and hot warm. I have sowed a 12″ pot (that used to contain my poor old woody lavender) with Tyee, which is supposed to be a good year-round variety for us on the west coast. It apparently germinates in temperatures as low as 5°C, so I thought I’d give it a try in mid-February.

I also planted some Toy Choy, or baby bok choy. They grew quite well last year but we only got one real harvest from them as my second sowing bolted really quickly. So I thought starting a month sooner may help us get another harvest in. You may have to zoom in to see the seeds, but I sowed 3 rows in my long container. I also plopped in some scallion starts in the middle… which I’m unsure if they will make it this early in the year!

 

Aside from that, I am still slowly harvesting rainbow lacinato kale, gai lan, and beet tops every now and then, though next winter I will grow more so that I actually have more than a couple of leaves to eat at a time!

   

Categories
Vegetables Winter

Visit to a community garden

On Friday we visited the local community garden where we hope to secure a plot this spring. We wanted to check out the plot sizes and general condition of the gardens, and found some inspiration too!

Amazing hoop house

This hoop house covered the entire plot, which we eyeball at 8′ x 16′. They used PVC pipe ribs which were pushed down into the ground against the wood border, and supported by 2’x4’s in the middle and along the top.

They used plastic film, though in talking with a neighbouring gardener, it seems the plastic gets too warm and damp inside. I will likely use heavy row cover in the winter and then switch to light-weight row cover in the summer to maintain air circulation.

However, check out this amazing bounty (see pic below) these gardeners are growing in mid-Februrary.

Hoop house bounty

Another garden plot is growing some kind of kale… perhaps Red Russian? I don’t think it’s a tree collard or tree kale, but I guess our winters are so mild that it’s turned into a tree. The ‘trunk’ was almost 2″ thick!

Kale tree

Categories
Spring Vegetables Winter

Random seed sowing

Well, my green thumb is itching to get planting, so I randomly planted one of my long containers today with Swiss Chard, beets, and spinach in hopes of starting a cool-weather-tolerant container of leafy greens that will be ready in the next couple of months. We’ll see how this goes!

UPDATE: I also just checked the Environment Canada long range probability forecasts and it looks like we are likely to have a 70%-80% chance of below normal temperatures this spring. Looks like it will be cool weather veggies for a while.

Categories
Vegetables Winter

Theft in the patio garden!

Although they got a late start, the Rainbow Lacinato kale was coming along nicely. I even got one handful of a harvest on January 2nd. It had been growing well under a lightweight row cover cloth, but seeing as how we were forecast to have a week+ of sunshine I thought I’d take the row cover off to allow as much sunlight as possible.

January 2, 2013January 2, 2013

I also decided to pull out the fish fertilizer to try to bump up the nutrients as much as possible… and then it happened!

January 17, 2013

On Thursday morning I woke up to find that the kale plant closest to my patio edge was stripped down to the stalk.

 

 

 

January 18, 2013

On Friday morning I woke up to find that the thief had been back overnight, but at least this time had mercy and left a leaf and the growing tip.

 

 

The consensus on Facebook is that this is some type of rodent (rabbit, raccoon) coming by to eat the yummy leaves during this cold snap we are having. I have a feeling the fish fertilizer was the attractant.

Since the second plant may have a fighting chance, I have placed a toilet paper tube around the base and replaced the row cover. Hopefully this will be enough to keep the thief away. If not, I will use the GoPro and conduct some surveillance!

On another note the beets are still surviving, but I have my doubts that they are actually making any edible roots. It makes me wonder if these are the Kestrel variety I thought I got or if they are actually Bull’s Blood, which are grown for salad greens and don’t really make bulbs.

Categories
Autumn Vegetables

Fall/winter vegetables coming along

I may have mentioned that I am trying winter gardening this year.

I have already harvested my radishes, which matured very quickly with our warm September. These were planted on September 10th and harvested the second weekend of October. We had an unseasonably warm and dry September this year, though I’m not complaining!

These Kestrel beets were also planted on September 10th and have been growing under a light weight row cover cloth to keep out pests. This progress picture was taken on November 2nd, and while I have added a layer of SeaSoil as mulch and moved the pot close to the building to keep them as warm as possible, it may still be a month before they are ready.  These beets are growing in 18″ of soil.

This is my first time growing kale. This is a Rainbow Lacinato kale, which is a cross between Redbor and Lacinato. This was also planted on September 10th and update photo taken on November 2nd, but I am a little disappointed in its growth. I know that through the fall growth will slow, but I will admit that since kale is a cold weather veggie I expected it to be huge by now! There is definitely new growth, and perhaps because this plant is growing where the Swiss chard lived in the summer time the soil may be a bit depleted. I can’t remember if I had added a bit of fertilizer prior to seeding, but regardless it may be too cold for the the fertilizer to break down and make the nutrients available. I just did a feeding of (stinky) liquid fish emulsion fertilizer. I have also topped it up with some new SeaSoil and dug in some glacial rock dust to amend the soil, so hopefully this all helps. My other Rainbow Lacinato which is growing in the pot that held the peas this summer seems to be doing a touch better. I’m guessing it is because the peas helped to fix nitrogen in the soil, especially since I used the inoculant.

This is also my first attempt at gai lan, an Asian vegetable that is like sprouting broccoli or rapini. I didn’t really know how big these plants get (this is why it wound up in the hanging basket) so I’m not sure how well it will do. I don’t expect to harvest anything until closer to February, but it seems to be doing well. Again, it could be due to the fact that it is in another planter which held peas and therefore there is good nitrogen content in the soil. Next year I may have to plant more of these if we actually want a meal of gai lan.

One vegetable that did not do well when I started it from seed in September was my new batch of Swiss chard. The plants I had throughout the summer had started to bolt, so I popped some seeds into one of my 6″ deep planters, but alas they are still a whole one centimeter tall.

You will also see that there are a few scallions popping up in some of the photos. I put out the roots from scallions we bought from the grocery store just to see if they would sprout again. Lo and behold even in the cold snap we had during October they sprouted up like it was nothing! I have started some more seeds indoors, and actually I even started some outdoors just to see what happens. The worst that can happen is, well, nothing! I’ll update in the future on how these little seeds do: Tyee spinach, Rouge d’Hiver lettuce, and Little Gem lettuce. The seeds I’ve got started indoors include Rouge d’Hiver, Little Gem, and Cimmaron lettuce, as well as Apache scallions.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Patiently waiting for spring

I have my meagre winter containers planted and still have no word as to whether we have been assigned a community garden plot, so in all my spare time I’ve planned out the patio garden for next year. It’s not the snazziest picture, but it makes sense to me!

The garlic and kale were planted this fall. The kale will be ready in the new year and the garlic next July. The radishes, spinach, and chard will be grown in the long planters that sit on the concrete surround. The pot with the carrots currently holds beets (which I am hoping to harvest near Christmas time. I will have to transfer the soil into some of the long pots, as according to rotation gardening I shouldn’t plant root veggies in the same place consecutively. The hanging basket which will hold peas again in 2013 currently holds my gai lan plant, which I’m beginning to doubt if the container is large enough, but we’ll see! I’m also planning on interspersing scallions amongst some of the planters in order to deter pests. We’ll also see how that works.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Sugar and Shelling Peas

This year I planted two varieties of peas: Little Marvel, a bush variety; and Oregon Sugar Pod, a trailing variety. I have never tried growing peas in containers before, so here is my progress thus far.

Oregon Sugar Pod

Oregon Sugar Pod flower - June 12This is a trailing variety that grows to about 3 feet. I decided to try this in a hanging basket to make use of the vertical space on my small patio. It has started to blossom, so hopefully I’ll be picking and eating sugar peas soon! Some of the leaves are yellowing & I’m not sure if it requires a feeding or if it was getting too much rain last week. I’ll try a feeding when I water them tomorrow and see what happens. It has been slower than the suggested 75 days to harvest.

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 27
May 27 (day 63)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Oregon Sugar Pod - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

     

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - April 15
Apr 15 (day 21)

 

 

 

 

Oregon Sugar Pod - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel

Little Marvel - first flowerThis is a bush variety of shelling pea that is meant to grow in a nice, compact manner in a container. I’ve provided a tomato cage for additional support as some of the branches are floppy. After a slower start and having to re-seed sections of the pot several times, these peas seem to be doing well in the container. It has also been slower than the suggested 76 days to harvest, but that is likely due to the need to re-seed.

Little Marvel - June 12
Jun 12 (day 79)
Little Marvel - May 18
May 18 (day 54)
Little Marvel - May 13
May 13 (day 49)
Little Marvel - May 5
May 5 (day 41)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 27
Apr 27 (day 33)
Little Marvel - April 18
Apr 18 (day 24)

 

 

 

 

Little Marvel - April 12
Apr 12 (day 18)
Little Marvel - March 25
Mar 25 (day 1)

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Radishes – A review

I did a companion planting experiment where I planted quick-growing radishes with slower-growing beets. The  idea is that the radishes will be ready to harvest about a month before the beets, therefore loosening the soil for the beets when the radishes are harvested.

While the radishes have been successful, I don’t know if it’s the best idea to broadcast sow the two seed varieties as I did. When I was pulling the radishes, some of the beet seedlings were coming out with them because the roots were tangled together. I have tried again with baby carrots (similar to these) and radishes in another container, and this time I planted them in more orderly rows, about one seed per inch.

The radish variety I planted this year is Amethyst, which should mature in 25-30 days. This variety is meant to be slow to go woody, which seems to be true in my case. At 45+ days, the larger ones are just starting to get a bit fibrous.

June 3, 2012
(49 days since planting)

4th Harvest – 23 radishes in this harvest. After this, we still have one more harvest to go. In total, I think we will have harvested 50-60 radishes grown in one 24″ x 6″ x 8″ planter.

 


May 27, 2012
(42 days since planting)

3rd Harvest – Approximately 10 radishes in this and past harvests. Many of them are larger than a twoonie.

 

May 18, 2012
(33 days since planting)

 

 

 

 

May 5, 2012
(20 days since planting)

 

 

 

 

April 27, 2012
(12 days since planting)

Heart-shaped leaves.

 

 

 

April 15, 2012
(Seeds planted)

24″ l x 6″ w x 8″ h planter

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Time for something new!

The weather has warmed up significantly and we’ve had a good stretch of sunshine. I was able to harvest my Toy Choy twice before it bolted. Now I have to think of what to plant in this pot, since I think it may be too warm for bok choy.

I could plant more radishes, since the ones I planted with the beets are growing incredibly fast! We already harvested 2 (but I didn’t take a photo of those). The lot of them will be ready to be picked pretty soon!

Many of the other leafy greens like spinach and lettuce tend to bolt easily, but I may try one of the slow-bolting lettuces, such as: Red Deer Tongue, Merlot Organic, or Lovelock.

Categories
Spring Vegetables

Patio overview

I should have posted overview pictures of my patio at an earlier date to show the space that I have to work with. My patio is roughly 8′ x 12′ in the inner courtyard of our ‘U’-shaped building on the main floor of the east arm of the ‘U’ (the top of the ‘U’ faces north). I only get about 6 hours of direct sun at the height of summer on the outer half of my patio.

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago on April 20th (facing west). The first photo is taken from inside my bedroom looking out toward the patio.

Three weeks later on May 13th, pots have moved a bit and things are a lot more green!

Moving from left to right on the patio (and in the photos): 1. Toy choy is in the long grey-brown container on the ledge; 2. hanging in the top left is the trailing Oregon Sugar Pod peas; 3. butterfly bush is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the left; 4. columbine are the pink flowers; 5. crocosmia are the tall spiky leave in the dark brown ceramic pot; 6. Swiss chard are in the smaller clay-coloured pot; 7. the larger clay coloured pot (with white rocks sitting on top of soil) is the future home of butternut squash; 8. the smaller clay-coloured pot sitting on a pedestal is the Little Marvel bush peas; 9. lavender is in the white ceramic pot on the ledge on the right; 10. rosemary, thyme and oregano are in the dark brown ceramic pot; 11. above the herbs in the long container sitting on the ledge are beets and radishes; 12. the grey-brown long container sitting next to it holds chives and mint; 13. the black pot at the very right of the ledge holds Skimmia; 14. on the patio table are mescluns and squash seedlings that will go to my dad’s garden.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet