gardenthoughts

i love making compost more than i love doing anything else in the garden .. well, maybe a little more .. in fact, i love doing whatever i do in the garden .. i do, however, recognize that all gardens begin with soil .. that soil is the foundation of any garden .. that soil is the building block of a garden ..  you get the idea .. and the magic revealed through the process of composting astounds me .. composting, to me, is magic in action .. compost piles, in and of themselves, can even be art ..

i had attempted, at different times in my younger gardening days, to ‘make’ compost .. for whatever reason, it didn’t work for me .. then, i started to work with/for phil .. well, phil was a gardener from lincolnshire, england .. had gardened from a very young age .. knew vegetable gardening, mostly .. (although he did create the beautyfull winter flowering shade garden) .. and he knew composting .. one of the first things he taught me .. much to my delight .. i mean, after all, we needed somewhere to put garden debris .. kitchen waste .. we even brought in straw from across the way .. “straw’s got carbon,” phil told me .. we layered the pile with all the ingredients at hand to let the magic happen .. we started off, initially, with a four by four by four pile .. just on the ground in the back yard .. it was as square as i could make it .. (i was so eager to please) .. it turned into a work of art for me .. sometimes we would just stand and look at it .. once we got it where we wanted it, the pile would sit .. and work .. and every once in awhile we would put our hands into the middle of it .. to feel the heat .. that in itself so amazing to me .. we did the compost piling for a couple of years .. when frank came into my life he built a three bin composter in phil’s back yard .. i felt as if i’d somehow graduated .. to the next level of composting ..

i’ve worked many compost piles since those days .. the picture above shows one bin of the three ‘binner’ frank put together at the community garden .. it’s made out of pallets .. simple to put together .. even i could do it .. (lol) .. we’re using the basic layering method .. my favourite method .. although you can’t see it, there are layers of garden debris .. with layers of maple leaves .. with layers of seaweed .. layers of some strawlike grass clippings .. layer upon layer .. no particular order .. just as the layers come .. people bring their kitchen waste .. dig it into the layers .. cover it over .. and eventually, the layers all blend in together .. working in the heat they create together .. coming out as beautiful earthen material for the garden .. i love composting .. and it’s free .. even better ..

oh, yes .. and it is a work of art .. a living work of art, if you will .. this particular one created by many hands ..

i realized this morning, while i was on a walkabout our garden, in the july 1st rain, that i hadn’t given the veggie garden much due yet .. as far as writing a bit about it .. it’s as lovely and different a garden this year .. as it was last year .. another wonder of gardens and gardening .. every year is different from any other .. that’s why i wonder .. sometimes .. about all the complaining i hear from time to time .. “nothing is as good this year in the garden as it was last” .. or .. “that plant is blooming so much later .. or earlier .. than last year” .. and on and on .. i wonder why we think that every year will be the same as the last .. i mean, really .. haven’t we lived enough years .. and gardened enough gardens .. to have noticed that none are the same .. hmmm .. more grist for the mill ..

anyway .. i was wandering through the garden in the rain .. just to see what’s happening there .. because there is always something happening .. in fact, i find that when i don’t visit the garden .. other than to water .. when i’m not peering on a daily basis .. or twice daily .. i’m always surprised at the growth that occurs .. when i’m not looking ..

for instance .. the tomatoes .. i have to admit now that when i entered into the garden this morning .. in the rain .. (i know .. i keep reiterating that element) .. that i was immediately called to the tomatoes .. to pinch off suckers .. to remove bottom leaves laying in the dirt .. to tie up the next tie on the vine .. that’s always a surprise .. i mean, i’m sure i just tied them up a couple of days ago .. now they’re tall enough to require another tie .. no wonder they were calling to me ..

this tie is not the most camouflaged of ties that i often use in the garden .. however .. it was a gift from an arborist/gardener friend .. he said you could just rip a piece off and use it .. it’s sort of like tape but not sticky .. so that’s what i did here .. ripped off pieces to tie up the tomatoes .. i couldn’t find the velcro .. which is my preference for tying .. and i’m out of string at the moment .. so .. you use what you have at hand .. and it works .. so really, what does it matter .. practicality wins over aesthetics ..

the suckers grow out of the crotch of the branches ..  every once in awhile .. while you’re peering deeper into the plant ..  there will be a sucker .. growing right where the branch hits the stalk .. as sweet and as succulent as it can be .. little beauties .. however, there is no place for suckers on our tomato plants .. it’s an energy thing .. when we plant a tomato we want tomatoes .. so the main stalk is like a vine .. and branches grow off the main stalk .. enough branches to supply the plant with whatever it requires to grow .. i trust .. suckers, on the other hand, take some of that energy to sustain themselves .. and they don’t really contribute much in return ..  as far as producing tomatoes goes .. so we pluck them out .. and, the energy that would have gone into the sucker is returned to the rest of the plant .. making fuller, sweeter tomatoes ..

the majority of  tomatoes we planted are two of our favourites .. early girl and money makers .. we also planted two san marzana/o (?) ..  plum tomatoes .. and frank picked up an organic russian heirloom named ‘sasha’s pride’ .. which is turning out to be a very sturdy thing .. and then i picked up a stupice at a local nursery .. i was told that this was a very popular tomato .. so we’re going to find out how popular it is for us ..

she or he .. the stupice .. is a very long and lanky tomato .. even the flowers come off a long and lanky stem .. and so beautyfull .. so yellow and fresh .. so full of the promise of tomato sandwiches ..

the broad beans were another plant that caught my attention .. they are also quite long and lanky plants .. i believe that’s an effect of not quite enough sunlight .. our veggie garden gets sun for about five hours .. not too bad .. we’re happy to have that, let me tell you .. being as we live in a forest .. however, the community garden which is out in the open gets sun all day long and man, the difference is mind boggling .. days of warmth and lovely rich soil are an unbeatable combination for vegetables ..

so .. again .. we work with what we’ve got .. and still the broad beans make beans .. and stunning flowers ..

i’m beginning to realize that i could go on here for what might seem like pages .. the newest addition to the veggie garden is our pea trellis .. which doubles as an arbour for the clematis that grows on the garden fence .. this clematis is actually in our neighbour’s yard .. and we have the benefit of it in our shared garden ..

the peas will grow merrily up the trellis frank put up .. mmm .. i love peas .. fresh picked .. raw .. again, i am so looking forward to peas ..

to make the trellis stronger frank ran cedar from the fence across to the top of the trellis .. this is where the clematis will climb ..

so .. even though it was raining it was obvious that the veggie garden was where i needed to be .. sometimes you don’t hear them calling .. until you are right inside the gate .. where time becomes irrelevent ..

i just came in from outside .. while i was out there .. wandering around, completely distracted with all that’s happening in the garden .. rain or shine .. i realized that i wanted to get a batch of bread on before i start playing outside .. it feels as if my days are so full, at the moment, that i need to remind myself there are other things to take care of in my world, aside from the gardens .. so, bread’s rising and i have some time to type thoughts ..

i’m in the midst of frustration .. i keep getting this message when i attempt to upload photos:  “unable to create directory /home/.odelia/myname/gardenthoughts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/06 .. is its parent directory writable by the server?” .. whatever that means .. right now it means i can’t upload photos .. hmmmm .. this part of the computer thing isn’t my favourite .. i just want it to work .. do what i know it can do .. do it .. not all this mumble jumble in a language foreign to me .. gets my mind in a whirl .. so, until i get this figured, no photos other than what i have in my ‘wordpress library’ .. hmm wondering if it might have to do with having too many photos in that library .. computers .. aaaarrrghhh! .. that said, i love having one .. sigh .. dichotomies ..

i had to leave home for about three weeks recently .. maybe a week or two before that, i’d planted up the square foot garden up  .. the day i was leaving i took some peering time .. didn’t see anything coming up yet .. the braod beans were just starting to make volcanoes in the soil .. the lettuce and green onions i’d planted looked as though they’d taken ahold .. that was about all .. not being one to take much for granted, i was hopefull that by the time i arrived home again the little garden would be chugging along .. well, wasn’t i in for a surprise ..

life had been particularly busy while i was away, and i hadn’t really had time to think about the garden .. except for one night when the deer entered my thoughts .. had i left the spray bottle full, i wondered .. i talked with frank the next day .. interestingly enough, he told me that he’d been thinking about spraying for deer the night before .. i figured about the time i was thinking ‘deer’ he was, too .. well, his thought didn’t make it to the deed .. and i was too far away .. sure enough, next morning he saw the evidence of their presence in the yard .. that is one of the cardinal rules of deer spraying .. ‘don’t rely on the calendar .. rely on your intuition’ .. ah, well .. not a big deal .. i thought the great part of the story was that we’d both thought deer at the same time ..

and .. as usual .. i digress .. back to the square footer .. after three weeks of not being able to peer at those sixteen little square feet, i had no idea what to expect .. i knew it would have grown .. somewhat .. and when i saw it i was delightedl .. something was happening in each of the little squares .. just like a mini garden .. the broad beans, in particular, were astonishing .. they’d only just begun coming through the earth before i left .. now they were over a foot tall .. next i saw the transplants of lettuce and green onions .. for whatever reason, they were smaller than others i’d spread about the yard .. in pots on the deck .. under the blueberries .. these lettuces had thrived .. lush and loose .. the ones in the square foot, though, were stalkier .. not quite as loose as one might imagine a “drunken woman” .. checking out the kale, it was obvious it had had to battle slugs .. and looks like it won .. ragged and torn, but still there .. the chard, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same fortitude of the kale .. there were a couple of little red stalks struggling .. and the beets and carrots suffered the same fate .. next to nothing showing there .. however, the other lettuce and radishes were growing beautifully together .. more rows of radishes in another square foot doing well .. the spinach getting off to a slow start .. my mouth waters thinking of making spinach pie .. mmmm .. so all in all, i was delightfully surprised at what this little garden was doing ..

i’ve since replanted the carrots and beets and chard .. i was inspired by karen .. she also has planted up a facsimilie of the square foot garden .. her carrots and beets are already three or four inches tall .. happy .. healthy .. robust .. absolutely beautyfull .. a bit of envy pops into my mind .. “look how well karen’s are doing .. what happened to mine .. whine, whine .. question .. question .. maybe i planted too early .. maybe there was too much rain .. maybe this .. maybe that” .. i don’t know how one ever knows for sure .. there’s always so many factors involved .. soil .. sun .. warmth .. moisture .. things seen .. things unseen .. vibes .. i stop myself before getting embroiled in fantastical imaginings which only carry me away from the present .. in my experience, things grow differently in every different garden .. on our little island alone, i’m sure there are as many eco systems as there are square feet of island .. well .. possibly .. maybe not that many .. at any rate, our garden will, naturally, be different than karen’s .. and while i stand admiring her bounty, i can see a similar picture of our  little square foot garden .. well, once i replant .. one of the wonderfull things about this square foot garden is the patterns that appear .. i missed the initial coming up patterns .. now there are growing patterns developing .. and once all the square start growing .. wow ..  it could be like a patchwork quilt .. one could almost plan their square feet on specific patterns .. well, if one wanted to get really anal about it ..

and i’m thankfull .. the square foot garden is growing .. beautifully .. it will do what it will do .. be what it will be .. and i get to be here to watch .. and peer to my heart’s delight ..

Update: Problem solved. Web host changed servers for me.

well, after a couple of years of using wordpress, yesterday i was babbling away on a post .. finished it .. figured out which photos i wanted to add .. followed the usual procedure to upload .. got this message instead of my photos .. what makes a computer change its mind after two or three years of doing it the same way .. ? .. :

whatever that means .. right now it means i can’t upload photos .. hmmmm .. i did check and see that this directory actually does exist .. why does it say it doesn’t .. this part of the computer thing isn’t my favourite .. i just want it to work .. do what i know it can do .. do it .. not all this mumble jumble in a language foreign to me .. gets my mind in a whirl ..

i don’t know if anyone out there in garden blog cyberspace can help me out of this .. i did go to the wordpress help, but honestly, even those who want to help are eons ahead of my understanding of computers and speak in a lingo that is, to me, the foreign language stumbling block ..

so .. i thought i’d just put it out there and see what might come back ..

thank you

this year, we are growing onions .. lots of onions .. frank came home from a local nursery a few weeks ago with four different types .. walla walla seedlings ..  plus onions sets .. 100 onions in each bag .. yellow storage onions .. white sweet onions .. stutgart (sp?) onions .. plus i’d already started bunching green onions .. and i’d bought shallots .. we love onions .. you can never have enough, we say ..

we used the long raised bed with the rhurbarb planted at the one end .. frank covered the bed with manure .. let it sit, and then dug it under .. then, he covered the bed with our compost from the bin .. let it sit .. then dug it in .. with the bed prepared this way, we planted .. almost all of the sets .. the leftovers we had we passed on to a friend .. we planted in rows one inch deep, one inch apart .. ten inches between rows .. two rows of each variety .. the thinnings we’ll use for green onions as they grow .. pulling the ‘in between’ ones as we need them .. ideally, there will eventually be four inches between onions .. this gives the remaining onions plenty of room to grow .. the walla wallas seedlings we planted three to four inches apart right from the get go .. there are quite a few rows of them ..

the shallots have one row of their own .. they are planted four inches apart across the row .. in one corner of the bed i planted a group of the green onions i’d started from seed .. it’s a beautiful sight .. all those different kinds of onions filling up the bed .. they started coming up within a week .. tiny green spears rising up out  of the ground .. now, almost three weeks later, the onions are doing a wonderfull job of growing ..

as you can see above, the shallots, in the middle photo, grow differently than onions .. even though they are, essentially, both of the onion family .. at least, i think they are .. (i’ll check if shallots are also an allium, and report back) .. with ‘regular’ types of onions there is one strong stalk that appears .. and grows .. with shallots the spears come in a bunch .. the shallots beneath cling together .. like a garlic bulb which divides into cloves .. green onions also grow in bunches .. at least in this garden this year .. i purposely put them in clumps .. then, as i want one .. or two or more .. i’ll pick them from the clump .. they are, though, each individuals within the clump ..

these hundreds of onions are all planted in the long raised bed that also houses the rhubarb at one end .. the rhubarb grows so fast .. their leaves are so big they hang over the walla wallas .. shading the first row .. so we took the offending stalks off the rhubarb plants .. took them into the house .. and stewed them up .. lovely .. i believe the walla wallas appreciated the gesture .. i know we did .. especially in a dish of yoghurt .. however, even with this gesture the walla wallas are not the strongest onions in the bed .. in fact, frank planted red onions in all the spaces where the walla wallas didn’t take .. this is the second year we’ve tried the walla walla seedlings .. i’m inclined to try again in the fall with seed i plant .. we’ll see if that makes any difference .. for now, we’ll get a few .. they are a deliciously sweet onion ..

in the meantime, though, we have the potential for many, many onions .. soups .. sauces .. salads .. side dishes .. it’s all just a matter of time .. and i can wait .. dreaming dreams of onions ..after all, it wasn’t so long ago that the onion bed was only a thought .. now look at it .. magic .. yet again ..

last sunday i decided to plant a square foot garden .. i’ve read a bit about growing such a garden .. and i’ve seen square foot gardening in action .. however, i’m a person who needs to do in order to really see how something works .. and i believe that different ways of gardening work differently for different gardeners .. so .. i went out and chose one of the four by four beds that are in the back veggie garden .. brought a tape measure and some foot long stakes .. oh, and a leftover ball of quite a pretty mauve wool to mark out my square feet ..

it was great fun .. a bit of mathematics .. some ‘construction’ materials .. stakes and mauve wool .. tying all the strings good and tight to define the square feet .. when i stand back and check it out, i find it to be quite a lovely site .. like a mini garden .. sixteen squares to fill with a variety of vegetables .. i ran into the house a couple of times to check out ‘square foot gardening’ on the web .. i know there is specific spacing required depending on the type of vegetables i want to plant .. then i sat on the edge of the onion bed .. considering this new space set out in front of me .. thinking about what to plant in which square foot .. but, wait a minute .. what about companion planting .. back i ran to the house to search the web again .. of course, there are hundreds of thousands to millions of sites .. so many people extolling the virtues of this trend in gardening .. which, actually has been going on for quite a few years .. it’s interesting to me to see what becomes popular as years move along .. oh,  here i am, digressing again .. i went back to the garden with all my new found information .. and sat on the edge of the onion bed .. contemplating vegetables .. one thing just leads to another ..

sometimes you don’t want to contemplate too many things .. it’s easy to get bogged down in the details .. knowing my own ability to bog, i got myself up and began planting seeds .. broad beans in two of the four squares closest to the onion bed .. when it warms up a bit more, i’ll put lima beans and purple beans in the remaining two square feet .. my information suggested that i plant 9 bean seeds in a square foot .. (i can’t imagine how this is all going to evolve .. i have visions of he square foot garden bed overflowing its bounds and taking over the rest of the garden) .. however, my curiosity drives me onward .. in front of the beans, i plant four squares of chard and kale .. alternating .. so creative ..  in front of that row, for a bit of variety, i decide to plant four different squares .. from the left .. carrots .. then beets .. then, i had plants that i’d grown from seed .. two of the drunken woman lettuce, and two bunches of green onions went in next .. four plants per square foot was suggested .. the last in that row i plant with more beets .. okay .. twelve done .. four more to go .. so, in go two more lettuce and two more green onions .. next to them, a square foot of spinach .. next, a square foot of carrots .. and the last of the sixteen i plant up with a different kind of lettuce that i’ll use as a cutting lettuce .. then, just because i could, i planted a few radishes between the rows of lettuce .. and a few more between the carrot rows ..

now i’m excited .. the cutting lettuce has come up .. as have the rows of radishes .. and, you can rest assured that i am out there .. at least once a day .. probably more .. peering into each of the sixteen little square feet to see what’s coming up .. it really is the little things ..

we have a new garden bed .. stone .. stacked one upon another .. curving .. with a turret .. where a five foot fir stump stood .. growing ivy .. blackberry .. salal .. all winding in and round .. the stump shape outlined with greenery .. stump and all her finery removed, there now resides a lovely stone bed ..

we both knew this garden bed would materialize one day .. we knew the right time would arrive .. meanwhile,  i’d been growing lilies in the ground around the front of the stump .. in the picture above, you can see the stump on the left .. and, to the right, a tiger lily from a neighbour’s annual spring plant sale .. there are others, too, which aren’t visible in the picture .. stargazer lilies that i received free from a local nursery promotion .. lilies from friends’ gardens .. lilies rescued from compost piles .. somewhere along the line, i acquired a fondness for lilies .. now i have a bed where they can live .. a lily bed ..

once we realized the time had come to build the bed, my part initially, was to dig the lilies out of the ground .. the largest ones i put in big pots .. there were also a myriad of seedlings which i planted in several gallon pots .. those i spread around the island to friends’ gardens .. my mission completed, i stood back and watched the bed rise up out of the rubble .. literally ..

it was frank’s turn .. he’d begun bringing in the stone last autumn .. over time, he gathered enough .. chunky bits of stone .. flat pieces .. all scattered in a ring .. outlining the space that was the potential bed .. then, he needed fill .. and, true to form, pretty soon the source of fill revealed itself .. frank wheeled .. and dumped ..  many wheelbarrows of fill .. and spent hours stacking stone .. then one day ..  voila! .. the bed was finished ..

once he got going, it was only a matter of time .. and manual labour .. and a bit of magic .. at least, that’s what i believe .. ..

next is to plant it .. lilies .. a rhododendron .. ferns .. hostas .. the ideas are endless .. the japanese maple in the turret won’t be the lone plant for long ..

in the meantime, i love to see it there .. just as it is ..

as well as being graced, on this island, with patches of white fawn lilies .. i, personally, am graced with this sweet pink one .. this little beauty is the first to bloom in our yard .. it, along with four others which won’t bloom this year, came from a nearby botanical garden ..

you can see the dance .. can’t you ..

it’s the little things ..

well, today is the day i have marked on my garden calendar to check the stratifying seeds .. i haven’t even looked at them since i put them in the door of the refrigerator .. there are four plastic bags of different milkweed seeds .. each kind of milkweed seeds are wrapped in moist paper towel .. the idea behind all this is that some seeds need a shot of cold to get them going .. in this case it’s milkweed seeds for stu’s butterfly garden .. milkweed flowers are one of the monarch butterflies favourite food .. we don’t know if monarchs even come to our part of the world .. we’re just here to invite them ..

well, when i opened up the four packets i found mould on some of the seeds in each one .. none of the seeds in any bag had germinated .. many were a bit puffy and looking like i could plant them soon .. that was a promising sight .. the mouldy seeds i put those in the compost .. when i get my barrow full of amended soil i’ll plant the puffy milkweed seeds and see what happens .. and, if even one or two actually develop into plants, won’t stu’s butterfly garden be happy .. filled with the presence of new milkweed flowers .. it just might be enough to entice the monarchs to drop by .. such a delightfull proposition ..

this time of year is so exciting to me .. spring is in the air .. plants are pushing growth in leaps and bounds .. or so it seems .. and certainly, our garlic is one of these vigorous crops .. we planted about 170 cloves at the beginning of november .. then, covered the beds in straw and let them sit .. and grow .. it doesn’t take garlic a very long time, relatively speaking, to let you know it’s there .. growing .. no sign of ‘dormancy’ with garlic .. these wonderful beings just go from the time they hit the earth ..

the shoots started poking  up through the straw before we knew it .. well, with a fair bit of peering going on .. peering is a bit like watching water boil sometimes .. it seems to take forever .. but we have to keep checking .. and once the cloves were planted, they were like a magnet .. pulling us to the garden ..  one, or both of us would gently push the straw aside to see what we could see .. soon, our peering was rewarded with green-ness .. the cool, wet weather of winters here don’t hinder these guys from giving their all .. and once they push up out of the ground and into the light .. there’s no stopping them ..

then the performance begins .. the garlic just grows .. and grows .. and grows .. throughout the winter months .. into spring .. coming up strong and straight .. robust and green .. each one laid out into the lovely grid pattern that defines their space .. and now that spring has arrived the garlic grows inches every day .. lovely, tall, vibrant green spears of leaves .. so large now, that we can stand at the other end of the garden and see them .. clearly .. such great reward for so little work .. more like play, really ..

and, just a pause for the three cloves that didn’t make it .. three out of 170 .. what good fortune .. for just playing around with garlic ..