Blog Maintenance

Well, I have not being as active on my blog as I should and was doing a little reading and clean-up when I took a look at the stats. 13,173 hits!

Wow, I have no adds, only a couple other gardeners blogs that linked to me and no really never intended this to be a popular site. This was more for my own record and to share with a few remote friends and family the nutty endeavours of a amateur gardener here in Toronto Canada. Surprised given how few comments or questions I have had.

That said, I am humbled and perhaps should run the spell checker again if I could work out how to get it to check Canadian English. 

Greenhouse update

Wow, am I impressed with my little Ghetto greenhouse. Its early March and 2 degrees Celsius outdoors as our high today. The greenhouse automatic window is slightly open and its 26 degrees Celsius in side. I planted some kale, lettuce, mustard, peas and green onions in there and have even left one of my early mini tomato plants out there since I am short of space in my seeding area inside.  At -6c low last night, it recorded a low of only 2c and the plants are established and although small seem to be growing well.

More impressive is my test kale planting has actually sprouted and showing signs of growth.  Thats before I would usually plant kale indoors! This is a full month earlier than I hoped or expected. That said, this week coming has high of 4c degrees and a low of -9, a bit colder than the past week and we will see how well it does when the average temp is below 0 outside.

I spent some time this morning researching bluetooth temperature sensors to see if I could put one in the greenhouse and alert me if it gets close to freezing. This would give me confidence to move some frost sensitive plants out there. Then I realized I dont even own a heater to switch on if it did drop below zero... so perhaps I need to think this though a bit more.

With luck though, I should have a salad by the end of March a full month or more earlier than usual.

Seed Hunting

Its about mid December when the itch starts. Relentless research and googleing for seeds. What will 2018 harvest be? Soo many things I want to try, soo little space.

Every year I try have a theme. Tis year was tough. First, while down in Mexico, I came across a wall of seeds - lets just say I don't speak Spanish, so I landed up with a lot of seeds I needed to Google to find out later what they were. Peppers and herbs features well though.

Not only did my trip south gets me seeds, but then Tortillas were amazing. Now I grew up in a maize staple eating country, but watching the street vendors make fresh tortillas for my morning quesadilla, was enlightening. I could grow dent corn, I would love learning the process as ancient as it is. How much corn would the ancients grow? Hows that work in a square foot garden :-)

In the end I read a wonderful article on Kenyan farmers had more than doubled their harvest using pole beans. I had grew scarlet runner beans last year, plus my usual purple French bean and another I cant even remember its name. I liked the French purple as green beans - yes the purple as green, but I had never really had favorites.


So while I may grow some Mexican peppers and herbs and even some corn, this year I think I going to grow more beans. So I have

• White runner
• Cherokee trail of tears
• Flagg
• Kentucky wonder
• Kahnawake Mohawk
• True Cranberry
• Rattlesnake
• Blue Lake
• Super Maconi
• And something simply called Fava - oops not a pole bean

Together with last years, I think I have a lot of beans this year. Anything I missed? Whats your favourite bean to grow and eat. The plan is to try plant them similarly and compare their harvest. 

Ghetto Greenhouse

I have for some time wanted a greenhouse. Although I tried a few small glass or plastic cold frames, I wanted a doubled walled walk in to putter in. I also had a fig and a few plants that could overwinter in it. I had an old lean to shed on the side of the house, I was removing, when It struck me, although its on the west side of the house, it may work.

15 Minutes on Kijiji and I found some 6mm double walled polycarbonate panels and a hour later had them home. As it turned out, using the old shed frame and a bunch of panels was not as quick a job as I originally thought. The biggest challenge was sliding the panels into the plastic joiners, at perfect size to seal gaps on hand cut sheets. Lets not talk door or the roof vent! A small order online from china and I got a automatic vent opener, In the end 10' x 4' "shed" was a greenhouse...almost.

Once built, I added some built in raised beds and wire shelf and planted some kale, walking onions and a basil plant for fun. (too see when it died which turned out to be 4 weeks after the outside one). Finally a visit to Ikea for a couple HYLLIS shelving units up against the wall that can be removed in summer. ps HYLLIS shelves fit a 20x10 standard tray perfectly so that is 8 trays, plus 10' shelf and beds! Crammed - yes, but this could give me 2-4 weeks earlier start and 2-4 weeks longer season at the end.

OK that was a could, I am still not sure I have enough light. What is clear is that sharing the house wall offers thermal mass and keeps it warm roughly 4-5 degrees Celsius most of winter so far. What is more of a question though is do I have the knowledge to use it right, or will I kill my spring seedlings??? When exactly do I start planting now, if I have the ability to move some stuff out. Talk about a game changer! This was not what I expected when I first embarked on this quest. And so I find I have peppers planted with more than 12 weeks till last frost!

Green!

This cool wet summer has really made everything green (except perhaps tomatoes), and the leafy greens are loving it. But the amount and size of fruit is drastically lacking. 

Peppers

Fence Panels

One of my favourite things in the garden is fence panels. They galvanized and don't rust and strong enough to hold squash and pumpkins on them.I bought them at TSC stores on sale for about $35. The biggest challenge was getting 16' panels home!

I decided to go with gothic shaped arches, so I measured half way and put a bend in them.  To pin them to the ground, I used 3' re-bar... perhaps overkill.

I pinned the edges about 3-4 feet apart The result is I can walk under them comfortably, while picking whatever I am growing on them. Gravity tends to make the produce hang downwards, making beans and tomatoes a cinch to pick. This one got butternut and gem squash growing on it.

Toadaly Stoked

Well as I mentioned before, I am more included to follow permiculture styled gardening than any other. In fact I found myself thinking I follow a 18th century diet - eating only fruit or veggies in season. yes, I have got a bit of square foot gardening mixed in with french intensive. But I try not spray anything, including organic sprays and am trying to create a natural balance. Although I already added water and the ducks as the predators, and the garden is now full of birds and recently a chipmunk has moved in (and enjoyed my currants and other berries).

But I wanted to introduce more wild life and no toads or frogs seemed to have being attracted as of yet. So when a friend, Anne, at work caught a few toads and brought them into the office, I was ecstatic. Keeping them alive from the ducks may be tough, but with lots of hiding places, they should be fine.

If only I could keep the ducks from dragging the mulch into the pond and the stop the raccoons from pulling out the pump?

Now anyone know were I can find a garter snake?

July Update

Toronto first half of summer has being far cooler than usual and with far higher rainfall.  The garden has responded with masses of lush green, yet lower than normal fruit for heat loving plants.

View from the deck

Zucchini

Garlic harvest

Its around this time of the year that I get tiered of summer squash, but this year I have have massive bushes and yet very limited zucchini's. The potatoes plants are looking good, in the new boxes, but I have yet to dig in them to see how the potatoes are developing. The masses of zucchini plants have nearly killed my artichokes by crowding.

Garlic harvest was a few weeks earlier this year and it seems to have really loved the cooler wetter weather. Yes people, I dont plait it, but tie it in bunches of 5's to cure. 

Main Raised beds

In the garlic's place, I planted a bunch of mustard as it is within the ducks territory and they not fans of the spicier mustard. Most of my lettuce started turning to seed and some new plants are just emerging. I want to collect some seeds from the lettuce, and am going to leave it fully turn to seed. The new broccolini is far larger than I anticipated and I have some major crowding out going on. In particular my purple peacock broccoli which is much much smaller. 

Kale

Kale

My kale is also liking the cooler wetter weather. Dino kale less so.

Morogo

Morogo is a South African  leafy green of the amaranthus family.  That I found some seeds for. I had eaten it there before and wanted to try grow some. Its currently about my height!

Now for a few things that are not doing as well. Tomatoes are very late this year. I also have some vines that are very stunted and only a few hitting the 6 foot range so far.

Pepperless peppers

Pepper plants look happy, but the fruit as well has being slow to ripen. This year I am trying some new peppers and although the Jamaican chocolate seeds, dont seem to be growing true to type at all (pretty sure something wrong with these seeds) my Padron peppers have being wonderful. I leaving a few to mature for additional seeds for next season. By Now I should be enjoying some grilled eggplant, but the plants are surprisingly absent of fruit.

Egg Plant

ButterNut

Lastly my winter squash is soo slow and the fruit just starting on a few of the vines.