Pictured at right is a triple row of beets, two rows of ‘Cylindra’ and one row of ‘Early Wonder’. June plantings of beets are always very satisfying, as they tend to grow very quickly and healthily in the long days of summer. The beets in the photo were sown the first week of June. I [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 31, 2011 – 10:12 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
We planted many peas this spring, and are now reaping the rewards. They currently make up a surprisingly large part of my diet, for which I am completely thankful. We have started shelling, blanching, and freezing them. It takes Jessica and I roughly two hours to shell a five gallon bucket of them. “Can’t you [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Peas
- Published:
- July 29, 2011 – 9:15 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Kimchi is magic. Salt and microbes transform napa cabbage and her closest friends (chili, garlic, ginger, onions) into the most delightful food imaginable.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: kitchen
- Published:
- July 27, 2011 – 9:14 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Glorious red Crocosmia have appeared in the grassland, reminders that we aren’t the first people to have gardens here, and won’t be the last.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 26, 2011 – 10:21 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
I broadcast lots of borage seed into some of the beds this spring, and it has really made it’s presence known. Pictured at right is a block of kale with borage sprawling all over everything. When it starts to flop over and look less delightful I will cut the plants down at the base use [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 25, 2011 – 9:54 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
I suppose this was to be expected. Everything is terrible sometimes.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Evil, Plants
- Published:
- July 24, 2011 – 10:23 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
In early May, I interplanted bush peas with phacelia and millet. The peas promptly swallowed both the phacelia and the millet, and for a number of weeks I was certain both were lost. Fortunately, the phacelia persevered, and is now in full bloom throughout the pea bed. The millet wasn’t so lucky, and, while it [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 22, 2011 – 10:43 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Pictured at right is Jessica’s patch of sweet peas, in full bloom. We both fretted over the plants in March and April, as the resident slugs repeatedly mowed them down. In May our concerns vanished, and in June they started blooming. They have already been cut a number of times for use in bouquets, and [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants, Wildlife
- Published:
- July 21, 2011 – 10:20 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
- Published:
- July 20, 2011 – 10:18 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 17, 2011 – 8:44 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
I have a fairly strict policy of not complaining about the weather. That being said, the weather has been very interesting this year, with a tremendous amount of rain and unseasonably cool temperatures. It feels like a seasonal time warp mixup, with winter and spring expanding to swallow up the first half of summer. For [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: weather
- Published:
- July 16, 2011 – 7:39 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Pictured at right is a client’s mixed flower-and-vegetable garden. Jessica and I have really enjoyed working in this garden, and find it to be ax excellent example of a planting style that comes with its share of difficulties. Selection of appropriate perennials, namely those that like to live with annual vegetables, and interplanting with annual [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 13, 2011 – 7:40 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Pulling weeds today, pulling more weeds tomorrow. I’ve had a lot of time to think lately, while pulling weeds for money, about what to do next year. Jessica and I have decided to offer at somewhere in the neighbourhood of ten gardening workshops here at the farm next year, between February and September. In addition [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants, Workshops
- Published:
- July 12, 2011 – 9:27 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 11, 2011 – 8:38 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 10, 2011 – 9:15 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 9, 2011 – 8:31 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
Pictured at right is a planting of potatoes growing in a sheet-mulched, no-dig turf mound. We’ve started harvesting them, and the tubers are enormous. No soil amendments were used, aside from newspaper and old stable clearings. Once all the potatoes have been harvested, the bed will be limed and planted to buckwheat.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 8, 2011 – 5:59 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
I may or may not resume blogging on an almost-daily basis now, as the internet connectivity of the property is being re-engineered. Internet connections on rural properties can be surprisingly complicated. Right now I am blogging from Jessica’s laptop in the garden shed, next to sacks of alfalfa meal and lime, as our yurt is [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- July 7, 2011 – 9:33 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk