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Author Archives: Ryan Nassichuk
Garlic Progress 0
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New Tiller 2
On Friday Jessica and I bartered some labour for an almost-new tiller. It is smaller than our last machine, but works very well now that the part that sucks fuel into the carburator has been removed (I’m not sure of the technical term for this part – I’d call it a “vertical fuel uptake straw” [...]
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Tagged: Machinery
Inventions and Machines 2
I used to be convinced that no-till gardening would solve all of my many problems. I’m still very interested, but now feel that tillage has it’s place, particularly in the establishment of new beds in rough ground. New beds that will eventually be transitioned into reduced tillage/no-till systems, which is our plan for much of [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Machines
Prairie Fire? 0
I suspect the beautiful crab apple tree in our field may be the variety ‘Prairie Fire’, but I’m still not one hundred percent sure. It is beautiful in different ways every month of the year, but no month more so than May.
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Tagged: Fruit Trees
Next Workshop at Valdez Farm: Sunday May 13th 0
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Tagged: Workshops
The First Oyster Mushrooms of Spring 0
Yesterday evening Jessica and I found some pristine, grade-A oyster mushrooms in one of our productive spring oyster mushroom spots. They were unbelievably delicious stirfried with purple sprouting broccoli. It is a good life.
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Tagged: Mushrooms
Mason Bee Seminar, Powell River, Vancouver 1
I’m back on Quadra now. On Sunday we held our third public event at the farm, a workshop led by none other than my own father, Mike Nassichuk. He led an enlightening seminar about mason bees, and it was one of the most rewarding classes I’ve ever experienced. It was also quite possibly the rowdiest [...]
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Tagged: Workshops
Digging with Friends 0
Today we had a work party in the field. Jessica and I were joined in our toil by Terry and Yoko, who are living on the farm and working alongside us. I am thrilled to have them along on our agricultural journey, and they deserve their own blog post, which will hopefully be forthcoming. We [...]
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Tagged: Joy
‘White Star’ Overwintered Broccoli 0
Most of the 24 overwintering broccoli plants we sowed last June were killed in the flood, but a few made it through alive, and these precious survivors are now providing us with great harvests of sweet, delicious buds. Pictured at right is ‘White Star’, a late variety. A solution to the flooding problem is decided [...]
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Tagged: Plants, Winter Gardening
No-Till Garlic 0
The garlic pictured at right is growing in a bed that has never been dug, forked, or tilled. Granted, this bed hasn’t been a bed for very long, but still. Last May the bed was formed by us creating a thirty-three-foot long by three-foot-wide mound of turf pieces stripped off a different part of the [...]
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Tagged: No-Till, Reduced Tillage, Tillage
Plum Blossoms 0
So much is happening on the farm right now that I’m too tired to blog about it. In April the land quickly turns bright green and it feels like everything needs to be done all at once.
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Tagged: Fruit Trees
Edible Bamboo 0
Two of my favourite clients have a beautiful, vigorous eight-year-old sweetshoot bamboo, Phyllostachys dulcis, groowing in their front yard. I have admired it for years, and today I was kindly offered a piece to plant here on the farm. This is one of the bamboo species commonly grown for edible shoots in asia, and I’m [...]
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Tagged: Bamboo
Overwintered Radicchio 0
We’ve gotten a lot of enjoyment out of our crop of overwintered ‘Rossa di Verona’ radicchio. While none of the plants formed heads in the autumn (I suspect I sowed it a little too late for that), they did produce large harvests of beautiful, delicious leaves, and some of the plants look like they might [...]
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Tagged: Plants, Winter Gardening
Goldfish for River Otter 1
This morning I was surprised to see a river otter fishing for goldfish in the little pond in the corner of our field. It crunched them down noisily and seemed very pleased with itself. Later, I went back to the pond to check on it’s progress, and found it rolling around like a playful puppy [...]
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Tagged: Wildlife
Stripping 0
Our large garden is moving in a small farm direction. This afternoon another section of the field was stripped of turf and loosened, the first step in the thirty-seven step process Jessica and I use to transform fallow land into vegetables. We’ve assigned this latest section the romantic, whimsical name “section 4-A”. Doug Peters, who [...]
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Tagged: Machinery
Spring 0
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Slow, Slowly 0
A shocking amount of rain fell from the sky yesterday. It looks like we’re in for another “worst spring ever”, the fourteenth consecutive worst spring ever since I started keeping track of them back in 1999. Our field is flooded, again, but soon it will dry up and we’ll forget all about the slow start [...]
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Tagged: flood!
Coming to Vancouver 1
Husband – “Honey, I just read that the skilled plantsman on Quadra Island who writes that blog we both enjoy so much [www.ryansgarden.com] will be visiting our city [the Greater Vancouver Regional District] for a few days soon [late April/early May 2012].” Wife – “Does he do horticultural consultations? If he does [he does], we [...]
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Tagged: Doing Consultations, Visiting my Family
Broccoli Stalk, Crimson Clover, Grass 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Comment Problems and Komatsuna Flowers 1
WordPress seems to have made some major changes to the comment settings of wordpress blogs without any forewarning. People are having trouble commenting on my blog. I’m having trouble commenting on other peoples’ blogs. It’s a mess. I don’t usually get all that many comments on this blog, so it took me a while to [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Collards After the Flood 0
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Forced Decay of Hairy Vetch 0
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Tagged: Cover Crops
Garlic Wakes Up 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Changing Education Paradigms 0
I was e-mailed a link to this beautiful, profound video today. It is well worth the eleven minutes.
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Tagged: Workshops
Low-Tech Hay Bale Propagation Area 0
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Tagged: Fruit, Propagation
Wolves, Pigeons 1
While out jogging this evening I almost ran into a wolf. The sorts of advice freely given about dealing with wildlife tend to go into one of my ears and out the other – Many, many times in my life I’ve had people offer up complex advice regarding the best ways of dealing with sudden [...]
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New Fruit Trees 0
My dear friend Alborz is visiting from Vancouver, and he and I went over to Cortes Island today to buy some bare-root nursery stock from a brilliant orchardist over there. Jessica and I now have two new plum varieties, a Brown Turkey fig, a Holstein Apple, and two St. Julian-A Plum rootstocks. Jessica and I [...]
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Tagged: Fruit Trees
Workshop Date Correction 0
Oops! The poster-making committee made a mistake on our latest workshop poster. The date for the first workshop this year is Sunday April 29th, not Sunday April 23rd. Pictured at right is the corrected posted (we used a piece of blank sticker and a sharpie to gracefully change the ’3′ to a ’9′).
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Tagged: Workshops
Mason Bee Workshop With Mike Nassichuk 0
Last year, during our farm’s inaugural season, we held two hands-on gardening workshops in our new field. This year we have six workshops and seminars confirmed, and two or three more that are tentative. The first three workshops are now open to pre-registration. The first event of 2012 will be an indoor seminar and slide-show [...]
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Tagged: Workshops
Quadra Island Garden Club 0
I spoke about my experiences with Cover Crops at the Quadra Island Garden Club meeting yesterday evening, and I couldn’t be happier with how it went. Of course I’m hardly an unbiased observer. Maybe I should say that I think it went well. The club was very friendly and warm, and I felt very welcome [...]
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Tagged: Cover Crops, Workshops
Cover Crop Presentation 0
Reminder number two: Next monday I’ll be giving a presentation about cover crops to the Quadra Island Garden Club. Non-members are welcome to attend for a very, very reasonable fee – Just two dollars! Where else can you buy one hour of Ryan Nassichuk (maybe more if I’m feeling particularly wordy) for just two dollars? [...]
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Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants, Workshops and Presentations
Apple Training/Found Chili Sauce 1
Each March, for the past three years, I’ve worked on training a client’s apple tree against a driftwood structure. The tree is finally taking the shape I desire, and I’ve been enjoying the process tremendously. It is slow-motion plant bondage. Also, while driving to our client’s property this morning, I stopped the truck along the [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Fruit Trees, Hot Sauce, Plants, Pruning
Purple Sprouting Broccoli 0
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Tagged: Plants
Firewood 1
Jessica and I have been bucking and splitting lots of firewood lately. I am proud to report that, as a result of this continued exertion, I have finally grown rippling, glistening washboard abs. Between the firewood and the abs, we haven’t had time for much in the way of stimulating horticultural activities this week. Also, [...]
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Tagged: Firewood, Soil Health
Jessica Made Us a Beautiful Fluorescent Light Propagation Cabinet 1
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Learning Restraint 0
When I was younger I used to try to sow as many cool season vegetables as I could during the first week of March. I have more restraint now, and am slowly learning that earlier sowings aren’t always better. Most vegetables tend to grow very slowly during our long, cold, drawn-out spring season. Also, our [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
From the Bottom Up to the Top Down 1
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Mulch Cirlces 2
Some of the same sort of aliens who make crop circles in southern England’s grain fields have been visiting our farm, but they seem to be trying something new. Rather than flattening grain in patterns with string and boards, they show up and steal from our woodchip pile and use the mulch, and our digging [...]
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Tagged: Cover Crops, Mulch, Paranormal
Stellaria media 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Best Friends 1
Most of the garlic varieties have pushed up through the mulch now. I am always thrilled to be able to watch garlic and mulch, the two best friends, working together. The weather forecast currently calls for snow and overnight temperatures of negative nine in a couple of days. Nine below! All the garlic will survive. [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Mulch
Flood, Genesis 2
In March or early April we are going to have some drainage ditches dug in the field. Initially, I was concerned that our flood may be a result of my atheism, but I no longer believe that to be the case. I don’t think ours is the same sort of flood as the one mentioned [...]
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February Stir-Fry Ingredients 0
The more I grow komatsuna, the more it impresses me. The komatsuna pictured at right was sown in September, and did not have the luxury of any sort of protection over the winter. It is now starting to form delicious flower buds and seems generally unperturbed that it is growing in a bed that is [...]
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Tagged: Plants
A Late Planting of Leeks 0
Most yearsI seed leeks in early march, then transplant them top open ground in April. Last year, due to the delays inherent in bringing a fallow field back into productivity (and…um…chopping my foot with an axe), I didn’t get around to seeding any leeks until late June. One month later, I transplanted them into a [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Mizuna in Rye 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
To Make a Farm 1
I watched the documentary ‘To Make a Farm‘ the other day, and found it to be thought-provoking and, at times, inspiring. The film follows the establishment, by young people, of three small farms, two by couples in Ontario, and one by a man in Manitoba. While I don’t currently self-identify as a ‘farmer’, I believe I [...]
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Tagged: Economics
Kale and Clover 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Winterkilled Oats for Reduced Tillage 0
Winter-killed oats are potentially a very valuable addition to no-till and reduced-tillage crop rotations. In past gardens I’ve found that late-summer sowings of oats reliably winter-killed, leaving a light layer of decaying biomass and loose, life-filled soil, ready for planting with large seeds and tubers. Most of the bed I sowed to oats last September [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Cover Crops
Fruit Tree Pruning in Powell River 2
Jessica and I just returned from Powell River, where we pruned my ailing grandfather’s remarkable collection of espliered apple and pear trees. They have been maintained with tremendous attention to detail over the past couple of decades, and this was the first time they have been out of his care. It was a little daunting, [...]
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More Flooding 0
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Drainage
Community Supported Agriculture 0
Jessica and I hold workshops and grow vegetables on Valdez Farm, and hopefully our little seed company will one day release a catalogue. It may happen next year and it may happen five years from now. We’re not rushing it. Growing vegetables for sale was never the reason we left the city, as we’ve never [...]
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Tagged: Community Supported Agriculture
Cover Crop Presentation at the Quadra Island Garden Club 0
Next month, on the 12th of March, I’ll be giving a presentation at the Quadra Island Garden Club. It’s a big deal. I’ll be speaking about incorporating cover crops into vegetable rotations, and hopefully I’ll tell some jokes while I am at it. I got serious about cover crops seven years ago, and each year [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Workshops
Unprotected Greens 2
In early September I found some old seed packets of cool-weather greens and mixed them together in a bowl. I broadcast-sowed this seed mixture onto a bed recently-vacated by a harvest of june-sown beets. I didn’t have high hopes for the bed, as I generally plant my fall and winter greens well before early September. [...]
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Tagged: Plants
The First Harvests of 2012 1
The minor thrill I experience each time I harvest something I’ve grown myself has not diminished over the years, though it isn’t hard to harvest homegrown zucchini in August, and I try not to pat myself on the back too often. I feel most satisfied when harvesting delicious vegetables in late winter, when the wet, [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Plants
Back on Quadra Island 0
Jessica and I arrived back on Quadra late yesterday evening. It was night, and the first thing we did upon our arrival was to take a headlamp out to the frosty field. The floodwaters have receded, and our extensive fall planting of garlic survived the wet winter. Many other crops survived along with the garlic, [...]
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Return to Canada 3
That was an interesting couple of months. I arrived back in Canada yesterday afternoon, full of inspiration for the year ahead. Jessica and I will return to Quadra in three or four days. I expect to begin posting to this blog fairly frequently upon our return. We have big plans for 2012 and beyond at [...]
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Hiatus 1
Soon I’ll in asia for a couple of months, and will not be updating this blog until my return to Quadra in early February. 2012 promises to be a very exciting year on our fledgling farm, and I’ll have lots to share on this blog, so please check back in a couple of months. Thanks [...]
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Tagged: Hiatus
The Curses and Blessings of our Flat Field 1
Not long after we arrived on this land, in the late winter of this year, we experienced a period of heavy rain and snowmelt, after which parts of the field flooded. We accepted the possibility that we would perhaps have to dig a series of surface ditches to prevent future flooding. We decided we’d work [...]
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Tagged: Drainage
Pickled Carrots 0
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Tagged: Food Preservation
An Unusually Early Snowfall 1
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Tagged: Plants