kale and chard for a winter harvest
I have planted a wide variety of winter vegetables this year, beginning with leeks (sown in February), and ending with mache/corn salad (sown in August and early September). That works out to seven or eight months of planting for fall, winter, and early spring harvests. Timing is crucial when growing winter vegetables: The onset of cool autumn weather is months too late to sow most of them. The kale and chard pictured at right were sown in four-inch pots on June 28th and planted into a recently-finished bed of early peas on June 16th.
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- August 23, 2010 – 11:28 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
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Calendula from Tamil Nadu
My blogging habits have been more sporadic than I’d like lately, but I don’t apologize. I refuse to do a ‘sorry-I-haven’t-been-blogging-lately-my-children-all-have-lice-and-my-basement-has-mould-and-I’ve-just-been-so-BUSY-lately’ post, because I don’t have a basement (or bathroom, or indoor shower), and if I did have children they’d have been taken away by the province a long time ago. Jessica and I have been harvesting, drying, threshing, winnowing, and sorting seed, while the dry weather lasts. We (by ‘we’ I mean ‘someone else’) will be making a website for our seed company soon, and everything is very exciting on the front-porch headquarters of Quadra Island’s only vegetable seed company.
- Published:
- August 20, 2010 – 10:30 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
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Chippy, a few hours after her escape from her shell
A chick was born on the farm today – We named her Chippy, and she* is pretty adorable. She chirps constantly and we love her already.
*’she’ may actually be a ‘he’ – hard to tell at this point. I hope she is a she, ’cause I love drinking eggnog.
Tagged: Animals
- Published:
- August 13, 2010 – 10:30 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
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the year's first ripe tomatoes
Better late than never, I picked the first ripe tomatoes last week. While we were usually able to begin harvesting our Latah tomatoes in mid July back when we lived and gardened in North Vancouver, we waited ’till early August for the first ripe ones here in Open Bay. They are delicious and we will have enough seed for everyone.
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- August 8, 2010 – 6:54 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
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'Crimson Carmello' tomato, unirrigated
In early May of this year we began transforming a fallow field into an experimental dry garden. I am pleased to report that the tomatoes and potatoes we planted into it in late May have exceeded all of our expectations, despite the summer’s dry weather. They have received no irrigation, aside from the watering-in the tomatoes were given on planting day. No rain fell on Open Bay between the first week of June and yesterday evening, the 6th of August, yet the crops have grown and thrived. The potatoes have started to die-back, and have produced a high yield of delicious tubers, while the earlier tomato varieties are just beginning to ripen. The photos attached to this post were all taken a few hours before the rain. I attribute
part of the dry garden
the success of the crops in the dry garden to generous spacing (the tomatoes are all about four and a half feet apart), double-digging (with pathway topsoil incorporated into the adjacent beds), and the use of mulch atop a layer of newspaper. I have been questioning many of the watering practices I have observed in other peoples’ vegetable gardens for years now, and watching this dry garden grow has strengthened my belief that most people over-, rather than under-irrigate their gardens. Next year we plan to expand the garden considerably, and hope to grow all our garlic, potatoes, and onions in it, as well as experimental crops of carrots, beets, groundcherries, barley and millet. Water is scare here, and we feel it is best used on crops that absolutely require it. I hope to post much more about this project next year.
tomatoes and potatoes in the dry garden, a work in progress
'Ropreco' tomatoes, unirrigated
Tagged: Plants
- Published:
- August 7, 2010 – 10:32 pm
- Author:
- By Ryan Nassichuk
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