'Autumn King' carrots. sown on July 1st, harvested this afternoon
Tagged: Plants
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Turnip Parenthood
I don't know which is prettier - Jessica, or the turnip! (I'm joking of course, but it is a really nice looking turnip)
the proud parents hold their adorable four-month-old
Tagged: Family Memories, Parenting, Plants
Fall and Winter Vegetables
a mixed bed of fall and winter vegetables, mulched with shredded maple leaves
Tagged: Plants
Winter Radicchio Report
immature radicchio, nine weeks old, mulched
The Rouge de Verone radicchio I direct-seeded on the 3rd of August hasn’t formed heads yet, which is a minor disappointment. The spinach and romaine lettuce I planted in the same bed grew beautifully, and have now all been harvested, and now I’m left with a bed of immature radicchio. My plan had been to have mature heads by now, which I’d have then covered with a low polytunnel. That plan has been changed, and now I intend to skip erecting a polytunnel, and cross my fingers that the radicchio plants will survive to form heads in the spring. I have my doubts this will work out, and if it doesn’t, I will consider it a lesson learned: Next year I will direct-seed my winter radicchio in early July, rather than early August.
not-yet-headed radicchio await the approach of winter alongside other winter vegetables
Tagged: Plants
winter peas as a leguminous cover crop
winter peas, two months old
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Autumn-Sown Fava Update
an early October sowing of fava beans, four weeks old
Tagged: Plants
Brownish-Gold Gold
you can fit lots in if you dance around on them as you load
Here is part two in my four hundred part series entitled “things we put in our truck”. Today I approached a young man raking leaves in his yard, and offered to do the raking for him, in exchange for my getting to haul the leaves back to the farm. He probably thought I was a fool to make such an offer, but that didn’t concern me, as I was about to get a bunch of truckloads of brownish-gold gold. Boring story short, the yard in question is enormous and I raked and hauled for hours. I’m going back tomorrow, and we are going to have lots of mineral-rich leaf mould to use as mulch in the coming years.
Tagged: Things We Put In Our Truck
New Truck
Jessica with the spare radiator and our new truck
We bought a truck for one thousand dollars from a very motivated seller in Campbell River yesterday evening. He had more need for an envelope full of cash than a vehicle after his fourth DUI charge, so we took it off his hands, along with five spare tires, a spare radiator, and a bunch of other parts. The truck is a 1993, 4-cylinder, 5-speed manual Chevy S-10. We took it for it’s inaugural trip to the beach this afternoon, where we filled it with seaweed. By the end of the afternoon, we’d brought three loads back to our field. Soon we will take it for it’s inaugural trip to the manure pile. I think it is really going to like living on our farm.
three truckloads of sea plants
Tagged: Peak Oil Peak Everything
Mache/Corn Salad as a Cover Crop
mache grows with lentil volunteers and miscellaneous weeds
In early September, I broadcast-seeded some mache/corn salad/Valerianella locusta into a small section at the end of one of the main beds. This section had been growing lentils, which we cut down and harvested in late August. Currently, about two months later, it doesn’t look like the corn salad is doing much to suppress the growth of the bed’s cool season weeds, though it is not being outcompeted, either. Mache is a miracle plant, capable of growing without protection all winter, and producing salad greens that, while a bit of a pain to harvest, rival lettuce in deliciousness any day. While our main mache sowing this year was in four rows across a thirty-six inch bed, I expect I’ll broadcast-seed it into reasonably weed-free land next year, to save time and effort, while producing much more greenery per square foot.
a dense planting of mache
Tagged: Plants
Truck Wanted
a load of leaves, transported to our field with gasoline (the jerry can reads "R.A. Nassichuk and his life partner")
We borrowed our friend’s truck this morning to transport some leaves and seaweed to our field, and we were having great success until one of the spark plugs decided to violently eject itself out of the place where spark plugs are supposed to be (I have some fairly large gaps in my understanding of automotive mechanics). It sounded like a gun firing inside the engine, then everything stopped working. We opened the hood and found the delinquent spark plug sitting on top of the battery, broken, never to spark again. Even I know that spark plugs don’t do their best work on top of the battery. I realized then and there that we need our own truck. We had a really old one last year, but we sold it because it only went 6 kilometers for each litre of gasoline it burned and we could see the road through the holes in the floor. On the off chance anyone reading this has a truck they wish to sell for three thousand dollars or less, I’ll buy it. If it works well, and is reasonably small, and has all it’s spark plugs in place. And isn’t made in America. And is purple.
Tagged: Peak Oil Peak Everything
Beets for Winter and Early Spring
A Bountiful Barrow of Beets
Pictured at right are some of the ‘Lutz Winterkeeper’ beets we harvested today. They were sown on the first of July. The roots in the photograph are the grade-A specimens, which we have now packed in sand for winter and early spring use. Smaller, less-perfect specimens are being eaten now, rather than stored, as they are less likely to survive long-term storage.
Tagged: Plants
Oats for Beauty
a bed of september-sown oats
My limited experiences with oats as a late-summer-planted cover crop have led me to conclude that they (usually) don’t survive the winter, an attribute that makes them a desirable part of no-till and reduced-tillage crop management systems. They are also much more beautiful than the more commonly grown fall rye, with a more graceful, taller stature and the ability to dance in the autumn wind.
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
‘Ching Chiang’ Bok Choi
Bok Choi and Spinach for autumn and winter harvests
The bok choi pictured at right has started to form flower buds, which is somewhat disappointing. I had hoped it would wait until spring to begin it’s reproductive cycle, as we plan on constructing a low polytunnel over it’s bed for winter protection. It is ‘Ching Chiang’ from West Coast Seeds, flanked by ‘Tyee’ Spinach. Both were direct-seeded on the 17th of August.
Tagged: Plants
Italian Dandelion Flower Buds
Italian dandelion flower buds
Tagged: Plants
Autumn Broad Beans
an autumn-sown broad bean gets ready to wait for spring
For years I’ve been hearing about how well fall sowings of broad beans work in our coastal climate. For years I haven’t gotten around to trying this out. This year is different, as I’ve reached a new level of seriousness with regards to broad beans. About two weeks ago I sowed a 100-square-foot trial bed of, into un-tilled buckwheat stubble, with the beans planted on 12-inch centres. They are now up above the mulch of buckwheat straw and shredded leaves, and I have high hopes for a plentiful, early, aphid-free yield of delicious broad beans next July.
Tagged: Plants
The Results of a Late July Sowing of Turnips
my cousin Michael with a turnip
In late July I sowed some ‘Purple Top White Globe’ turnips for our turnip-loving friend Bruce. If I were in charge of naming this type of turnip, and it may be worth noting that I do one day intend to be in the sort of person who feels eligible to name turnip and other vegetable varieties, I’d have selected something a little more poetic than ‘Purple Top White Globe’, though I must admit it is an accurate description. Awkward name aside, I did not expect a late July sowing to produce such large roots, and am very pleased with the results. Next year I will experiment with early and mid-August turnip sowings, which I expect will fit conveniently as succession crops following garlic and early pea harvests, amongst others.
a turnip grows next to some italian dandelion
Tagged: Plants
Autumn and Winter Vegetables
autumn and winter vegetables
Tagged: Plants
Shaggy Manes Burst Through a Gravel Road
a cluster of Shaggy Manes make themselves at home in a road
Tagged: Fungi
Taricha granulosa?
Jessica's newt wakes up in her gloved hand
Jessica found this adorable newt while working in a perennial border this afternoon. It seemed to be asleep, and slowly woke up as we looked at it and took it’s picture. It may or may not be Taricha granulosa, the rough-skinned newt.
Tagged: Wildlife
Red Buckwheat Seeds
beautiful red buckwheat seeds
It has been my experience that buckwheat occasionally forms bright red seeds. While the overwhelming majority of buckwheat plants produce seeds that start whitish, and ripen to a brownish hue, on in a great many plants tend to produce seeds that are not white at all. They are easy to spot.
Tagged: Plants
Eager Chive Seedlings
chive seeds germinate before touching the damp earth
Tagged: Plants
Back on Quadra
a vegetable garden in the centre of a vacant lot, viewed from above, East Hastings Street
It is all too common for bloggers to stop blogging for a while, then put up a post that says something along the lines of “I’ve been SO busy lately, with my parachute lessons, and my chimp adoption interviews, and my toenail transplant, and I haven’t had time to update my blog at all. Sorry y’all!”. I’m not going to write anything like that, and while I have been busy, I’m not going to list the minutiae with which I’ve been filling my days. I mostly just went to Vancouver and walked around the city. I’m back on Quadra now, and will now resume posting my minutiae.
The Start of Chanterelle Season
today's harvest of chanterelles, about to become soup
Tagged: Fungi
Chard Undersown With Crimson Clover
chard, photographed today, sown in late june, under-sown with crimson clover in early august
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Second Farm Workshop
not related at all to our second workshop, this is a photograph of a cricket on a knife
We held our second workshop at the farm this morning, and by all accounts it was a success. We had twenty-one students, seven more than the first workshop, held in May. Over the course of 2012 we are planning to hold nine workshops here at the farm, and I hope to soon start teaching gardening classes in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island as well.
Tagged: Workshops
Unknown Fungi
found growing on a decaying conifer log
Tagged: Fungi
Winter Crops
the latest section of field to be brought into cultivation, started in June 2011
Pictured at right is the section of field we brought into cultivation in early June. Aside from corn, this section is occupied by cool weather crops for fall, winter, and early spring harvests. A partial list of the vegetables in the photograph: Sprouting broccoli, carrots, collards, chard, spinach, bok choi, raddichio, lettuce, mache, dandelion…
Tagged: Plants
Winter Pea Cover Crop
austrian winter peas
Tagged: Plants
Cosmos sulphureus and Cosmos bipinnatus
two species of cosmos brighten the gloom of a rainy September afternoon
Tagged: Plants
Ryan and Lolo
The Author and His Nephew
My sister and nephew visited the farm the other week, which was fun. Pictured at right is Loic getting to know his uncle Ryan. He looks really happy in the picture, which is nice. Jessica can’t stand the sunglasses I am wearing in the photo – She says they make me look like a “big idiot”. I think the way they reflect the sunlight in a sort of rainbow pattern makes me look futuristic and sophisticated. This post isn’t really about horticulture, it is raining out and I didn’t get any good plant pictures today.
Vancouver in Early October
'Rouge D'Hiver' lettuce and 'Tyee' spinach
I’ll be visiting Vancouver between September 30th and October 4th. If anyone reading this in the Vancouver area is in need of my horticultural consultation services, I can be reached at nassichuk [at] gmail [dot] com.
Fordhook Giant Chard
chard in a bed of assorted winter vegetables
Tagged: Plants
Part of the Garden, Viewed from Above
the oldest section of garden, photographed form atop a ladder
The garden is partway through it’s autumn march into cover crops and mulch. Pictured at right is the first section we developed, back in early April. Most of the summer crops have been harvested, replaced by rye, buckwheat, winter peas, and oats.
Tagged: Plants
Fall and Winter Spinach
spinach, radicchio, and lettuce
Over the years I’ve grown more and more impressed with fall and winter spinach, and less so with spring and summer spinach. While I have grown good crops of spring-planted spinach before, I’ve often felt rushed to harvest it before it begins bolting, it’s unpalatable response to the increasing daylength of summer’s approach. I find that late-summer sowings of spinach quickly produce very healthy plants, much less likely to bolt before harvest. Pictured at right is a bed sown on August 4th, with two rows of ‘Tyee’ spinach and one mixed row of ‘Rouge D’Hiver’ lettuce and ‘Rouge de Verone’ raddichio. The lettuce and raddichio won’t be ready to harvest until late fall or winter, after I’ve erected a cloche over the bed, but the spinach is in it’s prime right now. I sowed a different bed to the same variety of spinach on the 20th of August, and I expect that sowing to produce a harvest in late autumn and early winter.
Tagged: Plants
Cortes Island Lobster Mushroom
Lobster Mushroom
I found this lobster mushroom on Cortes Island. We went spearfishing as well, though I don’t have any photos of that, you’ll have to take my word for it that it was amazing.
Tagged: Fungi
Phacelia and Clover as a Winter-Killed Summer-Planted Cover Crop
crimson clover and phacelia, planted late July
In late July I pulled up a spent crop of peas and planted the bed to a mixture of crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia). The phacelia has already formed flower buds, and I expect it will begin blooming within the next week. My hope is that both these species are winterkilled, and while that still may be the case, I suspect they may not be an ideal combination, as I’d rather the phacelia not bloom so quickly. Next summer I may try pairing this clover with something slower to establish itself, and planting the phacelia a few weeks later, perhaps paired with something with a similar rate of development.
Tagged: Plants
The Official Start of Mushroom Hunting Season
Laetiporus
Jessica found the beautiful creature in the photograph. I feel that it’s dramatic appearance marks the start of the 2011 mushroom season for us. I’m 99% certain it is Laetiporus sulphureus. I hope to be 100% sure soon, after spending some time with my fungi identification mentors on Cortes Island.
Tagged: Fungi
Autumn Workshop
Tagged: Workshops
Before the Fourth Picking of Ripe Tomatoes
immediately before picking
Our ‘Latah’ tomatoes have undergone four major pickings so far this year, and are still producing very healthy quantities of ripe fruits. Pictured at right is a healthy plant about to have all of it’s ripe fruits harvested.
Tagged: Plants
Roger’s Pears
a bosc pear espalier
This photo is of one of my grandfather’s espalier’d pear trees. His pruning technique is flawless, and the results speak for themselves. If you are reading this, great job, Roger (of course I know you aren’t reading this, because you think the internet is “a bunch of bullshit”).
Tagged: Fruit Trees, Plants
Winter Vegetables
winter vegetables emerge
Tagged: Plants
New Tomato Canning Record
part of the day's work
Jessica and I canned 65 quarts of diced tomatoes today. I am currently experiencing a canning-related altered state of consciousness: The world has taken on a pinkish hue, I smell like ketchup, and I am little bit dizzy. We broke all our previous canning records. Time for bed.
Tagged: Food Preservation
Fast Bok Choy, 36 Days
36 days old, ready to harvest
I’ve had mixed results with midsummer sowings of bok choy – My experience as been that many varieties bolt far too soon to be of much use, while others produce variable crops over variable timespans. On the 20th of July I sowed an experimental patch of ‘Ching Chiang’ Shanghai-style bok choy, and am very pleased to report that, 36 days later, none of the plants have bolted and they are ready to harvest. I will post the results of an August 17th sowing when the time is right. I am hoping this later planting will overwinter under a cloche.
Tagged: Plants
Hot Compost Shrinkage
a freshly-assembled hot compost pile
My estimate is that the thermophilic (hot) compost piles I assemble decrase in volume by approximately 60 percent from the moment they are first assembled and wet down to the moment they have decayed enough to use in gardens. I generally turn hot piles once or twice over the course of their lives, and find that the volume decrease can be used to great advantage, as two heaping piles can, over time, be amalgamated into one bin to free up space during the final stages of decay. The two photographs that accompany this post are of a recently-assembled pile. It was assembled one week ago, and is currently has a core temperature of roughly 70 degrees celsius. The first photo was taken immediately after the pile was assembled, and the second was shot one week later.
the same pile, one week later
Tagged: compost
Corn, 69 Days Old, Will it Ripen?
corn flower
The corn I planted in early June has just started to form male flowers. At this point, it is hard to know if we’ll have a harvest or not this year. It doesn’t really matter to me if we don’t, because the corn is beautiful and I like watching it grow. Next year I’ll plant an earlier variety, earlier in June, to assure success.
69 days after sowing
Tagged: Plants
Crimson Clover as a Living (and Dying) Mulch
sprouting winter broccoli with newly-sprouted crimson clover
I undersowed our june-planted sprouting broccoli and collard plantings with crimson clover one week ago. I broadcast clover the seed, then gently scratched it in and patted it down. After keeping the beds moist for four days, it began to spout, and today things are starting to green up under the brassicas. My hope is that the clover will be killed off by cold weather in December or January, after which it will decay in-situ, providing the broccoli and collard plants with a slow-release nitrogen for healthy winter and spring harvests.
clover germinated under broccoli
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Carrots for Winter
carrots for winter
I never used to plant much in rows, generally favouring more finely-engineered grid patters for the smaller gardens of my past. Now that I have more space, and am using hoes and weed knives for weed control, I’m finding myself using string lines and rows more often. It makes me feel very conservative and old-fashioned, and slightly uncomfortable. Pictured at right is a triple row of winter carrots, planted in June for an October harvest. The 50-feett long by 3-feet wide row contains approximately 450 carrots.
Tagged: Plants
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Phacelia flowers unfurl
Tagged: Plants
Nigella for Interplanting
Nigella grows beside (and above) black kale
Nigella damascena, also dramatically referred to as’Love in a Mist’, has become one my favourite annual flowers for interplanting with vegetables. It’s delicate structure lends itself well to growing up through neighbouring plants without casting too much shade, and both it’s flowers and seedpods are strikingly beautiful. I’ve found that early sowings tend to work best (March, here on the coast), and I suspect that properly-timed autumn sowings may yield even better results the following year.
Tagged: Plants
Yellow Beans
a lone teepee of Italian pole beans
We didn’t grow very many beans this year, which has been an interesting experience, as in previous gardens we’ve always planted far too many. Pictured at right is a teepee of an ‘Italian’ pole bean I whose seeds I picked up at the inaugural North Vancouver Seedy Saturday in March. The foliage is somewhat yellow, but I suspect this is genetic, rather than nutritional, as nothing growing nearby is showing any signs of nutritional chlorosis.
Tagged: Plants
Buckwheat Grows Quickly
On July 24th I posted this picture of a recently-sown bed of buckwheat:
buckwheat, several days old
This is what it looks like today, eleven days later:
eleven days later
Tagged: Cover Crops, Plants
Corn, 53 Days Old
a block of corn
Tagged: Plants
Stung
bee-stung arm, 30 hours after stinging
Yesterday, while chopping up some blooming borage plants for use as mulch, I was stung by two bees in the space of about thirty seconds. I’d recently heard that bee venom is healthy for some reason or other, so I counted myself lucky, and didn’t remove the stingers. I figured I’d take a full dose of free naturopathic medicine. Today, part of my right arm is swollen and incredibly itchy. I guess the list of medicinal benefits attributed to bee venom doesn’t include “is an effective cure for bee sting-related itchiness and swelling”.
A thought regarding bees and venom: Bees die after stinging, so for them, isn’t stinging the arm of the gardener who is chopping down their food supply similar to a human who stabs a buffet employee then jumps in front of a moving bus after learning that the restaurant will be closing in five minutes? A bit of an overreaction, really. Bees are mysterious and wonderful creatures.