The Garden Coach, Winnipeg

Potatoes Are Up and Meet Redd

2012-05-28T10:12:00.000-05:00

The tubers I planted a couple of weeks ago are starting to sprout. I just noticed this yesterday when I was outside with our newest addition to the family.

Say hello to Redd, a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Labrador Retriever. I've wanted a dog for a little while now but I was really reluctant to get just any dog. With the mix of breeds he is very likely to be docile, well tempered, easy to train, and suited to living in the house. He's also not a digger by nature, very important for a gardener. I don't think there's such a thing as "dog people" or "cat people", it's just that they don't really know the right pet that would fit their lifestyle. So do some research and weigh the pros and cons before you make a decision, it will be well worth it if you have.

The DIY Rain Barrels

2012-05-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

It's so hard to blog sometimes. This is the time of year when I want to get so many outside jobs out of the way so I can sit back and enjoy my summer. I wish I was done half my to do list but things have slid by the way side while my husband has been off for the last week. He quit his job and has three weeks off and while he's been helpful he's also a distraction. I'm used to doing things a certain way and I have a routine I like to follow. That's what happens when you're used to being home. Anyway, one project is nearly done. The rain barrels that were supposed to have been finished a few weeks ago are almost completely operational thanks to my hubby.

The Home Depot drain and eaves trough

Hung on the shed

With the accordian attachment that gives us some room to direct water where we want

Barrel number one, aka garbage can with valve from Princess Auto

Nice and deep

Barrel number two with the only valve style Princess Auto had left

The lid of barrel number two with the cheapest nylon screen Home Depot had

Unfortunately, barrel number two has a hole in it that will have to be patched. Hubby will be using blue skin and Goop to fix the hole. With the rain we had on Friday we have a nearly full barrel number one. That's pretty good considering I only have eaves trough on one side of a small garden shed.

Now if I could just get to cleaning those darn windows!

Row Covers and Indoor Greenhouse Success

2012-05-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

I love my row covers!! I know that's a pretty short opinion but they've given me such an advantage to start my planting early and keep rabbits out. I don't know why I never bought one before. The pea plants are about 3 inches tall already, there's butter crunch lettuce that should be ready within the next two weeks, the carrots haven't been nibbled on, and for the first time ever I actually have cabbage. I would strongly recommend a row cover to anyone who has had problems with rabbits, they just can't find their way in to do any damage and that's a huge bonus.

You can see the onions pushing up the one side of the cover

I got my seed potatoes last week. I've ordered three different kinds. My standbys are Yukon Gold and Red Norland and I'm trying a fingerling this year to see how the family likes it. I cut some of the potatoes in half so I had at least three eyes on a section. I let the cuttings dry out for a couple of days so I could make sure none of them were bad.

I planted them today along with my new White Garlic. If you've kept up with me you know that I have always planted Elephant Garlic. I only learned that it was a cross between leek and garlic last year and planned to grow the real McCoy this year. I'll see how it goes. Considering the way the weather has been I also decided to be a little adventurous and plant green beans. I know it seems early but really I don't feel I'm taking much of a risk.

The tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings are going great guns in the indoor green house.

I've been able to transplant most of them to homemade seed pots with the intention of topping them up with soil as they grow. These, hopefully, will be planted out in the garden or outdoor greenhouse as is. The plan is to disturb the roots as little as possible and I feel that the cardboard will decompose sufficiently to let the roots of the plant expand. I think it will work considering the amount of fuzzy mould that's taken hold of the cardboard.

One thing that I haven't been successful at is starting rosemary or sage from seed. I don't know if there's a trick to it. That's definitely something I'll be researching.

Just one more thing.....I got the okay to promote Ecole Robert Browning Nature Club on my blog. That's the school link at the top right. We have signed up for Project Noah and we'll be photographing whatever the kids manage to catch while we're outside. Unfortunately, Club was cancelled this week and I have to put off the self watering container project until next Tuesday. Our first Project Noah event will have to be held the week after that. Again, if there's anyone in Winnipeg reading this that has a Nature Club style program or Gardening Program they're involved in at a school please connect with me.

A Visit to Stonewall

2012-05-06T14:29:00.000-05:00

I spent yesterday at a friend's place in Stonewall. The weather was beautiful and her property is amazing, so much to catch the eye.

This first photo is alongside her garden, she has these shrubs bordering the one side and along another she has grapevines. There were so many butterflies flitting in and out of these blooms.

This is the pond her husband built. He used rocks found on the property to make the walls. The pool is constantly circulated and it's stocked with goldfish. The goldfish overwinter in the house. They aren't fed fish food often as they can get by on mosquito larvae.

This was really eye catching! The brick and rock garden over grown with moss and just the tiniest pine tree poking its way through.

The land is bordered on two sides with native prairie grasses. It gives it sort of a savannah kind of feel that I find really impressive.

A large area of the property is grown in with oak, poplar and choke cherry. These shelf mushroom are growing at the base of an oak stump.

We did see wild animals! There were lots of nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, and this guy. None of these creatures were shy. I think they love visitors. I'll just have to go back.

So Many Ideas for Nature Club!

2012-04-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

There has been such an overwhelming amount of interest in Nature Club. What was first 37 kids signing up ballooned to 45. I was a little intimidated with the prospect of keeping this many people interested in Nature Club but so far so good.

What has worked so far? The magnifying glasses and containers outside on the school's front lawn has probably been the standout activity. The hard part with this has been taking their attention away from burning ants under the lenses and using the magnifying glass as an educational tool. The kids are really curious, questioning or commenting on what they've found and sharing their discoveries with the group. Last week, a couple of the boys trapped a honey bee in a container and I brought it home to put in the freezer. I'll be bringing it back to school tomorrow so that these guys can have a closer look without worry of being stung. Entomology was one of my required courses in University and I worked three years in the Dept. of Entomology for Dr. R.E. Roughley. I spent countless hours pushing pins, attaching specimen labels, and assisting in field collection. I know this is an area where I can share lots of information with the kids and some of them show a real interest in the subject.

What else? Computer lab is a definite success. We've only been on the computers once. I found this really terrific website on birds from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology where you can not only see photos of birds but you can also listen to their songs. I shared this with the kids and it was a huge hit! My teacher partner commented at one point that it sounded just like a rainforest in the room.

Next week, hopefully, we'll be making self watering containers. I've been collecting 2L pop bottles and I have about 13 of my own to supply should the kids forget to bring a bottle in. I'm hoping some of the kids still have their bean plants from Earth Day and they can just plant the whole seed pot into the bottle. We still have leftover bean seeds that T & T Seeds donated for Earth Day and we can plant these directly into the bottles if we have to. I'll be doing all the necessary cutting sometime this week so none of the kids have to handle anything sharp.

Tomorrow we're back on the computers and I'll be sharing this website on animals. When I was surfing the net I also found Project Noah. Project Noah is kind of a Citizen Naturalist project where people report their discoveries online. I'm not sure we'll be doing this as a group but it's worth letting the kids know about it because they can do it at home with their Moms and Dads.

I'm still hoping to connect with any other school groups in Winnipeg so we can share ideas. Are there any? Anyone?

Response from Minister Moore's Office Re: Harrowsmith Country Life

2012-04-29T15:09:00.002-05:00

I wrote Steven Fletcher, M.P. just over a month ago letting him know my concerns about what seemed like Harrowsmith Country Life receiving more federal money from the Canada Periodical Fund. Just to bring some of you up to speed, the Canada Periodical Fund publishes a list of grant recipients every year and includes amounts of money granted to each magazine. Since we all know that Harrowsmith hasn't been published in almost a year it came as a surprise to find the magazine listed as receiving money to assist in publishing and distribution. I obviously had a beef. Anyway, the letter was forwarded to Heritage Minister, James Moore's office and I did get a response about three weeks ago. Apologies in the delay with posting this, it's been a busy month. I wish I could find a site telling me how much money was clawed back because that would make me really happy. Anyway, this is the response and I would love to read any comments anyone might have about this:

Wood vs. Plastic Seed Trays----Pay Attention, This Makes a Difference

2012-04-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

Ugh, the blogger layout changed! I hate that.

If you read the last post I made then you know what kind of angst I was having over getting anything to germinate in the greenhouse. Out of frustration I broke down and headed to McDiarmid Lumber and bought another greenhouse. This one is smaller, it snaps together, no screws and the best part is it fits in my living room taking up floor space of about 18" x 30".

All the plastic trays and the pots were moved indoors last Monday and three days ago all the tomatoes started coming up. Phew. I've got the plastic cover on the greenhouse for cat proofing and I placed it over the register so that it keeps a steady temperature of about 70F. The deck greenhouse has been tricky figuring out. It's uninsulated and I've been having all kinds of problems with keeping a decent temperature. However, I built seed boxes from pallets, filled them with dirt and planted basil hoping for the best. The best happened. I think the combination of the wood and the wet soil have provided the insulation I was looking for. It makes sense when I think about it. Wood retains moisture and there's a slow release of warm moist air over night just over the boxes that keeps the temperature of the soil fairly even. I planted three different kinds of basil in the seed boxes and they're all sprouting. In the future I will only use plastic seed trays indoors and wood seed trays outdoors. Live and learn. I've built a couple more boxes in the meantime and hopefully will have enough wood boxes to fill each shelf next spring.

Nature Club at the school has been so much fun. The kids seem very interested and excited to be there. One thing that has struck me is that some of them really don't know much about what's around them. For instance, one of the girls found a pine cone and put it in a container to show me, her partner was convinced it was poo and wanted nothing to do with it. You should have seen the look on her face when I picked it up and ripped it in half. I find it so odd that a kid wouldn't know what a pine cone looks like.

The Earth Day plant pots were a hit. I volunteered to work the planting table for the afternoon. Again, I was a little surprised that a lot of these kids didn't know how to plant a seed. It wasn't so much getting the seed in, they did fine with that, it was that they didn't know to bury it after. The other thing was that some of them were genuinely surprised to hear that green beans could be grown. Yikes.

The Garden, Greenhouse and an Earth Day Project

2012-04-13T07:41:00.001-05:00

I don't think I've ever attempted gardening any earlier than May. I'm in a learning curve right now trying to see what will work for me to start growing in April....in Winnipeg. I must be nuts.

I put peas, carrots, and cabbage seeds in last week and covered them with the floating row cover. Let's see what happens.

I cut the floating row cover in thirds. I can't remember how long it was when I got it but it was enough to cover two rows in the garden and then I cut one of the thirds in half to cover my raised beds.

I planted radishes, mesclun lettuce mix, and spinach in one about two weeks ago. The mesclun and radishes are up. I was going to give this bed to my son but he bailed on me and I took it over. Oh well, more for me. I should note that we had a low of -11C the other night and the sprouts in this bed came through with flying colours.

I saved some onions that I had left in the garden and put them in my daughter's raised bed. The rabbit was making short work of what was coming up, apparently it likes onions almost as much as I do.

The greenhouse is another thing all together. It's been no end of frustration to get anything to sprout in there. I don't know if it's too hot or too cold.

There's no other way to vent it than rolling up the door.

The walls are plastic and not very thick. I find that during the day there's too much heat trapped inside and over night most of the heat dissipates. I have to come up with something or I won't have anything to transplant to the garden.

On the plus side, I took apart a pallet and made these boxes. Yes, I did make these! By myself and with a power tool! What can't I do? The hardest part was taking the pallet apart, those things are nailed together REALLY well. The soil came from the swamped wash tub I had in the yard. I broke down the clumps and smoothed it out after the photo was taken. I added some compost to top it all off and planted three different kinds of basil.

This is the Earth Day project I've been working on for the school. So far I've made about 200 of these and have about 130 more to go. These are plant pots for beans the kids will be taking home. A paper towel roll will make three of these. That's a toilet paper roll in the photo. I think I might do the same for myself next spring, the plastic seed trays I have are breaking apart and if I take apart another pallet I could get three more wood boxes to start the plants in.

I can't believe how busy I've been, it's a good thing I don't have a job!

My Greenhouse News, Some DIY Projects, and Winnipeg Backyard Homesteading

2012-04-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are. It's April 4th and I'm patiently waiting for the garden growing season to start. With all the snow gone for about three weeks already, the wait is interminable. Overnight temperatures won't be consistently warm enough to plant outside until after May 1 so that still gives a month more of waiting. I've been experimenting with the greenhouse to see what I could start early and so far it's been fairly disappointing. If the outside temperature drops to around -5C I'm in danger of losing my young plants, as I found out with the three tomato plants I had....had being the key word. I have to water regularly because the daytime heat in the greenhouse just sucks all the moisture out of the containers and the plants, broccoli is victim number two. I have chalk outlines around where all the plant remains used to be. It's truly a challenge. In the meantime, with the winter being dry and not much snow cover, we've been working on converting a couple of garbage cans into rain barrels. So far so good. One of the cans is nearly finished and we'll start work on the other one this weekend. These are going to be next to our shed and we'll be hooking up some of those cheapy snap together DIY eaves troughs and directing them to the cans. We'll also be buying an aluminum garbage can and building a cold smoker sometime very soon. I'll post pictures of that project as we do it. It's something I found in a book I read a couple of months ago called The Backyard Homestead. It's a compilation from Storey Books, which I love. I've got a couple of others from them but if I was to have bought just one then it would have been this one. Here's another thing that has me really interested, To bee or not to bee? - Winnipeg Free Press. The City of Winnipeg is revisiting the Exotic Animal By-law which prevents keeping a backyard bee hive. I think it's a great idea to lift the ban. Is there a better way to keep your flowers pollinated than getting your own pollinators? I would definitely consider a hive in my yard. I like honey and I don't have an allergy or sensitivity to bees yet, just wasps. I would love to keep a couple of chickens, too. I've been keeping an eye on this story that Maclean's magazine ran in March, Is keeping hens in the city a charter right? - Canada - Macleans.ca. If Paul Hughes wins his fight then I'll be celebrating with a fried egg sandwich made with a fresh picked egg..... from my backyard.

My one and only complaint for today is that I've had the strangest suggestions based on my interests emailed to me from StumbleUpon. Here's the newest, My Kasual Kountry Weekend With the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and this came under "gardening suggestions". I have zero intention of growing any White Supremacists and I don't expect any would be visiting my garden anytime soon. Clearly, StumbleUpon has some tweaking to do.

37 Kids Signed up for Nature Club!

2012-03-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, now I'm a little scared. This isn't what I pictured, originally thinking we would maybe get 10 kids. That's like just over 1/10 the school population! Thanks to Shannon I may be onto getting some help starting a small 8ft X 10ft garden in front of the school. This first garden is going to hopefully be native prairie meadow and I'm hoping will cost us less than $100. There's also this compost bin in back of the school that was built about five years ago that the club is taking on. I'll have to take photos of what the pile looks like and post them later. I didn't have my camera today and I can't really put into words what I saw, it's that bad.

With Earth Day events coming up at the school I've volunteered to work one of the stations. I'll be helping the kids plant a seed in a very nifty toilet paper seed pot. The good thing about toilet paper rolls is that we've all got more than enough of them and they're biodegradable. The intent is to have the kids plant the pot directly into a larger pot or in the garden when the plants get big enough. I cut 4 vertical slices on one end of the roll and folded the flaps like a cardboard box. I'm confident the pot is sturdy enough when folded and it does stand upright quite nicely. There's also the bonus of being able to use marker and decorate the outside of the pot.

After I posted Nature Club is a Go! I had the pleasant surprise of receiving a comment from Sharon Gamson Danks, the writer of Asphalt to Ecosystems that I raved about in the post. It's almost like having an autographed copy of the book....almost.

If there is anyone reading this or who knows someone who has experience working in a school garden in Winnipeg such as helping to organize or maintain one could you please connect me. I'm having a heck of a time finding anyone else doing what I'm doing online in Winnipeg. Leave a comment please with contact info, it would be really appreciated.

Gardening in March

2012-03-22T14:00:00.001-05:00

Gardening in March.....in Winnipeg! Unreal.

The raised beds we made last year are ready to plant in. Yesterday I put in radishes, lettuce mesclun mix and some swiss chard. I'm saving the other bed for "loves small animals" to do what she wants. I don't think "picky eater" will mind that I took his box over, besides we can plant more seeds after the radishes are done and we're sick of mesclun.

One of my brainy ideas wasn't so brainy and has to be tweaked. Unless anyone can tell me how to grow water cress this is going to have to be drained.

The greenhouse planting is going great guns. I planted the broccoli two weeks ago, the herbs were started just the other day, and the tomatoes were seeded in the house and moved outside. I have lots more that I've planted in the greenhouse but I'm waiting to see what sprouts before I brag about it. I used my worm composted soil that I had in the house all winter. The night crawlers seem to have died and I was left with one little worm, he's not a night crawler, he just kind of hitched a ride from Canadian Tire with the others. I'm not sure but if I was to guess I would say that the soil composted with the help of microorganisms, possibly introduced with the worms and then maintained in the warmth of the house.

Broccoli

A Variety of Herbs

Heirloom tomatoes

This is probably the earliest I've ever raked my yard. The backyard was raked yesterday and the front yard today. This is going to be such a dry year so I made a point of using only the broom rake and not removing the thatch. I want to keep as much moisture as possible in the lawn. Also, since it's only March, I didn't remove any leaf cover from my front garden. You never know, it could still freeze....although, it seems very unlikely.

Nature Club is a Go!

2012-03-15T10:27:00.001-05:00

Remember when I was nominated for Versatile Blogger Award and I had to list seven random things about me? Number two on the list was I'm starting a nature club at my daughter's school. The idea is to spend a lunch hour every Tuesday starting April 10, outside learning about nature that exists within school property. I'm really excited about this. Yesterday I had my first meeting with my partner to discuss what direction we would like to go with this. My partner is a teacher at the school and I'm the parent volunteer leading the club. The thought is that we can teach the kids about the diversity that exists around them and get them exploring and questioning what they would usually not notice. We've got these great ideas to eventually develop a school garden, something the kids can take care of with adult supervision. Over the winter I read a book called Asphalt to Ecosystems, Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation by Sharon Gamson Danks and felt so totally inspired to get something going at my daughter's school. I figured that the best place to start is with a nature club. How much interest will there be? I don't know but we're limiting ourselves to grade 3, 4 and 5 club members at the moment, if we don't get enough interest we'll open it up to grade 1 and 2. We have so many tools at our disposal to get going, science lab equipment, videos, whiteboard, computers and the library. We're a little short on money, we have $100 to spend. I think it's going to be used on potting soil and possibly some plants. I've got lots of seeds to share and I can make those last by harvesting seeds from whatever we plant. Our first planting project is going to be on May 1 to coincide with International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day. It's not going to be a guerrilla action by any means, we're asking for permission to plant on school property. What it is really, is the beginning of an idea. Man, I hope someone shows up on the first day.

Ever Heard of "Urban Food Deserts"?

2012-03-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

I love gardening and when I speak of urban gardening what I mean is urban edibles and this includes vegetables, herbs, flowers and whatever other plant you can eat. I'm not knowledgable enough about livestock, large or small, to give you a perspective and that would be urban farming anyway. As it is, under City of Winnipeg bylaws we're not allowed to keep any livestock other than rabbits and those would be considered pets. I'm not sure how my neighbours would feel if they saw me slaughtering bunnies in my backyard anyway, it kind of reeks of Diana Thorneycroft's "Monstrance" and if you know the story behind this display then you know how well it was received. Nope, no animals. However, I do get a little sad when I think I can't have a chicken. I would love a chicken and it WOULD be my pet, the pet who gives me fresh eggs in return for the care I would give it. Secretly, I'm beginning to resent my cats.... all they give is more poop to scoop.

What's an urban food desert? The USDA defines it as a low income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store. My definition would include anywhere you have to travel more than 1km one way to get groceries. Some of us live in self inflicted food deserts. One good fuel crisis and that walk to Superstore from Whyte Ridge is going to look really long and I don't even want to think about what whining there'll be about the trek to Costco. Of course, this is assuming you'll be able to afford groceries. Geez, that backyard chicken is looking better and better all the time.

What's being done to fight food deserts? Pay attention 'cuz this is where it gets interesting and very exciting. Urban Roots is a documentary that was filmed in Detroit to document the "radical" movement of urban gardening and farming that arose in response to the industrial collapse of the motor vehicle industry in that city. I'm not sure that gardening is radical but the way Detroit's citizens responded to adversity is radical. These people have become empowered by reducing their reliance on grocery stores. Even in the short video clip you can see how proud they are of what they've accomplished. Then we have this in recent news, Seattle's Edible Food Forest, brainchild of, gasp, gardeners in their effort to make Seattle home to the largest public edible forest in the U.S. The idea is that people will be able to forage for fresh, locally produced food for free. Then we have this, Vertical Farming in Sweden as Plantagon breaks ground on first ever vertical "plantscraper" in Sweden. Wow, now that's radical. Unfortunately, in Toronto the best idea was to come up with mobile grocery stores based on this idea from Chicago, Fresh Moves. In my mind, this is a temporary fix to a long term problem. Like the Chinese proverb says, "If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime". To me the end result of combatting a food desert should always be reducing the need to rely solely on groceries. I really believe that as a gardener it's my duty to share what I know with others at a school, over the fence, blogging or wherever so that we can all be a little more empowered and set ourselves free of food deserts. To paraphrase Compost Junkie, I will not rest until every backyard, schoolyard, and apartment has a garden. Who's with me?

Good day all!

Cat Burglar Strikes

2012-02-29T09:44:00.000-06:00

It was a night like any other. We were fast asleep when suddenly I was awoken with a bang and a crash. I leaped out of bed and ran to the living room to see.....what was left of my heirloom tomato plantings on the floor and one very guilty looking cat sitting next to a pile of dirt.

I've been so anxious to get going on planting and thought that I hit upon this great idea to use my fruit ripening container to start seeds indoors. It's domed and big enough to plant about eight tomato seeds. Great idea, in theory. For the first couple of days the cat left it alone, secretly planning his strategy, until it seemed that the coast was clear and he could get away with his nefarious deed.

He can't even look at me. I hope the guilt is eating him up.

Sigh, I'll just have to wait until it warms up enough to use the greenhouse. I think it's going to be a couple of weeks.

Defunct Harrowsmith Country Life Gets More Government Money, Some Subscribers Receiving Alternative Magazine

2012-02-24T10:54:00.001-06:00

If you were a Harrowsmith magazine subscriber you probably feel more than just a little upset at the knowledge that your beloved magazine will no longer be published. I can't believe how many hits this blog has had based on google searches containing the words Harrowsmith, Luc Lemay, and Malcolm Publishing. Anyway, this is supposed to be an update. From Masthead we have this news from January, 2012. Basically, if you ordered your subscription using Rogers Magazine Service you'll be sent issues of Garden Making. Garden Making is a quarterly issue and you'll have the magazine for the duration of your Harrowsmith order. Apparently that's about 2000 of you and you'll have the option of renewing your subscription at the end of the order period. As for the rest of us long standing customers who renewed directly to Harrowsmith, you and I have been screwed. There are no answers as to why the plug was pulled on Harrowsmith, just a whole lot of disgruntled subscribers. The best that I can do for myself in the future is pay attention to the publisher listing of whatever magazine I'm subscribing to and avoid Malcolm Media like the plague. As far as Garden Making magazine goes, I don't think I'll be ordering it. It's supposed to be award winning I know but it's issued quarterly and that's a long time to wait between issues. In the meantime, I have good news for you cyber junkies! You see that link on the side bar that says Use StumbleUpon, click on it after you read this and then click on Stumble. It's a way to get linked to great gardening ideas from magazines, newspapers, bloggers and whatever else you can imagine. I've been using it for a few days now and I've got these great ideas based on gardening searches. I know it's not the same as having a magazine in your hand on a cold winter's night but it's a very close substitute. Take heart my friends, I've got your back, and I'll keep you posted should anything else come up related to Harrowsmith. Right now, I have my doubts we'll hear anymore on the subject.

FYI, here's an update on what's going on with the Sponsorship Scandal. Remember, Luc Lemay is trying to avoid criminal charges for his role and I can't help but think that this is relevant. If you're not p.o.'d enough then this will get you really riled, guess what magazine received money for 2011-2012 as part of Canada Periodical Fund? Harrowsmith Country Life to the tune of $330, 130. Doesn't that just leave a sour taste in your mouth? Pass it on.

The Blog is Back, I couldn't Help it

2012-02-18T10:58:00.001-06:00

I know. I tried. There's too much going on to not write before March. I hope everyone has had as beautiful a winter as I have. Unfortunately, with the lack of snow, gardening will be a bit of a challenge this year. Living in Winnipeg hasn't made me soft and I know us gardeners will rise to the challenge. While I was taking a break from blogging I did manage to do some research and found some very interesting, cool stuff that I want to share with you. First, there's an apartment gardener in Winnipeg who lives on the 7th floor of her building and she still manages to grow some of her own veg, she is the proud owner of The Apartment Gardening Project. The second really cool thing is an organization called A Rocha, an international Christian organization that encourages environmental stewardship. Part of their program is related to community gardening. One of the benefits to writing a Winnipeg based blog is that I'm learning more about what resources are available here, what kind of programs exist, and who's doing what. I now know that this is not one of the only gardening blogs in town as I first believed. Who knew there was more than Dorothy Dobbie? People like me who dig in the dirt without gloves on, people like me who want to inspire and coach others, people like me who would rather die than never eat another fresh garden tomato, people like Winnipeg Community Garden Network and Slow Food Winnipeg. Yes, death would be better.

The T and T seeds arrived about a month ago, the order was delayed because there were some new seed varieties that they were waiting on. Now I'm just waiting for the potatoes, fruit trees and shrubs. Like I said, the weather has been phenomenal and I had a chance to clean up the green house a bit, check it out and realign it on the deck. It was in a North South orientation and that's not favourable to maximizing light exposure the way the shelves are laid out. I've got it East West for now and probably will change it back around May. The greenhouse is wider than it is long and so it interferes with the flow of the deck the way it is now. With some luck the greenhouse should be warm enough in a week or so to start some lettuce, spinach, and radishes or some other cold tolerant seeds.

If you haven't checked it out yet, I have a facebook page for The Garden Coach, Winnipeg. If I happen to find really good local information or garden ideas that I don't write about on the blog then you'll find it on the facebook page. There's also Twitter where you can follow me at @gardencoachwinn. What I love about Twitter is that it's another way to get information related to gardening and food. You use # in front of your search, say #gardening or #food, and you end up finding more information, resources, or links. I try to tweet as much as I can about information that I know most of us can use. Love that Twitter.

I want to leave you with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright that I read recently, "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you."

Happy gardening!

OMG, I've Been Nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award!!

2012-02-09T12:38:00.001-06:00

I know I said I wasn't going to post until March but I've been nominated for an award, The Versatile Blogger Award no less.

Thank you so much Aagaard Farms! I love to read other Manitoba blogs to find out what challenges and successes people are having that I can relate to and Aagaard Farms has really been one of my goto resources. I'm also a loyal follower of Aagaard Farms on Twitter where they're listed as @aagaardfarms.

Okay, so I have to mention seven random things about me (shouldn't be too hard, my head's full of random thoughts):

1. I hate wearing high heels and would rather poke my eyes out than clothes shop.

2. I'm starting a nature club at my daughter's elementary school.

3. I'm an internet social activist.

4. I'm a bigger hockey fan than my husband.

5. I'm the family genealogist having put long lost family members in touch with one another.

6. My favorite food is a Black Forest cake.

7. QI is my all time favourite show.

The rules of the Versatile Blogger Award have to be posted and they are:

1. Add the award to your blog.

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.

3. Mention seven random things about yourself.

4. List the rules.

5. Award to 15 bloggers.

6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here goes, my 15 nominations are:

1. Urban Homestead South Africa

2. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

3. Red Ripe Tomatoes

4. Gardening Jones

5. New House, New Home, New Life

6. Veggie Delight-A Manitoba Garden

7. Living Lightly in Suburbia

8. First Time Vegetable Growing

9. A Garden Amongst the Weeds

10. Crafty Gardener

11. Gumboots in the Kitchen-Garden Plot to Soup Pot

12. Out of my Shed

13. The Heart of a Home Keeper

14. Fresh Basil

15. Fruit Share Manitoba

Thank you all for inspiring me!!

It's Nearly February in Winnipeg and I'm Gardening

2012-01-30T11:32:00.000-06:00

I'm down to monthly instalments, what can I say? It's not easy writing a gardening blog in Winnipeg. Although this winter has been mild in comparison to some in recent memory, it's never ever short enough for my liking. To all of you bloggers growing veg right now, I'm insanely jealous. I've been focusing on other distractions while I'm waiting patiently for winter to come to an end. First, I've been sucked into the vortex that is Ancestry.ca. Yes, vortex. I look up one thing out of curiosity and before I know it I've researched pottery in Northern England, the Treaty of Utrecht, and military movement during the Second Boer War (I bet you didn't know there was a second). What's the benefit? I'm tracing family history for my children, collaborating with people I've never met, learning a little about history along the way, and....damn....finishing crossword puzzles by myself. The single most important thing I like to do over the winter months is read a lot. I hate watching television, there's never anything good on and if I'm going to spend time in front of a screen I might as well be on the computer learning something. What I love to read are books that inspire me, motivate me to self analyze, evaluate the kind of person I am and what kind of person I would like to be. It has had a profound effect on how I view the world, relationships, and how I live. Couple that with physical activity like walking, shovelling, or chopping wood (we installed a wood stove in October) and I'm cultivating body, mind, and spirit to work towards enrichment to ultimately achieve a holistically healthy existence. I'm gardening.... in winter.

Update:
About the horseradish, don't preserve it in white vinegar, it was awful. I'll try freezing or drying next year instead. Anything has to be better than vinegar.

Also, we're getting our third delivery of Harborside Farms meat this weekend. They are no longer selling rabbit and lamb and they're now offering monthly freezer packs. We've ordered a couple of ducks as part of our purchase this time and I'll let you know how they are. Overall, we haven't been disappointed with the quality of meat we've bought so far. The bone in pork chops, bacon, and home made sausages really are the best I've ever tasted.

Until March and if you're gardening in any sense of the word then I sincerely hope you get the results you're looking for.

Christmas/New Year Update

2011-12-15T15:25:00.000-06:00

Hopefully, you're still enjoying your summer harvest and every mouth full is reminding you of warmer, sunnier days. I received my T and T Seeds catalogue at the beginning of November and finally made my seed selections a couple of days ago for next spring. I like to take my time and clean out my seed box, see what I have too much of and think about what I would like to start from seed instead of buying seed plants. Incidentally, my seed box is an old wood box with a latching lid. It was given to me by a neighbour who was trying to get rid of it a garage sale. I don't care if it is pink, it keeps my seeds dry and organized and it was FREE.

The bonus about ordering early from T and T Seeds is that you get a 10% discount from your total order and they like to throw in a free gift, or two, or three....depending on how much you're spending. The other thing that I wanted to try next spring is heirloom seeds from Heritage Harvest Seed, located in Carman, MB. Believe it or not, there aren't many varieties of Kale available in Manitoba but I did manage to order Dwarf Curled Scotch Kale as part of my order and then received a free gift of Lacinto Kale. For fun, I chose Tom Thumb Popcorn and Mandan Bride Corn. I also ordered Black Beauty Eggplant. I'm used to buying all my eggplant in seed trays ready to go in the garden from Leclair's but this next spring is the spring I find out if my mini greenhouse was a good investment. Just so you know, the turnaround from when I put my order in at Heritage Harvest to when I received my seeds was only three days. Now I'm just waiting for my first shipment from T and T Seeds. With the seeds, tubers, and fruit trees I'm expecting to receive three different shipments to coincide with recommended planting times. My husband was laughing at me a couple of weeks ago. I was in bed with the seed catalogue perusing my options when he mentioned that it wasn't even the end of this year and how could anyone possibly start thinking about spring of next year? What can I say? I save a few bucks when I order early and I usually get what I want! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

Fall/Winter Update, Keeping Horseradish Ready for Use, and Harborside Farms

2011-11-09T10:39:00.000-06:00

Hard to believe that it's been almost three weeks since I last posted. A lot can happen in three weeks. We got our first snow a couple of days ago and that spurned me to dig up some horseradish root and preserve it. I love horseradish but, when shredded, it only lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge then it loses its potency. I have to thank my friend, Yvonne, for giving me part of a root about three years ago and that's the cutting I took my root from. One of my rules about harvesting horseradish is to harvest in late fall because that's when most of the plants energy will be concentrated in the root system as it prepares for winter, thus giving you the hottest possible product. When you clean your root, save the cuttings and put them back in the ground. If you're lucky the cuttings will make a new plant should the main plant die. Wash the root really well, peel, trim off ugly bits, and then pack it in largish pieces into a clean jar. I added pickling vinegar to my jar and I think this not only will keep my horseradish hotter longer but I can also use the infused vinegar if I choose. I didn't have white wine vinegar but if I had that's what I would have used instead.

We've received our second delivery of meat from Harborside Farms. We've fallen in love with the sausages, pork chops, bacon, and ground lamb. The meat comes from free range, grass fed, hormone free animals and the sausages are comprised of all natural ingredients, no MSG, liquid smoke, or nitrates. The bacon is like none other I've ever tasted. I save the drippings to use in other cooking (yes, you read that right). It's meat the way nature intended. I'm not a vegetarian. I like vegetables but I REALLY like a good cut of meat and if I can get it from a local farmer who treats his animals humanely and with respect, so much the better. It's good for my conscience and great for his pocketbook.

As far as the greenhouse goes, I think the cutoff date for plants would be Oct. 31. I went to water my tray of radishes and spinach yesterday and the soil was frozen in the tray. The plant tops were still green and looked healthy. I've also left a row of carrots in the garden. They weren't ready to harvest before it snowed. I've covered the row with a double layer of row cover that I picked up at Lee Valley and I'm going to leave it probably until spring. I want to see how well the carrots stand up to winter. If I'm lucky maybe I'll have something to harvest after the snow melts early next year.

Fall and Winter Gardening

2011-10-27T14:50:00.000-05:00

October 27....gardening outdoors is at a virtual standstill. With the exception of the greenhouse radishes and spinach, the carrots under the row cover and the horseradish to harvest, it's time to bring the gardening indoors. I've recently discovered vermicomposting, not something new but new to me. I found a couple of youtube videos and followed a couple of bloggers to see what I needed to do. This is the best video I followed in constructing a Vermicompost bin and here's the best blog I read, Worm Composting. I've got the bin in my basement laundry room. We went and bought two dozen night crawlers from Canadian Tire and liberated them.....until fishing season. It turns out that these worms are not the ideal composters, that designation would lie with red wigglers. Red wigglers are the kind of worms that you would find in leaf trash in your yard. They like to feed higher up than night crawlers. I didn't feel like ordering a pound of worms and thought I would take a chance using the night crawlers. I'm trying to evenly distribute the compost I've added so that the night crawlers will be tempted by something. I've already seen a difference. The newspaper that I added as a bedding layer is nearly completely gone, there is no smell in the bin, it seems like there is more dirt than what I added, and the worms look really well fed. Anyway, if it doesn't work I haven't really lost anything. I'm sure I'll find a use for the rubbermaid bins even if they are full of holes and the worms could be used as bait for ice fishing. Brrr, ice fishing...that's a past time?!

About the greenhouse....we dipped to -6C last night and the radishes and spinach survived. I was a little worried when I looked in on them this morning. They had the appearance of too far gone frozen greens but as the day heated up they perked up again. I think I've made a good investment.

One last thing, one of my email followers passed away suddenly last week. We had the pleasure of meeting her last spring and we stayed in touch via email. Her passing came as a surprise, especially since she had sent me an email just the day before. I'm very lucky to have known her....miss you cousin Mildred.

How to Make Sauerkraut

2011-10-20T15:19:00.001-05:00

The first time I made sauerkraut I was in University and it was part the lab component of a Food Microbiology course. I don't remember paying much attention and I'm not even sure if we sampled any of it when we finished. The second time really didn't work out, I didn't know how much salt to add or to press it with weights to squeeze out as much water as possible during the fermentation. So, what I was left with was pretty much a rotten bowl of cabbage. This left me with zero desire to attempt again, until now.

The internet is the best resource around for learning how to do or make just about anything. It's my primary resource for researching everything. Yes, I know not everything is true online but, I think when it comes to fermenting cabbage, why would you bother to lie?

What did I do? This actually was a result of making cabbage rolls and being left with a partially boiled head of smaller cabbage leaves. I cleaned a stainless steel bowl, a kitchen plate, a couple of 2 1/2 pound weights, and this metal plate that weighs about 12 pounds. The metal plate comes from when they were clearing out junk from storage at the pharmacy I sometimes work at. I was meaning to use it for cheese someday but it worked quite well for the sauerkraut. I chopped the cabbage and placed it in the bowl

and sprinkled salt over it, mixed it thoroughly, placed the kitchen plate on this, the two weights on top of the plate, and then the metal plate over it to really press down on the cabbage.

the metal plate even has a handle on it!!

I covered the whole thing with dish towels and left it in the kitchen. The next day, I checked and saw that there wasn't much water being squeezed out so I added a couple of cups of salted water to the mix. It was about 1 tsp salt per cup of water. The steps I was following came from Wild Fermentation:: Making Sauerkraut is Easy! I checked on the fermentation every couple of days, picking "bloom" off the top and discarding it. While it's safe, it's also unappetizing. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. This went on for over two weeks until I was happy with the aroma and taste. This now left me with a conundrum, do I can it or do I leave it in the bowl? You can do either. If you leave it in the bowl you can scoop out what you want as you need it but it gets darker and the flavour gets more intense. I decided to can it. I followed this YouTube video for the procedure and processed my pints for 20 minutes. I had a couple of half pints and just processed these for 20 minutes as well.

I know before it was canned that it tasted really good, I'm hoping none of that flavour has been lost through processing.

Thoughts About the Foxfire Book and the Uganda Land Grab on Blog Action Day

2011-10-15T22:42:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know, Foxfire was a magazine written by Rabun County high school students under the guidance of their English teacher, Eliot Wigginton, starting in 1966. The Foxfire Book is a compilation of articles from the magazine. The book really is a written history of daily life in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia. The students task was to interview and record the older community residents in the area about their way of life, their crafts, gardening, and cooking. Every essential survival topic is covered, from log cabin building to soap making. This book is a reflection of, what many would consider, simpler times. Hard to believe when your very survival depended not only on sources of wood, water and food but how proficient you were with an axe, gun, and fire. Could you imagine the pride and confidence of a person or family that managed to more than eke out a living in such a situation? What would it feel like to have it all suddenly taken away from you? As of September 22, 2011, Oxfam reports that no less than 20 000 people have been evicted from their land in Uganda to make way for UK's New Forest Company's plantations. You can read about it here. These people used to grow their own food, keep their own animals, and send their children to village schools. They were just like the people interviewed for the Foxfire Book. With the loss of their way of life these people are being pushed to the brink of poverty. Skills are no longer assets and they become members on the fringe of society, pushed to the margins. It's the human cost of profit. The Appalachian pioneers had an enviable history compared to modern day counterparts. They remained proud and that shows throughout the Foxfire Book. They were more than happy to share their knowledge with others. They had no fear of poverty. As long as they had food to eat, a warm dry roof over their heads and people to share their lives with they felt blessed. Every bit of acquired knowledge was passed on from one generation to the next, linking the people with their history. The Ugandan story, unlike the Appalachian pioneers', may never be told with any sense of pride. They may not have their own Foxfire Book but, for my part, I've shared their story and I hope you share it too.

Homemade Salsa

2011-10-12T17:02:00.000-05:00

The tomatoes I left in the greenhouse finally ripened. I would say that they ripened in less than ideal conditions considering the windstorm we had early last week that nearly turned the greenhouse into a box kite and sent everything flying in every direction. Thankfully, I only lost a couple of empty pots and none of the radish and spinach sprouts, basil, or tomatoes. To stabilize the greenhouse and keep it from flying away in the future, I bungee strapped the legs to the deck and that seems to have done the trick.

Today I made salsa. This is a recipe from my neighbour:

18-20 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped
3 cups chopped celery
3 cups onion, red or white
1/4 pickling salt

cover and let sit overnight

then add:

1 cup vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 red and 2 green chopped peppers
4 small tins tomato paste
3-5 cloves of garlic
3/4 tsp cumin
2 jalapeno peppers chopped

simmer about one hour, pour in sterilized jars, no processing required.

Okay, this is what I did different:

I didn't have green or red bell peppers but I have lots of jalapeno in the freezer, so I took 4 of these out and chopped them. There is no need to defrost them because they slice like butter when they're frozen (as long as you're using the heel of a sharp knife blade). I used 3 tins of tomato paste and I made sure to use pickling vinegar (7% acetic acid rather than 5%) for assurance against spoilage. Also, I couldn't find any cayenne so that didn't get tossed in either. I simmered the whole recipe in the slow cooker for three hours on high and then poured the contents into hot, sterilized jars. I've gotten in the practice of sterilizing the jars in a hot oven set to 225 F for 10 minutes. I processed the sealed jars in the hot water canner for 10 minutes, again for added assurance against spoilage. You might think I'm taking this to the extreme but if you've gone through the effort of growing your own tomatoes then you'll be plenty upset if any of your canning spoils because you didn't take the extra step.

The yield was seven pints. If you added all the ingredients in the recipe you would get eight pints out of it. If you don't have a canning kit, get one. It's so much better canning when you have the proper tools, a beer doesn't hurt either.

I had an idea come to me when I was digging through all the loose canning rings, duh, tie them to a string.

The last thing to do is wait for the salsa to age a little......and have some more beer.

"Tomatoland" Review

2011-10-06T21:29:00.001-05:00

Wow. I read Tomatoland based on a recommendation by The Cheap Vegetable Gardener and I'm really glad I did. Barry Estabrook does a really great job researching and conveying to the reader big Agriculture's tomato production in Florida. The book opens with a history of the tomato plant in America and follows corporate exploitation of migrant tomato farm workers, their struggle to be treated fairly, and continues on to give us a glimpse at the future of the tomato industry. Shortly after I started reading the book and finding out about the amount and kinds of pesticides that tomato growers in Florida are allowed to use bee colony collapse made the news, guess where, Florida. What really gets me angry is the amount of money that lobby groups have to buy off government representatives so that they turn the other way and neglect doing what's in the best interest for the environment, for impoverished people, for the sake of having the best chance of being re-elected. Gets my goat every time. Well, maybe the consumer gets the last laugh in all of this. We are the driving force behind a more flavourful, natural looking and feeling tomato. This is all much to the chagrin of Florida's corporate tomato growers who are only interested in selling that tomato that can travel furthest, last longer on the shelf, look like a tennis ball and be utterly tasteless. As one grower puts it, "I've never lost a sale to flavour". In Canada, in the middle of winter we all crave tomatoes, unfortunately, what's usually offered to us is this ugly pink, rock hard, tomato wannabee. We apparently are only "looking" at the tomato before buying and going home to be completely disappointed once we bite into it. The sale never depended on the flavour, only the appearance. In the last couple of years I've noticed more greenhouse tomatoes on the market and these do taste a damn sight better than any tennis ball. But as any gardener will tell you, nothing taste better than home grown. I also think that the subtitle should read How Modern Industrial Agriculture ALMOST destroyed our most alluring fruit because there's hope yet. Read "Tomatoland" if you get a chance, it's worth the read.