Sunday, May 03, 2009

Plant Sale


Plant Sale
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I had a plant sale to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, that a bunch of my friends are doing. We had many donations of plants and raised $450 for cancer research! Many thanks to all who attended and bought plants, or who donated to the sale!

Salad Greens


Salad Greens
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
Salad greens that I started in the window in February, before I planted them out a couple weeks ago.

This year, I grew from seed:
- 3 varieties of tomato, now in the coldframe waiting to get a bit more robust before planting into the garden
- salad greens as shown
- lettuce
- radicchio (at Ben's request)
- peppercress
- mache / lamb's lettuce
- spinnach
- radishes
- carrots
- beets
- parsnips
- peas
- kale
- potatoes from seed potatoes (first time trying this!)

I'll update again soon - the garden has really changed just since these pictures were taken a week or so ago.

Bee house


Bee house
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
I bought a mason bee house & bees this year. That's it on the fence.

So far, 1 female of the 9 bees that emerged has stayed and filled two nest tubes with eggs & pollen for next year's offspring.

In another month or so, she'll die, leaving the eggs with their pollen supplies to develop in to larvae, which will then pupate & spin cocoons to hibernate in over the winter. At that point, I'll take them inside, clean them of pollen mites, and store them in the fridge (!) safe from predators over the winter. Next spring, they'll get put in the house again to hatch out & pollinate another crop of apples and plums!

The City of Vancouver and the Environmental Youth Alliance have put bee houses up in all the City's parks to make more habitat for these non-aggressive and beneficial pollinators.

New raised beds


New raised beds
Originally uploaded by kristi_t
The completed beds, in place in the yard. The plastic mulch helps soil heat up, while the polytunnels (here uncovered) act like little greenhouses.

Spring and New Beds

It's been so long since I last posted! Some catching up to do.

So, last year's experiment was fairly successful. I learned a lot, and had a great time growing a lot of our food. I even had a CBC Radio french TV spot, thanks to our friend, Benoit. You can see the clip here: http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/manitoba/Dossiers/detail.asp?Pk_Dossiers_regionaux=193&Pk_Dossiers_regionaux_page=251

Over the winter, I kept a few greens going in a coldframe. This spring is when the most work started though - I built raised beds, all by myself! (photo credit: Ben Johnson, Sockeyed Images)



I opted to use cedar so they wouldn't rot so fast, and screwed them together, loosely based on designs in a book I found second hand during a trip to Mayne Island. It's called the 60 minute garden (http://www.amazon.ca/Jeff-Balls-60-Minute-Vegetable-Garden/dp/0020303769)
The design includes anchors to allow the use of polytunnels made from flexible tubing and clear polyethelene sheeting. These can be switched out for a trellis for climbing plants.