kalegrower

Several weeks ago over coffee, an experienced gardener reminded me that the growth and expansion of one plant may influence the growth of others. This has really changed how I think about some of the more “successful” plants in the yard, and now I am trying to anticipate if these faster growing plants will threaten the smaller, slower growing ones. That was my inspiration for removing some of the dogwood and azalea branches earlier in the week. Today, I crawled under the rhododendrons and cut down two mid-sized trees that were starting to shade the vegetable garden.

Removing branches and cutting down trees is the easy part of urban logging. Chopping the branches down small enough to fit into the yard waste bin is the most time consuming part of the whole process. Even relatively short trees generate a lot of material. After two rainy hours I was only half-way finished with the pile, so decided to leave the rest until another day.

As I was walking around the house, I saw a bunch of weeds and my OCD kicked in and so I ended up weeding for another half hour or so.

All this rain has been GREAT for the trees and GREAT for the weeds, but not so great for the vegetables and berries. Hopefully this week it will be sunny again.

The very back of my yard is carpeted in this….and it is spreading….

This is the Evil Weed Of The Year. It first appeared last summer from under the hedge at the back and is now moving across the back yard in a quiet green wave. This spreads with runners under the ground and when you pull out the plant, the runners stretch and snap back into the ground; it is impossible to pull them up. I tried to spray some of the ones at the back with Roundup (I know, I know….I will go to hell now for sure) but it didn’t seem to have much impact, except for turning the edges of the leaves slightly brown.

Last years EWOTYs (there were two) were (1) a small little plant with a circle of dark green leaves that shot up and had a few flowers (2) a plant similar to fireweed with light green leaves and pink flowers.  I have less of the former and more of the later this year than last.

Weather: moderate rain. This counts as a “rain day”.

I was walking home after a lunch date and a block away from my house, a woman is deadheading her 12 foot high rhodos. I walk past her yard and then I think “Wait. Did I just see one of my neighbors actually working in her own garden?”   So I turn around, walk back and go stand at the bottom of her ladder and say “excuse me, do you mind if I ask you what happens if you don’t deadhead”?  She looks down and says “Well, I never used to deadhead, but I went to some lecture from some expert at the botanical gardens, and if you don’t deadhead, you won’t get as many flowers”.  “Good to know” I say. “I’ve been avoiding doing any deadheading”.  She suggests that I just deadhead one tree and see if it make a difference next year.  The scientific method…I like it.  She asked me “Have you been feeding  your rhodos?” I say….”Uh no”.  She points to some of her leaves that are a bit brown and she says “they need iron, and an acidic fertilizer. Try it on one plant this year”.  This is excellent advice, as many of my rhodos seem kind of shriveled and brown.

So what I learned about Rhodos is:

1) they need to be deadheaded

2) they need to be fertilized

3) they can be moved, even if they are large.

We continue talking. It turns out she knew my in-laws quite well. She says “From my perspective, 71 is the prime of life, and dying at that age is too young”. I agree with her, because 71 seems to young from my perspective as well.  She says “Drop by another day and come by the back of my house and I will give you a rhododendron manual.” Cool.

For the last few years I have tried to garden as “organically” as possible, which means i haven’t used any pesticidea or herbicides and have tried to fertilize using just compost and manure. I have also prided myself on doing my own gardening, instead of hiring gardeners.

Ha. In these last few weeks everything changed. When I returned from vacation, every single sprout in my vegetable garden had been eaten. Every. Last. One. So, last weekend I replanted everything – kale, lettuce, radishes, beets, beans, carrots, parsnips and then liberally sprinkled everything with slug pellets. I looked for some of the copper wire stuff, but was unable to find any. Okay, so my garden isnt organic…but there are sprouts starting to appear?

The second thing that happened this week is that I hired a horticulturalist to come and look at the front yard (which I was starting to hate) and to make some decisions about what needed to be removed, moved or planted. He came on Wednesday with his team and we removed a lot of the weeds by taking out “pancakes” of soil and then replacing it with fresh soil. He also cut down a few self-seeded trees, moved a few shrubs and made some planting recommendations. The front garden looks fabulous as a result. 

This week: keeping the weeds under control. 

Two weeks ago I did a huge planting and am happy to see that many of the seeds have started to sprout. Some of the ones I planted early in the year have already been eaten (I assume) so I had to replant.

Bed A is filled with potatoes.

In bed B I added a row of red sails/rouge de hiver (which has sprouted), Tyee spinach (mysteriously disappeared), a row of speckled butter head (growing spectacularly) and a row of freckles lettuce (also growing fabulously).

Bed C is waiting for the warm weather….still under wraps.

In bed D, I planted a row each of parsnips, radishes, bolero carrots, fingerling carrots, purple haze carrots. Today I added four rows of beets (red ace and a blend) and also replanted some of the kale which has all disappeared along the radishes. Nothing in this bed seems to be doing well, or maybe it is just too early in the season.  If things continue this way, I am going to replant with bush beans in June.

Also pulled out the last of last years leeks…will likely eat them in the next day or so.

All the spring flowers are coming out and the rock garden is particularly beautiful right now. The pictures of the triliums were taken from there.

Every few days or so for the last month I have been searching the earth looking for fava sprouts. Fearing a repeat of last years pea situation – where I planted the seeds early and they just rotted or were eaten – I decided to replant the beans. I planted broad bean seeds purchased from the Hornby Island Coop for $3 – the label says that they are from Gordon Bio Farm in Fords Cove. The seeds were about twice the size of the last seeds that I planted and had a black stripe on one side. Hopefully they will grow this time.

The arugula and spinach has started to sprout as have the first few radishes…

Next week: potatoes!