kalegrower

The view of the top of the back wall and the neighbours’ gardens. Note the pink bougainvillea branch on the right.

Many of the gardens in Spain are hidden in courtyards or behind houses, and are not easily visible from the street. Luckily, my house in Spain (okay, so it’s not really MY house) has a great view, and by leaning over the back wall I can look into the neighbours (somewhat neglected) gardens. These gardens mostly contain overgrown fruit trees such as oranges and nispiros, a cactus or two, and grapes. Last summer there were lots of pot plants, but they are gone now.

Apparently prickly pear cactus will grow wherever a piece of it falls, so one of my friends has been throwing pieces of cactus over the back wall to deter intruders. I laughed when he told me, but his experiment has been a success, and there are now two small cacti growing.

My friends have managed to grow a gorgeous garden – featuring geraniums, hibiscus and bougainvillea – in very small area at the side of the deck. My favorite is the gardenia. Although it only started to bloom a few days before we left, the scent of each new flower would explode as they unfolded.

The small garden on the sunny side of the deck.

Loved the gardenia

The back of my house is covered with bignoia vines, which bloom in July and August. I am hoping that my friends will send me pictures of what it looks like in bloom.

When I was six years old* the kids in our neighborhood would spend summer evenings together. After supper, everyone would meet outside and groups would form and dissolve as more kids joined. It was exciting to be running around with the older kids and I have memories of playing hide-and-go-seek, of drawing on someone’s white stucco house with rolled up lilac leaves (those chlorophyll designs didn’t fade all summer), and of squeezing through back hedges to raid gardens. The goal was to grab something and run before we were caught. The most orderly gardens, with their easy-to-locate rows of carrots, peas and strawberries, sustained the most damage.

Sometimes we found ourselves in completely wild, overgrown jungles. Usually the vegetables were no longer recognizable because they had gone to seed and fallen over. There were weeds everywhere, and lots of completely out-of-control flowers. We tripped in the long grass and found things like empty wine bottles and abandoned glasses, damp books that had been left outside for days, and bowls of wilted lettuce. Those gardens were a little scary but had a mysterious draw; they were the ones that we returned to again and again all summer.

After returning from a vacation last week, I was shocked to see my garden looking very similar to those that I remembered from childhood. Before leaving in April, I had spent a lot of time weeding, planting and trimming, and when I left my garden was in great shape. Luckily, The Man did a lot of watering while I was away, and when I returned the fava beans had grown about three feet and were starting to fall over, the potatoes were up, the arugula had exploded and was covering up the lettuce seedlings, and the kale had gone to seed. The branches of the trees and shrubs were blocking the walkways. And the weeds were completely out of control. Every morning and evening since, I have been in the back yard, trying to get things under control.

I’ve been removing the tops of plants that have bolted (spinach and brussel sprouts) and am trying to harvest some of the leaves before pulling them up. I have been thinning the arugula and lettuce, removing the overgrown leaves of the chard, and staking the peas. I covered the potatoes and planted more lettuce, basil and cress. The cilantro has been the big winner so far, and I have been making and freezing cilantro/walnut pesto. I have also been taking note of which trees and branches are not thriving (the white lilac and the Japanese snowbell are unlikely to make it) and will call Dave to remove them.

Okay, that is enough of a break for now. Happy Hippy Gardening!!!

(*1972, Wetaskawin Alberta)

...and you can give them to the birds and bees…

Full confession: I have been writing this blog for over a week now. Last week was one one those weeks where it was just one  surprise after another. Each time something happened, I added to the draft on my desk top and then thought “I should proofread this with fresh brains tomorrow morning”. Then something else happened, and I postponed yet again. Time has run out, and I am leaving for holidays tomorrow. So here you go.

(1) Awesome free pen. I got a free pen in the mail for subscribing to a magazine that I already get for free (through my newspaper). Yeah, that sounds moronic and when I tried to explain it to The Man he said “Okay, so we already get that magazine, but now we get two copies and we PAY for each issue?” But the pen arrived in the mail in a lovely box and it got my week off to a great start. So, okay, that felt free, but really wasn’t.

(2) Hummingbird interaction. All the windows on the west side of our house have crumpled pieces of foil taped to them to deter birds. We have tried almost everything (silhouettes of prey birds, reflective window stickers, live cat on the windowsill) and still birds hit the windows. Most of them recover after a few minutes and fly away, but it is heartbreaking when they don’t. This week, as my mom sat on the patio, she heard something hit the window behind her and bounce off her onto the patio. My son picked up the hummingbird and held it in his hand until it recovered and flew away.

(3) Free seeds. The seeds above came free with a bottle of wine! How cool is that? I have no idea when or if the seeds will come up, or what they will be, and I had to drink a bottle of wine to get those seeds. But, I planted them behind the solar panel (for my outdoor garden lights) and look forward to a surprise later in the summer.

(4) Free content curation. I was going to say “free advice” but that doesn’t sound very nice. The best thing about writing this blog is getting great feedback and information from other people. When one of my gardening friends read my blog about delphiniums, she sent some great web resources about “New Millennium Delphiniums”, which I think she grows in her garden. Thanks for sending garden girl! http://delphinium.co.nz/GrowingDelphiniumInUSAAndCanada.html http://www.bcliving.ca/garden/new-zealand-wonders

(5) Free books. One of my other garden friends was spring cleaning and gave me these great books. “Why grow that when you can grow this?” By Andrew Keys is awesome. Not only does it identify challenging plants, but also suggests lower maintenance alternatives, and it is funny. Andres Keys describes delphium as follows: “With its cerulean tower of flower, deliphinium entices all who aspire to the English cottage garden style. Alas,diva delph may be short-lived even if its demands for supplemental water and staking are met. It suffers in hot, humid climates and too often falls prey to pests and powdery mildew.” Instead he recommends Blue fortune’ anise hyssop, foothill penstemon, princess flower, and provides good photos descriptions and growing instructions for each. Thank you Mrs. M. I will read the bee book after vacation.

(6) Free lunch. And I got taken out for lunch by one of my garden girlfriends. She was telling me about a great company located here in Vancouver who dropped topsoil off at her house in a huge garden bag, so you don’t need to dot he tarp and plastic cover thing. http://www.mygardenbag.com / She is usually right about most things, so am going to check out this company next time I need a huge amount of soil or mulch.

(7) Bees are awesome. The  hive has been in place for over two weeks and the bees seem happy. The Saskatoon berry tree, which is enormous, started to bloom when they first arrived. Just today, the first petals started to sprinkle down like snow. I think I probably started with a larger number of bees than last year; most days at mid-day there are about 30 -50 bees around the entrance; last  year it was usually between 6 -12.

Okay, that is it for now. I will return in a few weeks. Adios mis amigos!

Last summer I had a dream that I walked up the steps to the back of my yard, and the entire area around my compost bins was completely overgrown with a field of shoulder-high blue delphiniums. Such a strange dream – the light was diffuse, the delphiniums were intense blue and my friend who loves delphiniums was standing in the flowers. Then the dream either ended or morphed into a dream about something else, I can’t remember which.

This year I am going to grow them one way or another. I bought a pack of blue delphiniums (aka Rocket Larkspur) from West Coast Seeds and sowed them in several places including with the sweetpeas in the back and also in the front bed with the tulips and poppies. If that doesn’t work -I haven’t had any luck with the seeds my friend sent me – I am going to buy a few plants from the nursery in the summer and plant them in the rock garden.

Just about every week, I have an email “check in” with two of my friends – one of us sends a lengthy email, the other two then respond. We describe what we’ve been doing during the week, the high points and the lows, and we share funny stories and frustrations. One of these friends lives in Ontario and has created a beautiful app called the Ontario Wineries Guide and has a blog linked to the app. Last month she attended a wine festival and learned, from one of the Ontario grape growers, that there may not be a 2014 vintage.

WHAT???!?!?!

Apparently the cold weather in Ontario has killed many of the grape buds.  On her blog, Ontario Wineries Guide she describes how the grape buds are assessed and has some illustrative photos. A great blog – definitely worth a look (and get the app too).

A poor grape harvest isn’t good news for anyone. I will be interested to see how this plays out and what will happen in BC as a result. I know that many of our wines are made with grapes grown elsewhere, so any shortages in Ontario are likely to be felt here as well…

Yesterday the 2014 gardening season kicked off with the arrival of 2000 pounds of manure. I walked out the door and there it was at the top of my driveway: 50 – 40 lb bags of Thunderbird Track and Field Club Manure*.  Awesome. My husband took this photo of me lounging on the bags before they were put away in the back of the yard (that is a whole other story involving one 14 year old, $25 and 45 minutes).

Today this is what I did in the garden: (1) PLANTED FAVAS. Removed the tarp from bed #4, added a few bags of manure which I first dug under and then planted the beans. This year I planted deeper than in previous years and I didn’t plant the beans too close to each other.

(2) PLANTED HERBS. The soil in the herb bed has dropped significantly. I first weeded the bed and then top dressed the bed with manure. I was careful when putting the manure around the chives (which are thriving), the bay plant and the tarragon, both of which seemed to have survived the winter. I have a lot of herb seeds leftover from a few of years ago, so I planted them fairly close together as I expect that the germination rate might be low. From N to S, I planted thyme, curly parsley, flat leaf parsley, santo long standing cilantro and then one row of mild mesclun blend lettuce. I had ONE chard seed left in the packet that I also planted. Finally, I pushed in a few “salad blend” nasturtium seeds around the bed. Done.

(3) FENNEL. The cabbage and kale in bed #1 survived the winter and is finally starting to grow. The fall-planted spinach has all disappeared (I blame the slugs), but the fall-planted arugula is starting to sprout. The arugula plants are quite hearty, so I covered them with a bit of manure, then planted three rows of florence fennel.

(4) FLORES!  I first weeded and top-dressed the rest of the bed under the lilac and then planted sweet peas (fragrant ones from a friend and bijou dwarf blend). I sprinkled three other types of seeds in that area: deep red poppies, pollinator blend and blue delphinium and raked the dirt to cover the seeds. I look forward to see what (if anything) sprouts.

(5) Mucho Flores! The rest of the sweet peas were planted in the same place as last year, besides the strawberries. The whole rock garden bed is full of tulip and crocus sprouts and so I spread the manure around carefully. I also spread the manure in some of the beds in the front yard where the bulbs are coming up.

(6) LAWN: In our house, lawncare falls under the Man Gardening category, which means that the husband does it. He spread manure on the patchier parts of the grass, including the areas that were turned over by birds and racoons.

We used about half of the manure today, which leaves about 25 bags left for the rest of the spring/summer.

NEXT: Need to top dress the raspberries, the area under the tree in front, and add a few bags to the garden beds at the back before planting in April/May.  I notice that the weeds (especially crab grass) are starting to come up, so I have been trying to pull some every day. Its also time to remove leaves from under the evergreens (like rhodos) and get rid of the rest of the dead things from last fall.

(*Every year I can count on my husband to say something like “Those athletes were sure BUSY this year!”  And every time he says it, I laugh. Not because it is funny, but because I’ve been waiting for him to say it. This year, the track club upgraded to a better manure supplier; instead of being stinky post-bovine material, the manure is very fine and compost-like. So this year my husband said “Wow, this must have been produced by the very BEST athletes”. Ha ha.)

Snowdrops

This has been a relatively abundant snow  year for Vancouver and the last snowfall, just over a week ago, was slightly over a foot deep. The snowdrops and cyclamens were covered  and I was worried that they would be crushed. By yesterday, most of the snow had melted and so I was able to confirm that most small spring blossoms had survived.

Today was the day I was planning to plant fava beans. Favas can be planted in late fall or early spring and thrive in cooler temperatures. My plans are delayed (again) as I woke up to a fresh cover of snow. Although spring seems a long way away, here are a few photos that are helping to get me through this bleak weather.

Although these iris don’t photograph well against the snow, they have naturalized and are starting to spread in clumps

Mini cyclamen

Daphne: very fragrant

I can’t get enough of the snow drops

In the last few weeks two different friends have mentioned how our gut has it’s own nervous system and can function as a second brain. This research doesn’t surprise me one bit, as my stomach makes many decisions for me, although not all of those decisions are good ones. I decided to use my garden cookbooks as garden planning inspiration, and let my stomach decide what to plant this year.

“The Kitchen Garden Cookbook” by Caroline Bretherton was a gift from my friend Sarah, and is full of great recipes and tips for harvesting and preparing vegetables. My friend Amy gave me “The Speedy Vegetable Garden” by Mark Diacono and Lia Leendertz. Although this book is mostly about growing microgreens, sprouts and fast growing vegetables, it also contains some fabulous edible flower ideas.

So, inspired by some of the recipes in these books (tempered with some of my successes and failures from last year) here is what I ordered:

Borage – This one is for the bees (mostly). The cucumber flavoured leaves can be eaten in salads and the flowers can be frozen into ice cubes.

Kennebec potatoes – These were one of our big successes this last year and hopefully this year too.

Delphinium – Okay, so this isn’t something that you can eat. But I have had several dreams about delphinium so I think I should plant them.

Fortex filet beans (pole beans) – These were huge producers last year. I also have some bean seeds from my friend, so am not ordering any others right now.

Favas – I ordered a huge bag of these as I LOVE favas. Plus I want to take over part of my front yard with favas while I decide what goes there next.

Brussels sprouts (nautic) – I grew these a few years ago, and they worked out well…until someone’s dog ate them.

Esmeralda lettuce – This type of butter lettuce looks particularly appetizing. Broad green leaves.

Curly Cress Peppergrass – For sandwiches and summer salads.

Nasturtiums – salad blend. They always grow well and I eat a lot of these.

Echinacea – Although these aren’t necessarily edible, I want to plant something in the front yard that will last until the fall.

Zucchini – gold rush. Last year was a fabulous zucchini year and although I have a lot of “black beauty” seeds left, I want to plant a few different types this year to grill on the barbeque.  Also, to try to prepare some of the blossom recipes…

Just realized that I forgot to order pea and calendula seeds. The recipe book has a recipe for a paella with calendula petals which looks fascinating, but not sure how it would taste…

Other seeds I already have on  hand from last year: kale, lettuce, arugula, chard, fennel, spinach, beets and radishes.

Next fun late January task: planning where everything will be planted and when.