Oy Vey - The Month That Was May

I am late getting to an update for May.  What a busy and unusual month.

Here goes.

HEAT

   May, especially for the first 2-3 weeks, was unusually hot this year.  Several days brought us temperatures in the high 20s/low 30s and we had only two days of light rain (more about that below).  On the upside, the heat allowed us to get an early start on the garden.  The tomato and eggplants were transplanted into the garden May16th and 17th.  The garlic was sprouting through the patch's mulch layer by April 30th.  Snow peas, carrots (planted May 7th), potatoes (planted May 9th), and some of the beans (planted May 13th and 17th) were sprouting around the Victoria Day weekend.  Most years, that is when we are just beginning to plant those things.

FIRE

   The wildfire season started early this year and with a vengeance.  Northern Alberta and northern BC had several large, out-of-control fires that necessitated the evacuation of a number of rural and remote communities.  Our community served as a destination for evacuees and was a base for ESS services.  (And this continues, as wildfires threaten more communities, like Tumbler Ridge, this month.)  We functioned in a blanket of haze from those fires during most of May.  Some days, fine ash covered the transplants that were hardening out on our front step.  The smell of smoke was pervasive, almost constant, and at times, very intense.  Most days, we could still work outside for short stretches, but some days, we had to remain indoors with the windows and doors shut.  May 19th - the day we planted the pea patch - was the worst.  Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote that day:

 

"I planted some kale this morning, and we just came in from planting the pea patch around 2:30pm.  Holy cow, is the air ever thick with smoke.  The worst we've experienced in the last 2 weeks.  Even inside the house smells like a campfire.  Our visibility markers keep changing  ("I can see xyz down the street from the house"..."Okay, not anymore, but I can still see so-and-so's garage"..."opps, not now"...).   The sky is grey and the light is a weird, dark orange/grey.  If there weren't fires happening, you'd be convinced that a tornado or major hailstorm was heading this way, from the colour of the light/sky. 

 

You know when you open a wood stove or go to poke around the fireplace, but the draft isn't quite open?  That wave of smoke that comes at you and the intense smell?  That's what we're going about our business in today, except you can't just wave the smoke out of your face; it's everywhere.

 

Quite a number of evacuees are in town now.  The main arena/events hall has opened as an evacuee centre and I expect many of the hotels are full."

 

   Entire communities in both provinces were ordered to evacuate.  That included indigenous communities, some remote, and many farmers.  The farmers didn’t just have to worry about evacuating their families, but their livestock as well.  Imagine the stress.  It was heartening to see people in the region flood social media with offers of help for the evacuees.  Offers of pastureland and barns to house livestock, garages and warehouses to store large equipment that was moved, people offering to foster pets short-term, hot meals, childcare, beds in spare rooms, etc. 

The view looking down the street near our house (May 19th)...

 

 

  The lilac bush in bloom.  (Also May 19th.  This picture was taken mid-afternoon.  That is the sun, not the moon.)

 

 

   Mercifully, we had a day and a half of rain during the holiday weekend (May 20-22).  It cleaned the air - check out the colour of the water in this rain barrel - and helped quell the fires.  They were certainly not extinguished, but at least they became smaller in some areas and the firefighters had a better chance of getting them under control.

 

On a lighter note... 

SILLY BIRDS

   On May 9th, I planted a row of Green Beauty snow peas in the south garden.  I grew them for the first time last year, and they were delicious.  By late May, they were a few inches tall and looking great.

   One afternoon, I took a break from weeding the raspberry patch and headed to the house for a cold drink.  Standing by the south garden, with a serious look on his face, was R.  He wasn’t saying a word and his body language conveyed that something bad had happened.  I was expecting the worst.

   When I inquired, a shocked and aggravated, “The little buggers chewed down the peas!” was his reply.  Not what I had expected him to say, though I was relieved things weren’t as grave as I’d imagined.   He explained that when looking out the living room window moments before, he spotted a sparrow pulling on the leaves of the peas.  He came outside and watched another one do the same thing.  Upon closer examination, it was clear that the sparrows had made quite a buffet of the snow peas.  The entire row was chomped down to about 2 inches in height and most of the leaves were gone.  We were baffled and frustrated.  I’ve been gardening for almost 20 years, and he grew up gardening on his family’s farm.  Neither of us had ever seen or heard of sparrows going after pea plants.  A few colourful expressions of exasperation were uttered that afternoon, let me tell you. 

   An online search about the problem (“Sparrows eating garden peas”) turned up dozens and dozens of results.  Apparently, this is a thing.  A common thing, in some places.  Upon seeing the most commonly recommended solution, I thought, “Nope. Not doing it.”.  Large sections of floating row cover or mesh netting strung over trellis and rows of peas seems like a lot of work and trouble, and we already put a lot of time into staking and trellising peas.  R. found a long section of mesh we used years ago to support a section of Tiger Eye beans and wrapped that around the row of peas, securing it to the twine trellis with small file clips. They seem to be leaving the row of snow peas alone now, though they’ve since taken a few chomps out of snap peas in the main pea patch.  Not to mention taking single chomps out of small cucumber, squash, and sunflower plants.  Twerps!

   The birdbath R. brought home a few years ago sits on a rock wall at the edge of the front lawn.  Sometimes, I’ll spot a mellow, fuzzy bumblebee sunbathing on the rock in the middle of it, or maybe having a little drink.  Sometimes, the surface of the water is covered with pollen (in addition to a month of haze, the air has been filled with tree fluff and pollen) or ash. If it’s set up early enough in the Spring, sometimes we’ll catch a robin or two having an exuberant bath in it, especially if the puddles in the driveway have dried up.

   A few weeks ago, we noticed that the crows who visit the birdbath sometimes arrive with things in their beaks that are destined to be dunked.  They deposit their finds in the water for a minute or two, pick them out again, and then either eat their snacks or, if the objects turn out to be inedible, drop them on the lawn before they fly away.  It’s neat to watch them perform this little ritual.

   Recently, R. looked out the window just in time to see a crow fly to the birdbath with a large, white object in its beak.  It landed on the edge of the birdbath, dropped it in, and flew away.  Out we went and peered down at the water.  There on the bottom sat a great big chicken bone!  Drumstick, I’d say.  Amusing, to say the least.  Was he making a soup?  I guess we’ll never know.

GARDEN NOTES

   The last two summers of intense heat and drought left the strawberry bed with only 4 plants alive.  We bought and planted new strawberry plants near the end of May and heavily mulched the bed with grass clippings.  I also planted nasturtium seeds throughout the bed to help provide some groundcover while the new plants get established this summer.

Here's what's growing in the garden this year:

Tomatoes

Determinate:  EM-Champion, Principe Borghese, Fisher’s Earliest Paste, Petrusha Ogorodnik, Mongolian Dwarf, Black Sea Man, Favorie de Bretagne, Uluru Ochre, Fred’s Tie-Dye Dwarf, Clear Pink Early

Indeterminate:  Reinhard’s Chocolate Heart, Hungarian Heart, Rose de Berne, Sylvan Gaume, Franchi Red Pear, Moonglow

Peas 

Green Beauty snow peas in the south garden, and Green Arrow, Laxton's Progress, and Lillian's Caseload shelling peas in the East garden.

Bush Dry Beans

Weiner Trieb

Early Warwick

Arikara  (older seed – last grown in 2015) 

Heritage Early Mix (d/b with runners.  Last grown in 2017. Listed from earliest to latest to dry:

1) Swedish Brown (prolific, early)

2) Mitla Black (prolific, early)

3) Small White Navy

4) Purple Gnuttle Amish (pretty)

5) Green Hutterite (quite late – most of the pods still firm/damp when I picked them in mid-September before the first hard frost.  The least productive of the 5 varieties in the mix.).

   I planted 5-10 seeds of each of these varieties to grow them out. Some, like Yer Fasal and Orca, I had in very limited amounts.

Yer Fasal  (seeds from 2017. Obtained in a trade. Turkish heirloom.)

Coco Jaune de Chine  (seeds from 2018)

Orca  (seeds from 2022? Obtained in a trade) 

Fiesta  (seeds from 2022? Obtained in a trade)

Tene’s Beans  (seeds from 2020)

Ruckle  (seeds from 2022)

Beka Brown (seeds from 2020)

Mrocumiere  (seeds from 2018)

Bush Snap Beans

My stock of snap beans is older, so I planted a mishmash of varieties; we'll see what comes up.  Provider, Calima, Cantare, Tendergreen, and Roma II.

Potatoes 

Yukon Gold, Norland Red, AmaRosa fingerling, and Bellanita fingerling.

Squash 

Galeux D'Eysines (C. maxima), Burpee's Butterbush (C. moschata), Bush Delicata (C. pepo), Yellow Early Prolific summer squash, and Fordhook zucchini.

Flowers

Calendula (Pacific Beauty Mix), Marigolds (Queen Sophia and Janie Bright), Dahlias (Dinnerplate tubers and Unwin's Mix from seed), Cosmos (Dwarf Sensation, Double-Dutch Rose,  Rubenza), Bachelor Buttons (Blue Boy and Chocolate), Nasturtium (Little Firebirds and Alaska Red Shades), Strawflower (Pastel Mix), and assorted sunflowers (mostly Sunspot).

Greens

Cabbage (Brunswick, Early Golden Acre), Lettuce (assorted), Kale (Lacinato, Rainbow Lacinato, Scarlet, Red Russian, Curly Blue), and Swiss Chard (5 Colour Silverbeet).

Herbs

Parsley (Italian Flat-Leaf), Mint (Mojito, Indian Tea, Chocolate, and Corsican, Chives, Basil (Cinnamon), and Dill (Fernleaf).

Other

Eggplant (Diamond), Corn (Gaspé Flint), Celery (Amsterdam/"Soup" celery), Cucumber (Dragon's Egg), Leeks (Giant Musselburgh), Carrots (Scarlet Nantes, Cosmic Purple, Jaune Obtus du Doubs), and garlic.

 

Smoky day, North and South gardens.

 

North garden, including garlic patch.

 

Raised beds along the driveway.

 

The East garden (snap peas and tomatoes).

 

Mongolian Dwarf tomatoes, a few onions, and beans.

 

 

 

Chive Flower Vinegar

   Every once in a while, I see something online or in a book and think, "I have to try that!"

   Chive flower vinegar was one of those things.  The little chive transplant I was given last year is thriving where it was planted.  The pink flowers are attracting big, fuzzy bumblebees and adding colour to an otherwise all-green, just-getting-
underway garden.  When I spotted a post about chive flower vinegar online, I immediately logged off, grabbed a mason jar, and set off to make some of my own.

   It's pretty simple.  Snip a few chive flowers, rinse under cold water, shake off the excess water, pop into a small jar, cover with your vinegar of choice (I used plain white vinegar), cover, and let it infuse for 2 or 3 days.  Remove the flowers and store the infusion in the fridge.  It is very tasty mixed with oil and used as a salad dressing. It would also be divine used in a potato salad.  I drizzled it over steamed vegetables the other night.  Yum!

 

Day 1 (click to enlarge)

Day 3, ready to enjoy.

Enthusiastic Garlic and Turning the Beds

Greetings from Club Tropicana!

   Not really.  But it sure feels tropical out there.  It's 26 degrees as I type this at 5:00 PM.  It has been in the low-to-mid 20s all week and it is forecast to remain so until the weekend.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky today.

   Yesterday, I began weeding and turning the raised beds in earnest and also worked some manure and kelp into the smaller beds.   Onion sets were planted, too.

   Today, the weeding/bed-turning/poo-incorporating continued.  R. dug out one of the large raised beds (the second one from the house).  We put rotting chunks of the trunk of a fallen birch tree in the bottom of the bed and covered them with material from the compost bin before dumping the soil back into the bed.  (Aside: the material from the compost bin was not at all composted.  It was so hot and dry last summer and the summer before that most of what was in the compost bin ended up being dehydrated rather than breaking down.  For example, the carrot tops were still green and had maintained their frilly form, but were crispy.)

   Tomorrow, we will spot-weed the south garden in preparation for planting potatoes (which, if the temperatures hold, we could do any time now).  R. will till that garden as well.  I splurged on a package of 5 dahlia tubers this week.  When I began gardening, the packages were around $8.99 for 5 tubers. Now, they are $19.99!  Despite two attempts, I have not mastered the technique of overwintering dahlia tubers.  Considering the current price of them, maybe I should try again this Fall.

   The garlic began emerging on April 30th.  Most of it is up, now, including many of the bulbils that were planted in pots.  That's 2 weeks earlier than usual.  They are loving this sunshine.

 

 

   The trees and current bush are all budding.  While turning the raised beds, I found 3 onions and 3 sprouting garlic cloves.  Buried treasure.  The kitties, now in their middle age, are spending most of their days indoors, snoozing.  They occasionally come out to supervise us from the shade of the nearest tree.  I started strawflowers, cosmos, and calendula to eventually plant out in the garden.  They will love having tall flower patches to sleep in come August.

Kitty enjoying the warm soil...

 

Breakfast Buffet of Branches

   As April ends, we're getting a preview of Summer temperatures.  The daytime temps for this week range from 20-26 degrees C with overnights well above zero (forecast: 6-10 degrees C).  This will be wonderful for drying out the garden plots and the yard in general so we can get started with weeding and prepping for planting cool weather crops in mid-May. 

   This weekend, our neighbour across the street worked on trimming back the trees in his yard.  He piled the branches against his fence, presumably so he could take them to the city compost this week.  When I looked out the front door this morning around 8:30 AM, I spotted two small moose (a mother and youngster?  Two youngsters?) having a munch on the branches.

 

 

   The larger of the two eventually sauntered north up the street, leaving this little one to rest and ponder his options.  About ten minutes later, he wandered off in the same direction as his companion.

 

   The tomato and other transplants are coming along.  I could use more growlights!  The transplants are a bit leggy, but otherwise okay.  The leeks are getting regular "haircuts" and I added some more milk jug greenhouses (cosmos, cabbage, parsley, summer savoury) to the line-up outside.  It will be nice to have everything hardened off and finally in the ground outside.  

 

 

A few more tomato transplants and the celery forest.

 

 

   The chives are already up and going strong, and the first asparagus spear has appeared.  R. drove out of town yesterday and snagged a few buckets of aged manure.  We'll begin adding that to the raised beds and garden plots soon. After several years of neglecting to build them up, they are really in need of compost, manure, and amendments.

Easter Monday Seedlings and the 2023 Tomato List

  It's a sunny, blustery Easter Monday, 7 degrees C outside at noon.  I'm about to make a big mug of hot chocolate and poke around the yard to see how much more snow melted since yesterday.

  Things are gradually getting underway for the gardening season.  I started Amsterdam celery and Giant Musselburgh leeks in late February, and waited until April 1st to start tomato (varieties listed below) and Diamond eggplant seeds. 

 

Celery and leek seedlings, and a bit of marjoram growing in a peat pellet. 

 

More celery!  (The germination rate was excellent, and I sowed generously.  Opps.)

 

 

   I'm growing strawflowers (Pastel Mix) for the first time this year.  The seeds just starting to germinate. Pacific Beauty Mix calendula are planted in the right-hand container (no sprouts yet!).

 

 

 

Chives on the south side of the house have emerged.

 

 

  

   On April 3rd and 4th, I started cabbage (Brunswick, Golden Acre, Kalibos, and Cour di Bue), kale (Lacinato, Rainbow Lacinato, Curly Blue, and Red Russian), and a few pansies (Springtime Cassis) in milk jug greenhouses.  Later this month, I'll add chard, cosmos, herbs, and possibly some lettuce to the collection of jugs.

 

 

 

TOMATOES 2023

 

These are the varieties chosen for 2023.  The Rose de Berne seeds were old (at least 10 years) and only three have germinated.  I might select another pink variety to replace them.  I received a few Franchi Red Pear in a trade recently.  So far, only three have germinated.  The rest seem to be coming along well.

 

Update: A Russian pink paste variety - Petrusha Ogorodnik - was started April 12.

*First time growing these varieties

Determinate

EM-Champion (DET, red/meaty, 3-4’ tall, can grow in large pots, early-midseason, Russian origin.)

Principe Borghese  (DET, red, heirloom, determinate, small, dry, few seeds, good for sundried tomatoes,~ 75 DTM)

Fisher’s Earliest Paste  (DET, red, (shape?), early, hardy, good flavour.  90+ years of selection by the Fisher family of Montana. RARE.)

*Mongolian Dwarf  (DWRF, large red oblate, 100-200g, only 20-25cm tall, early/fast growing.  Bush habit, spreads to ~2’ across. Russian (Siberian) origin.  Uncommon.)

Black Sea Man (DET, brown/black, heirloom, beefsteak, 8-12 oz, rich flavour, slicer, determinate, can be grown in large containers, Russian origin, early, ~ 75 DTM)

*Favourie de Bretagne  (DET, 3" tall, elongated, green/gold striped (Green When Ripe), sweet/fruity, created by Tom Wagner. 80DTM. RARE.)

*Uluru Ochre (DWARF, dark orange/green/ochre, med-large/6-12oz beefsteak, sweet smoky flavour, juicy, compact plants, heat-tolerant, named after the giant monolithic rock in central Australia (Uluru/Ayers Rock).  Early 65-70DTM.  A cross between “Orange Heirloom” and “Rosella Purple” by Patrina Nuske Small.)

*Fred’s Tie-Dye Dwarf (DWARF, 3’ tall, deep red w/green and gold metallic stripes, flesh similar in appearance and taste to purple/black tomatoes, beefsteak, average 8oz, minimal cracking.  Sweet, juicy.  Essentially “Berkeley Pink Tie Dye” on a dwarf plant.  75DTM.)

Clear Pink Early  (DET, round, pink fruit, compact, heavy yields, bushy growth, 3-6oz round, slicer, sweet, Russian heirloom)

*Petrusha Ogorodnik (DET, elongated, plump, dark pink paste, compact. Some sources say early-mid and others say mid-late season maturity.  Sweet flavour. Productive.  Good variety for cooler climates.  Russian origin. RARE/uncommon in North America.)

Indeterminate

Reinhard’s Chocolate Heart (INDET, brown oxheart, rare, rich flavour, 300-400g, cross between Cherokee Green x a pink oxheart. 80-85DTM. German origin.

Hungarian Heart  (INDET, pink, large oxheart (often 1lb or more), heirloom, paste/canner/fresh, crack-resistant, few seeds, origin: Hungary, ~ 85 DTM)

*Rose de Berne (INDET, rose-pink, round, 4-6oz, dependable, crack-resistant, blemish-free excellent flavour, good for slicing, cooking, or saucing.  Good yields. 75-80DTM. Swiss heirloom.)

*Sylvan Gaume (INDET, large red variable oxheart (some say a beefsteak), great flavour, 80DTM, Canadian heirloom, RARE.

*Franchi Red Pear  (INDET, red, large, pear-shape with vertical ribbing, 8-18oz, early for a large tomato, 75DTM, origin: Northern Italy)

*Moonglow  (INDET, deep orange globes, 6-8 oz, productive, excellent sweet flavour, solid flesh, few seeds, long shelf life/good keeper, 85DTM)

Little Moose

This little guy dropped by tonight for supper (the currant bush).  What a cutie!

 

 

Orchids, a Celery Forest, and Roasted Butterbush Squash

   Seed starting is still several weeks away for most things, but the itch to get started is alive and well.  In the meantime, a little blog update. 

   For the first time, all three of our orchids bloomed at the same time.  The white ones and small, peachy/pale green ones haven't bloomed in years.

   During the winter months, we grow pans of oat grass so the cats have greens to nibble on while they dream of sunnier, warmer days.  This kitty likes to be hand-fed individual blades of grass.  She slurps them down like oysters!

   Under the grow light: a new pan of cat grass on the go, a few small cacti I'm trying to root, a small rosemary plant, a succulent plant, a small container of onion seeds, and in the tall, glass container (a McKenzie herb starter kit), some marjoram seeds.

   Also under the grow light are Amsterdam celery seeds.  This is a "cutting" type of celery (larger leaves and slenderer stalks than regular celery.)  The seeds were new, so most germinated, resulting in a tiny forest of sprouts.  If I can manage to grow them to transplant-size and repot them, I will have plenty to share, from the looks of things...

   This afternoon, I looked through the squash we had stored last Fall.  I decided to roast some of the Burpee's Butterbush squash (the first ones I've tried - thankfully, most stored well and were still fine to cook and eat all these months later).  They are easy to prepare and are very tasty.  The flesh is bright orange and softer than a butternut squash.  I ate one for lunch, stored another in the fridge, and skinned/cubed the rest to freeze.  These will no doubt have a space in the garden again!

   

   A few weeks ago, I was able to pre-order some fingerling potato varieties from a local farmer.  They will be delivered in May.  It was nice to have this option, as the shipping costs to have seed potatoes mailed are quite high.  The varieties on order are Amarosa (mid-season, red skin and pink/red flesh) and Bellanita (early, yellow skin and flesh).  We grew a small number of Amarosa in 2019.  They were delicious and I've pined for them since.