Wrapping Up for Winter

Did a bunch of work in the yard today including flipping the rain barrel so it wouldn't fill & freeze.

Obligatory before shot:

We harvested what we could of the parsley and kale before pulling everything up and turning in the leaves.

I know that kale and parsley could have survived til next year but we're going to most likely be turning in a lot of things to the beds and it's not like they were hard to grow.
The cauliflowers found in the centers of the plants weren't even big enough for a snack.

Tiny

Less Tiny

We already have two big mason jars of dried parsley, a large container in the freezer of frozen parsley... so hopefully we can find this fresh bunch a home with friends.

What was left of the parsley.

And of course, the obligatory after shots:

Shed & compost piles

Trellis tied for wind stability

Lonely potted calendula.

Closer shot so you can see, the new compost pile is off to a good start.

Yay Rain!

Amazing what a two hour thunderstorm can do.

Yesterday

Today

And not only is the rain barrel 3/4 full, the garden is watered so I don't have to use any of it yet. :)

End of May Update

The broccoli are still getting nibbled to death. We thought it might be aphids but we can't find any so it's probably ants.

The babygreens are becoming.... less baby.

It's just awesome how fast they're growing!

Something's wrong with the tomatoes. The lower leaves are getting splotchy.

Rain barrel is dreadfully empty. I hope it rains soon. I'd rather not use tap-water in the garden.

I bought DE to get rid of whatever's killing off the food. The broccoli bed got a light dusting and we circled some other plants to test different methods of application.

The sprouts in the front window are doing well. I've even got one of the sweetpotato spouts in it's own pot.

River Update

Some poor fish died in the shallows.

Some still swimming in the deep runs.

Sharing and Caring

These lovely plants are ready to go to work with me tomorrow.
I had a few too many so I'm giving them to my boss for her garden.

Bell pepper, cucumber, and cherry tomato.

And now that I've finally found a supplier of slips... the last ditch effort that hadn't been thrown out yet,
started sprouting. I suppose we'll have to find a home for it now. :)

Two big ones here and a smaller one just started on the other side.

Speaking of homes, we still haven't found the owner of this new stray in the neighbourhood. If you are in London Ontario and missing a (mostly) black cat, please let me know.

I didn't actually make it out back today before the sun went down but John watered earlier today so it'll hold til tomorrow. Our water barrel is helping greatly but it only has 1/2 usable capacity right now due to being flat on the ground. John's planning on building a platform so we can use that other 25 gallons between rains.

Down By The River

The baby geese seem to be growing quickly. The little yellow puff-balls have become large grey puff-balls.

Two adults with their two young.

Even with all the recent rain, the river is low.

The white mark below the bridge is the normal waterline and this bridge is often flooded in spring.

Warm & Wet

There was a thunderstorm last night. Filled the rain barrel with overflow so everything should start sprouting if this weekend is as warm as they say.

Kinda cloudy and drizly today.

Behind the Broccoli, the peas are doing well.

The trellis mesh will have to go on the bars this weekend so the peas have something to climb.

I am hoping this is kale. Won't know for sure til it's bigger.

These are parsnips or carrots.

These are the baby salad greens,

and these are the chives, finally sprouted.

What's started in your garden?

Walking on the Riverbed

Realizing I may not have another oportunity like this, I decided to walk along the river and see what there was to see. I started by Blackfriar's bridge and figured I'd walk along the edge to down-town.

Facing Blackfriar's Bridge

Facing Toward Down-town

Some industrious person made little stone towers.

I only got about this far before a mother goose in her nest hissed me away. At that point I decided it best to just turn around and go back.

Walking back I noticed something boxy in the river...

Closer inspection revealed it to be a printer! Unfortunately being full with river silt made it too heavy to lift.

The cement curb looking edge I was walking along when I came upon the goose nest is the normal water level for this river, and most springs the park on the other side gets flooded.... so by my non-measured guestimate, I'd say the  river is about 3-5 feet too low right now due to lack of winter snow.

Re-reading and Remembering

This will save a ton more water than switching to a "low-flow" faucet or shower head.

"No electricity is needed and no water is required except a small amount for cleaning purposes. One gallon of water can clean two five gallon receptacles. It takes one adult two weeks to fill two five gallon toilet receptacles with humanure and urine, including cover.

This requires one gallon of cleaning water for every two weeks of humanure toilet use as opposed to the standard thirty gallons per person per day used to flush a water toilet."
~ Joseph Jenkins

Lets do the math for an average person for a month:

Normal Toilet:
30 gal./day X 30 days = 900 gal. of drinking water (& whatever they use at the treatment plant) wasted.

Humanure Toilet
1 gal./2 weeks X 2 = 2 gal. of rain or grey water that should be added to the compost pile anyway


Wow.

I Scooped the Local Paper!

A full five days after I reported on the low water levels and the precautions needed they run this!

Shameless copy cats.

Planting the Midnight Soil

Okay I know that title's just way off but I'm too tired right now.

Just finished planting the backlog of seeds from these past few lazy weeks and up-potting the seedlings that have been desperately waiting... some didn't make it.

John and Meg both said it was late and to do it tomorrow but I know me... and I had to do it then or it would get put off another week.

We got most of the verticals in today. Netting can go on as needed.

Just the side beds left. Pretty eh?

John's first comment when we got the first one done was, "Wow that's a lot of real estate. It's like another full bed of room!" That's the idea folks and I sure hope it works out well.

Something I've been thinking about for MUCH later(we won't be doing it here) is humanure to save water, soil nutrients, and money (on water and soil amendments). Done properly it's perfectly safe and better for the environment than creating sewage.

Here's a link to the book that started it all The Humanure Handbook so you can read for yourself.

G-nite folks.

Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

Remember back in early December when the water was up over the graffiti? Well now it's so low you can see the gravel. This just re-enforces my decision to buy a rain barrel.

This is the local community garden. All I kept thinking was "why all the weeds?" and "where's all the gardeners?"
Guess they'll show later in the season.

Just Gone, Not Forgotten

Life has been keeping my mind busy with work/school/financial issues and I've been keeping busy(games, videos, reading sci-fi, stumbleupon) trying to avoid that stress load. Unfortunately gardening is new and requires leaving my comfy furniture... those alone put it in the stress category. As such I haven't planted anything new since the last update.

I'm going to work on training myself to see gardening as a distraction instead of a responsibility... but that might take a while.

P.S. I bought an aloe and had to up-pot it as it was already root-bound. This doesn't count as garden stuff because it's not food.

P.P.S. We went to home depot and got the poles for vertical supports but we haven't put them in yet.

P.P.P.S. We priced do-it-yourself and pre-made rain barrels. IT comes out about he same if you don't have access to free supplies for the do-it-yourself model. We're going to get between 1 and 3 rain barrels this summer.

One last thing... I have just updated the calender so it should be accurate now.