Pollinators & Pests in the Vegetable Garden

Achillea millefolium
Apricot Delight Yarrow
& white cosmos

For the pollinators I planted yarrow in a pot with some cosmos and pansies. It's sort of weird, but I wanted the yarrow for the butterflies & hummingbirds, but not to spread throughout the vegetable bed in our small(ish) garden yard. Weird but pretty, and as the plants start to fill out (after living in tiny pots) it's growing into a beautiful arrangement marking a corner of the bed. 

Rhodochiton / Lophospermum

climbing the twig trellis

vegetable garden in the background

The herb garden is growing in with some in the ground and others in pots. I'm hoping that by varying the heights of things everybody will have a little more room this year. The little garlic chives which used to grow under the Tamarack are blooming happily in their second year in their new spot; with English Lavender, Lavanda inglesia, & Lavender 'Coconut Ice' near the steps to the back porch.

We have a few sprigs of asparagus appearing,
excellent for being first year transplants.

 Zinnias mark the rows.

Zinnia
Megellan Cherry

It's been a good year so far in our new vegetable bed. Cutworms have taken out some of the radishes, two tomatoes, and some leaves of kale, but they can be sent away with eggshells and coffee grounds and kept under control in a garden this size. Most of the wee carrots washed away in the heavy rain, so I'll have to replant those..., but with the heat, humidity, and deep rainfalls we've had the garden looks lush and unbeatable.

We're really growing into our yard, making it our space rather than someone's adopted garden. Soon there will be no grass anywhere, with our fire pit and outdoor living space surrounded by a garden we planted, and I can't wait. R's rebuilt back fence is beautifully constructed, and so will be the ornamental picket fence surrounding the main garden. I think we've really really found a way to reconcile three dogs in a downtown garden - complete with poop compost, and one for kitchen waste. R's next artistic (and practical) wood working project will be a beehive wormery - another thing I can't wait to have operational. :)

evidence of cutworms and Cliffords
mini dachshund feet are the same size
as radish leaves
who knew

Dear Garden Diary,

iGarden
8 November 2011

Yeah, I took this photo using my iPhone, dangling it over the balcony's railing. Dangerous. Earlier yesterday I dangled it over a bridge on May Street. This is why I have to return to using my Nikon for photos, with it's sturdy strap - less likely to slip through my fingers to a watery or pottery death. I've been so distracted with the iPhone photo apps lately that I haven't bothered updating about the garden. These things happen.

Well, we cleaned (R did most all of the gross work) and tucked away pots, preparing for winter the best we can. If we weren't basement hoarders we might have more space to store things. hmm.
R also did all of the digging, creating additional vegetable garden space. There is now three times the space and half the grass lawn. We're definitely putting a yellow brick path in to boarder the grass and perennial garden because we are corny like that. grin. Beyond the mugo pine the potentilla will be taken out and a gate will be put in its place.

This is exactly what happened with my first garden. Over eight years I slowly turned sod into garden. This is only my third season with this yard. Heh heh... We'll always have to have sod in the dog run - and the dogs will have have the run of the "dog forest" to the west of the existing path. It used to be a lovely, kept formal garden with lush grass that could only be manufactured. It was beautiful.
But it wasn't my kind of garden, and I think R feels the same (he grew up with orchards and bees, and did the dogging after all). It's fun to have a productive yard, and we both want to use this new space wisely. We now have the space to properly plant after our over-zealous seedling shopping sprees, we vow not to screw this up. We had more tomatoes than we could handle this year, giving them away from a box on our door step in the end...

I've said it before: our most challenging hurdle (more even than having a Gromit) is leaving the garden at the peek of the season. That's a toughy.., summer vacation time is summer vacation time - and family beckons. In the real world family trumps gardens, so the gardener has to adapt. I'm thinking there has got to be a way of planting around our three week adventure away.

I am so excited to have space for root vegetables in our own backyard. So excited. I think a couple fine brussel sprout plants would fit too. grin.
There's still a heap of triple mix waiting in the dog run to be put into the new garden, some lime, meal, and whatever compost I can come up with. It looks good and wormy already, so we're off to a good start.

Now that it's November, it's time for doodling gardens not digging in them..., taking long baths, settling in for winter. I can't help looking forward to next year, feeling so much better after feeling so off for so long. I didn't even realize how ill I've been until I started feeling better - things like balance: just in the last two weeks, while walking downtown noticing that I feel more steady than I have in years, and my body moves more cooperatively (if that makes any sense). I can breathe a little deeper, sleep a little deeper, think ahead again. It's actually quite remarkable, and a little scary.
Whatever infection that started this all - back in 2009, I'll probably never know..., and honestly I don't even care about knowing anymore. It all makes sense, the culmination of an infection (undoubtedly starting in my kidneys, as per my initial complaint, spreading, finding equilibrium with my immune system, reacting autoimmune: "lingering pathogen") combined with a toxic overload - mold most likely, and god only knows whatever else (Ryan Building). Stress. Miscarriage. Depression.
I won't disregard gardens and greenhouses either, sadly. There's a reason why products get pulled from shelves and tests are run on soil. It could happen to anyone, really, for so many reasons - making it hard to fuss about - unless you plan on living in a bubble, or worse: in fear.

It took two very different approaches to medicine: Western and Eastern, two hemispheres, an acupuncturist from the picturesque Leura Mall, and four local female doctors practicing in four unique healing directions to bring me back. The last month has been like an awakening.

I believe that by the time next spring arrives I'll be back to where I was, maybe even better.


CURRENT MUSIC: Watching the Wheels - John Lennon

In the Key of Catching Up

I used to curl up to my computer on a Sunday morning and listen to In the Key of Charles on CBC Radio with a pot of coffee and some garden dreams, often in the same theme as Charles's to write in this blog. I miss that show. I don't know what's held me back from posting, other than life..time, and dogs. This is the first season in years that I have a garden ready and waiting for me, prepared. This time I can just start planting. Minimal digging, minimal amending, it's as if I stepped back in time and have my mature garden back. Mature but never finished, that is. I can express in words how happy this makes me feel.

Last year there was still a construction zone over our vegetable garden when spring arrived. Early planting wasn't possible. I think it was July when things finally got underway...
We were also heartbroken and unmotivated at first. I was challenged trying to convince myself that 'gardening is therapeutic', and 'gardening heals' ~ things I've said and written about for years, but wasn't put to the test until last year. I didn't believe it could, or would heal or make our pain go away. I still don't. Some hurts can't be healed by my garden spade. But, the garden spade can certainly be a distraction, and it eventually was (along with my camera).

Gromit guarding his garden, July 17, 2010

Once we had the little vegetable bed prepared, planting all our quick kitchen favourites: zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and herbs we cook with most importantly basil, (and R's new lavender plant) came together nicely.

There's a new John Davis Explorer Rose in the corner by the door with my tallest trellis anticipating a glorious year ahead. Hats off to my former J.D. rose, who lived to be placed in this spot - sort of. He was one of the first plants in my first garden, surviving every move we made, but just didn't want to bounce back this time.



The new John Davis will entertain me with me with it's red-rosy buds and precious pink petals, and will be neighbours to some (just some) of the garlic we're going to plant. There's chamomile to one side, which I'm hoping will return this year, and peppers caspsicum (of various kinds/degrees of heat) to the other.
This year we hope to grow more capsicum, more heat, for more salsa, and roasted red pepper soup. There will also have to be more cucumbers for the dogs, more basil (perhaps more pots), and better management of the zucchini vine. Spending three prime weeks of the growing season in Australia (in winter) doesn't jive well with training vines, so I may try pleading with our dog-sitter (who "doesn't eat vegetables") to give it a hand.

I've been making my lists, gathered from 2011 seed catalogs which have been arriving since the autumn of 2010. Every journal has scattered lists, some organized with page numbers and others with doodles mixed up in garden plans.

I wonder if R will catch on to the theme(s) of some of my choices...

Beets also included will be Touchstone Gold and Merlin. Eight Ball summer squash, and Vervain Verbena officinalis, Barbeque Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis (in a pot, to move indoors), and Cupid Grape Tomatoes. Themes are the easiest way to weed though the bazillion choices available.

I prepared myself for the task of tackling the front yard which was, um.. "over-grown" by drinking wine on the balcony looking down on it. We spend a lot of time on the front balcony in summer, catching the breeze sweeping up the street from Lake Superior five blocks away. The view below matters.
I remember having one large bottle of water and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc on the steps while I worked to weed through the neglected garden. It took three days, and then some. By the end of summer it looked like this:

Someone in a previous post commented asking why I didn't bring the garden right to the edge of the sidewalk. I've been wanting to answer that. The reason is that this is a fairly busy sidewalk. It's not so much a busy street (for being downtown) but has a lot of foot traffic year round, and is ploughed in the winter. With all that comes damage. I suspect plants would suffer near the edge, not that the garden edge couldn't be something else. It would be much nicer with a Common/Woolly Thyme cover, maybe with some Ajuga and seasonal Periwinkle, but for the time being it's grass.

2010 Garden ~ New Beginnings

---

My new journals, gifts from my mother - one from Stockholm (the purse/camera bag sized blue one) and another beautifully crafted sketchbook by Alison Kendall. The dragonfly is not the kind of sketchbook I would throw in my garden bag and bring to the plot or greenhouse, so will be reserved for couch and backyard doodles.

The blue pocket journal has been useful for doodling ideas on the go. Our community garden plot will be used for big root things like potatoes, beets, carrots, and some brussel sprouts for Hannah, chard for soup and red cabbage for apples.

We didn't take a community plot last year, which I regret, but I'm not going to get lost in what didn't happen and look ahead to a well organized season. I've already talked to Scott about my plans (thank goodness for the coffee shop run-ins). I'm sure plans will change from time to time when I'm in the greenhouse.

I can not wait to start planting - in the ground, but in the greenhouse more. I can't wait to breath that air. There's a big part of me that is terrified of the months ahead, not knowing if I can physically do it. I've been trying to focus on this being it's own greenhouse experience, and not compare it to years past. My spine won't stand up to what I used to do. I simply have to adjust what it is that I do, and I'm okay with that.

Resources - Horticulture Certificate Program (University of Guelph)

American Nursery & Landscape Association
ANLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. This support enables them to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services. www.anla.org/about/index.htm

Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
CNLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. www.canadanursery.com

Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone
The Plant Hardiness Zones map outlines the different zones in Canada where various types of trees, shrubs and flowers will most likely survive. It is based on the average climatic conditions of each area. sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System
The CANADIAN POISONOUS PLANTS INFORMATION SYSTEM presents data on plants that cause poisoning in livestock, pets, and humans. The plants include native, introduced, and cultivated outdoor plants as well as indoor plants that are found in Canada. Some food and herbal plants are also included that may cause potential poison problems. www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/poison?p_x=px

Canadian Rose Society
A Non-Profit Organization dedicated to furthering the study of Roses and to promoting their cultivation throughout Canada. http://www.canadianrosesociety.org/
American Rose Society - http://www.ars.org/

Canadian Soil Information System
The Canadian Soil Information System (CanSIS) has supported the research activities of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada by building the National Soil DataBase (NSDB). The NSDB is the set of computer readable files that contain soil, landscape, and climatic data for all of Canada. It serves as the national archive for land resources information that was collected by federal and provincial field surveys, or created by land data analysis projects. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/intro.html

Composting Council of Canada
The Composting Council of Canada is a national non-profit, member-driven organization with a charter to advocate and advance composting and compost usage. It serves as the central resource and network for the composting industry in Canada and, through its members, contributes to the environmental sustainability of the communities in which they operate. http://www.compost.org/

Hedge Plants for New Brunswick Gardens
The choice of hedge plants should be determined by the location, soil conditions, size of garden and the effect to be created by the hedge.
http://www.gnb.ca/0171/30/0171300011-e.asp

International Society of Arboriculture
Arborists around the world share their experience and knowledge for the benefit of society through the ISA. The ISA works to foster a better understanding of trees and tree care through research and the education of professionals as well as global efforts to inform tree care consumers. http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/

Ontario Noxious Weeds
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/noxious_weeds.htm

Ontario Pesticide Education Program
The Ontario Pesticide Education Program has been providing pesticide safety and application training to Ontario farmers and pesticide vendors. http://www.ridgetownc.on.ca/opep/
Ontario Pollutants

Ontario ’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has been protecting Ontario’s air quality for over 30 years. Using stringent regulations, targeted enforcement and a variety of innovative air quality initiatives, the ministry continues to address air pollution that has local, regional and/or global effects. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/air.htm

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Weed Science Society of America, Plant Photo Library
The photo herbarium contains pictures of many plants that are common to North America. Some of the plant species listed are not generally considered weeds but may have toxic or poisonous properties, or are otherwise of general interest as wildflowers or herbs. http://www.wssa.net/photo&info/weedframe3.htm