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| a spider's web on our front balcony after the rain 10 June 2012 |
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Pollinators & Pests in the Vegetable Garden
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| 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.
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Rhodochiton / Lophospermum
climbing the twig trellis
vegetable garden in the background
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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.
excellent for being first year transplants.
Zinnias mark the rows.
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| Zinnia Megellan Cherry |
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. :)
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| evidence of cutworms and Cliffords mini dachshund feet are the same size as radish leaves who knew |
June hostas
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| hosta 'Sieboldiana Elegans' & Tiarella, Foam Flower |
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| hostas in the west side garden |
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| hosta 'Striptease' |
10 June 2012
Sleepy G Farm
On Earth Day, 22 April 2012, we visited Sleepy G Farm - with Marcelle and Brendan, who run this incredible homestead farm on the edge of the Sibley Peninsula near the Sleeping Giant's resting head. The visit was arranged over a story for theWalleye - except theWalleye story was already written and submitted with photos of theirs from previous years. A wild spring snowstorm had interrupted the spring farm story, but I still wanted to visit the farm and take my own shots, and see for myself what they are up to.
It ended up being an unbeatable way to end Earth Day - after a day in the greenhouse planting basil and photographing things growing; new life was all over the farm with babies born before our eyes. I've haven't been able to put it to words...
We got lost on the way out. I was too excited to remember to read (or bring) the directions and was just running on memory from Marcelle's instructions and my image of the farm from photos on their website. Our teenager in the back seat wasn't impressed with our country drive, but I was - there's just something magical about being on the Sleeping Giant.
I admired the farm from the road the first time we passed it, even more so when we drove up to it again. The fields, tilled by oxen, lined the road to the farmhouse and barn, with an irrigation system greeting at the top of the drive.
Met by a friendly farm dog before meeting the farmers, who welcomed us like old friends, I was really surprised at their modest surprise that theWalleye was interested in their story... never mind all the words I wished I could have added to the story. How could we not all be interested in this? Thunder Bay (& area) now boasts a number of these young farms emerging from the landscape with passion and integrity; and its because of people like Marcelle and Brendan that a greater respect for local, ecologically raised food has developed.
I'm glad that both Brendan and I remember the Fort's farm in better days. It deserves that. Even more glad to see his traditional farming knowledge fundamental in their farming philosophy. Simple hard work, ecological farming - people who care about their animals, and the land they live off. They raise Dorper sheep, shorthorn milkers, and field run chickens along with their vegetable gardens.
It was great to see the little chicks; for me an instant flashback to my childhood- the smell of the chicken coop, the warming lights on straw, the feed. Hannah was able to hold a chick while I told her what it was like to keep them in the family room growing up, holding them in our laps while we watched television, or letting them run loose in our Lego™ village.
She was also lucky enough to hold a lamb, finally. After years of adoration and only seeing them at places like the Hymer's Fair, or at Featherdale in Australia - here she was on a working farm, seeing sheep being raised for food the way they should be, in the field eating grass, cared for like family. I was happy.
More incredibly, there in the evening sun, as we stood over the oxen yoke talking about farm days at Old Fort William, a ewe gave birth in the yard. Before our eyes an Earth Day lamb was born, and I find it really hard to find the words to describe the sight. It was such a beautiful spring evening; a best memory for sure.
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| a new mother and her lamb moments after birth on Earth Day 2012 |
ewes & babies
spring on the farm
Red and River, the Sleepy G oxen work the farm with Brendan and Marcelle. They are referred to as children, with anecdotal stories of calf-hood and playfulness. Lovely, sensitive animals - they are appreciated greatly for their contribution to the farm.
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| Red & River Sleepy G Oxen |
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| Red & River's oxen yoke at Sleepy G Farm |
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| onions growing preparing for transplant |
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| chicks grown up |
You can find them at the Pavilion at Silver Islet every Saturday from 10 am – 12 pm June 30th to September 1st, 2012. Farm products from Sleepy G (including fresh lamb cuts) are also available at the True North Community Co-op in Thunder Bay - on Algoma Street with The Green House (previously Folino’s store).
They also keep up a blog with farm news and photos through their website:
Brendan Grant & Marcelle Paulin welcome questions and comments. To learn more about their farm, here is their contact information:
RR 1 Pass Lake
Ontario, P0T 2M0
807. 977.1631
sleepygfarm@gmail.com
Sunday, June 10, 2012
an edible back lane
Our back lane.
Yesterday, R built a new fence & gate along the back of the dog run. With that I now have a gate that I can open (the previous one was wobbly and tied together in such a way I couldn't manage it on my own), and access to the back lane.
M salvaged one of the pieces of the old fence to use as part of a fort for her two adventurous little men - it can be seen in this photo leaning against her back fence. She has plans for back lane raspberries, while I have plans for pumpkins. What will be next? Back lane chickens? ...we could only wish..
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Canary Columbine
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| 5 June 2012 |
Aquilegia crysantha var. crysantha ~ Golden Columbine, Canary Columbine
A tender perennial here in Thunder Bay, the Golden Columbine is found growing vigorously in damp dapple lit areas in Texas and the southwestern States. It's in its second year in our front garden in nearly complete shade (other than an hour or so of morning sun). Columbines are members of the buttercup family. The Canary's delicate yellow blooms stand upright on stems reaching 20-50cm, with green foliage. My plant was touched by a little powdery mildew last year, so I'll have to keep a close eye on it this season.
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| stamens reaching beyond the blades |
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| 9 June 2012 |
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
the kitchen garden (and dogs)
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| garlic chives |
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| radishes 5 June 2012 |
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| Gromit Wensleydale Jackson Chief Pea Inspector |
So, the fence is coming along, ...yesterday Dan aka 'Urban Greenspaces" came by and adopted the mugo pine and the white potentilla that were getting a little to snug side by side, and out of place in our new garden plan. It's outstanding what a difference is made to the landscape of our small yard with the removal of those two shrubs. There's less of a tunnelling effect, the space seems wider - rather than long and narrow. I stood out there this morning and took a deep breath from the steps. I'm in love with this garden.
"The little kitchen garden" is what I'm calling the small plot tucked beside the porch. It's the hottest zone in our garden, thawed first, planted first, a cooker. Peppers and one sweet cherry tomato are filling in the space - and once these early peas finish they can move in there too. The rest of it is filled with herbs, my dear John Davis explorer rose, and this year: a sweet little Tangerine Thunbergia vine, who will climb to the second floor balcony on twine I tied one morning.
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| Gromit W & Clifford the Big Red Dog on the job |
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| Tangerine Thunbergia |
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| kale, chard |
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Weather Hypochondriacs
Oh dear, here we go again. The Chronicle Journal spent Monday contradicting itself from one page to another. A regular victim of the 'global warming alarmist syndrome', our local newspaper should spend a little more time researching their trivia, and possibly do a little bit of unbiased investigative research.
On page A2:
"Today's Trivia
1932: A day of Muggy heat
(28.3C) spawned an electrical storm with heavy rain in
the Chaplin area of Saskatchewan. It flung utility poles across roads, blew down barns, coal sheds, and chicken coops (oh no!)...and overturned wagons. In Chaplin, the Alberta Pacific Elevator Company'soil house was lifted and carried several metres, and a building filled with barrels was left in the middle of the road.
World Environmental Day
Courtesy of the David Phillips, 2012 Weather Trivia Calendar"
...must have been "climate change" that caused that storm in 1932 - they just didn't have a fashionable name for it yet.
Two pages over, the CJ tells us that "climate change is very much upon us" because the East End flooded after some heavy rain. Obviously my heart goes out to all those who lost so much, but flooding shouldn't be unexpected in a place that was once, not long ago - geologically speaking, at the bottom of a Great Lake.Our house here in Port Arthur was also once at the bottom of our Lake. Maybe someday it will be again. My first UofG hort course years ago had me running all over town tasting testing soil (yeah, I ate some...in the name of science!)... anyway, it gave me a great appreciation for our geological history from a garden soil perspective - most of which was once under water. This should be the perspective we view our City in, and respect that.
The alarmist perspective doesn't help. "Weather over the northwest is getting more erratic all the time." No it's not. It's always been erratic, changing - for about 4.5 billion years. Locally, I can point directly to the thoughtless and environmentally careless clear cutting around the Dog Lake area for changing the wind patterns in the City. ...just an observation from an observant gardener and greenhouse worker. It broke my heart when I saw what they did out there, just as it is over that ridiculous clover leaf at Hodder Avenue and 11/17. Do you not think that by changing that landscape we're not going to notice a change in the City of some sort? Some gardener somewhere will notice - or a cyclist riding along a bike lane - a new wind, a different water run-off...
This is not "global warming" that's changing anything in Thunder Bay - it's us. Stupid humans who think that they know more that mother nature, that a few trees here, and a little bit of the oldest rock on the planet won't be noticed if taken away and destroyed.
Winter and summer have been noticeably warmer and cooler many other times in the long & changing climate history here on the Canadian Shield. This is not something new and alarming CJ.., this is poorly researched, incorrect "journalism." It's interesting: I've been reading more and more about Medieval gardens - after my mother gave me a great historical gardening book for my birthday (Even from palliative care, she's still ordering books from Amazon using her iPad - which is hilarious, and so her. Love.) We are growing very similar gardens these days to those found in medieval England for similar social and cultural reasons (backyard veggies & self sustainability), and in a very similar climate. For years I've been intrigued by Shakespeare's flowers - all the same plant name I read on tags in greenhouses, in seed catalogues. It was some time last summer, we were driving - and on the radio they were talking about how so many medieval & renaissance still life paintings - or any painting that included vegetables, or meals featured this crazy looking purple carrots - just like we're seeing again now ...on the radio they were marvelling at this as if we should all be surprised. That surprised us, as we drove around.
Hannah's reading 1984 & Animal Farm and she thinks they're weird. (My mother ordered those books also - in a sweet hardcover that includes both books.) We've been trying to tell her that there are some good lessons in history - even more interesting when that history is looking into a future we've already passed. (Hey, where's my Tardis?!) If Thunder Bay is Manor Farm, I'd like to know when the pigs are going to take over...because maybe that's what it will have to take to stop the human's poor behaviour. Call it an environmental revolution, and look at it through eyes that have read how damaging ignorance and indifference can be.
If you want to know why our Lake is warming, infested, filthy, becoming increasingly unhealthy - take a look at your street, look at the run off water - and the cigarette butts that are in it. Even with our early spring, snow free roads, it took our Stupid Human City too long to get around to cleaning the streets this year - so much garbage everywhere, so much that could have been swept, ran off into our urban streams, into our Lake, on to cause problems that someday will be reported as shockingly alarming "climate change."
We put asphalt at the bottom of a Great Lake, buried the mineral rich soil beneath, we let garbage blow around on it, oil spill on it, waste fuel on it; we've taken away trees who have the roots to hold it all together - more than we stupid humans will ever have - real roots, a real connection from the sky to the soil. We've been so greedy in north-western Ontario - and continue to be, then we cry "climate change," rally, plant new trees, a garden, and think we're making a difference. But are we? Really? How can we justify that stupid clover leaf or what they're doing to the Lake Superior landscape with that highway expansion? This is not a global issue or the El Nino, or because we used too much aerosol hairspray in the eighties damaging the ozone - this is local - local stupidity and greed. Ignorance is bliss, isn't it.
How about a change in leadership. A new pig. Maybe we don't need councillors who doesn't think bike lanes are dangerous, waste time & money at the cost of our environment, and destroy our history (buildings, parks & landscape) for the sake of a parking lot for lazy people who think four blocks is the Boston Marathon.
::::deep breath::::
I wish we would see more informed articles like this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2012/05/29/global-warming-alarmism-when-science-is-fiction/
Monday, June 4, 2012
flutterby flutterby
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| Monarch Danaus plexippus |
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| Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) & a Monarch |
In the vegetable greenhouse, on the strawberry plants
4 June 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
growing ideas & filling gaps
The ferns in the front garden enjoyed the rain and are uncurling more & more fronds. My plan is to get my builder, R, to install the rain barrel beside the front porch buried in the ferns behind our Annabelle Hydrangea. I'll attach a soaker hose to it, and make everyone in the front garden as happy as they are now all the time.
The Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce (Picea pungens 'Globosa') who lived in a pot for two years, moved three times, and is now in his third year in this location - is still small, and a little wonky in growth.., lost a few lower branches. Again I think more water is the key to a happier spruce. That and less goutweed surrounding it - gawd I hate that stuff. I ripped it to shreds the day I tore it out, and will continue to rip every root I see. Almost as amazing as it being sold in greenhouses, is that Neil was able to kill a bunch of it. I've never known anyone able to do that. I'll have to get him to stare down the weed smothering the spruce...
When I started excavating, rearranging, reinventing, establishing, removing, adding, and editing this garden in 2010 I had an idea, more than a plan, of what I wanted to eventually see. It's developed into a green-lime-red garden with lots of purple, blue, and pink flowers. Some later yellow blooms will arrive, orange geum, whites of Annabelle and hostas....
As everyone matures into their spaces, I think about their placement - move some around, shuffle the scene, and am now thinking about gaps and holes. There's a big hole front & centre now, where I removed an excavated hosta transplanting it deeper into the garden, for some low, bright light near a nice looking rock who's getting buried by the ferns.
Next spring some tulips will fill the early gaps; now that I know how the garden is growing I feel more comfortable planting some permanent bulbs. I had always imagined daffodils, and it may still go that way, or a mix...who knows. Either way, dotted with bulbs is the way it's growing...
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| 1 June 2012 Front & Centre I've added a 'Brookside' Cranesbill Geranium next year that will be spectacular studying gaps, imagining bulbs |
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| near the steps 1 June 2012 St. John's Wort gone mad hostas arrving heuchera, coral bells nearly blooming |
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| new hostas whose name I can't remember he's going to be HUGE |
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| cornflowers from Heather excavated Ligularia |
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| excavated hosta |
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