CANADIAN REGION - What are you doing in March 2015

Well another month (February) under our belts. Now to spring into March. The daylight hours are increasing, then comes that moment when Day and Night are equal, and Day starts to win the battle.

Now beginning to see a few thing like daffodils pushing up and tiny buds on my blueberries.  But I still feel bad for everyone east of British Columbia. But hang in there, Mother Nature will have her way.

How are you doing, piratemum,  in S.W.Ontario, have you managed to dig yourself out of all that snow and cold? We haven't heard from you in February and do hope you are not lost, just hibernating. I would not blame you one iota.

MariaOlson, British Columbia, as you are in the same province as I am, I am relying on you to let me know when things happen your way as I would think you are about a week or so ahead of me with regard to temperature etc. I do look forward to having a coffee with you when you visit Castlegar to see family. Maybe you will have time to pop in and see my efforts at SFGing. But I must not be too eager as you said that it would a fishing expedition and although there was a Fishing Derby here on the Columbia River a couple of weeks ago, I bet it was rather cold sitting in those small boats dangling a line. No shorts or tee-shirts there.

And another welcome to our newest Canadian poster, JeNetty from Ontario who is suffering from cabin fever and is eager to get started, like all of us. Let us have the dimensions and orientation of your beds, and see if we can help you.

I would like to mention Hon. Canadian, sanderson who has visited Canada several times, and I would also like to induct the rest of you on this Forum as H.C.s. You are most welcome to read everything here and comment, criticize  (constructively of course) and just plain read.

March on!

Sticky:

Canada Last Frost Dates (and other related handy links)

Just found this. Being a Host is certainly broadening my knowledge. As I am an International Host, anyone in Canada, just click on this link and then you will find the lists for any province in Canada.  Although I live in British Columbia, it does not quite cover all of Canada.  This when when I realise what a big country it is.
Although I did cross Canada from B.C. to Quebec and drove all the way back to B.C., only stopping to sleep, just so my DH could get to see his Mom on her birthday.  I regret not visiting the Maritimes, though.

Yesterday I spent three hours working in the garden; clearing leaves and logs etc and putting them into what will be a long term compost heap, a four-foot diameter wire mesh container that I had piled heaps of stuff too rough and large to go on my regular compost piles.

Putting wood chips on top of one 6 x 4 bed: breaking up pieces of rotted wood to add to the compost pile; clearing some of the mess left behind last year when I was caught out by the year's fist snow fall: even having a go at pruning some of the flowering shrubs. The ground is still frozen solid and will be for at least a week as the night time temperatures go well below zero.
 
I expected to wake up stiff and tired, but in fact I feel great.

Today the sun is shining again  and the garden is beckoning, but I have a lunch to attend, the dog to take to the vets, and then perhaps I can do something more in the garden.

Kudos to you, Kelejan, for getting all that work done. I'm glad you didn't "pay" for it with stiff and sore muscles.

sanderson wrote:Kudos to you, Kelejan, for getting all that work done.  I'm glad you didn't "pay" for it with stiff and sore muscles.

So am I, sanderson, so am I.  Tomorrow the sun is going to shine again so I will be out late morning after the temperature rises.  So nice to be able to actually do something productive.
I will sort out seeds first thing as I have been given several packets for my birthday last week.  By now everyone knows I am a "gardener", so I have seeds, a pruning saw and pruner, jiffy pots, gardening gloves and a gardening book and of course, cards with flowers on them.  So blessed.

Those poor people in Ontario, they are getting hit again.

Weather forecast for me this week is for sun.  Day temperatures will range from 7C to 13C and the night temperatures from -6C to Zero. S it is warming up.

Did another hours work outside this afternoon, this time raking the "grass" that fronts the road and for which I am responsible for keeping tidy even though it belongs to the city.

The ground is still frozen but I was able to rake a ton of sand and gravel off it where the the city had dumped snow that contained all this sand and gravel.  I have to do it every year but this year was extra messy as the guy who worked the snow plow seemed to scrape much nearer the ground, and as the front ground slopes a bit huge chunks  of grass and soil were moved around.  It is going to take a while to mend it all and it does not help that people drive over it because they are too lazy or unable to navigate the corner and so tear up the grass. (Rant over)


OFF TOPIC:
Has anyone noticed that when there is a manhole cover the ground around it gradually rises until the cover itself is inches below the level of the surrounding ground?  A friend of mine gave me a lift and dropped me off at the bottom of my driveway,  but drove over this manhole cover and gave both of us a nasty jolt when the front wheel dropped in and out and then the rear.  She had not noticed it, but she will next time.  

"Honorary Canadians"

I like that!

When people "back home" in Florida ask me where I live, I often say, "An hour away from the Canadian border" which conveys more to them than the name of some random New England town that they've never heard of and will likely forget the second after the conversation is over. "An hour away from Canada" they remember.

Molly, I think the majority of Canadian can say, "We live an hour away from the USA border".  I can.

I saw one of those intriguing maps where each country is depicted according to various elements.  The  one I really took notice of was  agriculture.

The USA was huge mass of blue colour, and Canada was a thin red line across the the top.

Now I know why I am a Regional Host for Canada, and some one else below the line has a much smaller area.  It is the number of people and what they can produce. In British Columbia where I live, I came here in 1979/80 and one of the first items of interest i learned, was that B.C. had only 4% of arable land.  And they keep building houses on the best farmland. 

To me this shows that the population should only be as large as the food that can support them. Otherwise in times of trouble, people starve.

Anyway, I consider all of you  honorary Canadians. But I feel that we  are still ourselves, because we spell some words differently.  

Today I only spent a little while in the garden as sometimes one has other things to do.

I was given some cuttings of grape vines so i cut them into 33 - 9 to 12 inch pieces with three buds? or least what could be leaves to come, on each and then put them in water to start making roots. Never done this before and I must admit that the cuttings all looked dead to me.

Someone please tell me that some of them are alive?

BALD EAGLES:
To our friends south of  Canada, we have lots of bald eagles so we try to look after them so that your national bird is safe.

Kelejan wrote:Today I only spent a little while in the garden as sometimes one has other things to do.

I was given some cuttings of grape vines so i cut them into 33 - 9 to 12 inch pieces with three buds? or least what could be leaves to come, on each and then put them in water to start making roots. Never done this before and I must admit that the cuttings all looked dead to me.

Someone please tell me that some of them are alive?

While I don't have any first-hand knowledge of growing grapes, I do recall reading--and I think it was on this very forum--something about someone who was pruning their grapes in the Spring and was careless in disposing of the trimmed-off bits and they just started sprouting where she(?) had left them in some random corner of her yard. I remember a picture of some very healthy looking young grape vines coming out of the older twigs.

HTH!

Thanks for that, Molly.  I think I will go over to my friend and ask for some more cuttings and then spread them on my wood chips and see what happens.

I can always try selling the surplus.

ETA: My friend is coming over on Monday to help me learn to prune my very old and neglected apple tree. This poor old tree has been neglected as long as I have lived in this house and  also many years before. Two years ago the tree produced an overabundance of small apples. Last year I trimmed off some broken branches and placed compost and leaves and eventually wood chips over the tree line.  It did some good as the leaves  became much healthier looking; no apples as I suppose the tree outdid itself the year before.  I have added more wood chips  and will now prune it to see if it can survive and flourish for a few more years. I need to keep it for a while anyway, as I want screening between me and my next door neighbours as they over look my garden completely.  Not their fault that the previous owner clear-cut all the trees and bushes that gave me privacy so that they could build a large deck on which their two little ones would play and scream all day in the summer. The new neighbours are lovely people and they are very private as well and we get on well together.

It must be getting nearer spring here in B.C. Canada.  This week's forecast is above freezing day and night for the next seven days.  Maybe the soil will finally soften and I can start planting peas and other cold weather crops.

Hi there, from several hours north of the border.
It is beautiful up here on the Shuswap. I planted onion sets yesterday, and Mustard and arugula in the hoop house.  (the hoop house is sitting on one corner of my wood chips  area. and though it is -2 here,  it is 14 in the hoop house.
I have planted spinach in the cold frame... no signs of it yet
I have planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant Cabbage and collards indoors. and some of them are sprouting
AND Artichokes.
Pruned the blackberries and raspberries yesterday while my husband pruned the grapes.
My HUGE area of wood chips have been percolating away for a year now and I hope to have a large garden area this year there.

  GWN!  Haven't seen you in forever!

How did you plant onion sets in -2?  Wasn't the medium frozen?

CC

Hi there CC

I planted them in My SFG garden that has a few inches of wood chips.
It is -2 this AM, but in the middle of the day it gets up to 10 degrees... OH and it is Celcius...

you know the Canadian thing..... 32 Farenheit is 0 celcius

Good to see you GWN and encouraging to me that you are doing so much.

I remember now that you were  having time away, but forgot about it. Welcome back.

I am now off to finish preparing the bed I had dumped frozen compost on then to cover it with black cloth. Can I start planting peas in it, do you know?

I am planting peas today, I got some called sugar Ann that are considered really an early pea.
I was just going through my records from last year and on March 19th I noted a "volunteer "pea plant growing
So I am thinking as far as planting that should translate into March 9th being a good pea planting day    Oh and thanks for becoming the Canadian host

Having lots of peas, it is worth doing now as one can always try again. The night temperatures this week are forecasted to be above zero so I will give it a try tomorrow.

I am quite enjoying being a host, GWN.  I am not very knowledgeable but I do my best with the help of everyone here.

"I am quite enjoying being a host, GWN.  I am not very knowledgeable but I do my best with the help of everyone here."
  
Well you certainly seem to be doing it with Zest.  TWILL be an exciting year for you with your chips and all

I have been pretty busy this last week, still trying to get the garden into good shape so that I can get on with sowing seeds etc. finally managing to get my first 4 x 4 planted with snow peas, peas, chard, spinach and mescalin lettuce.

Last night it rained. I have been spending hours in the garden getting as much done as I could before the rain.  We had been promised it several time during the last few weeks but it never came.  Then it would be forecast once more, and again I would go out and get as much done as possible.  Looking out the window this morning I was so happy to know that my seeds were finally getting some moisture.  In a bit I will put some wood chips over this first bed as there is not much rain forecast now.

I dug amongst the wood chips I put down last fall, bone dry on top but digging a couple of inches down the chips were darker in colour and going down another four inches it was obviously doing something good, even found some worms.

So today I am doing something different; cleaning out my fridge of all those bottles that contain unidentifiable stuff. Most of the remains are pickles of one kind or another. In future I am going to reform and put dates and descriptions on them, especially the stuff that is in the freezer; e.g. worm food and vegetable soup.  I don't mind the worms having soup but I draw the line at me eating worm food.

Kelejan wrote:

So today I am doing something different; cleaning out my fridge of all those bottles that contain unidentifiable stuff. Most of the remains are pickles of one kind or another. In future I am going to reform and put dates and descriptions on them, especially the stuff that is in the freezer; e.g. worm food and vegetable soup.  I don't mind the worms having soup but I draw the line at me eating worm food.

On garbage night, he always asks me what in the freezer needs to be put out in the garbage can. I have baggies of prepped food and baggies of kitchen scraps.

GWN wrote:Hi there CC

I planted them in My SFG garden that has a few inches of wood chips.
It is -2 this AM, but in the middle of the day it gets up to 10 degrees... OH and it is Celcius...

you know the Canadian thing..... 32 Farenheit is 0 celcius

For a moment there I thougt you were talking to me, GWN.

Well, we have had lots of rain here in the Southern Interior of BC and last night it turned to snow; this was white on the lawn  and garden but the roads remained clear and now it has finally melted and I can get out in the garden once more.
 Hurrah!

Last week my kind neighbour pruned my old apple tree while I picked up the pieces, along with the stuff he had pruned from some of my flowering shrubs.  I managed to get all this tidied away into my long term compost pile before the rain started, so I was quite happy to have a couple of housebound days to catch up on some important things like housework.

I still feel for Eastern Canada (meaning east of British Columbia) and hope you. will be able to join us in April.  So much for the schools 'two-week Spring Break.

Housework is important?  With seeding & gardening to be done??

  

AtlantaMarie wrote:Housework is important?  With seeding & gardening to be done??

  

Marie, did you not notice the invisible raised commas around important?