CANADIAN REGION - What are you doing in MAY 2015

Welcome to MAY, my favourite month of the year when the green leaves have finally chased away the winter blues and my pink tulips are in full bloom along with all the flowering trees and shrubs  are beginning to hide the unsightly trucks and stuff parked within sight of where I like to sit in my garden.

Having eight large trees felled last year along the road bordering my place, I know it will take some years before I can grow trees and shrubs in strategic places to hide the RVs owned by my neighbours who park them outside their property lines on the city property that borders all of our homes.  My next door neighbour, for e.g. has two trucks, one boat, two cars, one R.V., so buys the next door property that has room for two cars that can get in and out if nothing is parked in the way.

Having said that, they are good people but we do have different tastes.

So, how are all our Canadians doing?  Have you finally got rid of the snow?
                                                                 

The snow is pretty much gone here on Ontario's West Coast. There's a pile of grey frozen crud in the parking lot of the supermarket, and some on shady north facing slopes, and oh yeah,  and pack ice about 100 meters into the Lake

Ok, that didn't work. I have a pic I can't attach. GRRRRR

Here we go, sunset over Lake Huron, with pack ice 100m from shore. Spring is going to be late.




Some years have been swimming by now. Sorry about the poor quality cell phone picture.

That is a pretty picture, Fred.  I will just tune out the mention of pack ice.

New Canadian Kid On The Site

  msensi Today at 5:20
Good Morning: Discovered the concept and ran down a copy of the book. It was not easy. Amazon declined shipping to Canada and I finally found the last copy in a bookstore 25miles from my home.

Live in a small village roughly midway between Ottawa and Toronto. Shopping for anything is an adventure here.

Gathering my goodies and have started to set up my first planting site.

I have just become involved with pressure cooker cooking and could not believe the difference in taste of the veggies from the local market. Fresh goodies right off the garden will be a taste to anticipate, I am sure.
I grew heirloom tomatoes a couple of years ago. They were amazing plants. I think I will search out other heirloom veggie seeds for next year.

I had a health and wellness website up and running until about six months ago. Considering setting up another on this topic, once I learn enough about the subject.

I am 79, divorced, have been retired since 1990. Love it when a plan comes together.

msensi

Posts:  1
Join date:  2015-05-02
Location:  South Eastern Ontario, Canada

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Re: New Canadian Kid On The Site

  Kelejan Today at 8:28
  msensi  to our World of SFG.

There are a few members in Ontario now.  The Canadian thread is getting more active now that the year is at last finding its spring and gardeners are finally coming out from under all that snow.

I must admit that here in British Columbia we have had an easy time compared to the East; even so, it is been a low snowfall winter and the snow on the mountains is what we rely on so I fear we are in for a season of fires and water restrictions.

We look forward to hearing of your progress.  Is your name something to do with the martial arts?

Cell phone or camera, that's still a pretty picture of the sunset.

The leaves on the COMFREY patch must have grown about twelve inches in the last week and I have started to harvest the leaves and placed them on top of my wood chips.

The strawberries have started to poke up from under the leaves they were mulched with last fall, so tomorrow I will remove them  and  spread some finished chicken manure on them and then re-mulch them.  I hope I am doing this right and someone will let me know if I am not. Tah!   I now have two 4x4 beds of them.

:welcome:Richard L.  

from Kelejan of  

As sandersaon has said, CANADA is  BIG country.  I am in British Columbia myself, Lotus Land.  Whereabouts are you located.

Yes - it means "Teacher" or "Instructor." Mostly honorary these days. I will be a very young 80 in a few months - not nearly so active on the mats as I was 40 years ago.

I still live by the principle that the man above provided our bodies with all that is needed to live long and in good health. As long as we provide two things. First is a healthy diet full of all of nature's best, and regular exercise.

All the other trimmings in the pretty packages are purely for shelf life, or misdirection. That is why I am here.

I have some of my materials started. Had to special order in such goodies as large bags of vermiculite. Living in a small village has many advantages relative to health, but it is a bear when shopping for almost anything not required by the majority on a daily basis. Like shoes and socks. But this normal for small communities like this.

However, my four children all answered the call to B.C. - starting in the 80's and now include quite a roster of grandchildren and great grandchildren slowly moving to take over.

Will be reading the forum daily and looking for any opportunity to help and learn. Now to read some of the latest topics.

msensi:  I guesses as much but only as I have a friend who is a 2nd Dan in Judo and he is about 83 I think.  Keeps very fit and is still involved in the local club filling in teaching the very young ones discipline. He certainly does a good job and has people who know him well and then send their children to him.

He does do some gardening but I have never been able to convert him from using Roundup let alone SFG.  

I live in  a small town of about 7,500 and also have no transport so I have to rely on friends to help with bulky or heavy stuff, or do small quantities and make many small journeys, mainly walking.

Welcome from the other side of the province, Sensei. I spent may happy hours fishing on the Mississippi* near Smiths Falls and later the St. Laurence near Mallorytown with my grandfather. (Who, among other things was the greatest gardener I've known).

Temps here yesterday topped 25°C (unexpectedly). I was away most of the weekend, but got some perennial flowers planted and the roses uncovered. I also put in some glads, garlic and rhubarb in a conventional bed. I'll prep the veggie garden for the SFG beds this week after work, and assemble them on the weekend.  

*For those of you not from Ontario, there's another Mississippi in the US somewhere

PS: I'm not simply being modest about the picture; we have the most fantastic lingering sunsets here, and pictures can hardly do them justice. In the summer, a lone piper stands on the catwalk of the lighthouse and pipes the sun down every night. Kind of breathtaking.

Hi folks.  I'm a newbie to the forum and to SFG.  I live in Canada's capital, Ottawa.

Last summer I bought the ingredients for Mel's Mix but never got around to using it.  I'm going to build one or two beds this year and give it a try. I'll also keep a big part of the traditional veggie garden.  

One of my concerns is watering the SFG while we are away for a week or two at a time during the summer.  It's never been a problem with my traditional vegetable garden but I think the SFG beds will dry out while we are away. The only solution appears to be some kind of automated drip irrigation system which I expect will be costly.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.   

trolleydriver from Ottawa  

It seems that Canadian from West of British Columbia are finally thawing out.

Watering can be a problem for us gardeners.  One cannot expect others to water our beds with the same commitment we have so that comes down to irrigation systems and mulching. I see you have already posted this question so expect some answers pretty soon.

There are many threads you can read to get some ideas if you use the search feature in the top left hand corner of this page.  Any questions that ask us as I know there will be many happy to share their expertise.

Keep us posted on your progress.  We are great cheer leaders. You will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. When you do, there's plenty more to make, as I well know.

Thanks for the welcome Kelejan.

It's 27 degrees Celsius here today so I got outside and mixed up my compost (5 kinds) this morning.  Unfortunately it is too windy now to mix in the peat moss and vermiculite so that will wait for another day.  I'm also negotiating with Mrs trolleydriver about where to locate the boxes.  She decided she wants to move the raspberry plants which will free up the north end of the existing vegetable garden.  The existing garden is only about 12x11.  

I've had great success with tomatoes (single or two stem) grown vertically and fastened to tall poles in the existing garden.  I may stay with that approach for the tomatoes and plant them in the freed up area on the north side. I'll have one or two rows (I know that is a bad word for SFGers) of tomatoes. Then I'll leave space for a three foot aisle.  In front of that I'll have one or two SFG boxes for smaller crops but I am tempted to use some vertical space in the boxes for peas, cucumbers, melons. There are so many possibilities!

QUESTION: I still find it hard to believe that 6 inches (actually 5.5" if you use a 2x6) is enough depth for the boxes. Would it be better to use 2x8 or even 2x10 lumber to get more depth?

Many gardeners use the 2 x 6 and have fantastic gardens.  I opted for the 2 x 10" boards because I am in a hot long summer climate.  I fill it about 8" and leave 2" for mulch.  I also have open bottoms so the veggie roots can go down into the clay beneath the bed if they really want some extra room.

After yesterday's  warm temps and today's rain, Lake Huron is now North America's largest slushy.

I'd take a better sunset picture today (it's clearing up now, it will be a good "red sky at night" sunset)but I'm minding my sick grandson.

Hey Trolleydriver (Welcome) I was concerned about not being quite 6" deep, so I will be adding a narrow ledge (about 2.5" wide x 1" thick) atop my ripped 1x12 barn board sides(5-15/16"), making the beds just under 7" deep, so there will be some room for compost dressing and mulch, and something to lean on to help me get up uh, and a place to put the watering can. Yeah, we'll go with that. (just my best guess; I'm a rookie too!)

Fred,  I hope the little guy feels better soon.

Trolley,  For those who are SFG purists, 6" of Mel's Mix works**.  But, if you need to add mulch, then 7" is needed.  Right?  I use 2 layers of 2"x4" = 7".  Some of my lumber were free  scraps from 2 housing construction sites!  (Always get permission from the site manager)  So, for those who want a single board look should go with 2" x 8" = 7 1/2".  I decided (I'm the wife) that 3 layers of 2"x4" would look nicer.  I use up to 7" of Mix in those because I can.     Course, now that they are all elevated at least 5 1/2" off the ground, the 3rd layer isn't needed.  

** Yes, there are veggies that need a deep cover or are root veggies.  Those need extra depth.  A portable top hat like 1'x4' or 2'x4' will allow crop rotation.  Or just add a another row on half the box.

The little guy is doing fine, but he has to stay home for a day (school policy because he was physically sick at school). We'll be outside later planting more garlic and glads. I'm using garlic to mark the gladiola beds and keep the bugs down. I know both should have been planted in the fall, but I didn't have any conventional flower beds ready then either. My yard will remain a work in progress for the foreseeable future.

FRED58 wrote:The little guy is doing fine, but he has to stay home for a day (school policy because he was physically sick at school). We'll be outside later planting more garlic and glads. I'm using garlic to mark the gladiola beds and keep the bugs down. I know both should have been planted in the fall, but I didn't have any conventional flower beds ready then either. My yard will remain a work in progress for the foreseeable future.

Ditto, Fred.

Today, I bought the wood at Home Depot.  I decided to go with 2x8 spruce.  HD cut them in half for me.  Now I it's time to get out the drill with a screwdriver bit for the deck screws.  Moving ever closer to my first SFG.

Looking forward to it, trolleydriver.

Yippee!  I got two boxes built today and prepared the ground where they will be located. Unfortunately I only have room for a 20 inch aisle between the two boxes. Behind them there will be a 3 foot aisle and on the other sides there is tons of space.  So I don't think the one 20 inch aisle will cause a problem for access to the boxes.

It's our wedding anniversary day on Wednesday. I offered to take Mrs Trolleydriver out for the day but she prefers to stay home and work on the gardens. So I should be able to put down the weed block, finalize the position of the boxes, finish the preparation of Mel's Mix and hopefully get it into the boxes.

I've been taking photographs as I move along. I need to learn how to post them on the forum.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t129-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

You can probably make it with 20" isles if you have lots of room on the other sides.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, TD.  What a great wife - would prefer to work on the garden...

Here's to many more happy years!

Mrs TD allowed me to buy more SFG things today which included

- a bag of chicken poo compost
- a bag of shrimp compost
- electrical conduit and 90 degree fittings to make a trellis
- nylon netting with 7 inch openings for the trellis

I took a pipe cutter with me and cut the 10 foot long conduit to the right lengths at the store for easier transportation home.

I thought it would be a problem finding the right kind of nylon netting here in Canada. I did some online searches at local big box and garden centres but to no avail.  Then I went to Amazon Canada and there it was ... Dalen Trellis Netting 5 ft x 15 ft with 7 inch openings.  It was going to cost over $16 plus shipping and taxes which brought it to around $23.  I did one last online search and up popped Walmart Canada. The store near me had it in stock ... exactly the same size and brand for just $6.96. That was a welcome savings.  I'm almost afraid to add up the total costs for my two SFG boxes and all that goes with them. 

My wife and I are geocachers and we have several of our own caches hidden near one of the shopping centres where we were shopping this morning.  So we were able to do some maintenance on one of our caches which was close by. If anyone does geocaching and is in the Ottawa area you may want to look up our caches. Our cache owner name at geocaching.com is chdriver.