A First Time SFG in Canada

Thanks folks for the kind and encouraging remarks.

Right now (4:30 pm Sunday July 19) we have a tornado warning in effect for Ottawa South and most of the area just a few miles south of my location. Funnel clouds have been spotted but nothing on the ground (yet).  It's been very hot and humid so I am not surprised that we have storm clouds showing rotation. For my location we are under a severe thunderstorm warning with possible large hail and wind gusts that can down trees. Hoping we do not get hit.

Well done, trolleydriver.  All looks wonderful.

Saw on TV some bad weather your way; hope it misses you or does little damage.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you and all our Ontarians.

Thankfully, we were spared the storm. Even those in the tornado warning area came through OK. Earlier reports of funnel clouds seem to have been false.  Another day is here, the sky is clear and the humidity has gone. Still expecting some heat up to 28C (82F).  It's going to be a great day for the SFG.

Time to harvest the red/purple cabbage in SFG Box #2.

What it looked like before harvesting.




What it looked like after harvesting.




Now for the UGLY stuff.  Hundreds of cabbage worm eggs on these big outer leaves. The damge can also be seen.




And here are some of worms.




I have left the "stump" in the SFG box to see if it will generate  any small cabbages.




Some guy who thinks he is an SFG gardener got into this photo.




A shot of the cilantro (bolted) in the regular (non-SFG) garden. Hope to be able to harvest some coriander seeds.  Two smaller cabbages are growing in this garden.




Tomatoes in the regular garden.




Tomatoes ripening in the regular garden.




Pole beans are coming along nicely in SFG Box #2.




Yellow wax beans also doing well in SFG Box#2

NICE! Looks great, TD! I have never grown cabbage, or any cruciferous veggies in fact. But I love them!

Curious, when did you put your pole beans in? And what variety of tomato is reddish?

SR ... The pole beans were planted from seed on May 26th as were the yellows wax bush beans.

Did you really ask what kind of "tomato" is reddish?  Mine all turn red when they ripen. Just kidding with you.

I assume the question was related to the cabbage. The cabbages were planted from transplants bought at a big box store. The plastic tag in the box of transplants simply states "Red Cabbage".  They were planted more or less as an experiment but the one in the SFG box did really well.

Everything looks great, TD!

I also harvested some parsley today. What is shown is just a small portion of what is growing in the SFG square. I hung two bunches in the garden shed for drying (see photo).  Used the microwave to dry the remainder.  I followed instructions from YouTube for drying in the microwave between paper towels.  I almost set the house on fire when the paper caught fire.  I tried it again and noticed that a small piece of parsley burst into flames and almost set the paper towel on fire again. I've never seen that happen in a microwave before. Is there something combustible in parsley? Maybe the piece was already a bit dry before it went into the 

While I am inundating you with photos today I may as well give a tour of other parts of our backyard. Mrs TD has done a great job with the flower beds ... mostly perennials.

The pond with one water lily flower.






Moving from the pond on the west side of the garden towards the SFG on the north east side.








The ubiquitous garden gnome.



On the east side of the yard. Lots of weeds in this garden.



The ground cherry plant is doing well and spreading out.



Nice green pepper

No shortage of greenery there! All looks very nice.

Veggies for the body and flowers for the soul.  You and Mrs. TD seem well suited.
I really enjoy your pictures.

By the way, the "worms" on your cabbage will be the caterpillars of the White Cabbage Butterfly.  Their caterpillars just love cabbages. You can easily pick them off, or use some screening stuff to stop the butterflies laying their eggs.

Harvest on July 22, 2015 plus some other things.

Yellow Wax Bush Beans from the SFG and some cherry tomatoes from the non-SFG garden.



These green pole beans in the SFG will soon be ready.



Melon in the SFG with many flowers but no sign of fruit.



These peas (only have two plants) were planted late from transplants. We lost the whole main planting of peas sown directly from seeds in the ground (maybe the seeds taken by animals). These two transplants have come on strong in the past couple of weeks.




This experimental homemade wooden tomato cage is doing a great job of holding up this huge determinate tomato plant.




Mrs TD planted some sunflowers for the grandchildren to enjoy.



Another view of the SFG pole beans.




Looking from east to west with the SFG in the foreground and the pond area in the background.



A non-SFG "box" with regular soil growing tomatoes, green peppers, ground cherry and weeds.

Thank you for sharing your garden!

That is a very tall determinate tomato plant there, trolleydriver.

I've only ever grown one kind of determinate tomato, Better Bush, and love it, but it doesn't get near that tall.

Marc, I'm thinking the same thing ... very tall.  If I recall the tag said it would grow to 4 feet.  I'll have to look under the plant to see if the tag is still there. It's possible that I am wrong and planted an indeterminate tomato in that location.  I usually grow indeterminates and take off all the suckers while leaving only one or two main branches.

Marc, I checked the tag and it is definitely a determinate tomato plant ... Big Beef which grows 4 feet high and 20 inches across. This one must be on steroids because it has already exceeded those dimensions.  The tag says it produces 1 lb tomatoes.

Hmm, my neighbor has grown Big Beef, and his were tall too ... about five feet I guess. I assumed at the time that they were indeterminate, so it's interesting to find out they're not.

He did get a lot of tomatoes from them over a long stretch of summer, though, so I guess there aren't the usual limitations of limited, all at once production that some determinates have.

Good luck on getting those nice big tomato fruits!

trolleydriver wrote:Marc, I checked the tag and it is definitely a determinate tomato plant ... Big Beef which grows 4 feet high and 20 inches across. This one must be on steroids because it has already exceeded those dimensions.  The tag says it produces 1 lb tomatoes.

I have been contemplating growing a Big Beef next year and have been researching the growing habit.  Every single website I visited said it was indeterminate.  So maybe a mislabeling on your plant or maybe someone has developed a determinate trait.

yolos ... I've also grown Big Beef in the past and treated them as indeterminate. But the label on this one says determinate. In fact I had more of these plants and gave them away because I usually grow indeterminates. I have a couple of other determinate plants that are just short bushes compared to this monster.  Anyway it should give us some good tomatoes.

I took a quick look at 5 seed companies and they all listed it as indeterminate.

Morning harvest on July 24, 2015.


Parsley ... for drying but will keep some undried for near term use. There's still a ton more parsley in the square this came from.



Carrots ... this is half of what is in the square. A few are still quite small even though they have huge tops.  The tops will be used (e.g., in smoothies).  I ate one of the small carrots and it tasted delicious.




After a clean-up.

I've got several melon and cucumber plants growing up the trellis on the north side of one of my SFG boxes. The plants are healthy and there are lots of flowers (mainly on the melons) but no fruit. I think I am going to run out of season if these things do not start doing something very soon. First frost date for Ottawa is October 5 (per Vessys Canada) but could be earlier.  Should I be concerned?

Oh yikes do I feel stupid!!! I wish I could delete my previous post.

I took a closer look under the leaves of the cucumber and melon plants and guess what I found?

A baby cucumber


More of the same



And is this the beginning of a melon?