CANADIAN REGION - What are you doing October, November and December 2015

Well, I started off badly today by writing a whole lot of stuff and now I have lost it and have to try and remember what I have written.
Found what was lost.



We are now looking to see when our first frost dates are so I have put this FROST sticky at the head of this thread for the next three months. It also remains as a sticky at the top of the Canadian Region on the Home Page.

October 1st.  Now I will have to re-read this sticky to see when I  have to get my stuff planted in time for it to be safely in the ground and building good root systems for the coming spring. 

This week I have garlic to plant: I split all the cloves last night, a job I had been putting off for a while.  I have about 130 big, fat cloves, the results of the last two years planting the same stock I got from a local grower who sells at the local farmers' market.  So I really know that they are organic, and not irradiated like the cheap Chines garlic that we see in our local supermarkets.
I planted 80 cloves last year, and after picking out these 130 cloves, I have heaps to use myself and to  give away to friends etc.

Yesterday my tulip bulbs arrived; Pardon My Purple and Green Spirit, a green-edged white, to go  with my pink tulips of last year.

I have to finish preparing the beds with all the home-made compost I have ready, then cover with the shredded leaves I have been collecting, so that they stay snug and safe from our cold winter. 

I am hoping for more snow this season in our Province of British Columbia as last winter we had very little compared to normal.  Mother Nature sent most of it east of us to Alberta and right across the rest of Canada.  I do hope our Easterners will have a less traumatic winter.  I think it is promised because of the El Nino effect this coming year. (or is it El Nina?)

Meanwhile, this will be a three-month thread as things slow down as one cannot do much when covered with snow, but I am sure many of us here in Canada will enjoy reading about all the happenings in all those areas that enjoy more year-round gardening.

The extent of my gardening will be indoor  AeroGarden (tm) and growing microgreens.

I did a search and found many Canadian hardiness maps. Here are 2 that may help find a zone on gardenate.com

From cornhill.nursery:

From barriegardencentre.com:

Thank you sanderson. 

I think I may be in zone 3, 3a or 4. The trouble is that British Columbia has many sub-zones due to the crinkly nature of its landscape.  In the flat parts of Canada it is easier to see where you are.

When I looked at the Garden Centre map, that is when I realize that Canada is really rather small with regard to agriculture.

Crinkly micro-zones

sanderson wrote:Crinkly micro-zones

I must admit I visualize it as crinkly  tinfoil.

Kelejan wrote "Well, I started off badly today by writing a whole lot of stuff and now I have lost it and have to try and remember what I have written.
Found what was lost. "

How did you do that??? It happens to me a lot. I posted a bunch in another thread this morning and when I hit send only the first paragraph showed up and the rest was gone. I'd love to be able to get my posts back.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Kelejan wrote "Well, I started off badly today by writing a whole lot of stuff and now I have lost it and have to try and remember what I have written.
Found what was lost. "

How did you do that???   It happens to me a lot. I posted a bunch in another thread this morning and when I hit send only the first paragraph showed up and the rest was gone. I'd love to be able to get my posts back.

CC

Maybe I only mislaid it, CC?  When I went to press send, the reply box went completely blank.  After a silent "d.....",  (I do not want to corrupt the dog), I thought I had better rewrite it quickly while it was still fresh in my mind.

Brought up the reply page again, and there it was. Just typed out the first three lines and inserted them at the top of what I had already written.

So, CC, I am really of no help to you as so often I really do lose stuff and justify the "d...   With a computer, it is like a cat, it owns me, unlike a dog.



Trolley Driver, welcome back, and some nice pictures on your "A First Time SFG in Canada" thread. Worth a look, fellow Canadians.

I have accidentally hit Draft instead of Preview or Send. Look under Profile, then Drafts. Hopefully, it's saved.

I will try to remember that the next time it happens.  Thanks, sanderson.

Twice today I accidentally hit the wrong key while I was typing and lost the contents of what I was going to post.  So I wrote it up in Microsoft Word and then did a copy and paste into the forum post.

BTW I started a new thread on microgreens.  For those who are interested please go to the following link

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t19999-microgreens-gardening

I cooked up some yummy green fried tomatoes today.  I'm not much of a chef/cook so be kind with any comments 

They do look yummy, TD. and I bet they tasted good.

I have never got around to frying green tomatoes so I had better give it a try. Did you coat them with cheese or bread?

Kelejan ... here is a link to the recipe that I used.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fried_green_tomatoes/

I've done that once or twice. Kinda interesting, but like zucchini, I like to eat them real fast or they become limp and that's no fun.

I think they might be helped along by drying them out first. Kinda like I do with eggplant for eggplant parmesan, so there isn't so much liquid -- or so much salt, from salting them to get the liquid out. I put thick slices of eggplant in the oven and bake them for about seven minutes a side, and finish off with the broiler if I need to. Anyway long enough to get the cut surfaces browned and more firm, and less juicy.

Somebody made zucchini out of a big old zuke the other day, topped with pizza toppings, and, as a watery veggie, it was very unappealing once it cooled off and became mush. And the centers were steaming hot and mushy while the edges were cooling down.

Tomatoes, even green ones, are similarly juicy.

trolleydriver wrote:Kelejan ... here is a link to the recipe that I used.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fried_green_tomatoes/

Thank you for the excellent service, TD.

Simply Recipes has some good recipes. Thanks TD.

Yum!  Looks delish, TD!

By the way, the green tomatoes were quite firm before being cooked and remained firm during the cooking process. After cooking and a short cool down period we ate them right away. I'm also wondering if I could have cooked them in a deep fryer instead of a frying pan.

My garlic is planted.  Decendants of cloves from two bulbs bought at the farmers market three years ago.  Last October I planted 80 cloves ranging from a nice size down to smallish to make the 80 to fill the bed.

From those 80 I planted 110 nice plump cloves in my garlic bed, and given a neighbour 27 cloves to plant and another neighbour a bag of cloves for cooking and have enough for my needs until next October.

Next year I expect to increase my yield and donate to the local seed exchange.

I also intend to try and increase the yield on other veggies in like manner.

Having a coffee break right now then I will be out to plant my tulips. They include  30 pink ones, my first treat that I gave myself last year, and I have increased them to 30 large ( the original 30)  plus 12 a bit smaller and 34 small ones that I will grow in a different bed so that they can grow larger.

This year's treat to myself, 36 purple and 20 white with green-tinged petals.

Nice, Kelejan!
I have 3 varieties and could do 40, 20 & 20. Do you plant 5/sq?

CC

That's a lot of garlic Kelejan.  I'm going to plant some but nowhere near that many.

I took a walk around our garden today and captured some photos of flowers that are still in bloom (but not for much longer). I'm not sure about some of the names ... the flowers are Mrs TD's specialty. 


A beautiful red rose.




Phlox



Marigold



Phlox



Verbena



Black Eyed Susan



Sedum



???



Cosmos



Geranium



Alyssum

Lovely flowers! Will miss the color 'til Spring!

Kelejan, I am putting in some Narcissus Ice Follies for Spring! They make me so happy when they come up! Squirrels ate all the bud heads off all my red tulips last Spring...I am ready for them now...Critter Off! So bummed!

CapeCoddess wrote:Nice, Kelejan!
I have 3 varieties and could do 40, 20 & 20.  Do you plant 5/sq?  

CC

I have planted nine per square but I have put in a lot of compost. I reckon 3 inches apart would give me three by three = nine.

I have no idea what variety they are except that they are hardneck so I get scapes in the early summer.

TD, lovely flowers, it is nice to have them in addition to the veggies.
Will miss the color 'til Spring!

Quote Scorpio
Kelejan, I am putting in some Narcissus Ice Follies for Spring!  They make me so happy when they come up!  Squirrels ate all the bud heads off all my red tulips last Spring...I am ready for them now...Critter Off!  So bummed!

Scorpio, I, too, miss all the flowers during the winter.  This year I was delighted with my display of pink tulips that I had planted in three groups so that passers-by could see them. Today I have planted pink, purple and white so that others can enjoy them. I finished planting them this afternoon, just before it started raining.

This spring I saw a lady just standing there looking at them for about five minutes, obviously enjoy them.  Next spring she will have  an even lovelier group to look at.

Those who like tulips need to visit my city in the Spring for the Ottawa Tulip Festival.

http://tinyurl.com/o53agye