Second Year SFG in Canada

Another chapter and the saga continues.

Those shoots look like daffodils to me, TD.

Ref: the Christmas lights.  There are a bunch of shoots coming from one of the logs in my garden, and last year I thinned them and before the snow I decorated them with shiny ball etc.  They are still up and I am getting comments as to  how pretty they look in the sunshine, and I agree.  They stand out better in the sun so I will leave them up until the tulips are in bud.

When I have had enough of them I will thin    them to maybe three branches.  It is a birch tree and I need a small tree to make the place look more interesting and giving it more substance.

We must be getting into the final chapters of KJ,s book, the title of which is "The Snow Melt".

Do you see what I see?  The front edge of box #2 is now visible. The white strips are the ends of the venetian blind grid that I folded over the edge of the box.



Box #1 also showing some good signs of becoming visible.


Temps are almost 50F here today and are forecast for 50F tomorrow. After that we go back to the low 30s during the day and as low as 10F at night, so the melt will slow down considerably. We will be away for a few days. We are heading for the "banana belt" of Ontario (i.e., Niagara Falls area ... called the "banana belt" because the winters are milder and there is a lot of fruit grown in that region, but no bananas). It will be interesting to see what the SFG beds look like here in the frozen north when we get back.

More photos before Mrs TD and I leave on our short trip.  Can now see the leaves (mulch) on top of the south side of the boxes where the snow has melted. Hopefully the will be completely clear when we get back.

Yea!

Have fun on your trip...

Spring is here and we are back from our trip.  So it must be time for an update on the snow melt and the SFG beds. There has been some improvement.  Both beds are now fully clear of snow but there is a still a lot of snow around the beds. Nice to see the green grass peaking out as well. The centres of the compost bins are still frozen solid. Overnight temperature this evening will be -10 Celsius (14 F) so still quite cold.

Yep, you will be in business in no time!

Is that grass I see?

Coming to the end of your saga, TD.  Or is that the first chapter for this year?

Oh no! Environment Canada has issued an advisory which includes this information

"... a stronger low pressure system is expected to emerge from Colorado and affect the region Wednesday night through midday Friday. Although there is uncertainty with the exact track of the storm, latest guidance suggests significant snow is possible over Eastern Ontario."

Looks like the SFG beds are going to be covered with snow at least one more time. May have to start a whole new book for KJ.

Woo-Hoo and oops... sigh... But it's coming, TD, it's coming... Keep the faith!

Things are not looking good this morning. We had some heavy wet snow overnight which accumulated on top of the chicken wire cages. As a result, the cages have collapsed. Hopefully I will be able to repair them.

We are expecting another storm tomorrow which may bring another 15 centimetres of wet snow, followed by ice pellets and several hours of freezing rain. To quote Yogi Berra, "It's like déjà vu all over again".

Yesterday was beautiful and sunny with temperature as high as about 50F which helped with the snow melt. Today (March 28) is rainy but mild which is getting rid of more snow. More rain and temps in the 40s and 50s F are forecast for the rest of this week. I started some herb seeds (parsley, thyme, basil) indoors today ... another experiment for me. Getting ever closer to being able to put a trowel in the SFG beds.

My two 4x4 SFG beds, two 4x4 regular soil beds, and much of the remaining regular soil veggie garden are now free from any snow. We will probably get more snow over the next month but it won't last long. The ground is still frozen solid in most places. It takes long time for the frost to come out of the ground because it can go down as much as four feet. But the gardening activities are going to unfold quickly now

I currently have onions and leeks started indoors. Next week I will begin indoor seeding the tomatoes, peppers, etc. It's warming up enough for me to start acquiring the lumber and other supplies (e.g., vermiculite) for building more SFG beds. I'm leaning towards keeping my two 4x4 regular soil beds and amending them with compost as sanderson suggested at one time. The focus will be on building one or more table top SFG boxes.

You are finally able to start doing some gardening related activities.

As of yesterday the gardens were clear of all snow. As of this afternoon they are all covered with snow again. We may get up to 15 centimetres.    Higher temps and rain tomorrow should get rid of the snow. But the snow had to happen because I changed from winter to summer tires this morning. 

I need to get going on starting some tomatoes and other things indoors.

trolleydriver wrote:But the snow had to happen because I changed from winter to summer tires this morning.

We set yet another new weather record. We got 14.2 centimetres of snow which surpassed the old record for April 6 that was set way backin 1958. So it's back to watching "the melt".  Maybe Ottawa will skip Spring and go right into Summer.

TD. please remind me never to move to Ottawa. I really do feel sorry for you all.

I think all this must be  that darned Polar Vortex.  It moves around all the time at the top of the World, spilling it's cold down the planet, and the East of The Americas has been getting it for some years now, and poor California etc are suffering drought. Even we in British Columbia did not get as much snow as usual and had quite a dry summer.

And so it really begins ...

Just look at what "popped" into the trunk of our car while we were out and about today. I feel there will be a new SFG box taking shape soon.




Beautiful sunny day but cold (below freezing) for April 9. The snow had disappeared but there are still remnants left from the snow storm we had a few days ago. The SFG beds are in the far corner of the yard.

Some miscellaneous photos of indoor operations.

1. These are onions and leeks growing in self-watering containers. The seedlings received a haircut a couple of weeks ago. The aim is to transplant them into the SFG. On the right hand side is a Swiss Chard plant that has been growing indoors for a couple of months.


2. This is Pink Pampas Grass for Mrs TD. When transplanted outside it should grow quite high and produce large plumes. 


3. Over the winter my collection of things to use for growing indoors and to use as cloches has been growing. Most of the things are recycled food and drink containers. There are also some dollar store items, recycled potting cells, etc.


4. These are Lobelia (annual) seedlings (small green dots). They were sprouted on paper towel and transplanted today to this container. So as not to disturb the roots which have gone through the paper towel I just put the whole thing on top of the Mel's Mix and then covered it with a thin layer of seed starting mix. The seeds for Lobelia are extremely small and take a long time to germinate. If they succeed these will go into the regular garden.
  

5. These peat pots contain Parsley, Basil, Thyme and Romarin (Rosemary?) seedlings. They were transplanted today into the Mel's Mix from seeds sprouted on paper towels. I'm not expecting much success with this batch but if they do grow they will find their way into a new SFG box (a table top if I get around to making it).

In spite of the cold and the snow you are sure keeping busy, TD, and keeping Mrs. TD happy with the lobelia.

Kelejan wrote:In spite of the cold and the snow you are sure keeping busy, TD, and keeping Mrs. TD happy with the lobelia.

+1  They sure look healthy.

You've been busy, TD! You will have a nice bunch of plants for the garden when it warms up!

#3 Well done.

Thanks folks for the encouraging replies.

And now for something completely different. The mad engineer (that would be me) is about to undertake another experiment. Introducing the poor man's cold frame. It's a 66 litre plastic tote turned upside down. The plants will sit on the lid and they will be covered by the clear plastic bottom of the tote. I still have to figure out how to keep the temperature down on warm sunny days without removing the upside down bottom of the tote completely. I may have to MacGyver something.



This next one was a nice surprise. I pulled back the leaves on one of the squares at the front corner of one of the SFG boxes. And there to my surprise I found signs of life. Tulips that I planted in the fall are starting to rise out of the MM. It's amazing because the centre of that square feels like it is frozen solid.



Encouraged by what I saw in the tulip square I pulled back the leaves covering the Leek square in the middle of the box. I could only see this sad remnant of one the leeks that I started last year.



In the garden at the front of the house there is life in the form of what I think are daffodils. Mrs TD is very happy at seeing this.



After all that, I "bravely" opened up the garden shed for the first time this year. Luckily I was not greeted by any strange creature. I took out partial bags of vermiculite, peat moss and 5 part compost. I will use the ingredients to prepare some potting mix for my indoor seedlings.