CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in April 2016?

Taking a break from hauling bags of wood chips around so decided to start turning my compost heap, turning it back from where I turned it the first time.

Then I discovered that I still had a heap of finished compost in the four-by four that I was using as  a pile. so I have spent some time this morning sifting it  and have a wheelbarrow full of beautifully finished compost and still more to be retrieved.
So I am off now that it is cooler to get some more. Tomorrow I hope to start turning over the 4 x 4 where the new compost was started a little while ago.

At the moment my working area at the rear of my home is littered with various garbage bags containing wood chips, straw,  finished compost, leaves, shredded leaves, shredded paper, all to be incorporated into my garden.

This morning I gathered a whole bag of shredded comfrey leaves from five plants.  Thirteen more plants of similar size still to be harvested. One day someone else will discover them and there will be a competition as to who will get up earlier in the morning.   

The first year I carefully cut here and there.  Last year I cut them to the ground and within weeks they were as tall.  I harvested them for a third time but they were beginning to flower and the plants were flowering and getting woody.  So I know now, two harvests then let them be.

For those who don't know, comfrey have very deep roots and bring up minerals etc..
These plants are growing on City land and the plants have been there for years and years before I found out what they were.

Lucky you! My comfref's not even up yet.

I need to turn my compost pile too, but I'm nervous about back pain. Don't you get aches and pains, Kelejan? What you do about them?

CC

I wonder I comfrey grows around here? Do you add it to your compost? Also, I was wondering, Do you all think I can start planting: carrot, lettuce, spinach, kale, outside yet? We're still getting minus 3 celsius temperatures at night here...

Mimi ... I was wondering the same things about Comfrey.  I think it goes into the compost but where can we find it in our area is another question.

Concerning planting outside.  I checked the chart at the back of the ANSFG book. It shows when to transplant and/or sow seeds outside based on last frost date (LFD). 

Looks like carrot can be seeded 3 weeks before LFD, lettuce (leaf) transplanted and seeded 4 weeks before LFD, can be  spinach can be seeded 5 weeks before LFD, etc.

I'm beginning to regret putting in the new SFG boxes. It's taking up way too much of my time to get them ready. I need to get on with starting more things indoors as well as getting my existing boxes ready for planting.

Does anybody know the postage rate for one ounce from the US to Canada? I'm getting google answers from $0.85 to $1.20, and our post office never answers their phone.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Does anybody know the postage rate for one ounce from the US to Canada? I'm getting google answers from $0.85 to $1.20, and our post office never answers their phone.

CC

Sorry, CC, I have no idea.  I seldom mail anything from the Sates to Canada.
: i.e. Never.

Re Comfrey.  I generally add it to my compost heap, or lay it on the surface around my plant or else on top of Wood chips.

Garbage:  Sitting at my window looking our at my garden while drinking my coffee, and although my yard has many bags of stuff littering the place for now, I noticed something that should not be there.

Today in our road it is garbage day, and we all have nice new garbage courtesy of the City, (paid for we ratepayers of course). Some people do not get the hang of it or maybe do not yet have their garbage cans.  There was a rather large pile dragged up the path that takes one up the hillside.  I have new neighbours and they have a a six-month-old little girl, so it could only be their garbage.  Took me half an hour to clear up all the bits and pieces.  I will have a word with them when they surface or I see them, as they probably do not know that they are entitled to a garbage bin from the City. Also they may have put the garbage the night before which is liable to a fine.

We do have a big bear problem, and I could see the  footprints in the wet grass where he/she had dragged the garbage bag up to a nice sunny spot to have breakfast.

this same morning, the house nearly opposite me had an overflowing bin and something had attacked that and strewn the contents all over the place.  When the garbage truck came, the idea is to remain in the cab and put out a contraption that embraces the bin, lifts it up and up-ends it into the truck.  They did that, and then two men had to get up and pick up much of the larger pieces, put them into the truck and repeat the performance. 

After that, I continued working on my compost pile and finished that. That one turning is doing a lot of good, and  next time it should be even easier.

Just had breakfast, now going out to plant some potatoes in the remains of the old compost.  So much to do.

CapeCoddess wrote:Lucky you! My comfref's not even up yet.

I need to turn my compost pile too, but I'm nervous about back pain. Don't you get aches and pains, Kelejan? What you do about them?

CC

I am lucky, CC, that I finally recognised what comfrey looked like.

About back pain, I can get tired and sometimes a bit sore, but I try never to do too much in one day.  By the next day I am ready to go again.  I did get extra tired last week but I allowed myself two to three days to just putter about doing light jobs.

It is good sometimes that it rains so the it reins me in.

CC ... have you tried the USPS web site.

https://ircalc.usps.com/?country=10054

I checked a couple of things (envelope, small package) from Barnstable to Ottawa and it was expensive. There must be other options from USPS than the ones I selected.

trolleydriver wrote:CC ... have you tried the USPS web site.

https://ircalc.usps.com/?country=10054

I checked a couple of things (envelope, small package) from Barnstable to Ottawa and it was expensive.

I bet a lot more than 85c to $1.20.US.

trolleydriver wrote:CC ... have you tried the USPS web site.

https://ircalc.usps.com/?country=10054

I checked a couple of things (envelope, small package) from Barnstable to Ottawa and it was expensive. There must be other options from USPS than the ones I selected.

A regular letter envelope from the USA to Canada should not be too expensive. I did find the following:

http://www.stamps.com/usps/postage-rate-increase/

First Class Mail Intl Letters - Mexico & Canada (1 oz.)

$1.15

It's been quite dry here in Ottawa and there is no rain forecast until next Tuesday and then only a 60% probability. The MM in my original SFG boxes is drying out. I had to give my leeks, chives and tulips a drink today. Hope it does not harm them because we are going to a low of -5 C (23 F) tonight.

It's a beautiful sunny day here with a temperature of 55 F. Tomorrow we will be in the 60s. 

For the last two days, I have not been able to get any coffee grounds from the nearby Tim Horton's coffee and donut shop. The reason is that they were expecting a visit from an inspector and didn't want that person to see my buckets on the floor. They said they will have some grounds for me by tomorrow. In the meantime, I managed to scavenge some nice clean cardboard boxes from their outside cardboard waste bin. Yup, I've been dumpster diving. I'm such an embarrassment to Mrs TD  . I should have enough cardboard now to put down as a weed barrier for my new boxes.

Mrs TD and I went to three different garden centres (nurseries) this afternoon. I'm looking for compost for my MM. I already have mushroom compost and composted horse manure as well as something which is supposed to be worm castings but which I think is mostly filler such as peat moss. I can't find any fish related compost anywhere. I may have to use some of the "compost" I gathered from my compost bin last year. But I am concerned that it may not be all that good since I used to put clods of grass/soil in the bin before I got into SFG. 

By the way, we found that the price of transplants is outrageous this year. For example, $4.99 Cdn for a 4 inch pot.  Over $7 for a six pack of lettuce (they have to be kidding!). Mrs TD came away with a Poppy transplant (yikes! $15 Cdn incl. tax) to fill in a spot. Based on the current prices of new plants we have a small fortune in perennials already growing in our garden.

Mrs TD said I need to start more flower and veggie transplants indoors next year. She's even talking about a small greenhouse.

Mrs TD said she took some soil from behind one of my compost bins to use on her flower garden. She said the soil was beautiful and black . I need to empty my bins and sift the contents to see if I can get some good compost for my MM.

We have rain so I am doing some catch-up in the house today.  A friend visited me this morning and will have some tomato and pepper plants for me when ready as I have done little seed planting this year due to the work I have been doing on my garden  this month. She will also bring me marigolds as well.

I have finished turning my compost pile, doing a bit each day and it is now all tidied u[ to do its thing for a while until I turn it again and hopefully have some usable compost next time.

The greenery at the back of my garden at the base of the hill  is growing like crazy so I have some work there to do to keep it under control. We have something here  called salmonberry that produces strawberrylike berries but seem to taste of nothing much. I believe they are edible.  These bushes spread by seed, and runners.  The runners can travel under my compost pile even though I put down barriers.  They only need a tiny hole and the runners push up. Every year I try to cut them down to ground level  so I think I need to cover the area with black plastic for a year or two  to try and kill them. They are on a bank and I visualize the bank covered with all sorts of perennial flowers.

More rain forecast for Saturday morning then it should ease off for the afternoon.  It should be dry enough by Sunday morning for me to continue harvesting those comfrey plants down the road.

Can anyone tell me if ivy that climbs up a  tree trunk can kill the tree? 

I hope so, as the cedar hedge which belongs to next door has grown so tall that it completely shades my house from the sun. What I am afraid of is if it ever catches fire my house would be toast. We are due for a bad fire season this year, just like last, maybe even worse.

Good question! I always cleared my tres of ivy...and got poison ivy

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/english-ivy-circling-tree-kill-tree-69358.html

You say?

Thanks for that link Scorpio.  Looks like if I leave the ivy it could make the tree dangerous.

NOTE: NEW MONTH OF MAY CANADIAN REGION NOW ON.