CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in May, 2016

Here in the British Columbia Southern Interior we are lined up for three lovely days when I can get out in the garden as much as I like.

The weeds are coming on nicely and I am trying to keep up my resolution to do some weeding every day so that I can enjoy the summer without this weed battle this year.

Yesterday I started pruning my forsythia. I took out a pile of shoots and so far there is an awful lot more still to do and it looks as though I have done nothing but I know I have been neglecting this side of gardening in the past and things have got out of hand.

Yippee!!!

This is the month when we put out our transplants and do more outdoor seeding in Ottawa. I can hardly wait to see those SFG boxes start to get filled up with new veggies.

I agree, TD.  May 7th the markets start with their transplants.  If my garden plans work out, I hope to have some transplants for sale next year instead of buying them.

Lovely morning here, getting my days allocation of weeding done then I will start on my SFG beds.  Just need a little cleaning up then I can grid them and start some direct sowing.

trolleydriver wrote:Yippee!!!

This is the month when we put out our transplants and do more outdoor seeding in Ottawa. I can hardly wait to see those SFG boxes start to get filled up with new veggies.

Yes, next weekend I'll start to harden off my transplants.

I am having a bear problem at the moment due to others' slipshod ways of storing their garbage.

Three days running I have had to spend half an hour picking up the garbage that this bear has taken from other people's bins etc.  This stuff has been strewn across my lawn and beds, with today the bear treading right on the alliums I had transplanted and just flattening them. They were a gift from my friend, Persis.

Following the bear were the crows, picking up the small pieces I had not managed to tease out of my grass with my "reacher". Then the crows went back to where the garbage came from to attack the remains there.  That householder is going to get a bit of a shock when they come out to their car to go to work. Perhaps they will get the message that if you have a garbage bin, store the bin in there.

Not in a good mood this morning as I am due at the dentist shortly to have a filling done and I just hate that needle. :-(  A new dentist, as my old one has retired and the last time was very painful and I am not looking forward to it.

Ouch, a dentist that doesn't know how to give shots painlessly. I hope you have a better day. So the bear uses your yard as it's picnic area.

Kelejan ... I hope all goes well at the dentist. My dentist told me he is retiring at the end of the year. He is a very good dentist and I am concerned about who I will get next.

Today I'm working on getting two new 4x4 boxes ready.

Went well at the dentist although he and his assistant are not as good as my old team.  I have been spoiled as the retiring one had been my dentist since 1980.

Prices have gone up.  Way up. I also had the embarrassment of my credit card not being approved. Home now  and check my accounts; all in order, so I do not know what went wrong as I have a healthy line of credit for times such as this.  Going back now to sort things out. See if my credit card now works. I do have a back up account but did not have that card with me.

I am finally  getting my "face" back.

Such a waste of a wonderful day.  Consolation just been invited to a salmon BBQ just down the road.  I will be taking a bottle of wine.

Gardening?  What's that.  I guess I am taking a day off.

Kelejan ... You deserve at least one day off considering all the work you have been doing and then the dentist torture. 

Hi gang. I'm still here, but haven't had much progress.

I think the cucumber plants I started indoors died, I had forgotten them in the sunroom at night a couple of times, and a whole day in the rain. I still have lots of seeds though, I just hope I'm not too late.

My wife wants to tighten the purse strings, so instead of having some fill delivered, i'm going to see if I can get a couple yards brought in from a construction site or something. I'm not skimping out on MM though. I found 5 kinds of compost (in 4 different stores), and peat moss is everywhere. A garden center sells 110L of vermiculite for $35. I think I figured out my math from my other thread, and I need 170L of each MM component, but unless they have smaller bags of vermiculite I'll just make up the difference with compost and peat. 

My daughter had a horse riding competition on the weekend (1st,2nd & 2nd place), and we had the inlaws over, so this past weekend was shot. Weather sucked too. 

On a side note I was reading up on Mason bees and really like the idea of building a house for them. We got wildflower seeds from Cheerios 'Bring back the bees' campaign and will be planting those soon.

StrongAsMeat wrote:
I think the cucumber plants I started indoors died, I had forgotten them in the sunroom at night a couple of times, and a whole day in the rain. I still have lots of seeds though, I just hope I'm not too late.

Re cucumbers ... I have not started mine yet. You should be OK.

Today is the one year anniversary of when I first joined this great forum. I want to thank everyone who has advised me, encouraged me, answered my questions and viewed my posts. 

StrongAsMeat wrote: 

On a side note I was reading up on Mason bees and really like the idea of building a house for them.

Cool! If you do this would you please post photos of your progress? Maybe in the 'keeping bees' thread? Don't know if there are Mason bees around these parts but if there are I'd love to copy you.

CC

Happy anniversary TD! 

Don't know if there are Mason bees around these parts but if there are I'd love to copy you.

 
Lol. You know what? I never thought of that. I know we have bumblebees and hornets and such, but haven't seen any Mason bees (that I know of)

trolleydriver wrote:Kelejan ... You deserve at least one day off considering all the work you have been doing and then the dentist torture. 

Thanks, TD, for your support.

I have had two days off.  BBQ yesterday evening  and today a Seniors' Centre Lunch.
Sometimes there are perks to being ancient.

I did do half an hour's weeding just now, to ease my guilt.  Also did a bit of watering the iris plants and also some geranium cuttings.  I now have 13 geraniums cutting that are showing sign of life by producing some leaves.  Should be a nice display next year or for potting for winter in-house.

This morning I had evidence of an intruder on to my deck.  He did not get far, just knock down the rather flimsy wooden guard and broke off a bit I had put up at the end of my narrow deck but went no further as I had stack stuff in front of the guard, and it worked. 

I only noticed it early this morning at four..  My deck goes around two sides of my house, and when I let Jazz out I lean on the roadside edge and watch the world go by. usually a cat or two. Then I glanced left, saw the guard down and hustled Jazz back into the house. I did not want him chasing bears. Wednesday is Garbage Day and bears know  what that means. No mess this week as it is only newspaper, cans and other recycles; no food.  that is next week.

Rain due tonight, so I hope to plant some seeds tomorrow. The ground is too dry and I like Mother Nature to do the work.

My condolences to any of our Alberta friends in Fort MacMurray. So scary. I cannot imagine what it must be like; a town more than ten times larger than ours, being evacuated and not knowing  what mayhem  they are returning to. There are also other places in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan that are burning. My prayers for you in the coming days. It is going to be a long hot summer for many.

Kelejan wrote:


My condolences to any of our Alberta friends in Fort MacMurray. So scary. I cannot imagine what it must be like; a town more than ten times larger than ours, being evacuated and not knowing  what mayhem  they are returning to. There are also other places in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan that are burning. My prayers for you in the coming days. It is going to be a long hot summer for many.

It's terrible what is happening to Fort MacMurray, Alberta and the people from that city. As of this evening some 1600 structures in the city have been destroyed and the flames are approaching the airport. I read that upwards of 90,000 people (the entire city) have been evacuated.

My heart goes out to those who have to evacuate because of fire threat. What to take, what they may return to. Plus pet and husbandry animal provisions, large and small.

Mason bees, there are a few threads through the Search box.

Mrs TD and I will be celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary on Friday May 6. 

All those folks in Alberta being impacted by this disaster, my heart and prayers going out to them. Unbelievable destruction, just the perfect storm of conditions. ((((Hugs)))). We are thinking of them all!

Scorpio Rising wrote:All those folks in Alberta being impacted by this disaster, my heart and prayers going out to them.  Unbelievable destruction, just the perfect storm of conditions.     ((((Hugs)))). We are thinking of them all!

The area covered by the wildfire is now 8 times larger than it was yesterday ... now 850 square kilometres.

Just unbelievable the scale and magnitude and expanse of this disaster

Mr. and Mrs. TD, Happy 44th Anniversary!

Well, things are starting to grow a bit now.  We have had some rain and the temps at night have been about 5+ the last few nights so that helps a lot.  It is interesting to note to me, you have learned it before I bet, that the peas that I planted on April 12 have just about caught up to the peas I planted on March 26.  That tells me that it is not very useful to plant the peas very early hoping to harvest them earlier, as they are just going to take longer to grow in the colder temps. 

I did wind up replanting almost everything.  The things I planted way early just did not look like there were any signs of life, and I do not see anything that looks like it is double planted.  My cabbage and broccoli I think are a loss unless I go out and get some transplants.  Of course, the garlic and onion sets that were planted are doing fine.  As for onions, should I keep the bulb covered or does it grow partially on top of the ground?

p14shooter wrote: It is interesting to note to me, you have learned it before I bet, that the peas that I planted on April 12 have just about caught up to the peas I planted on March 26.  That tells me that it is not very useful to plant the peas very early hoping to harvest them earlier, as they are just going to take longer to grow in the colder temps. 

I haven't had the chance to learn this lesson myself, and have been having misgivings about not having planted my peas earlier, so I appreciate you sharing that!
I'm sorry you've had to replant everything. I hope that if you decide to buy transplants, that they do much better.

My 21 year-old-son has dropped by for a surprised visit (stay?). He says he can help me in the garden. I have to think up some heavy lifting for him to do, while he's here- and wants to be helpful. I think I'll try to put together one more SFG, and and him help me make the MM. I also may start harden off some plants this week.