CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in May, 2016

Mimi2 wrote:... Anyone tried SFG without a frame? The frame is the problem.

What if you remove the wood frame and surround the MM with sandbags? Or get a kiddie swimming pool, punch holes in the bottom for drainage and fill it with MM. My neighbours grow veggies in such a pool in their backyard but they use regular soil. You could maybe plant flowers or some kind of greenery around the outsides to hide the sides of the pool. Of course you would have "rounds" instead of "squares" along the edges. On the other hand perhaps neither of these silly solutions would satisfy bylaw.

Is it the wood that is the offensive provision? Or the permanency? I would take pictures of the other structures, and your garden, and attend a city meeting and voice your discontent at least before moving anything. Mel in the All New mentions using bales of hay. Is that what they would rather you do? Doesn't make much sense, but they are not a permanent structure....Find out exactly what is wrong about your garden structure.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Is it the wood that is the offensive provision?  Or the permanency?  I would take pictures of the other structures, and your garden, and attend a city meeting and voice your discontent at least before moving anything.  Mel in the All New mentions using bales of hay.  Is that what they would rather you do?  Doesn't make much sense, but they are not a permanent structure....Find out exactly what is wrong about your garden structure.  

Apparently having a permanent wooden structure was the issue. I'll just move them to the back where I have more sun anyway.

trolleydriver wrote:

Mimi2 wrote:My neighbors complained about my SFG to the city, and then the bylaw officer determined that I must move my SFG frame 9 feet away from the road. This is bogus! I'm so annoyed. There are several other yard structures on my street that are not 9 feet from the road. Is there an easy way to move a SFG? Anyone tried SFG without a frame? The frame is the problem.

Sorry to hear that. It makes no sense but you are not the first person in Ottawa to have that problem.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/dangerous-veggies-city-demands-ottawa-woman-remove-garden-1.2458585

The City will not allow a garden but they will allow a guy on my street to be a driveway mechanic, fixing other people's cars in his driveway, making all kinds of noise with his tools, filling his front yard with junk, parking trucks and cars on the street, etc.  Bylaw has been around several times and nothing ever changes. Meanwhile his mess devalues the properties on the street.

Maybe you should contact your City Councillor.

TD,  I presume that you do not know if a resolution was found in this case.  I would be interested to know if there was.

p14shooter wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:

Mimi2 wrote:My neighbors complained about my SFG to the city, and then the bylaw officer determined that I must move my SFG frame 9 feet away from the road. This is bogus! I'm so annoyed. There are several other yard structures on my street that are not 9 feet from the road. Is there an easy way to move a SFG? Anyone tried SFG without a frame? The frame is the problem.

Sorry to hear that. It makes no sense but you are not the first person in Ottawa to have that problem.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/dangerous-veggies-city-demands-ottawa-woman-remove-garden-1.2458585

The City will not allow a garden but they will allow a guy on my street to be a driveway mechanic, fixing other people's cars in his driveway, making all kinds of noise with his tools, filling his front yard with junk, parking trucks and cars on the street, etc.  Bylaw has been around several times and nothing ever changes. Meanwhile his mess devalues the properties on the street.

Maybe you should contact your City Councillor.

TD,  I presume that you do not know if a resolution was found in this case.  I would be interested to know if there was.

p14 ... Concerning the couple who are in the link I provided above ... a compromise was arrived at with the City Bylaw. They only had to move the first two feet of the garden. Originally they were going to have to move it back 6 to 8 feet.

Mimi2 wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Is it the wood that is the offensive provision?  Or the permanency?  I would take pictures of the other structures, and your garden, and attend a city meeting and voice your discontent at least before moving anything.  Mel in the All New mentions using bales of hay.  Is that what they would rather you do?  Doesn't make much sense, but they are not a permanent structure....Find out exactly what is wrong about your garden structure.  

Apparently having a permanent wooden structure was the issue. I'll just move them to the back where I have more sun anyway.

Gotcha. If you wanna fight, sounds like an arguable cause. However, in the interest of brevity and completion, I get it.

Hey gang. I gave up on filling my 'hole'. I really didn't want to pay for dirt, so I went with plan B, which I like more. We have a big 20' silo foundation in our yard, the trampoline takes up most of it, but there's a 6x4 ish section that sticks out, is in 100% full sun, and is now home to my 2 beds. I had to pick the windiest day of the week, which I don't mind cooler temps, it was just hard to keep my tarp down. As you can see my cat Gibson helped me out. I went to get 2 more bags of compost as it looked very Peat Mossy. My pile picture is deceiving, there is more compost at the bottom. I had enough to fill 2 planters which will house tomatoes I think. They're close to the hose, in full sun, and I think they will be very happy, just like me. I still need to get my grid, and trim it out, plus I haven't planted anything yet, although I think frost danger is gone. 

TrolleyDriver, have you planted yet?

StrongAsMeat wrote:

TrolleyDriver, have you planted yet?

Strong ... I've planted a bunch of things that I started indoors and I've sown some seeds. There is a recent list of what I've planted in the "Second Year SFG in Canada" thread.  It's still too early to transplant tomatoes and peppers. I will wait another week for the tomatoes and a week or more after that for the peppers. 

It's good to see that you are making progress on your SFG boxes and MM. Soon you will have things growing.

SAM

trolleydriver wrote:

Strong ... I've planted a bunch of things that I started indoors and I've sown some seeds. There is a recent list of what I've planted in the "Second Year SFG in Canada" thread.  It's still too early to transplant tomatoes and peppers. I will wait another week for the tomatoes and a week or more after that for the peppers. 

Just took a look, thanks. I had tomatoes and cukes started indoors but they died . I think I'll cheat and get starter tomato plants. I need to figure out where to seed what, and tomorrow I'll go get my grid material and keep going.

Normally I do not pamper my lawn, it is just a patch of grass that I keep as neat as possible without going overboard.

I do not use commercial weedkiller, just mow and let the grass stay, cut high, and that's it.

Today I decided to give it some TLC so I got my bulb planter and twisted up many plantain plants, the idea being to fill the holes with good earth and let the grass grow back in.  I completed  about half the lawn today and will finish it off tomorrow.

A lot of my lawn has small-leaved plants that bloom in their season, but I really do not like plantains as they smother the grass.

Kelejan wrote:Normally I do not pamper my lawn, it is just a patch of grass that I keep as neat as possible without going overboard.

I do not use commercial weedkiller, just mow and let the grass stay, cut high, and that's it.

Today I decided to give it some TLC so I got my bulb planter and twisted up many plantain plants, the idea being to fill the holes with good earth and let the grass grow back in.  I completed  about half the lawn today and will finish it off tomorrow.

A lot of my lawn has small-leaved plants that bloom in their season, but I really do not like plantains as they smother the grass.

I always say I don't have a lawn, I have a meadow. Ajuga blooms when it's time, like right now. Then the clover. And at times there are little blue flowers here and there along with wild daisies, some butter cups and some dandelions. But right now I have this annoying curly dock with a tap root that goes to China. I don't know what a tulip planter is but I'm willing to try it in hopes that it will get rid of this huge dock.

CapeCoddess wrote:

We don't have a lawn or a meadow. We don't even have dirt. We have rocks and clay and more rocks. 

We don't have grass, we have a ground cover and weed nursery. 

Seriously I have ground covers I haven't been able to find on the internet. At least it all looks green from the road.

StrongAsMeat wrote:We don't have grass, we have a ground cover and weed nursery. 

Seriously I have ground covers I haven't been able to find on the internet. At least it all looks green from the road.

All brown, here. WAAAAAAA! 

We still have lots of grass but the front lawn is slowly being taken over by Creeping Charlie. We pulled some dandelions this past week but it is a losing battle. Many of the lawns in the neighbourhood as well as all "grassy" areas owned by the City are seas of yellow which will soon go to seed and invade all the lawns. The good thing is that we are turning another part of our front lawn into a perennial garden.

CC.  A tulip or bulb planter is a stick and on the bottom is a tube that digs into the soil and you pull up the handle and bring up a plug of soil.

You pop the bulb in and then push the rod containing the soil back on top of the bulb.

So I thought of the idea of using it  on the plantain.  I push it in the centre of the plant, pull up the rod, and the core of the plant comes up. Then tidy around the hole when the leaves are lying loose.

Tomorrow I will refill the holes, having shaken as much soil as I can out of the roots, add some compost and re-plug the holes.  I don't have to get down on my hands and knees which is a plus.  Hopefully the grass will grow back quickly before other seeds take over. 

Some of these patches of plantain are very dense, but I am able to dig in with the planter and get all the hearts of the plant. I think I will make this a yearly task as I think it will be much easier.  I have never done this before so this first year will be the hardest work.

It's a cold and windy morning in Ottawa. Current temperature 4 Celsius (40 F) with winds gusting to 26 mph make it very uncomfortable. I'm keeping the transplants indoors for now.

Hi guys, I have a weird question that I couldn't find the answer to in the search. 

What consistency should the MM be? 

I made my mix, but I'm worried that it's too 'light'. I thought my math was good, but I feel there might be too much peat. I may be used to regular dirt/soil, where I'd have to dig my way to the bottom, with the MM I can pretty much wiggle my hand right to the bottom. I guess I could make a quick video to show you, if anybody expresses concern.

Thanks in advance!

trolleydriver wrote:It's a cold and windy morning in Ottawa. Current temperature 4 Celsius (40 F) with winds gusting to 26 mph make it very uncomfortable. I'm keeping the transplants indoors for now.

very cold in Toronto this morning as well.....I planned today to be my day to pick up supplies, and my very own copy of the book.

Mission accomplished!  and it warmed up considerably in the afternoon so I spent 90 minutes weeding one bed and trimming back vines (ornamental).

Can hardly wait to weed the other bed and start amending the soil and setting up the grids!

StrongAsMeat wrote:Hi guys, I have a weird question that I couldn't find the answer to in the search. 

What consistency should the MM be? 

 with the MM I can pretty much wiggle my hand right to the bottom.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds about right to me. As I add more compost over the years it seems to dense up a smidge but it still friable as heck.  Roots like it that way.   As do I when weeding.

CC

SAM, I agree with CC. Your MM should be light.

Thanks CC and TD! I guess I did something right for a change! 

The best thing is when you can reach in and grab your potatoes, carrots, beets right up out of there! MM is the bomb! So lovely! I agree, as you amend year to year, it gets a bit more dense. But just add a pinch of vermiculite or peat and you are back in biz!

Margay77 wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:It's a cold and windy morning in Ottawa. Current temperature 4 Celsius (40 F) with winds gusting to 26 mph make it very uncomfortable. I'm keeping the transplants indoors for now.

very cold in Toronto this morning as well.....I planned today to be my day to pick up supplies, and my very own copy of the book.

Mission accomplished!  and it warmed up considerably in the afternoon so I spent 90 minutes weeding one bed and trimming back vines (ornamental).

Can hardly wait to weed the other bed and start amending the soil and setting up the grids!

We were cold here too. All my seedlings had to stay indoors. Do you feel you were able to get the ingredients for your Mel's Mix?