CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing MAY 2019

Well, Canadians, at least where I live in British Columbia, Spring really has arrived.

So far, I have mowed the main lawn twice and the roadside grass once.  I love that first mowing as it does make the whole place look so much nicer.

Cut some of the brush at the rear of the house, sorted out the tumbler compost transferring all the winter stuff into the main compost bed, and cleaned the tumbler as it was a bit yucky.

The garlic is shooting up, the strawberries are firmly established and the weed are flourishing.

Now to work trimming more brush so that it can be collected by the City on May 7th.  Good sun this week so I should be able to get a lot done.

So sorry for all the people back East with their flooding, many of them twice in three years.

Trolley Driver, are you anywhere near the flooding?

KJ there is flooding along the Ottawa River about 15 minutes from us as well as in many other locations further away. One woman evacuated the house she was renting and during the night it caught on fire and she lost everything.  Someone else recently moved back into their house that was renovated after last year's tornadoes and now that house is flooded. There is so much damage to many homes and lives.

That is so sad, TD.  Insurance does not cover everything and all the work that is put into a home.  It must be even worse if you have do not have a family or no longer have one.

What happens when your home become un-insurable because you live on a flood plain?

When my DH and I came to the town where we live, no one was allowed to build on the floodplain by the river, only mobile homes were allowed. In past years I notice that houses have been built there.  I wonder what their insurance costs are?

I remember the aftermath of the flooding down here a few years ago... SO many people had no idea that they were living on a flood plain. It was unreal. Just the amount of ignorance...

Hoping you stay safe, TD!

Our weather has been very extreme...

I am 4 or so weeks slower on the in bed stuff...peas, radishes, spinaches and lettuces....I think I can get lettuce leaves this weekend?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Our weather has been very extreme...

I am 4 or so weeks slower on the in bed stuff...peas, radishes, spinaches and lettuces....I think I can get lettuce leaves this weekend?

I am in the same position as you, Scorpio. I must get something in this weekend. even if it is only 16 square feet, the bed is ready to be seeded.

Kelejan wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Our weather has been very extreme...

I am 4 or so weeks slower on the in bed stuff...peas, radishes, spinaches and lettuces....I think I can get lettuce leaves this weekend?

I am in the same position as you, Scorpio. I must get something in this weekend. even if it is only 16 square feet, the bed is ready to be seeded.

Same here. What a year!

I did finally get to thin the radishes, and pulled some lettuce leaves...spinach actually might not happen.  Just Super stunted.  Planted kohlrabi, and a new beet, touchstone gold...we will see!  Most beets that I grow taste like dirt to me, and I like beets!

Scorpio,  the beets that I have tried to grow myself tasted the same as yours and never seemed to grow nice and juicy.  I did use the leaves though, like I do for other root crops.

These last few days I have been working trying to clear up all the growth at the rear of my garden, particularly the ivy that has grown over what I called, when we first moved here, my feature rock. It was so overgrown with ivy that from the road, one would never know there was a nice rock there, the sort that would cost hundreds of dollars if you wanted to import one.  I could not believe how thick some of the ivy stems were, the oldest stalks were more than an inch thick and had to be cut with shears.  Each year of new grows thicker by the year.  Just imagine what it would do to a wooden house if it got a foothold, or should I say a grip. If you trim it yearly they are easily dealt with, but not if you let years pass by.

Anyway, I have been working on this rock for many hours with the deadline tomorrow morning of the city sending round their yearly yard waste collector truck. I have four very large waste bags full of ivy, plus several bundles of sticks and cuttings from the overgrown salmonberry bushes and finally the back of the property is beginning to take shape again.

Meanwhile, the grass needs cutting again as during May it needs cutting twice a week during this month.  We up north get all our growing in fewer months so that we can have a rest during the winter.

The grass cutting is never ending with the rainfall!  I am over it, to be frank...

Kelejan, I am hoping to like these beets, because i really like the IDEA of beets, lol!

Healthy, .anthocyanins, all kind of great things!

I have had a nice couple of days , warm and dry and managed to get all my grass cut twice in the past week, only early today managing to complete a second cutting this morning before the  rain came this afternoon. May I always concentrate on keeping the group cut as however bad the rest of my garden looks, cutting the grass always makes up for it. The rest of the weather forecast consists of showers, rain showers etc.

My cherry trees and apple are a mass of blossom, but in a week or so it will all be over the with the apples I will start looking for the thousand of little apples there will be and try to thing them.  These trees I gave them the gift of  wood chips and they have improved immensely, giving me larger and better tasting fruit, the apples in particular being much easier to prepare for canning etc. At one time I was considering cutting down both trees but now I am glad I did not.  The only problem I have with the apple tree is that it is too near my neighbours' fence so the apples fall on their driveway and split, making a mess.  When I first moved there in 1996 there was no driveway next to my property, only a gentle bank that made all the apples run back on to my grass and few were damaged and they were easy to pick up.

My garlic and strawberries are doing well, and the rhubarb is coming along nicely so I hope to get some of them to eat before I leave for England at the  end of June.  I hope to be able to can some cherries before I leave, and that the apples will be ready for my return. I think I will miss the peach season which is a shame as they are my favourite canned fruit that lasts me until the following year.

I enjoyed Spring.  Now it is back to rather dull weather but that is not deterring the weeds.

California also enjoyed it's brief spring. Unfortunately we are having rain and hail, ruining the cherry crop which was ready for harvest, plus hay that was cut and drying in the fields. I only lost one beautiful tomatoes sucker I was going to let grow. I'm sure there will be 10 more growing to replace it.

A few days ago my cherry tree and its to be replacement plus the apple tree were a riot of blossom and I am happy to say that the bees were also happy, as they also had the use of all the dandelions and wild violets in the grass which has now outgrown the wild flowers and is due to be cut when I find the time and the weather.

The fruit trees are no longer sporting their blossoms and I will be looking for all the apples and cherries and hoping to space out the apples, at least the ones that I can reach.

Both these two old fruit trees were due to be cut down about four years ago and they produced few fruit and not particularly tasty ones at that.  Then the magic began when we all got involved in placing down wood chips.

That first spring both trees produced a lot more greenery and the same quantity and poor quality of small fruits.  The following year the apples were noticeably larger and by the third year the apples were far fewer, much larger and tastier and easier to harvest and process as it was always a pain to process so many tiny apples.  So I canned everything and it was a pleasure to be able to use large apples and use my eight-side slicer and I still have some left over from two years ago in spite of giving so much away.  So it  looks that I will have another bumper crop from these old
trees.

Another plus for these old trees is to make my garden a little more private from the neighbours who, who after taking down all their shrubs and small tress, built a deck completely  overlooking my garden.  When we first moved in the garden was lovely and private due to all the greenery between us and we could not see each other.
At that time I should have though about the future and started planting but I never got around to that as I was working full time.  Just think what I could have done if I had started 23 years ago?

Edited to correct the number of years I have lived in this house.  In case no one noticed, I wrote 232 years.

sanderson wrote:California also enjoyed it's brief spring. Unfortunately we are having rain and hail, ruining the cherry crop which was ready for harvest, plus hay that was cut and drying in the fields.  I only lost one beautiful tomatoes sucker I was going to let grow.  I'm sure there will be 10 more growing to replace it.

It is always sad when Mother Nature decides not to cooperate with the timing of crops and I feel  your pain, sanderson.  Think what the pioneers had to go through when their crops failed , food that they needed for their animals and themselves.

When I look at the food I have harvested I know that I would have starved. I remember my very first season when I set up two 4x4s and was able to keep going for the summer with lettuce,radish, onions etc for my salads and realised that would never do if I had only that to survive on until next spring. Even then I realised that of everyone did the same as I did, that it would go a little way to helping everyone not to rely on others to produce their food. I was able to store a few potatoes and carrots, and can sherries, apples, rhubarb, blueberries etc.

When I visit my brother in England and see what he does, if anything, although he did mention something about planting runner beans the other day,  I will see if he is using the SFG method, and if not, I will see what I can do in setting up a couple of SFG beds, at least for him to use next year. I need, of course, to see the size of his garden and amount of light.  One good thing is that he has a conservatory where he enjoys the warmth of the spring days and another is that he has a longer growing season than I have.

Oh dear, I am beginning to act like a big sister and I have not yet met him.  It is going to be interesting.

I need to go back and read through this thread to catch up but meanwhile Kelejan, when are you going to visit your brother?

CapeCoddess wrote:I need to go back and read through this thread to catch up but meanwhile Kelejan, when are you going to visit your brother?

CC. I leave our nearest non-local airport on June at  10:55am and return to the same airport 29th July at 9:12pm. Stay overnight with friends then will be home next day when another friend collects me.

I am now the "proud" owner of a Samsung Galaxy something or other and tomorrow I am going to the library to find out how to use it and I expect I will be bugging everyone until I leave. This  will enable me to keep in touch, in a small way, with my friends on this Forum as after I have met my maternal family up north,  I will meet my brother  who has a garden and a conservatory and  I want to see if I can get him to garden the SFG way.  He has a small garden so I think it will be ideal.  He has already stated he was going to plant some runner beans and I know he is keen on cooking and using lots of vegetables so if he does not do any canning, I will teach him what I know.  He is going to be a lovely brother as we have so many interests in common. And I am going to be a lovely sister.

  Yes you are, Kelejan. You are both very fortunate to have each other.
What a marvelous adventure this will be!

Kelejan wrote:I enjoyed Spring.  Now it is back to rather dull weather but that is not deterring the weeds.

I don't get it -- the weeds grow a foot for every inch of crop growth.

countrynaturals wrote:

Kelejan wrote:I enjoyed Spring.  Now it is back to rather dull weather but that is not deterring the weeds.

I don't get it -- the weeds grow a foot for every inch of crop growth.

CC, perhaps we should be eating weeds instead.  Weeds always seem to do better than the varieties we plant.

What day in June are you leaving? Who will be keeping Pal company? Dang, you are off for an adventure. I hope you will learn how to post photos of your journey.

sanderson wrote:What day in June are you leaving?  Who will be keeping Pal company?  Dang, you are off for an adventure.  I hope you will learn how to post photos of your journey.

Early Monday morning; I will be picked up at 5:00am latest as it is a three hour ride to the Airport.

Pal has been my biggest worry.  He will either be fostered out, or placed in a cattery and neither will make ham happy.  He is the legal care of KAAPs  There is no one near me who is willing to come daily to my home, to feed and change his litter or take time to play with him. It is not as though he can be let out like most normal cats because of his special needs.  I know he going to be very frightened and there is no way to tell him that I will be back.  then gain, if I decide that I am going back to England to live, then he will have to live in the cattery for the rest of his life unless they find someone like me who can take him on. The only person who could take him is my friend down the road but as some of you may know, I water her pot plants while she is away for three months in the summer and i  know how hard that can be to continually go out every day to walk down the road to do that job.

Also I do not want a stranger with access to my house while I am away for five weeks.  I do not know whether I should email the place where he will be, or try and put him out of my mind until my return.  I never thought that when I took on Pal, that this holiday would ever happen

At least no one has yet said to me, "Oh, he's just a cat".  I can think of one person who would have said  that to me as she said to my DH and me once, "He is just a dog".

I wish I could help you & Pal out, KJ....

AtlantaMarie wrote:I wish I could help you & Pal out, KJ....

Thank you for that kind thought, Marie.

Kelejan is heading to England to meet up with her newly found family members. I got confirmation today that my half-sister, whom I discovered last year, is coming from England to visit us in Ottawa at the end of June. It's going to be quite an experience.