CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing April, May, June, 2020

 COMPOST TEMPERATURE   Today used the SEARCH in the top left hand corner of this page to look for Compost Temperatures and found a 13 page treatise started by Trolley Driver that I found very interesting.  I must go back to it as I have only got to page five and it goes on for 13 pages.  The date of the thread is Winter 2016 and I find it very interesting.

Having just redone my compost pile today  I took the temperature with my  new found meat probe, it is not digital, I make it that is about 48C so tomorrow I will make haste to see if it has started to warm up.  I have added some blood meal and water so I will be patient for today.

In the past my compost making has been very slapdash but the beauty of it is that I always get something good from it.

This morning I took the temperature of my compost pile and it read 51C with the outside temperature at 8C this afternoon.  Looks like progress.

We had lots of rain today so at least my seeds are getting a good start, and happy tha yesterday I mowed about 90% of my "lawns".  The violets are nearly over and now the golden dandelions are taking their place. At least the rain gave me a rest as I was quite tired after yesterday's exertions.  No thunderstorms arrived although they were forecast.

I was planning on making up this vinegar base herbicide but after reading what vinegar does, I weeded a few pounds of dandelions from my Back To Eden wood chip garden - that's about half done as I have another BTE garden to weed yet. Don't worry, I left the trillion dandelions in our lawn for the bees.

I started more comfrey starts, it's a very ongoing thing (especially since I keep saying, sure I'll sell you a comfrey start or 15), lol... I'm seriously going to start putting pieces of root where I want comfrey, which is at the edge of most all of my gardens. I planted some peas in my SFG. I was going to winter sow them, but just thinking of that took too much energy, so I grabbed the seed packet and went outside.

Linda

That reminds me that a couple of years ago I managed to dig up some comfrey a little way down  the road from me and planted them at the far end of my garden which  then got overgrown.  I started clearing that corner but then went on to other things so tomorrow I may look and see if any of the three plants survived.

I still have not yet looked for the comfrey plants that I put there about three years ago.

I have, for the second time mowed all my grass, it take about two hours if I do it in one go.  But also I have  not trimmed the edges so it still looks a little scruffy but on the whole a vast improvement since I was away for five weeks last year and I have been playing catch-up ever since.  Of course in the winter there is nothing much to be done.

The rhubarb is coming along nicely, the Spring-planted garlic is pushing their way up through the wood chips, as is the radish; still looking for the carrots and I think there is some lettuce showing.

The Forsythia is finished but the cherry trees are in bloom.  The peonies are on their way and I should see what kind of blooms they are, as when  the kind person giving me them could not remember what colour was what ; red, white or pink.
No peony show this year; last year the one white bloom I had won a ribbon for third, my friend won a first ribbon for her lovely blossom display. (She has been doing it for years    )

My tulips are this <-> close to blooming - so close! I purchased the Liberation tulips last year, and some are up, yay! Just not blooming yet...which is good with these cold nights up ahead.

I'll send pictures when they're up...

Linda

lvanderb wrote:My tulips are this <-> close to blooming - so close! I purchased the Liberation tulips last year, and some are up, yay! Just not blooming yet...which is good with these cold nights up ahead.

I'll send pictures when they're up...

Linda

Some years ago, as I love tulips, for three years running I bought a different kind each and  by the third year I had a lovely display; for a few days;  and some deer crossed my garden and ate the lot. All  have left now are two pinks and one white.

Yes, my mom had a groundhog and other wild animals that just loved her bulbs, except daffodils of course. Thankfully we only have the odd rabbit here, so my tulips are happily taking over my strawberry bed.

Here in Ottawa it's Tulip Festival time with millions of tulips in display. This year, due to the pandemic, the activities are online.

https://tulipfestival.ca/

I have bookmarked that.  Thanks, TD.

I have worked hard in the garden these past few days, cutting down brush and weeding so that I could give the city my stuff for their compost making programme.  I am making lots of compost for myself with the last fall leaves and the new grass cuttings there is so much more to do and I am looking forward to going back to England and having a smaller garden to manage with the help of my brother..

My snaps peas are looking good, also garlic and radishes,  It has been hot and dry so I have been making sure the grass is cut everywhere as we are due several days of rain which I know everything will love including the weeds.

The two cherry trees are in full blossom so I should have a good harvest for canning. The apple tree is starting to blossom as well. Rhubarb is getting better by the year so I will have more stalks but not enough to preserve, except for a small quantity for eating later on.

I have been in self-isolation for about nine weeks now and my garden has been a life saver for me as has this blog and the elephant one that I follow plus the ability to use email and a bit of Facebook. 

Hope everyone is coping with all this. I am lucky that I am not cooped up in a small space with no garden or much of a view.  At least I can see the trees and the mountains and take a walk around the block.

Today, Wednesday 13th May I had other things to do as when I read the weather forecast it was rain and thunderstorms.

Needless to say the day opened with sunny skies and warm but not too hot for gardening and I had other things to do that i could not put off.  That's life, sometimes.

I bet the thunderstorms and rain will be here when I wake in the morning.

Kelejan wrote:. . . I have been in self-isolation for about nine weeks now and my garden has been a life saver for me as has this blog and the elephant one that I follow plus the ability to use email and a bit of Facebook. 

Hope everyone is coping with all this. I am lucky that I am not cooped up in a small space with no garden or much of a view.  At least I can see the trees and the mountains and take a walk around the block.

I agree that having a garden during this isolation period is a life, and mind, saver.

OhioGardener wrote:

Kelejan wrote:It's good to have friends.

Scorpio Rising wrote:

OhioGardener wrote:

Kelejan wrote:It's good to have friends.

It is also good to BE a friend.

It is one of those satisfying mornings when one can get up early and place the equivalent of eight garbage bags of obnoxious  weeds and other unwanted greenery
by the curbside for free collection in about one hour's time. Had to  be placed in compostable bags that are so flimsy they float in the wind and one has to double bag them as well.

I have so much growing in my garden that is unwanted that at least it will do good in the municipal composting place where they can generate a hotter temperature to kill the weed seeds and the twitch grass or whatever name this kind of grass goes by.

Weather forecast is rain, rain showers or thunderstorms for several days to come.  The grass is growing like it does in May without the opportunity to cut it.  Mother Nature just does not o-operate with me.  Whine over.      At least it makes a change from white snow to green grass.

Still a bit windy here. I'm looking forward to a quieter evening for sleeping, Sunday night was buckets of rain and wind, last night was noisy wind, and it's still windy and coolish. However, there was time on Saturday for lawns to get mown.

I have people asking for more and more comfrey and I'm behind, managed to get 70 8cm pots from Dollarama this morning, but I have to push myself to go outside, it's just too windy and cool. But, I'm going to try and get myself out there! Mr sun, where are you???

Linda

Linda, we have the same problem here, little sun so the grass cannot get dry enough.  Of course, come the summer we will be wishing for rain as we get too much sun for too long at times. 

We badly need the rain here in British Columbia as even after a downpour the ground is basically dry.

While typing this the Garden Waste collection has taken place. 

In spite of the weather forecast from Monday on saying it was going to rain all week, I had a lovely  sunny day yesterday and managed to mow the main lawn, and today I managed a couple of hours weeding couch grass. One has to take the opportunity when it arises.

Raining now and looks settled for a while.

We had a really nice, sunny day today - supposed to get warmer and nicer all week, with thunderstorms on Sunday & Monday.

I picked up a load of mulch - it's still in the van - and repotted many of my potential comfrey starts (many of the roots are still roots, no little white new roots, but there are some) into 8cm pots I got at Dollarama (180 of them now...). I did order pots from aliexpress (I don't think they've left China yet) and Walmart (got into the country but stuck in Vancouver right now).

Most of my tulips are up now, the yellow and purple are thinking about it, lol...

Sounds familiar as far as weather! Wet/cold cycle....

Here it has some promise for the weekend, it is Memorial Day, so many Americans get Monday off work.  Paying tribute to those who gave their lives for freedom!  

Supposed to be warmer and get a break to MOW!!!  Yay, not really...but has to be done!

I ordered a drip irrigation system from Irrigation direct almost a week ago. At the time of the order they indicated 10-14 days for delivery. 3 days later I got a shipping notice indicated it was in the mail and would arrive on the 26th. It showed up Saturday. Looks like the mail is catching up.

I was working frantically last night to get it all built for my two beds, a 2x12 and a 4x12, finished around 11pm. This morning I woke up and was all excited to give the plants their first drip bath only to realize how much rain we got and that it would probably be more than a day or two before I'd need to water again.

So instead I spent the morning trying show my 6 year old the difference between the weeds she loves pulling out and the carrots that just started sprouting...