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

Make sure you let your little one know when it is HER carrots that she is pulling up and you are eating for dinner.  She will be so proud. 

I managed to mow my roadside grass yesterday, and all ready to go out again this morning and trim the edges, when the rains is tippling down once more.

I have never seen the area so green with the rain and everything, especially weeds growing inches each day.  I haven't actually managed measuring them, but that is what it seems like.

Kootenay Brown

From Kelejan, your Canadian Host in British Columbia .

We have had quite a few thunderstorm here in British Columbia with flooding in my own region of B.C. Southern Interior, with my city of Castlegar getting a mention, only because we are surrounded by communities that are on alert all except Castlegar and Nelson.  The Columbia River runs though out towns and I am thinking of taking walk down to the river so see how high it is.

After a few dry days when I thought of doing some watering, we have had  lots of rains that saves me having to think about it for a few days.  The problem now is getting the grass dry enough to cut as it grows like crazy in May, especially with the rain. It is also a job to keep the weeds down when they are all wet.

Grass not quite dry enough to mow today so concentrated on cutting down brush. This brush had been cut down  earlier on but it is amazing how I am having to go through it again.  Luckily it was all new soft growth but there is an awful lot of it, some of it growing one or two feet But what I have done today I hope will make it look better for the rest of the summer. 

At least I have a garden to work in and I can get fresh air and exercise.  So lucky I do not live in an apartment. The garden and my cat keeps me sane. 

I spent about three hours in my garden yesterday, clearing brush and weeds and naturally felt very tired last night when I went to bed.

After a warm bath and a good sleep I feel great this morning and ready to do almost as much again today if the weather holds out.

Hi, Kelejan!  Sounds like you're really getting a lot done on your garden!  Yay! 

Yes, Molly, it is looking the best it has for a few years.  The only trouble is that this is the year I should have refreshed all the beds as the twitch or couch grass and the horsetail has taken over, and should have re-started with fresh Mel's Mix and raised beds. Going away last summer for five weeks rally made the recovery of my garden hard as there was no one to look after it while I was away. 

But as I will be leaving it, the next people here will have to do their own thing. I can only make it as tidy as I can for my own satisfaction.  It would be lovely if the people buying this loved gardening, but I fear the house will be demolished and a duplex built as the house is very old and the land is 100ft x 170ft and land is very scarce now in Castlegar as we are hemmed in by the the Columbia River and the mountains. A duplex has been built down the road from me and that is on the same size piece of land.

Looking on the bright side, when I get to England I will be able to start again and have the fun of making my new raised beds with new Mix and hopefully educating my family there and I know they will help me set up. We are all looking forward to moving where there is space and we will be near each other. 

At the moment Howard, my brother's daughter's partner who has the means, is looking for a place outside of London but within one hour's commuting distance.  Two houses needed near each other, maybe a small house or en-suite for me in my brother's house with a garden for me to look after.  Between us we have five houses to sell, and Howard's two houses ( one was his late mother's) has offers on both of them so that will start the ball rolling looking to see where we will all live.
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I would  like my garden to be clear of almost everything so that I can make my own mark on it.  One thing I insist on is plenty of sun as here I do not get enough sun here  in the winter and I have to make do with our short summer and long winter seasons.

It is now a question of when this Virus will allow travelling by plane to another county and trying to get everything done, but hard to do with this self-isolating.

Sounds like quite a challenge, Kelejan - not knowing when you can move, but you are putting a great spin on it.

Personally, we are thinking of moving sometime maybe in the next year, but I continue working on my gardens. I've decided to refresh all my wood chip gardens. I found I can get fully decomposed (well, still has wood chunks in it, but some biochar too as the pile gets pretty hot!) wood chips at the localish landfill. I sifted some of it and the results are pretty much compost. I'll be busy on and off refreshing my wood chip gardens all summer.

Comfrey continues to be a hot item, lol... I did start planting comfrey root bits all around my wood chip gardens, should look good in a couple of years.

I'm attempting to plant my raised beds, but my tomatoes are just sprouting, not growing too much, oh well, they'll grow in time, still early days...

Let's see... I also weighed down my little apple tree branches with bricks to get pointed a little less straight up!

Right now the weather forecast in my neck of the woods has rain every day this week

When will I ever get the grass cut?

Kelejan wrote:Right now the weather forecast in my neck of the woods has rain every day this week

When will I ever get the grass cut?

Was thinking the same thing down here, KJ... ;-) Gotta get it cut today if it will hold off.

Yes, Marie, that's the trouble with outdoor gardening.  My weather forecast has nothing but raindrops every day. 60% rain, chance of showers. rain, and more rain.

I think Mother Nature  is sending clouds to my area from all directions every day.  I feel quite gloomy this morning. If all the green growth in my garden turned into fruit and veggies I would be able to stock a market stall.

With all the heat and the rain my garden is getting out of control. The grass never gets dry enough to cut but today the forecast  is sun so I am hoping that I will be able to make a start on the jungle that is causing me so much grief.

Last Friday I could have cut the grass but I attended a birthday party that took up time and energy.  I also had to take some of my downsized stuff to the local thrift stores. I did that on two consecutive days then the third day the three thrift stores in our small town  closed their doors to any more donations.  Just imagine three months of donations piling up and the stores closed and people not able to buy anything?

So many people just dump their stuff outside and leave the people who run it all the work of having to dump unsuitable things at great cost. Most of the problems are clothes that are so cheap that many people buy far too much and so the landfills are filled to overflowing and so on.  I am old enough to have made some of my clothes when I was a teenager with little money.  And when they were worn out they were biodegradable because they used natural fabrics of wool and cotton etc.

So now in June my garden is almost completely green with all the grass and the shrubs and the weeds.  Keeping my fingers crossed that any rain will keep off today so that I can tackle my backlog.

I never thought about the thrift store dilemma, Kelejan.  Lots of folks have been home for 3 1/2 months now...wow.