Posted on December 16th, 2011 by Joel Russ
There is “gardening” in the literal sense of the word, and in the metaphoric. In the literal sense, for me right now it consists of harvesting the last of the lettuce and kale from our sun-heated greenhouse. There’s no supplementary heat in there, and considering that our nighttime temps have gone below -12, it amazes [...]
Filed under: Food, Organic Gardening, Rural Living, Vegetable Gardening | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 18th, 2011 by Joel Russ
As everyone realizes, growing plants on soil means that the plants will draw out nutrients from that soil. Some soils start out in fertile condition, offering a high level of essential nutrients – and some don’t. But in any case over time, there will be a draw-down of nutrients – mainly nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, [...]
Filed under: General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Vegetable Gardening | No Comments »
Posted on September 29th, 2011 by Joel Russ
We’ve harvested garlic, onions, pears, apples, squash, hot peppers, and a few other things in the last ten days. I’m now getting a jump on some of the autumn work, since I will be away for some of the early part of the season. We’ve got fall leafies growing in the greenhouse. I put in [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 20th, 2011 by Joel Russ
In a small way, I’ve resumed my informal experiments with volcanic-rock dust or powder as a soil amendment for plant starting. I reported on some results with the powder in the spring (see my post of April 26). In that case, I was starting several kinds of plants using a bagged potting soil we bought. [...]
Filed under: Organic Gardening, Soil Management | 3 Comments »
Posted on August 5th, 2011 by Joel Russ
We’re growing a variety of corn – Hooker’s Sweet Corn – that is able to form ears even in a year like this one, with its cool nights, lots of overcast and rain late into the gardening season, high humidity, and a minimum of truly hot days. The ears of corn are forming now on [...]
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Posted on May 15th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Mixed cloud and sun the last little while, but pretty consistently sunny the last couple days. Energizing! Our peas are up in a double row. And indoors, with a lot of plants having moved from our grow-light shelves out to the greenhouse, we had room to start two large trays of heritage-corn seeds. And the [...]
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Posted on May 5th, 2011 by Joel Russ
With much satisfaction, and eagerness for the eventual tomato crop, a couple days ago we potted-up our Bonnie Bests and our San Marzanos from their 4-inch pots to gallon ones. These varieties are round-type and paste-type, respectively. They are both indeterminate (vine-type) varieties, which are well-suited to greenhouse nurturance. And that’s where we’ve put them [...]
Filed under: Decorative Gardening, Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | No Comments »
Posted on April 26th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Pear buds are quite swollen, and apple buds just a bit behind. I’m glad I’ve got my pruning done. Actually, today I spent time pruning our grape vine – which is not budded-out yet, though in cutting any of the larger vine branchings the vine will bleed a fair bit. No matter, it seems. I’ve [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Rural Living, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 6 Comments »
Posted on April 4th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Brian Minter – a media celeb and one of BC’s great gardening gurus – said recently on CBC Radio that gardening conditions in the province as a whole are running three weeks late. (And his impressions may be skewed by the conditions of the BC Coast!) A lot of Kootenay people are lookin’ hang-dog over [...]
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Posted on March 23rd, 2011 by Joel Russ
Not sure which is the more exciting facet of spring here at the moment… I’ve got young ‘plant starts’ showing themselves, and I’ve also tapped a maple tree and am boiling-down some maple sap as I write this. Well, first of all, very satisfying to see the little sprouts and leaves in our seedling-start trays [...]
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