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 12th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Here’s a handy little garden tool that can be made in a home shop. I designed it as an alternative to the common three-fingered small garden claw. Experienced gardeners know a number of tools and pieces of equipment can be valuable for dealing with garden weeds – examples being the rototiller and hoe for the [...]
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Posted on June 7th, 2011 by Joel Russ
I got the corn in. A fair-size patch near one end of our larger garden. After transplanting, the early-started (indoors) corn plants are standing up in the first rows. I did a lot of direct-seeded rows, too. I had soaked the seed I was going to plant directly in the garden – giving it about [...]
Filed under: Food, Harvest Lessons, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 4 Comments »
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 [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 3 Comments »
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 11th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Sunday, the 10th. Today began with me chainsawing a lot of 36-inch sections from 6×6 timbers, toward a set of outdoor steps for the slope down to our pond. While I was doing that, Lou (my partner) worked over in the greenhouse, where she transplanted about six dozen of my green-onion starts into the edges [...]
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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 10th, 2011 by Joel Russ
It’s a fine time of the year when – despite crusty snow and winter’s heavy skies hanging on – I can feel the approach of the upcoming gardening season. What makes feeling this approach all the more vivid is that I’m now involved with propagating the seedlings that we’ll be using for plants we’ll grow [...]
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Posted on February 26th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Our late-winter seed organization has come along nicely. Seed selection proceeds from the point of knowing which vegetables you want your garden to provide for you, to the selection of actual varieties – based on considerations of how many frost-free growing days you’ll likely have, the general temperature regime of your site, the garden’s soil [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 2 Comments »
